This is why I donated 50% of all I had
I live on this planet for only a short time, but I had a chance to collect and own a lot of things so far.
A year ago I made a choice to leave the country I was born and start a new way of living in a different place.
Before I left, I storage at my parents’ house around 80% of the things I owned and took with me the 20% left.
The last time I visited my parents, I realized I don’t have a chance to enjoy most of my things since I am visiting them around 3 or 4 times a year.
It is a waste. Any other person who had those things will probably use them more often.
After realizing this, I decided to donate 50% of everything I owned.
It took me three days and was harder than I thought. It was a real mantel challenge.
On the first day, I went over my stuff and put into huge bags everything I haven’t used for the last two years, and most likely I am not going to use it in the next year too. It took me a few hours, longer than I thought.
After doing this, I got rid of around 20% (out of the 50%).
On the second day, I looked again at all those things still left and asked myself:
Do you really need this item? How often are you going to use it?
It was a bit faster than the first day, and after finishing I had three more huge bags to give away.
On the third and last day, I checked all the items I decided to keep. I knew I still need to give away half of them.
The next thing I did was probably the fastest so far: On every item, I get to keep, I need to give away another item.
After less than an hour, I had 8 huge bags to give away.
My little sister helped me to load the car and drove me to the place I have decided to donate.
This place calls “the Shanti house”. It is a warm house for teenagers at risk. I volunteer there once and I had no double it is the right place to give.
When we arrived, three girls helped me to unload the car. They smiled and thank me. It made me feel good. It made me feel like I did the right thing.
The ability to move around is something I am regretful about every day. Owning many useless things can slow me down.
I don’t want to be attached to things as much as I don’t want to be attached to places.
Minimalism is a great quality I wanted to gain for a long time already.
Some of us forgot or haven't realized yet the next thing — as human beings,
We don’t need much to be happy.
Sometimes more things mean more worries.
This act of giving away things you like/may need in the future to someone who needs more/can use it more than you, was hard at the beginning.
The process is deeper than it may look. It will require you to change your mindset a bit and to look at things differently.
But once you start, it will become faster and easier. You will learn to let go of things easily.
“The more you give, the more you find will come; the more you share, the more you grow in it”
It reminds me of one of my favorite stories about the power of sharing:
If flowers are left on the plants, then more flowers will not come. But if on a rose bush, five flowers have grown and you don’t pluck them, no more will come, and those five will soon die.
If you pluck five, ten will come; if you pluck ten, twenty will come.
The more you pluck, the more flowers the tree will give you.
