Hello there listeners welcome back my name is Stephanie Sefarian and you're listening to

episode 376 of sustainable minimalist a show about intentional and eco-friendly minimalist

living on today's show we're discussing what skills we need as

parents to help our children part with their own stuff. Children tend to, or at least my children tend to attach deep sentiment to

their items, not just their fancy toys, but also their rock collection and the crumpled pieces of paper in the corner of the

bedroom and sticks and haphazard artwork and everything in between.

And as our children get older, it's on us

to teach them how to discern their favorite items

from what is just excess.

But how exactly do we do that today I am speaking with Mary Simpson

she is a shopaholic turned minimalist and she runs the super popular minimalism with Mary over on

Instagram. Mary I'm so happy to have you on the show to help me help my kids parse through their stuff. How are you?

Thank you Stephanie. I'm so happy to be here and doing great. I just love your

podcast so this is definitely an honor. Well, I love your Instagram account. Holy moly, so many great minimalism and decluttering tips.

Tell us about yourself, tell us about your family, tell us about how you found yourself interested in

minimalism give us all the details. I came to minimalism about two and a half

years ago by accident.

So I am admittedly a recovering shopaholic,

a recovering workaholic to support my shopping habit.

And I have a husband and two children. My kids are now seven and a half and five. And I realize that I was really spending all of my time on my career and my clients and working really hard to

support this lifestyle and I was going to miss my kids childhood and really my own

life if I didn't do something about it. I had a and really re-evaluate what was most important to me and I

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