Living with less starts with decluttering your spaces. The slight difference is, however, that your goal is not to find storage space for all of your belongings. The goal is to end up with fewer belongings. When you declutter, you end up spending money to get your home organised. But when you de-own, you will find that you have more free space and also free energy!
Read: Minimalist Living: Decluttering Or De-Owning?
Tips for minimalist living
Many people feel the urge to live in clearer spaces, but give up before they start because they don’t know how to approach minimalist living. Here are some tips for minimalist living:
Have a trial period
It can be very overwhelming to go all in right from the start. Although you will reap the benefits faster when you just close your eyes and jump, a slower start is better than no start! Take 30 days to test how you feel about living with less. Store the items you remove from your living area temporarily in a corner out of sight. That way, if you really miss it you can put it back, or you can trash or donate the items after 30 days.
Consider these items
If you have other items that apply to you, you are welcome to make your own list and use that instead. If you’re keen to go all in, you can remove all the items at once; otherwise, pick an item or two and do trial periods with them until you worked through the list. Here are some suggestions to get you started:
Clothes: Consider each item of clothing you own, including underwear, scarves, and socks. If you don’t like it anymore or it doesn’t fit you properly, toss it.
Decorations: Walk through your house and look at each decorative item. Does it make you happy? If not, toss it. This includes photo frames, souvenirs, scatter cushions, and anything else standing around or hanging on your walls.
Countertops: While looking at your decorations, also take note of everything else you have on your flat surfaces, especially in your kitchen. Find a box for each surface and place the items in the box near (but not on) the surface. Remove the items as you need them, but find space in a nearby cupboard or drawer to store them permanently. Toss the things you don’t use.
Other items that tend to multiply are tools, kitchen utensils, bags, plastic containers, electronics, junk mail, newspapers and magazines, cosmetics, stationery, and even food. Follow the golden rule: If it’s not useful and it doesn’t bring you joy, remove it. Plus, you probably only need one of each item, not 20.
In our next article, we discuss ways to simplify your life in terms of time, thoughts, and emotions as part of minimalist living.