Our Year of Less Stuff, More Adventure

On our most recent Family Date we walked out of the restaurant feeling stuffed instead of going home we decided to go to Target and walk it off. Well, you know what happens when you go to Target to “walk around”. If you guessed spending an obscene amount of money on stuff we didn’t need at all you guessed correctly. In fact, I can’t even remember what we bought or how much we spent but I know for sure we didn’t need anything. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Target but what I haven’t been loving is useless spending. A few months ago I started following Miranda Anderson of Live Free Creative Co. I’m not sure how I found her but I’m glad I did. In 2017, her and her family did a year-long challenge where they didn’t buy anything. She called it, “More Than Enough Stuff A Year Without Buying”. I read through her blogs and I was excited at the possibility of being able to do this. I started dreaming of the adventures that we could have as a family and as a couple. I’ve wanted to visit Paris since I was 16 and I haven’t gotten there yet but this year may just be the year I see the Eiffel Tower in person.

While I was excited I didn’t know if I could get my husband on board. Much to my surprise, he said YES on my first ask. I was shocked I sent him several blog posts of Miranda’s and asked him repeatedly if he had read them. We then sat down to discuss what our Year of Less Stuff More Adventure would look like. Here’s what we both agreed on:

1. No new clothing or shoes for us. When our kids need new clothes because they’ve outgrown things we will be doing a Capsule Wardrobe for them. Our son wears uniforms to school so we actually started a Fall/Winter Capsule Wardrobe for him and it’s going really well.
2. Use what we have as far as toiletries, (makeup for me). Go until gone and then we can replace it with 1, not 2 or more.
3. No new Home Décor or Appliances unless what we currently have can’t be repaired or repurposed.
4. No gifts for each other’s Birthdays.
5. Let go off what we don’t LOVE!
6. Date Nights are still happening.

Here’s what we’ve accounted for major spending in 2019. These four things are the only things we knowingly will have to purchase. There’s no rush to do so and while we could just go to Walmart and Target and get something inexpensive, the point of this is to LOVE what we have and for it to last. We are saying NO to impulse purchases. NO to buying things in the interim and YES to loving the things we have in our home as we do each other.

1. A new Dining Set. We’ve been on the hunt since we moved last year but still haven’t found the right one.
2. A bookshelf for our daughter’s room.
3. Seating for our son’s room.
4. Chair for my Office Desk.

We’ve done no spend months before, but nothing this drastic. I will keep you updated on how things go for us as we embark on our Year of Less Stuff More Adventure.