5 Minimalist Tips
Minimalism can sound extreme. Some people' think of minimalism as not having furniture, not having anything, the 100 minimalist challenge, tiny homes etc. And yes yes you are so right, those are all things that make up minimalism but that’s a little extreme for me so I just watch what I buy and make sure I don’t have things lying around the house. I particularly don’t enjoy clutter, we get rid of it and limit buying clutter items. But we didn’t start this way and by ‘we’ I mean both Joe and myself. We like things, we enjoy buying stuff just like everyone else but we love not having much. It makes a large difference when it comes to moving, having storage, or in general just living. It all started for us when we decided to move as often as we do. I mean we’ve moved probably 5 times since we’ve been together. Not the best in my opinion. But over time we got rid of things because moving so much without movers caused us to re-think how much stuff we actually had and used. I thought I’d post about some tips to become a little more minimalist, these are the little things that I found made a huge difference when de-cluttering and narrowing down our possessions:
1) Have you worn/used it in the last 6 months?
This is a neat one because when I first took a look at all our possessions I thought to myself ‘Wow I haven’t seen/used this thing in a very long time!’ . I am also a huge fan of putting things away in the back of my closet for a month and seeing if I remember it or even miss it. Usually when I do that, I didn’t miss it at all or even question where it went. Out of sight is truly out of my mind. But this is a good start, this gets you asking yourself ‘is this worth taking up space in my home?’, ‘Is this something I can live without?’ And honestly, if you haven’t worn/used something in 6 months time I’m doubtful you’ll wear/use it in the next 6 months. But as I write this I think maybe you live in extreme weather, so if maybe you live in the north pole or in the desert somewhere where 2 months of the year it’s the total opposite weather than all the others months, then maybe 6 months without wearing or using that thing is valid. In that case, disregard this point. For everyone else! Maybe it’s time to part with the good thing and donate it for someone else to enjoy? Just a thought.
2) De-clutter
I don’t want to go all Marie Kondo on you but I do want to say that things have their place and if you find that there is too much clutter, there are jars and jars of beach rock, or maybe there are too many nail polishes under the bathroom sink, maybe there are more socks in your sock drawer then would ever be possible to wear. Let’s just step back for a moment and take a breath and see if we truly need this many things….there are just so many of these things. And truly if it doesn’t bring you that spark of joy as Marie Kondo says, then why have it? And why have so many? No need my friends, just no need at all. Let’s take all the knick knacks and little things out of their place and re-assess if they are needed. Do you need a pile of rocks/sand/sea shells from beaches you traveled to while going on vacation? Do you really need to keep those 50 sarongs that you bought while visiting Hawaii for the 10th time last year and the slowly growing collection of thin tropical print scarves that you get to use maybe once a year? Probably not. But if you feel the need to keep them, then keep em…this is just my opinion.
3) Get rid of what can be electronic
I’m still working on this one because we have books, physical books with pages that are for turning and I really enjoy that about reading books because I feel accomplished when I’ve made it through one. But once we’re done with reading all our physical books they are being donated and sent to loved ones. The same goes with photos, you can scan those and keep digital copies and have prints made whenever you’d like. News articles, posters, special cards etc. All these (if you deem them unnecessary for storage in the physical world) can be put into the digital world and stored forever and ever and last longer than you. A little morbid but true. So get rid of those things that are papers in the junk drawer and taking up space in the files. It clears up a lot of room.
4) Before you buy it, ask yourself how often it’ll be used
Simple point, tough to bring to light. I love clothes and seeing dresses that will make me feel fantastic when I wear them are always really hard to pass up. I get fearful and I tell myself ‘oh goodness if you don’t buy that dress then you’ll never ever get another chance to be happy’. I guess I don’t think that extreme but I think of it and don’t like it. I tell myself I need all the things before I even think about using them so re-thinking through that process has helped me make better choices in the long term. I also like doing the whole ‘how much is it worth?’ thing where I consider buying shoes for $100 and think I’ll wear it 100 times then that’s a dollar a day. But if I buy a $100 dress and wear it once, that’s a $100 dollar day. Kind of helps put things into perspective.
5) Do not buy dupes
Because why? This one came up for us during our second move, we moved into my dad’s property to watch it for him. It was a great place and was stacked with so many things. When we moved out we decided we didn’t need as many things. For example measuring cups, we had two sets and only used one. We had multiple cheese graters and only used one. We had probably 30 spoons for 2 people, and we didn’t ever have enough guests over. We narrowed everything down. So maybe don’t buy duplicates of things you probably aren’t ever going to use. As I write this I realize now that not buying ‘dupes’ is a little vague because dude you may need two plates if you live with other people. What I’m trying to say is this goes along with the clutter tip, you truly do not need to have additional things just for the sake of having them, especially if they aren’t being used. Like towels for every season, there’s no real need is there?