My husband and I were selling our 2,600-sf home in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, a house with more rooms than we needed for the two of us. It was decorated to make guests feel at home for the rare occasions we had folks stay with us. Some would say it was a Better Homes and Garden feature home with views to match. After a couple years, we no longer enjoyed living in that big house. We realized that the effort of household cleaning and maintenance kept us from doing more with our lives. We had a nice house—so what? We had nice things—so what? I think we both felt like—is this it? We lived in a beautiful home in a gorgeous area, but where’s the joy? What if we had taken the money we spent on obtaining those things and put them towards travel and experiences? We loved to travel, explore, and spend time with family.
My husband’s job was changing and we needed to be in a city that was located close to an airport to accommodate his regular travel. His job change provided us an opportunity to shift our lives to one that reflected what we valued. We decided we had enough…we had too much stuff. After we sold our home and moved into a rental, we sold our nice furniture at a consignment shop and actually made some decent money. We had a two garage sales and sold most of our home decorations at giveaway prices, but that was the point—get rid of stuff.
We made a pact. No more frivolous spending which meant not buying a new lamp that we didn’t really need or decorative pillows that would accent our living room furniture. The last two years of purging, living on a budget and reevaluating priorities had changed my life. I now live a life that reflects my values. We recently bought a home that is half the size of the one we had a few years ago. There are sparse places in some of the rooms, but I’ve never been happier. We travel 3 to 4 times a year and create memories that I’ll carry with me for a lifetime. A life that is free of stuff.
