3 Tips on How You Can Adopt a Minimalist Lifestyle Today
Do you find yourself full of respect for those people who live truly minimalist lifestyles? The people who go for long walks during the day, come home to small homes and cook simple meals so that they can enjoy a quiet evening together?
Sounds kind of ideal doesn’t it! And presumably, it must have taken a lot of time and work on their part to get to that point.
Well… not necessarily! Actually, few things could be simpler than adopting a minimalist lifestyle. In this post, we’re going to look at exactly how you can go about doing just that and start enjoying a more minimal life today!
The Mindshift
The first thing you need is a mindshift. You need to change your mindset and learn that you don’t always have to push harder and further to be happy. What you need to be happy is right there in front of you and if you don’t agree, that’s because you’ve been misled by clever marketing.
You don’t need beautiful clothes, a sports car or a huge mansion to be happy. You just need your family and friends and some spare time. And that doesn’t cost anything.
The more you chase after promotions so you can have more shiny things, the less time you’ll have to actually enjoy said shiny things…
Simpler is Easier
This of course extends to your décor and this is a very tangible expression of a minimalist outlook. A good thing you can do today to start being more minimal then, is to take your belongings and reduce what’s on display by 60%. Sounds extreme? It may well be but once you do that, you’ll find that what’s left is only the most beautiful and most important to you – meaning your entire home will look much better.
Better yet, it will now be very easy to clean and tidy. See how simpler is easier?
Scale Back
From there, you can begin to scale back. Cancel subscriptions to services you don’t need, address whether you really need the latest phone. Learn to appreciate the things you already have and try making the most of free time with your family and friends without necessarily having to spend a huge amount.
All this will move you closer to a minimalist lifestyle. As soon as it ‘clicks’, you can count yourself a member of the club!
5 Mistakes to Avoid When Trying to Become a Minimalist
You’d think that throwing a few things away and adopting a simpler lifestyle would be easy. How hard can it really be to do less and buy less?
The reality is that this is actually much harder than it looks. We have become so used to being stressed, so used to being jealous and so used to wanting more that it is very hard to let go when we decide to try. Here are five mistakes that people often make and how you can avoid making the very same errors…
Using Technology too Much
Technology is in many ways the antithesis of a minimalist lifestyle. While no one is asking you to turn off your phone permanently, what you should avoid is the kind of ‘mindless browsing’ that leads many of us to end up making purchases of things we don’t need. Take some time off your tech!
Not Finding Fulfilment Elsewhere
If you just remove things from your life, then you’ll find that it can quickly seem quite empty. Instead, you need to find new things to fill your life just as you take things away.
The best way to do this is to think about what makes you happy and how you can get more from what you already own. Keep yourself busy with things that don’t require ‘more’.
Not Keeping it Up
A big mistake is to go all-out creating a minimalist lifestyle and then to give up only a few weeks later. The key here is consistency and introducing a few simple rules can help a great deal. For example, make a rule that you have to get rid of something in your home each time you buy something new!
Being too Strict
A lot of people act as though being minimal is a binary choice. You’re either minimal or you aren’t. And thus the only way to go minimal is to throw everything out and live entirely off the land.
Not so! You can become a ‘little more minimal’ and reap many of the benefits without making it too hard on yourself.
Missing the Point
Many of the issues people have with minimalism come from missing the point. The point isn’t to be mightier-than-thou and it’s not to shun society. The point is just to scale back a little so that life becomes more manageable again! And it is to reap a few of the rewards that just so happen to come as a by-product of that.
Top 7 Tips to Making More Out of Less
The secret to becoming minimalist is not to throw out all your things and to stop doing the things you love. It’s not all about less.
Rather, being minimal is about making the most out of what you already have. It’s about finding enjoyment in simple things, so that you can stop chasing rainbows. This is the secret to minimalism and actually, it’s the secret to happiness!
Make a List of All the Things You Have Yet to Do
Why are you thinking of buying a new book or game when you haven’t finished everything on your shelf? And just how many other fun activities could you be enjoying using the things you already have? Make a list and keep this in mind!
Try More Free Activities
Yes, you could pine after that expensive holiday, or another expensive meal. Or you could cook for your partner and have a romantic evening in, visit a museum, go for a walk or try learning another language.
Try a Gratitude Attitude
A gratitude attitude means learning to appreciate what you already have. Try writing down five things you’re grateful for every night before bed!
Try Cooking With Less
One area that many of us spend a lot of money in and can be very wasteful in, is food. Try cooking with fewer ingredients and see just how delicious simple food can be!
Create Your Own Style
Don’t splash your cash on expensive fashion items! Instead, try creating your own style that doesn’t depend on expense. You’ll have a more unique look and will save money at the same time!
Reduce Your Clutter
If you have lots of ornaments, then you’ll find they’re actually fighting for attention. The result is that no single item on your shelf looks as good as it could because it’s being drowned out by all the others. Take away 60% of your ornaments and you’ll find that what is left looks much more beautiful!
Look Into Minimalist Design
Look into minimalist design and try to learn some of the basic tenants. The idea is to make things functional – that form and function are one and the same. When you stop trying to create ‘artificial’ decoration, you’ll find that the simple straight lines that need to be there actually look quite stunning in their own right.
Learn these principles and apply them to your life to start enjoying less, more!
How to Adopt a Minimalist Lifestyle in 5 Easy Steps
Adopting a more minimalist lifestyle can be a simple way to make yourself happier and more fulfilled. Too often, we hold the belief that we need to do more and fill our lives with more things in order to be happy – but actually this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Scaling back is what will allow us to focus on the things we have and to really appreciate what is already going well in our life. At the same time, having less and committing to less will give us more time to relax, to recharge and to attack the day refreshed. Minimalism brings fewer money concerns, a less stressed calendar and so much more. So how do you embrace it? Here are five easy steps that will help you do just that…
Reduce Your Surface Clutter
The first place to start is by focussing on your ‘surface clutter’. That means you’re going to remove around 60% of ornaments and decorative items from your surfaces. This seems extreme but the result will be that what remains is your very favourite, increasing the average quality of what’s on display. Furthermore, it will be much easier to clean your rooms and you’ll feel less claustrophobic thanks to a bigger looking room!
Cut Things Out
Look for the recurring commitments and tasks that are taking it out of you. Learn to say ‘no’ and cut down on the amount you do every day!
Get Rid of Old Boxes
If you have an old box of things on your wardrobe, under a bed or anywhere else, then get rid of it if you haven’t looked in it for the last 3 months. If there was anything in there that you turn out to need later, you can just replace it!
Make a ‘One in, One Out’ Rule
Make a rule for yourself that every item you purchase must replace an item you currently own. This will make you think twice before getting more clutter!
Introduce Systems
Look at the things in your life that are eating up the most of your time and introduce systems to help you cope. This can mean buying technology to automate jobs like washing up, or it can mean finding ways to spend less time sorting through email, commuting or even choosing clothes! Rotas and organization systems will save you hours in the space of a week or month!
3 Powerful Ways to De-Clutter Your Life
Clutter is probably causing you more stress than you realize right now. When life is stressful and our calendar is jam-packed with activities, we all need a quiet and clean home that we can come back to in order to relax in. That should mean a calm, organized space that feels light, spacious, homely and safe.
But for too many of us, our homes are just yet another thing that causes stress. And clutter is to blame. Clutter makes a space busy, disorganized, dusty and hard to clean. Conversely, if your space is emptier, you’ll be able to keep it looking pristine with minimal work.
So how do you go about reducing that clutter?
Learn to Detach
To declutter, first you must detach. How many items do you have that you never use but that you feel you can’t get rid of because they were a gift? Or because they have some kind of sentimental value?
Of course sentimental objects are important and we should all have a few keepsakes. But this can go too far if it means you feel the urge to hold on to every last item that you’ve ever owned!
If you are keeping items in memory of someone, then how about keeping just one gift? And if you’re worried about hurting feelings, you can always lie and say the item broke!
Break Collections
When it comes to hoarding clutter, one of the very worst things you can do is to view something as a collection. You probably think of your DVDs as a ‘collection’ for example and there’s a good chance you’ll have made sure to include every DVD in a particular category, or that you feel says something about you. Now you can’t throw any away without ruining your massive collection!
This is a big cognitive shift but as soon as you realize that collections don’t mean anything, decluttering will become much easier!
Take a Pause
When you’re thinking of buying anything new, always take a pause. There are a lot of factors that contribute to a purchase and many of these have been purposefully designed by marketing and sales teams to prey on our emotions. When we buy based on emotion, we end up making the wrong decisions. When we buy because we have gone away to think about something and then come back to it that means that we genuinely need or want the item.
