If your like me (post college/grad school)… you may find yourself surrounded by stuff. Before I started TentLife, I would look around my living space and think, “Where did all this stuff come from?” Lamps, dvd’s, magazines, books, vases, clothes, cd’s, bikes, snowboards, longboards, outdoor gear, scarves, hats, shoes, mantle decorations, wall decorations, musical instruments, textbooks, rice steamer, George Foreman grill, old school work, et cetera…

Stuff. I had enough stuff that the thought of moving brought with it an anxiety attack, and a antecedent backache! It wasn’t bad that I had stuff, someday when I have a family and a house (that is my own) I would want it to be filled with things that make it homey and comfortable. But being in a time of my life that was nomadic in nature, it was ridiculous to own so much! And so about 9 months previous to starting TentLife I did a massive minimalization of my life. One of my strengths is Input, of which a habit is collecting things… And being single for so long I had spent my twenties collecting “hobbies” and the gear associated with these adventurous pursuits. My motto for the my single years was this:

Spend your money on gear not girls… cause gear never lets you down.

In an effort to pursue minimalism in my life, it was apparent that some of my hobbies had to be scaled back. This was DIFFICULT! As some of my identity was wrapped up in these “things,” it was time to scale back. So I took inventory of what I actually do as opposed to what I have done, and sold some things to friends and donated other things to the dump (yes, I recycled a lot of things too). After getting my hobbies squared away, I began to look at other things I had accumulated and began to painstaking task of sorting through junk, only keeping things that had sentimental value. I recycled textbooks from Undergrad and Grad school (weird, I know… why did I keep textbooks!?), I threw out magazines and took dishes, pots, pans, grills, clothes, shoes, hats and other things that I never use to Goodwill.

It was liberating.

No longer ruled by the things I own, I was able to be more mobile… I wasn’t distracted by hobbies that no longer held my attention, and my closet was incredibly slim! Pants that don’t fit… aren’t gonna fit, shirts that are trendy don’t ever stay trendy. Simplify. Minimalism. Happiness.