My Story: How we discovered a better life as a family

It all started when…

I looked at my home office with my 6-week old baby in my arms and thought, “we can do this from anywhere!”

At the time, my husband and I were working on our startup - one that we turned into a lifestyle business and ultimately moved on from a few years ago. Even after we brought our daughter home we both still longed to travel the world. We thought having a baby meant settling down, but in fact it was our stuff that felt like the real ball and chain.

So, we became those people that sold it all and left to travel the world.

Only we failed.

After about 6 months in Europe, and with money running out, we realized we did not want to continue traveling. So we returned to the USA and settled in for life in the middle of America.

Except that we felt stuck again.

We knew there had to be a better way. One that wasn’t so extreme.

We loved the idea of minimalism and living clutter free, but didn’t want to feel like we had to live with nothing. On the other hand, we didn’t want to feel trapped by our stuff. We wanted to be able to do the things we enjoyed like traveling and yet still enjoy the finer things in life.

That’s where practical minimalism came in.

We realized we could have our cake an eat it too! As long as we were willing to shift our mindset to simplicity and living with intention - not just tossing everything we owned for the illusion of a better life.

So, this time I quit my very stressful job as a luxury high-rise property manager (I have stories you wouldn’t believe!!!) and we set our sights on Europe for one whole year.

After an amazing summer of traveling through Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Montenegro, France, and Italy, we “moved” to Munich, Germany for 7+ months. It was just what we needed. Time to explore a new country and living out of suitcases, balanced with settling in to make friends and experience a different culture.

We felt alive again!!

It was the balance of living with less and purposefully choosing our everydays that we had been searching for.

That’s when I realized that it’s not really about minimalism, but about being living without clutter. It doesn’t mean we have to throw out all of our belongings, live with only one plate per person, or get rid of my daughter’s toys.

Stuff is not the enemy!! Keeping stuff that we don’t want, love, or use is when we get into trouble.

I tell you all this not to brag. Honestly. It’s so that you can see there is not a one-size fits all approach. You can be clutter free with a family and not have to throw away everything you own. You can choose to travel with your family, but not have to do it full time or home school your kids. You can live intentionally and not give in to the marketers of the world and buy it all.

Wannabe Clutter Free is about choosing simplicity, living intentionally, favoring quality over quantity, and enjoying the pleasures of everyday life.

With a renewed purpose of wanting to help other families find their purpose and live intentionally too, we moved (for good this time) to San Diego, California and that brings me here today.