And after fully embracing the minimalist lifestyle, Krista Lockwood helps other people learn to declutter their houses, and their minds in the process.
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She opened up to Michelle Grosser on The Motherhood Podcast about how much her life has changed since she decluttered.
“We accidentally discovered how amazing it is to have less stuff,” Krista said of her and her husband’s move in 2013, when they had three kids.
“We just started over and it was amazing. I don’t think the word decluttering or minimalism was in my vocabulary.
“But I do know that when we got to Florida, my life felt totally different.
“I thought it was just the move but in hindsight it’s because I wasn’t overwhelmed trying to keep up on laundry, trying to keep my kids’ toys organised.
“This didn’t used to be my norm, but it stopped when we moved to Florida.”
While her children were younger when they moved, she now has to deal with older kids and explaining decluttering to them – which can be a challenge.
But Krista is a firm believer in getting her kids involved in the process of getting rid of things they no longer need.
“Let them come into your bedroom and help you declutter your stuff,” she said.
“And telling them, ‘I’m going to get rid of these shoes because, I’m going to get rid of these pillows because’, so they can actually practice it without it being their stuff and they can see your process.
“I think it’s really helpful.”
And if you’re someone who struggles with cutting down on your own things, there are three questions Krista swears by when it comes to deciding if an object is needed for the future.
“At the very most basic level of starting you can just ask yourself this series of questions to help you get clear on if it’s worth keeping or not,” she said.
The first question is “Do I need it?”
If you say yes to that, you then need to ask yourself, “When will I actually use this?”
And if you can think of a time when you can see yourself needing or using that item, then you need to ask yourself, “Is it worth keeping around for that potential scenario that might come up?”
As an example, Krista referenced one of her friends who discovered when she began decluttering that she owned 17 whisks.
Going through the questions, the woman couldn’t envisage a situation or scenario where she would need to use all 17 whisks at the same time, so was able to reduce her collection to just two.
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