Does Minimalism ACTUALLY Make Life Different? These 3 Videos Tell the Truth

I am confident in the changes I made in my home and see the difference in normal everyday life. When you’re in the thick of it though, it’s hard to imagine that minimalism will actually free you up and give you more time.

One day, I decided to film an example – some of the things I remember experiencing regularly that I simply don’t experience anymore.

The kitchen was where I noticed the most difference, mainly because I have 63 children (ok, 6, but feels like WAY more) so most of my life has been spent in the kitchen – cooking, cleaning, getting drinks, getting snacks, doing homework, playing with playdough, eating candy bars while the children zone out in front of the TV.

Another area that GREATLY improved was the laundry.

I HATED laundry.

More than I hated doing dishes, and that’s saying a lot.

It’s really amazing how much of our lives is consumed with stuff – taking care of it, shuffling it, organizing it, sorting it.

Getting rid of all the extra clothes and extra towels meant I actually spent LESS time doing laundry. How is that even possible??

Well, watch this and see if you can figure it out:

Getting the kids on board hasn’t always been easy. They like their stuff, and well, I can’t blame them I really like stuff too.

Creating videos like this has actually helped get my kids on board. We filmed each video in a day – so we brought in all kinds of extra stuff and filmed all the “messy” scenarios, then hauled the extras away again and filmed the “minimal” scenarios.

Experiencing the difference in a day has helped my kids know what they like.

You can do the same thing at home – just box up all the extras, keep out only the essential items, and live with that experiment for a few weeks.

After creating this video, our youngest son is now a full-fledged minimalist. He got rid of 450 items (an estimation, because we were sort of keeping track on our 2022 in 2022 chart). And was THRILLED to have a tidy room that would be easy for him to take care of.

My favorite part of the “mom” video? I knew where the ball was for their game. This is the life of a mom – we always know where things are. Even if it’s under the bed, on the right, next to the medium-sized dust bunny. We KNOW.

Having less stuff means we don’t have to mentally keep track of as much.

As moms, we’re maxed out – keeping track of our own things, our kid’s things, our spouse’s things… at some point we can’t remember all of it.

These days it still happens, but it’s not as frequent. (They still can’t find the ketchup in the fridge.)

But minimalism doesn’t solve ALL of our problems. 😂

About Rachel Jones

Hi there! I’m Rachel Jones, and I founded Nourishing Minimalism in 2012 at the beginning of my minimalist journey. If you're looking for encouragement in your journey, I created a FREE Facebook Group - feel free to join me there: Nourishing Minimalism Facebook Group and I share videos each week on YouTube

3 Comments

  1. Stephanie on 06/29/2022 at 6:03 pm

    Loved the videos! So true!

  2. Jamie on 07/20/2022 at 11:05 am

    Love the videos.. so true! Love the comedy also.. you are so creative at getting your truthful point across!

  3. Emma on 07/22/2022 at 12:19 am

    Love these! I love the humour you bring to these struggles, it helps me relax and feel inspired

Leave a Comment