Hello friends! Today I have yet more of my ramblings from my family’s experience in Germany last year. If you’d like to check out the full series, you can search Impressions from Germany in the side bar or you can just start here. I want to chat about minimalism and our trip.
I have talked about relative minimalism before and I know that minimalism is definitely a concept that inspires some strong feelings. Both for and against. I think the knee jerk response when we see that word nowadays is to assume that someone is living on a 10 piece wardrobe, making toast in their oven, with nothing adorning their walls.
But I think that minimalism is really just about assessing what you have versus what you actually need. And if most of us are being honest with ourselves, we have way too much. The first way this really affected us as it related to our time in Germany was packing. We obviously couldn’t take everything we owned as we weren’t moving permanently. And you know, money don’t grow on trees. So I had to really assess what we needed if we were going to drive it to the airport, haul it across an ocean, drag it on two separate trains, and lug it on a bus. (Yeah, that was the door to door.)
Things that we packed needed to be practical and serve purposes. Preferably multiple if possible. Toys and entertainment that were packed for my son really had to go the distance. And I needed to be honest about what we could store in a much smaller space than we were used to. And honestly, I think I did a pretty darn good job. There was very little we brought that didn’t get used.
The second impact was seeing what we actually used while we were in Germany. We took 12 pair of shoes total. For all of us. For six months. And we only bought one (for the little guy because kids grow). That ain’t much especially when your feet are your main mode of transportation 90% of the time. But we used every single pair. To the point of destruction, actually. My point is that bringing or buying more shoes wouldn’t have made our experience any better. If anything it might have detracted from it. We would have been constantly tripping over extra pairs in the apartment and spent more time worrying about matching shoes to outfits than just putting something on our feet and enjoying our time.
This was certainly influenced by the friends we made as well. Now, the Germans are super practical. They are pretty well known for it, but we really got to see them practice it. They simply just don’t buy many extraneous things. They would rather invest in experiences with family and friends.
Which brings me to the next minimalism tenant the Germans showed us: when you do buy things, buy quality things. Again, Germans are known for well-made items. And when they do have to purchase something, they will take a bit more time to really make sure they are getting something that will both serve their purpose and last.
An example: Birkenstocks are German made. And they are really well made. But $100+ for sandals? I have had $20 knock-offs over the years that will get me through one summer and that’s it. Do that 5 years in a row and you could have just bought the actual Birks that will last 10-15 years.
And this flows nicely into the fourth aspect of minimalism the Germans embrace much more than we do: low waste living. Something isn’t thrown out if it has usefulness. If a person or family isn’t served by it, the object is donated. Several times a year there are huge flea markets for lightly used children’s gear that draw huge crowds. They make recycling and composting easy, and do you really want to hear about the bikes again?
So the real point, the impact of seeing and living all of this, was how we viewed our stuff when we returned to the States. I am an everything-in-it’s-place kind of person. I can deal with my house not being dusted or vacuumed, but clutter and stuff are hard for me. And there was So. Much. Of. It. Like an overwhelming amount. I couldn’t remember where simple things were located in our house. I felt anxious getting dressed in the morning and scatterbrained the rest of the day. And for weeks, I felt claustrophobic in a home that had more than quadruple the living space.
Once we finally settled back into a routine, I did a room by room clean out (including the basement and garage) and set things aside to be donated or to go out for our neighborhood block sale (which we are still waiting on, thanks again global pandemic). And I also set up some systems to see what we were using or needed on a more long term basis. For example, I turned the hangers in our closet the opposite way and flip them back after something has been worn and washed so it is easy to see at a glance what isn’t being used.
We aren’t living without our toaster oven just because we could make toast in the regular oven. Nor are the walls bare. I’ve got a kid and the toys to go with him. But we know what we have. And we use what we have.
Until next time, be well, friends!
