The Beginning of Our Minimalist Journey

Over the past two weeks, Matt and I have been doing something that looks fairly ordinary from the outside: decluttering our home. We’ve been creating three piles, one for selling, one for the charity shop, and one for the tip.

Internally, though, something much bigger has been shifting.

The clutter we’ve accumulated has been quietly bugging me more and more over the years. Matt started talking about this a while ago, but it didn’t resonate with me in the same way it has this year. This hasn’t been about “having a tidy house” or jumping on a minimalist trend. It’s been the first real, practical step in what we’re calling The Reduction Project, a conscious move towards owning less, needing less, and making space for what actually matters.

We didn’t wake up one day and decide to become minimalists. Things really started gathering momentum after listening to a podcast with Joshua Fields Millburn, whose work around minimalism isn’t about stark white rooms or deprivation, but about intention, freedom, and aligning your environment with your values. That was the final nudge we needed.

The house had started to feel heavy.

Too many things.

Too much visual noise.

Cupboards full of items we rarely used, drawers we avoided opening, and that low-level sense of guilt that comes with owning things you don’t need but feel bad getting rid of.

At first, the process felt confronting. Every object seemed to carry a story:

“We might need that one day.”

“That cost money.”

“I used to love that.”

That’s when I had to stop and learn to ask better questions.

Does this support who we are now?

Does this earn its place in our space?

Is it adding value or just taking up room?

Honestly, most things were just taking up room (although I am still a sucker for some sentimental items!).

As we cleared things out and the piles grew smaller, I noticed something unexpected. I felt calmer and more relaxed. I hadn’t realised how much energy was being drained by simply managing our stuff. This was the moment The Reduction Project stopped being an idea and started becoming a lived experience.

Matt and I made intentional choices about where things went. Selling items that still had value, donating what could help out someone else, and letting go of what had reached the end of its usefulness.

As rooms began to feel lighter, conversations shifted back to our house move and our future. We suddenly had more mental space to talk about what we actually want our days to look like, and what we want to build together.

Reduction isn’t just changing our house, it’s changing how we live. That’s when we knew this journey needed documenting.

This week wasn’t an end point. It was a beginning.

Minimalism, for us, isn’t about having less for the sake of it. It’s about aligning our environment with our values, our energy, and the life we’re intentionally creating. The Reduction Project isn’t a challenge, a rulebook, or a destination.

It’s a practice.

And this was our first step.

If this resonates, The Reduction Project is where we’re documenting the journey, the mindset shifts, the practical tools, and the lessons we’re learning as we simplify our lives and work.

Keep an eye out for future blogs and updates on Facebook.