I could say our environment most times influences us, especially where we don’t have the right to take some certain actions like when we want to give out things we don’t need again. The reason might be because we did not own it originally or was not purchased by us.

But I do know as a teenager that my mother will always gather all the girls clothing, shoes 👞 and other little things she feels that are no more of our size and give it out . And from this actions I became aware of the importance of creating space in a home for our own physical and mental well-being.

Although there are things I inherited from my senior sister then as a teenager that I value so much, always referencing them as a gift from my beloved sister while in boarding school, but as time and years moved by, I got better things to replace them there by letting them go because they have served there purpose.

For some, letting things go, either by giving them out or throwing them away is a very difficult thing to do. Not because of financial status or poverty but because they believed in referencing the items as generation monuments or keeping of memories which makes them hoard and store things that are from parents and grandparents. This I feel is not healthy.

A cuisine of mine is a manager with a top Pharmaceutical company so I could say her financial status is one that is properly situated. And while working, she was able to establish a Pharmacy outlet of hers where she employed another pharmacist to help her run the place. But this cuisine of mine does not let things go. She is s big time hoarder. Why will someone with good education background believe in piling things up. Several times I went to her house, I could notice how every room in her house has things all around the bed, shelves filled with cartons, boxes everywhere and even her personal wardrobe is cluttered with clothes. What sort of lifestyle is this I asked her there and then. She told me of how some of those boxes contained her children clothes who has gone to college. And in some her late mothers clothing . Although saying some will be taking to charity but the problem with time.

And because we are so close despite age differences as she gave me over 5 years , I told her of how important it is she declutter the rooms to have enough ventilation. How are you able manage every stuffinesses all around here which is not healthy I went on. And because she does not receive too many visitors she did not see it as. anything.

But referencing things back while growing up, I have heard my mother severely making comments of how my cuisines mother hardly let things go. She is the type that likes keeping thing which eventually was passed on to my cuisine her daughter. Hereditary sometimes plays a bad role in our lives, even of the things we don’t consider a hindrance.

In conclusion, this event impacted my ideas of minimalism like I have never known before , because seeing how even having money 💰 could not make my cuisine see how important living in a free space is to physical and mental health. Especially that of a decluttered environment for our wellbeing. And added to what I have learnt from my mother, I made sure to always consider first a healthy environment which properly provides and gives me focus and wellness because when we declutter its not just only physically but mentally too.

Thanks for reading.

All images are mine.