I grew up in a sub 1,000 sqft apartment for 4 people, so space was at a premium. Plus my mom is a clean freak so clutter was never allowed to build up. Then I went to college and, for financial reasons, I had to live in a 165 sqft studio apartment, so I had to keep my possessions at a minimum.
Then I moved to the US for graduate school so I downsized (sold all my furniture) and when I arrived, all of my possessions could fit in 2 bags. As a graduate student, I kept my apartment pretty bare because I always thought I would go back to Europe so there was no point in accumulating a lot of stuff.
Then I met my future wife, we moved in together, combining 2 households into a 2-bedroom apartment. Stuff started to pile up. Then we got married and we bought our first house (2,000 sqft). The dining room, living room, and guest bedrooms were completely empty so we slowly filled them up. Shockingly, by the time we moved three years later, we needed a semi truck to hold all of our stuff!
We moved into an even larger home (2,500 sqft), which needed even more stuff to feel homy, so we kept on buying. After a few years, the house was completely furnished, yet we only used 4 rooms out of 8 routinely
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Then we decided to move to the West Coast where real estate is super expensive so we had to downsize again to a 1,100 sqft, 2-bedroom apartment. So we had to let go of roughly 70% of our stuff. The apartment was fully furnished from the start, so we have spent very little on new furnishings over the past 3.5 years. In fact we have decluttered even further. My rule is if I don't use it or love it, it's going to Goodwill.
Then I moved to the US for graduate school so I downsized (sold all my furniture) and when I arrived, all of my possessions could fit in 2 bags. As a graduate student, I kept my apartment pretty bare because I always thought I would go back to Europe so there was no point in accumulating a lot of stuff.
Then I met my future wife, we moved in together, combining 2 households into a 2-bedroom apartment. Stuff started to pile up. Then we got married and we bought our first house (2,000 sqft). The dining room, living room, and guest bedrooms were completely empty so we slowly filled them up. Shockingly, by the time we moved three years later, we needed a semi truck to hold all of our stuff!
We moved into an even larger home (2,500 sqft), which needed even more stuff to feel homy, so we kept on buying. After a few years, the house was completely furnished, yet we only used 4 rooms out of 8 routinely
.Then we decided to move to the West Coast where real estate is super expensive so we had to downsize again to a 1,100 sqft, 2-bedroom apartment. So we had to let go of roughly 70% of our stuff. The apartment was fully furnished from the start, so we have spent very little on new furnishings over the past 3.5 years. In fact we have decluttered even further. My rule is if I don't use it or love it, it's going to Goodwill.
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