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，沮喪的。

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: 壓倒性的；juggle:試圖應(yīng)付，使平衡。Of trying to do my “all”justice.3. 以及盡量公平地對(duì)待我的“一切”。do justice: 公平對(duì)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: 迫于壓力等（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?yàn)樘熘涝趺椿厥?，你努力處理一切時(shí)能做出來(lái)的最糟糕的事情就是仿佛你根本沒(méi)有在努力。cope:處理，應(yīng)付。So I worked hard to keep the act running.6. keep sth. running: 使……保持運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)。

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: 進(jìn)球得分，完成目標(biāo)。. We kept

生活是一個(gè)積累的過(guò)程，一路上你拾起路邊一個(gè)個(gè)石子，放進(jìn)你的生活中。不知不覺(jué)之間，各種事物開(kāi)始在你的四周堆積如山，你的內(nèi)心也在承受一座座越來(lái)越重的高山。你過(guò)的是“別人”的生活，你追求的東西在不斷和“別人”比較的過(guò)程中迷失在瑣碎雜亂之中。這時(shí)候，不妨停下來(lái)想一想，什么東西是你真正想要的？你敢不敢卸掉一些沉重的誘惑呢？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: 該死的；keep up with the Joneses: 與鄰居互相攀比，趕時(shí)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: 積累。. 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: 雙車(chē)位車(chē)庫(kù)；cram with: 填滿(mǎn)；crap: 廢物。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: 產(chǎn)后抑郁癥。. 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: 一陣（劇痛、傷心等）；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，散放的靠墊；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: 偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)；Zen:禪，禪宗。It’s a blog dedicated to simple,minimal living and I spent hours reading the archives.18. dedicate to: 致力于；archive:檔案，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: 選擇；expectation: 期望值。And what’s more, these people were saying that life got better, richer,happier when they embraced20. embrace: 采納，接受。living with less.

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

I decluttered21. declutter: 清理，簡(jiǎn)化。my business first. Made the decision one horrible, overwhelmed night to close the doors and let go. Then we tackled22. tackle: 解決，處理。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“擁有一切”的方式，而是以可持續(xù)的、令人心滿(mǎn)意足的方式（生活）。in a kind of way: 以某種方式。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: 風(fēng)餐露宿，居無(wú)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.