I thought I would share a few myths that I run across with frequency. And quite frankly, they just irritate me. So, I thought I would inform some people so I can stop answering these questions.

We’re dirty people. Yep. I get this one all the time. Just because we wear the same few pieces of clothing every week does not make us dirty. Yes we wash our clothes and yes we use some sort of cleaner. Oh! And we take showers. I don’t understand why some people think we don’t shower. I mean — we may not straighten, blow dry, curl, or do whatever else to our hair, but yes we shower. And get this, we use soap! Minimalists like to keep it clean, just eco-friendly clean.

We are superficial, fake, or hypocritical. Many people assume that we are superficial because we like aesthetically pleasing things. Well, we do but that doesn’t make us superficial. We buy things of high quality so they last and many times that means they look a little better than the bottom shelf quality. And sometimes, if you buy things that you don’t love for their functionality and their beauty, we end up replacing them sooner than later because we don’t like them.

We are weirdos. Well,sorry but I can’t disprove this myth. I’m one of them. But I totally love being a weirdo so hate on! I know there are some minimalists out there that aren’t weirdos, but I can’t speak for them because I don’t know them. My philosophy — the weirder the better.

We are addicted to the internet. While we do love a good internet sesh, we aren’t addicted. Many minimalists, including myself, love to write. And we just happen to write blogs and what not. I mean if you really want us to stop writing on the internet, we could just write it on paper and no one would ever see it. Most of us love to write because we have a story to tell and we want to share it with people in hopes of inspiring someone. That does not mean our fingers are super glued to our phones and we post selfies and depressing posts 24/7. When we are on the internet, we are either looking for inspiration or trying to inspire others. Then, we get of that thing!

We are a bunch of lonely depressed single people. I hear this all the time, “I would be a minimalist if I wasn’t married or we didn’t have kids.” Not true. I am married and this journey is only making our relationship stronger. Like a lot stronger. But, you’re still saying, I have a family so I can’t. Well, that’s just wrong. Colin Wright from exilelifestyle.com has six kids. Count ‘em! Six! And they are all minimalists. There is also the Minimalist Mom with a little boy. It may be easier to become a minimalist as a single person, but it doesn’t mean you can’t become one with a family. Setting an example may be all it takes for your family to join in.

So, let’s recap this. We aren’t dirty, we are so totally weirdos, and we love trying to inspire people to change their lives for the better. We try not to judge others that aren’t like us, but it seems like they like to judge us more because we aren’t like them. We’re going against the norm, but we like it that way. I’ll be posting some challenges that might help you start your minimalist journey, so keep reading! I appreciate it.