Minimalism:I Threw out More than 20,000 Items

Brooke McAlary

At one point, about four years ago, I was as close to having it all as I have ever been. I was (and am) married to a great man, we had a beautiful daughter and another baby on the way, I ran my own business, we were renovating our home, we had good family relationships, a recent holiday, wardrobes full of clothes... I was utterly despondent.1. renovate: 整修；wardrobe: 衣柜；despondent: 失望的，沮丧的。

I could look around at all I had and feel nothing other than overwhelming exhaustion, stress, tension and the huge weight of trying to juggle this “all”.2. overwhelming: 压倒性的；juggle:试图应付，使平衡。Of trying to do my “all”justice.3. 以及尽量公平地对待我的“一切”。do justice: 公平对待。

I was buckling under the pressure of trying to maintain work/life balance (here’s a tip—it doesn’t exist), running a home and being a full-time mum, while also keep up the appearance of having it together.4. buckle under pressure: 迫于压力等（不得不做某事）；appearance: 表象。Because God knows, the worst thing you can do when trying to juggle it all is to look as though you’re Not Coping.5. 因为天知道怎么回事，你努力处理一切时能做出来的最糟糕的事情就是仿佛你根本没有在努力。cope:处理，应付。So I worked hard to keep the act running.6. keep sth. running: 使……保持运转。

We kept getting busier. We continued to add items to our list of things to buy, things to do and goals to kick7. kick a goal: 进球得分，完成目标。. We kept

生活是一个积累的过程，一路上你拾起路边一个个石子，放进你的生活中。不知不觉之间，各种事物开始在你的四周堆积如山，你的内心也在承受一座座越来越重的高山。你过的是“别人”的生活，你追求的东西在不断和“别人”比较的过程中迷失在琐碎杂乱之中。这时候，不妨停下来想一想，什么东西是你真正想要的？你敢不敢卸掉一些沉重的诱惑呢？buying stuff we couldn’t afford. We continued digging a deeper hole, all in the name of keeping up with the bloody Joneses.8. bloody: 该死的；keep up with the Joneses: 与邻居互相攀比，赶时髦。

And on top of9. on top of: 再加上，此外。that was the stuff we already owned.It was suffocating10. suffocating: 令人窒息的。. Years of accumulation11. accumulation: 积累。. Wardrobes overflowing with clothes I never wore. Years of hard fought credit card debt. A double garage so crammed with crap that no car had ever been in it.12. double garage: 双车位车库；cram with: 填满；crap: 废物。Boxes of which I knew not the contents. None of it was worth it.

When our second child was born, I was diagnosed with post-natal depression13. post-natal depression: 产后抑郁症。. It was a horrible time in mine and my family’s lives, and I still feel a sharp pang of guilt when I recall what I put them through at the time.14. pang: 一阵（剧痛、伤心等）；put through: 使承受，使遭受。But you know what that dark, numb15. numb: 麻木的。time taught me? None of the stuff—the clothes, the boxes, the throw cushions, the screeching plastic toys,16. throw cushion: 即scatter cushion，散放的靠垫；screeching: 尖叫的。the double garage full of crap—none of it matters.

One night, during the worst of my depression, I stumbled across a blog called Zen Habits.17. stumble across: 偶然发现；Zen:禅，禅宗。It’s a blog dedicated to simple,minimal living and I spent hours reading the archives.18. dedicate to: 致力于；archive:档案，文件。As I read more about minimalism and simplifying I realised there were people out there intentionally living with less. People choosing not to keep up with the Joneses. People opting to live with less stuff, less expectation, less debt, less guilt, less busyness.19. opt: 选择；expectation: 期望值。And what’s more, these people were saying that life got better, richer,happier when they embraced20. embrace: 采纳，接受。living with less.

That night I realised I wanted to be one of them.

I decluttered21. declutter: 清理，简化。my business first. Made the decision one horrible, overwhelmed night to close the doors and let go. Then we tackled22. tackle: 解决，处理。the house. We cleared out more than 20,000 items from our home in our first year of simplifying. Many, many thousands more followed in the next two years.

Now, almost four years after closing my business and starting the process of simplifying, life is mostly really good. Not in a having it all kind of way, but in a sustainable, content kind of way.23. 不是以“拥有一切”的方式，而是以可持续的、令人心满意足的方式（生活）。in a kind of way: 以某种方式。I’m not saying that decluttering cured my depression. It didn’t. It’s much more complicated than that.

But now we have enough. We have enough clothes, enough toys, enough space, enough light,enough throw cushions (which is to say, none at all).

We don’t live out of a backpack24. live out of a backpack: 风餐露宿，居无定所。.Our kids have toys. We have books and a computer and multiple pairs of shoes. But what we’ve discovered is that life—the experiences, people, relationships that happen in spite of what you own— is the important stuff.

And those Joneses? They don’t know what they’re missing.