Is it minimalist to move to a new home?

Why do people move? And can you become more minimalist by moving to a new place? Let's examine the concept of moving as a minimalist.

1. Why do people move?
2. How does minimalism help with moving?
3. Can you become more minimalist by moving to a new place?

Why do people move?

Setting aside our current and unusual situation, there are some evergreen reasons for moving. According to an article published by American Van Lines in 2021, the most common reasons people move are for work-related reasons, due to marriage or the needs of a family member, to buy a house, for a change of climate, personal or children's education, to get more space, or to retire.

I have some ideas to add to that. Sometimes, your surroundings change, or your perspective changes, and where you live no longer suits you. For example, the city where I grew up was already noisy and busy when I lived there. It's gotten even worse since I left, and is extremely expensive. The median home price, according to one website, is $1.9 million, and it costs over $2000/month for a studio apartment. I would never want to move back there, even if I could afford it.

I can think of other places where an area was quiet and peaceful until developers bought up some of the lands. Then suddenly a serene rural area had a bunch of tract homes, a busy road, and lots of businesses. If you like rural living, then this would probably cause you to move.

Sometimes, you have no choice. In that same city where I grew up, a neighborhood was taken over by eminent domain and the city/county tore down the houses and built what they wanted there. 

My relatives also rented a house at one point that belonged to an elderly lady in a nursing home. When she passed away, her children wanted to sell the house and told my family that they had to move out.

The one big reason for moving that I think the article forgot to mention is the financial hardships or shortages. I guess it makes sense that this topic wouldn't come up in the statistics for a moving company. 

Changes in a financial situation can be from involuntary unemployment or underemployment, health issues necessitating reduced work hours or stopping work altogether, or, as we've seen with "the great resignation," some people are simply quitting their jobs with no replacement income. They are either going to try to start a new career, go back to school, become a stay-at-home parent, start a business...the list is endless. But if plans don't work out as expected, they could end up needing to relocate to a less expensive dwelling, stay with family or friends, or sadly, maybe end up without a home at all.

People who move because they don't have enough money to live in their current residence are not going to be able to pay for an expensive mover. They will probably rent something like a U-Haul truck, or maybe even use their own vehicle or ask friends and family to help them with their cars. The people in particularly bad shape might even just sell, give away, or leave a lot of their belongings behind because they have no space to move them to, negating the unaffordable cost of moving out. 

How does minimalism help with moving?

If a move is unexpected and happens quickly, minimalist practices can be a big help with moving. A person willing to sell all but the necessities will be in a better financial situation and have an easier (and likely cheaper) time transferring their belongings to a different location.

But if you're planning to move and have some time to plan, minimalism can have an even bigger impact. You'll be able to evaluate everything you own and downsize considerably, while hopefully adding some money in the process. Additionally, you can start streamlining your finances to save up for moving. Besides the cost of relocating possessions, there will probably also be either deposits and application fees for a rental, or down payments, inspections, agent fees, and closing costs for a home purchase.

Minimalism can also lower the stress associated with a move. If you are clear about what's most important to you in looking for a new place to live, you can focus on those goals and worry less about extraneous things. 

Here's what I mean. In this extremely competitive housing market, it's quite possible that many people will not be able to get the first place that they apply to rent/place an offer to buy. If you get emotionally attached to each place that you look at, it's going to be tough going. 

But if you use the minimalist principle of lessening attachments to inanimate objects like a dwelling, then you can be more objective about fluid situations such as a home search. You can be OK with finding a place to live that doesn't fit the dining room table you've had for 10 years or doesn't have a walk-in closet in the bedroom. You can worry less about having granite countertops and care more about your 10-minute commute to work or that you can look at the mountains from your back porch.

Can you become more minimalist by moving to a new place?

When I think about minimalism and moving, the first thing I think about is how every time I move, I go through all my things and purge a bunch. Even when I had just done basically a whole-apartment makeover, I still had stuff I got rid of before moving in with my partner.

How about you, do you do a declutter and purge before you move? I see posts on Craigslist all the time with the title "moving sale," so it must be a thing people do. It's funny how you can think you don't own very much until you have to pack and unpack it.

But there are other ways that moving can make someone more minimalist.

• Moving to a smaller living space can encourage less consumerism.
• An energy-efficient home (more efficient appliances/climate control, better insulation, etc.) results in lower energy use and saves money.
• A more temperate climate reduces energy consumption.
• Living closer to frequently-used services reduces transportation waste and expenses; might be able to also switch to more minimalist modes of transportation.
• Downsizing from a larger house to a smaller apartment reduces the time and money required for the maintenance of the home.
• Moving to a location with longer leases (1-2 years versus month-to-month) or from renting to owning may stabilize potential increases in lodging expenses, thereby freeing up income for other uses over the long term.
• Smaller space = fewer cleaning supplies used, less heat or cold needed to keep the space comfortable, less furniture, and fewer decorations needed to buy, and items are less likely to get lost, forcing you to accidentally buy a duplicate.

There are also ways that moving to a larger place can be minimalist. For example, a home that has solar-powered electricity and/or heated water, a rain collection system, room for a greywater filtration system, space to grow one's own food and create compost, and more peace and quiet due to a larger plot of land are all ways that one can achieve minimalism while expanding their living space.

And if you're looking for the pure feeling of minimalism--focusing on what's most important while letting go of the less important--I can think of a few examples where this applies and has nothing to do with downsizing, how many possessions one owns, how much money they spend, etc. I love to follow along with stories about people such as this.

1. The Ghost Town Living YouTube channel. Brent, along with some investors, bought a ghost town called Cerro Gordo in California. He lives in the ghost town, which frequently means he is without running water, has no easy access to services, and does a lot of manual labor in his efforts to restore the town. It's clear he loves every minute of it even though it's a difficult life.
2. Someone saves up the money to buy acreage and start a homestead, which may or may not include building a home on raw land. Sometimes, to get land they can afford, people choose places that don't have municipal utilities available and have to devise their own sources of energy and water collection.
3. People buy larger plots of land with a house and move their businesses onto them so they don't have to commute away from their homes or families to earn a living. 
4. A part-time nomad who has a home base (their soft place to land) and travels at whim--either in an RV, a boat or by hopping from one Airbnb to another. Or all of the above.
5. Buying older homes and restoring them as historically accurate as possible.
6. Creating a sanctuary, affordable housing community, artist cooperative, etc. on a large piece of land where people with similar needs can live together in one place.

We always say it on this blog, but there are many ways to be minimalist. There are also many ways to move to a new home and be minimalist, even if it doesn't involve downsizing.

If you like the concept of minimalist moves, I have more thoughts coming up, including minimalist tips for selling or buying a house. Stay tuned!

5 advanced eco-minimalist tips

After much thought, I came up with some advanced tips that I feel are outside of the box. Some may push your limits of comfort, but these advanced eco-minimalist tips are sure to increase your impact as an advocate for the planet.

1. Help clean up oil spills
2. Use carbon-neutral shipping to send your packages
3. Adopt a climatarian diet
4. Live like it's 1900
5. Moderation for longevity

1. Help clean up oil spills

You can donate your hair to create wigs for children who have lost their hair. I have done that a few times, to an organization called Locks of Love. I think that's a noble and generous thing to do, especially if you're particularly attached to having long hair.

But I recently discovered there are other ways to do good with hair donation. I found Matter of Trust and their Clean Wave program. Individuals, farms, and businesses can donate hair, fur, fleece, and wool. The project uses the clippings to create mats to soak up petrochemicals. Because we all know how well oils can cling to hair!

I went through the donation process. It's kind of weird but ends up working out well enough, and there are clear instructions listed. You create an account through a partner website called The Hum Sum (they call themselves an environmental social media site). You make a post that you wish to donate a gift, and then you will get a response for where to send your donation based on your location. Pack it up and ship it (you will pay for your own shipping).

My partner and I both donated hair to the cause and feel happy for it. And our heads feel lighter too. 💇 You can also get a tax receipt for any donations you make.

You could take this a step further and loop in local salons, farms, and pet groomers. Ask them to collect their clippings. If they're hesitant, you could offer to pick them up and ship them yourself.

If you want to take a look, you can visit their website here: https://matteroftrust.org/clean-wave-program. I'm not financially affiliated with them in any way and I don't get anything for sending you to this website. 

2. Use carbon-neutral shipping for your packages

I mentioned shipping the hair. I used a company called Sendle because they offer carbon-neutral shipping via USPS. It's for small packages only, but I don't usually send large packages. 

For larger items, companies like DHL and UPS also have carbon-neutral options. Some shopping sites like Etsy and some Shopify sites have this feature built-in. 

What is carbon-neutral shipping, you might ask? Well, carbon-neutral means creating net-zero greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. Since virtually all the modes of transportation used to ship packages emit GHGs, a company must first calculate how many are created by their shipping practices. There are business-specific calculators available from what I understand.

Then, a company can either buy their own carbon offsets (like I do with my GoClimate subscription).

Or, they can skip the calculations and purchase carbon-neutral shipping, where the shipping company does their own calculations.

I do both because when GoClimate calculated my carbon footprint, they didn't ask about what I ship. Only about online shopping (which would mean items are sent to me, not the other way around). I don't ship things often, but when I do, it's nice to have an eco-friendly option on hand.

I always ask companies that I'm exploring if they offer carbon-neutral shipping. If they say no, I tell them about the options I know of and hope they will look into it. I think it's a great marketing tactic for companies that are trying to improve their appeal to people who care about the environment.

3. Adopt a climatarian diet

I talked about this a little before in my unpopular opinions post - I believe you can't be an eco-minimalist without eating a plant-based diet. But, it's a specific type of plant-based diet, and that is not vegan.

Or to clarify, vegan is far too broad a term. There are vegans who live off of Oreos, french fries, and vegan burgers. There are also vegans who enjoy exotic produce imported from other countries and other specialty packaged products. And other vegans don't know how to cook and eat out for every meal from restaurants that primarily use processed foods like meat and cheese alternatives. Yet others prefer a whole-foods plant-based diet, where they avoid processed ingredients as much as possible and try to get the best ingredients available to them.

No judgment on anyone who's a vegan. I'm vegan, and I certainly participate in all of the activities mentioned above, sometimes. It's unreasonable to expect anyone to be perfect all the time. However, eating any of those ways all the time is not climatarian--even, not necessarily, a whole foods diet, if you're not considering aspects explained below.

According to a health.com article from January 2022, "A climatarian diet is not a traditional diet in that it doesn't require followers - sometimes called climatarians -  to adhere to strict food guidelines. Rather, it focuses on eating foods that don't contribute to environmental harm, making it easy to follow compared to other eating plans."

The article then continues to describe the parameters that help you know what foods to avoid. They should not:

• require large amounts of land, water, or other natural resources
• contribute to pollution
• cause ocean acidification
• emit GHGs
• use excessive or non-biodegradable packaging

As far as I can tell, this is still a plant-based diet, so vegans can certainly adapt to follow these guidelines. However, as you can see by my examples above, there are aspects of each that may not fall in line with being climatarian.

If you need some hints on how to be more climatarian, I have some tips in my article about eco-minimalist grocery shopping.

4. Live like it's 1900

I am obsessed with a show called "Murdoch Mysteries." At first, I wasn't impressed. But it's definitely grown on me. 

The show is set in the late 1890s and moves through the early 1900s. Aside from the fascinating scientific inventions that Murdoch creates, the sly references to how we live life today, and my affection for Constable George Crabtree, I pay particular attention to how the characters live in that era.

There are a few things that an average citizen from the year 1900 might have done that I think are very eco-minimalist:

• Many individuals had very few changes of clothes and shoes
• Use of electricity was rare--clothes were washed by hand, most people didn't have refrigerators or electric ovens, and television didn't yet exist. Not all buildings had electricity
• People often walked, biked, or used horses for transportation
• Few people owned or regularly used cars
• Personal spaces were small and household possessions were few in comparison to modern-day life
• Items were often mended or repaired, not thrown away and replaced with new ones

If you believe in the historical accuracy of the show, then this all happened in a place that was rather large for its time. According to various things I read online, Toronto had over 200,000 residents back then and was the 2nd-most populous city in Canada after Montreal. I live in a city a little more than half that size in population, with a much smaller geographical area. I rarely see people walking or biking.

Of course, not everything was great. The industrial revolution was in full swing, using coal and wood for fuel. There was still pollution from factories, and those living closest to them were often in poor health. Lots of paper was used, wood was a common heat source, and gas or oil was used for lighting. 

People were unaware of the long-term consequences of some of their behaviors. The damage inflicted on the world today (and still occurring)  would probably be unfathomable to most people from 1900.

Nonetheless, the simpler aspects of life can inspire us to do better. We can utilize fewer resources, own less, live in smaller spaces, take care of what we have, and get more exercise.

5. Moderation for longevity

As with all things, I believe it's possible to be too extreme in eco-minimalism. Going too far or too quickly can bring about a lot of stress. 

Also, habits tend to stick around better if they're adopted in a slow and steady way, one at a time.

Eco-minimalism may be hot right now, but it isn't a trend that should fade away in time. It's a way of life that should be incorporated by everyone as much as possible. Permanently.