Clutter doesn’t just take up physical space; it takes up your mental space as well. Learn how to minimize your life in 15 simple ways and free your time for things you actually enjoy.
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Benefits of Minimizing Your Life
Minimalism clears not only your space but also your mind and time.
There are many benefits of minimizing your life and these are just some of them:
- Less time spent on cleaning
- More peace & freedom
- More free time
- Good for the environment; sustainable
- Good for your wallet
- Increased productivity
- Cost-effective (quality over quantity approach)
- Easy to find things and get ready
If you tend to feel anxious in cluttered and messy places, then minimalism may be your answer to living a more stress-free life.
How to Start Minimizing
In order to start developing any new habit, you need to develop it gradually.
I advise starting with a 30-day minimalism challenge. This challenge will make you question different parts of your life and slowly bring you into the minimalist mindset.
After you complete the challenge you will be able to decide for yourself if minimalism is something that you want to pursue in the future.
This challenge is also a great way to quickly minimize parts of your life.
Minimize Your Home
Following the Pareto principle, 80% of the things you regularly use make only 20% of your overall belongings.
This is just disheartening. That means more than 50% of the things you own you don’t even use.
Where do you even start when your home is packed full of things?
Follow our simple tips to minimize clutter in your home and start implementing minimalist principles when it comes to your house.
1. Clear out surfaces
Keep your counters and other surfaces clutter-free. Utilize your cupboards and other storage spaces and organize your belongings within those closed spaces. As soon as your surfaces are clear you will feel more at ease and your home will look much cleaner.
2. Evaluate your home decor
Do you really love everything in your home? Are there too many chachkies that somehow made into your home? Take a good look at your home decor and evaluate which one you actually like and which one you only keep out of habit or guilt (gift guilt).
3. Create hidden storage
You can never have enough storage even as a minimalist. Having a lot of storage space at home helps you keep it organized and the clutter hidden from everyone’s sight. Take advantage of hidden storage spaces like a bed or a couch that has storage underneath.
4. Learn how to fix things yourself
Minimize your life by learning how to repair things yourself instead of buying the latest gadgets and appliances. This way you can save a lot of money, but also minimize your home. Use a simple rule as a guideline: as long as it works, use it.
5. Discard things responsibly
Once you decide to get rid of something, discard it responsibly. You can recycle, donate, or even sell items you no longer need. Throwing them in the trash should be your last option.
Minimize Your Wardrobe
For most people, their wardrobe and closet space have spiraled out of control due to mindless shopping. That’s why minimizing your wardrobe is a separate category here.
Remember, 80% of the stuff you use makes 20% of your closet.
Your wardrobe, if not minimized to a reasonable size, will give you a headache and you will spend a lot of time getting ready and searching for a specific item.
Here are a couple of simple ways to minimize your wardrobe and make more space in your closet.
6. Remove seasonal items
For a quick win, use this trick. Remove all out-of-season items from your closet and store them somewhere appropriately. If you currently don’t need them, don’t keep them in. They only cause more clutter.
7. Complete a closet purge
This is not a quick win but is most rewarding. Take everything out of your wardrobe, go through each item, and declutter what’s no longer wanted or needed. Check out this 7 step guide to complete your closet purge.
8. Get to know your style
Explore the idea of a capsule wardrobe to get to know your style. Once you know what you like and what fits your body type most, shopping for new clothes will be a piece of cake. You also won’t have any more issues with buying something and not wearing it.
9. Take care of your wardrobe
Cherish what you have, and take care of your wardrobe so it serves you for a long time. Learn how to tend for your clothes, shoes, and accessories, it will pay out in the long run.
10. Be very selective what you bring in
Once you’ve decluttered your wardrobe be very careful what you bring in afterward. Implement the “one in one out rule” so that your closet stays clutter-free. That means you can’t bring something new in until you get rid of something old.
Minimize Stress
Fast living and many obligations can cause a lot of stress in our everyday lives.
Although you can’t escape your duties you can implement a couple of tricks to minimize stress levels.
Learn how to simplify and minimize your life to be more productive, and efficient, and therefore less stressed out.
11. Keep the noise level down
Sound pollution is a real thing. Keep the noise level down at night and wake up earlier to do more important things in the morning when the rest of your house is still asleep.
12. Plan ahead
Try to save one or two hours each day by planning ahead and automating how you do things. From your meals, outfits, makeup, to your tasks at work, plan in advance and thus always be prepared for what’s coming your way.
13. Declutter your mind
Declutter your thoughts by practicing meditation and breathing exercises. Learn how to not take things personally and stop comparing yourself to the rest of the world. Keep your mind unblemished by critique, the news, and toxic people.
14. Clear out your inbox
Unsubscribe from junk mail mailing lists and store emails. Keep your inbox clear and keep only important messages that you need for future references. Digital clutter is a real thing and even though we can’t physically see it, it influences our stress levels a lot.
15. Focus on what’s important
Focus on what’s important and stop wasting time with distractions like TV, social media, etc. Learn how to prioritize tasks in order to stop working too much and be more efficient.
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Minimize Your Life and Be Happier
Once you have purged your home of clutter, cleaned out your closet, and got rid of distractions, you can now reclaim those hours that would’ve been spent looking for misplaced items. Use this newly freed time to do what makes you happy and enjoy life.
No one has to live with clutter and the nonessentials in their lives. A little bit of planning goes a long way when you’re trying to minimize your life.
It’s not about how much you own or how minimal you can get your possessions, but how much better you feel once you have minimized your life.
