When most people hear the word minimalism, their minds are immediately filled with stereotype images and assumptions – white walls, near-empty rooms, KonMari. However, minimalism has little to do with decor and folding styles. Trust me, I wouldn’t dedicate my career to something as shallow as that.

This is a massive movement, and I believe it’s incredibly beneficial for us mothers. This is a lifestyle shift that’s turning on the light for moms everywhere, revealing the truth – you don’t have to clean up all the time; there is a much lighter way to do motherhood!

Minimalism is about creating breathing room in your home, your calendar, and your life so that you can be intentional with the people who matter most to you, and present to enjoy them fully.

As a minimalist, I choose carefully what takes up space in my home, because I know those things I choose will also take up my time. I like to use the toaster as an example. Your toaster sit on your counter top ready to be used. You use it to turn bread into toast, you dump the crumb tray every so often, you wipe it down when you detail the kitchen, you move it back under the cabinet to its dedicated spot… all of this may only take you a couple minutes total, but it’s a couple minutes nonetheless. Your toaster takes up some of your space, and because it exists in your house, it also takes up some of your time. Everything you own works the same way.

Some things only take up thirty seconds a month, others take up hours without us even realizing it. Minimalism is about looking at how we’re spending our time, what’s taking up our space and our lives, and asking one question: why?

Minimalism is living intentionally, with a purpose that leaves its fingerprint on every single day. Because that’s how you end up with a life worth living.

Let me ask you this… what’s most important to you? What are your toppest priorities in life?

Your husband?

Your relationship with God?

Your family?

Your job?

Write it down.

Now answer this, being totally honest with yourself… if someone had a secret camera in your home (take the creepiness of this example out and set it aside) and their main purpose was to find out what your top priorities were, what would they find?

Would they see your daily actions lining up with what you say are your priorities?

Or would they see that your phone appears to be the highest priority?

Or money?

Or yourself?

Or having a clean house?

Or whatever is going on on Facebook?

So often, we think we have our priorities in line. I mean after all, we’re moms! Moms take care of their families and serve until they desperately need a night out – obviously we are super focused on those who matter most. But how often do we get caught up in the chaos and end up living these precious days of our kids’ fleeting childhood in full-on survival mode? How often do we send our kids away from us to “go play” or “go be busy” so we can catch up on something as mundane as housework? How often do we count the minutes till bedtime instead of sitting down and playing Legos with them?

This isn’t to guilt you or to be another post where one mommy shames all the others. This was me. It IS me every time I lose focus because I’m human, and I mess up all the time. But this was me every single day a few years ago. I was stuck in survival mode, barely getting by, always trying to catch up on the housework. A day without a mountain of laundry lurking in the hallway felt like an AMAZING day! Now, it’s exactly the opposite.

I don’t spend hours standing at the kitchen sink each week cleaning up after our meals because we only have the dishes we truly need, and they don’t overwhelm me. I don’t spend the weekend catching up on Laundry Mountain because there aren’t enough clothes to create a mountain, yet we lack nothing. We have everything we need, and for once I absolutely love my wardrobe.

I don’t have to be the mom who yells or the wife who’s stretched super thin all the time because it just doesn’t really exist anymore. Sure, I have my days, my hard weeks, but that’s life. My regularly days are now simpler, intentional, joyful, and filled with purpose.

I’m able to be the mom who plays with her kids on a regular basis, which is what I always wanted but felt unable to be.

I’m able to sit down with my husband in a clean house at the end of a long day and watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine without feeling like I should be doing something else. I can relax and soak up my time with my family because everything is simplified. There is so much less to do!

This is true minimalism. This is why I believe moms need it most. This is why I spend my time spreading this message, running across the world with this blazing torch in my hand – because I want you to know the truth and have a chance to take hold of this freedom!

If you’re reading this and feeling like you wanna grab hold of it, you’re in the right place. Click here to go get your free minimalism starter kit, or dive all the way in and do this thing for real NOW by enrolling in my course. It’ll walk you through the steps I took to declutter my entire house and start living on purpose so you can do the same.

Whatever you do from here is up to you. You can be a reader, take this information, think about it as you go about your day and quickly forget about it because, #momlife be cray. Or you can grip this new truth in your hands and choose to make it your actual life. Join the movement one way or another, just don’t walk away from this article the same way you walked into it.