We’ve all seen how awesome minimalist living looks when somebody like Marie Kondo shows us how they lead a meaningful life or we get a tour of the actual space in tiny houses.
But who do we achieve the minimalist lifestyle for ourselves?
Well, we’ve got some simple tips that will lead to less stuff, fewer things, and only what you really need in your entire house.
This minimalist mindset will create space for the things that really matter and it’s so easy to do.
How To Get Into Minimalist Living?
If you want more energy, less physical clutter (and emotional clutter for that matter), control over your own lives, more money, and a simple life these tips will get you moving, and soon you’ll be a minimalist expert with nothing but meaningful items in your life and be able to spend more quality time with friends and family than ever before.
Set Rules For Your Minimalist Journey
Before you start living your best life, it’s a really good idea to decide what being a minimalist today means to you and to write down what you hope to achieve.
The most important things can often get neglected when you’re chasing a million different objectives.
So, it might be that you want to be the uber-minimalist with no excess things, taking up no room and living simply. Or you might just be looking to simplify your life a little, junk broken items, see a family member more often, etc. rather than completely downsize.
Both of these forms of minimalism are equally valid. You need to decide which will bring you joy before you begin.
Start Your Minimalist Lifestyle From Scratch
Before you begin the emotional task of sorting through sentimental keepsakes, heirlooms and personal treasures start with the obvious junk.
Go through the house and throw out broken things, items that don’t fit, things you don’t even like anymore.
Even if this only results in fewer dishes to wash, it’s a great start. You become a minimalist in small steps on a long journey and this makes the first moment easy.
Implement Simple Rules: If You Don’t Use It, You Lose It
Next. Line up all the things in your house that you haven’t used in, say, 3 months.
Your next step on the path to become a minimalist is simply to ask yourself, “will I really use this?” and if the answer is “no”, you get rid of it.
Even if you like it, if it’s never going to get used, it’s just taking up space in your life and bringing no value in return.
Be reasonable about this (a Winter coat may have no use in Summer but if you intend to use it in Winter, it’s fine to keep it) but firm.
Go Through Your Possessions And Organize Them
Now, it’s time to round everything up and put it in its proper place. You’d be amazed at how many corkscrews we found under the bed rather than in the kitchen while doing this.
You’re going to find a ton of duplicate items that you simply don’t need. Once you see you have 13 pairs of nail scissors, getting rid of 11 of them (or 12) becomes much easier.
This works much better than trying to organize things where they are – you end up missing the overlap and holding on to stuff to the next, much tougher, stage.
You don’t have to chuck everything out but if you have 10 coffee cups per mouth present in your family, it ought to be obvious, you have too many coffee cups.
Get Tough As The Going Gets Tough
OK, the easy bit is done.
The last part is hard because it’s when you have to make tough decisions.
Now you take a final pass over your items and decide what you really want to keep and what you feel obliged to keep for any reason.
The questions you ask here are simple:
- Is this useful to me and do I actually use it?
- Is this the only thing of this kind I own and if not, do I really need more than one?
- Does this item really bring me joy or make me feel love?
Thus, it’s fine to keep the letters your college sweetheart wrote that you like to read when you’re really down or the coffee machine that you use every other week.
But you can probably get rid of the spare coffee machine or the college sweater of that same sweetheart that you haven’t even glanced at in 10 year.
Seek Out Multi-Purpose Items
Another great way to cut down on clutter is to replace items with multi-purpose items. Think “Swiss Army Knife” but in every aspect of your life.
A duvet that can be used in the summer and winter by removing a layer, a wine rack that also stores beer, a slow cooker that also acts as a pressure cooker, etc.
Cut Down On Storage Space
If you really can’t bring yourself to throw out stuff that you love but know you really should – it can help to reduce the storage space you have for that kind of item first. For example, if you have two closets full of cups, take one closet away and then see how many cups you can get in it.
Stay Away From Shopping
There’s no point in clearing out your life if you just intend to bring in more stuff once you’re done. Those who have embraced minimalism say that of the few examples of times when they’ve really struggled – it’s when they went out shopping, resisting the urge to buy more and more is hard.
Give yourself a bit of time to enjoy more space at home and a real-life and avoid shopping whenever possible, to begin with. In the long run, it will bring you more joy.
Becoming a minimalist doesn’t have to be a huge challenge and once you get through the initial hard work, you’ll find that you have better relationships, more time, and more money and that it was all worthwhile.