Minimalism can mean different things for different people. For a person living alone it can mean one thing and for a family of 4 it can mean another. The important thing to recognize, however, is that no one is living the minimalist lifestyle better than the other. Some people have come to think that being a minimalist means living in an empty home, sitting on the floor, sleeping on a mattress and having a plant.
Okay…maybe that is a little extreme 😂. But it is true that so many people think living a minimalist lifestyle is…well…a little weird.
Honestly, at the end of the day, every minimalist simply wants to live a clutter free life. They don’t want excess things in their space. They only want to keep the things they love and use. They don’t want a lot of things roaming around in their homes and they want peace and calm.
I have always lived a pretty simple life but I truly indulged myself in the minimalist lifestyle about 2 years ago and let me tell you…it has been life changing!
I had this one huge closet in my home that we used as storage and that closet was driving me crazy! It would take hours to clean and tidy it, only for it to become a mess in a few weeks. Finally, I just realized, maybe the solution is just to not have all of this stuff to begin with. So I began just selling things, donating them, tossing them, returning things back to other people and over 2 years I was probably able to get rid of over 75% of our things!
I am proud to say that I definitely have some tips to share when it comes to living a clutter-free/minimalist lifestyle and that is what I am sharing with you today so let’s just dive right into it!
Never leave your house empty handed!
I chuckle when I think about it, but honestly, I don’t think I ever leave my house empty handed. I always make sure if I am leaving the house, I take something with me that needs to leave my house whether that is trash, donations, returns, etc. To live a minimal life, you have to keep eliminating things in your space that you don’t need and honestly, that process never really ends and you constantly have to be thinking about what needs to leave.
Stay on top of returns
It’s so easy these days to purchase things online and I think this has really contributed to people feeling overwhelmed by the clutter in their homes. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Amazon. I don’t know what I would do without it. We recently moved into our new home and let’s just say, the Amazon purchases have been non-stop. If I didn’t stay on top of the returns, things would have easily become very overwhelming to deal with and the stuff in my home would pile up really fast. So, once we get a package, I try to open it right away to see whether or not it is going to work for us or not. If it is not, I will package it right up, create my return label and take it with me to return the next time I leave my home.
The same goes with in-store purchases. Once I bring something home, I will try it out and if it needs to be returned, I take it back as soon as I can so I can get it out of my space.
Purchase less but purchase more high-end products
This is something that is fairly new to be. When we decluttered over 75% of our things when we moved, I came to a realization that for our next home I really wanted to buy less furniture but better-quality furniture that would last for a really long time and work for multiple spaces. We spend a decent amount of money on the basic furniture we needed for our house but I feel really good about it because everything is really good quality and will last (as long as we take good care of it).
Learn to say no
Minimalism isn’t just about having less things. It’s about having more time to do things you really love and want to spend time on. Saying no to people is a habit that took me a little while to build up. If we were invited somewhere, I felt like we HAD to go, even if I didn’t want to. Recently, I have learned to say simply say no thank you to invitations or requests that just don’t interest me. Keeping my calendar clutter free has been life changing! Now, this doesn’t mean I don’t attend ANY social gatherings. It just means I don’t have to attend each and every single little thing and can really enjoy the ones that bring me joy.
No more bulk shopping!
I used to love shopping in bulk until one day I realized how much anxiety it was causing me trying to figure out where I was going to store all of these bulk items in my home. We used to buy paper towel rolls from Costco and as you know that is a pretty huge pack! It took over 1.5 years for us to use up all of those rolls and it just didn’t make sense to me anymore. Buying things as we needed not only saved us storage space but it kept my anxiety low and that is worth WAY MORE than the savings we would have gotten from buying in bulk.
So, there you have it, friends! Those are just some of my habits for living a clutter-free/minimalist life! I just can’t say it enough times, but living this way has truly been life changing. It has given me more time with my family, it has given me more time to rest and relax, it has given me more time to pursue other goals and interests. I just cannot recommend it enough and I hope this post gave you some inspiration today! Leave us a comment down below if you have any more habits to share! We would love to hear from you 😊.
