How do these two things coincide?

I wouldn’t call myself a minimalist, but I have been following several minimalist moms on Instagram as an inspiration. After being a domestic engineer for 3+ years, I am so tired of feeling like I am constantly cleaning. One insta-mom said that if it takes you more than 20 minutes to tidy a room you have too many things. And I believe it!

From clothes, toys, and other randoms, we had too much stuff. I went through our family’s clothes and filled 4 trash bags full, and recently another one full of shoes. If I haven’t seen Chris or myself wear said shoes in the last 5 years they need to go, with the exception of a pair of black dress shoes for both of us. We also donated a box of other random things like toys, purses, an air purifier, and a wifi extender. I went through the house and thinned out my plant collection and now have at least 15 sitting on my kitchen table to be given away in the next few days. I am selling the items that I think I can get more than $20 for.

About a year or more ago I was really into watching Marie Kondo when I needed cleaning inspo, after watching and listening over and over I’ve slowly been letting things go. Last year I got rid of almost every book I own besides 3 to 5 I hadn’t read yet. I haven’t missed a single one of them since (nor have I read the books that I kept, whoops). This doesn’t mean I want to get rid of everything though. We thought we were going to move in May and so I started packing a lot of decorations or other things we don’t use. There was a change of plan and said items were in the box for a couple months. I unpacked them in August and the decorations brought me such joy putting them back around the house, so like I said, I don’t think I will be a minimalist, but having less is the new thing I am striving for every day.

This puts me in a pickle for Christmas. Of course I want to give my daughter something but I don’t want more items in my house. The insta-moms I mentioned earlier suggest consumables and experience gifts. I also like the idea of “Something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read” and doing 4 gifts. I thought maybe I would get her a stuffed tiger and zoo tickets, but I don’t want more stuffed animals in my house. Perhaps a butterfly craft and butterfly pavilion tickets? I’d love to get her snowboarding stuff for Christmas, but she’ll need it all in 2ish weeks, so that won’t work. I can’t wait until she likes sitting through manis and pedis – because that will be a no-brainer treat for both of us haha. Until then, I will continue this debate with myself on what the heck to get my darling daughter and husband. Do you have any suggestions? Leave them in the comments!