Essential Tips for Living With Less
If you’ve ever packed your home to move to a new place, you’ve probably accomplished something you don’t always like to admit: you have it path too much stuff. In fact, one in four people in the United States has a disorder problem! With so many things that burden us in our daily lives, it’s no surprise that one of the biggest trends in home decor these days is not just a design style, but a complete change in lifestyle – a growing movement called minimalism or minimalist life referred to as.
Although lifestyle has become increasingly popular in recent years thanks to Marie Kondo’s KonMari method and the rise of tiny houses, “minimalism” is nothing new – it has its roots in Buddhism and was first shaped by a British art theorist in the mid-1960s, according to Kyle Chayka, author of The longing for less: life with minimalism. From then on, minimalism developed into a way of life that emphasizes life with less – and therefore appreciates more. If you’re wondering more about how to integrate it into your own home, you’ll find everything you need to know about minimalist living here.
What is a minimalist life?
Although minimalism can be defined in many different ways, there is usually one common theme in the movement: a philosophy of simply living or living with less. “”It is minimalism intentionally promoting the things we value most in life by removing everything that distracts us from them“says Joshua Becker, author of the” Becoming Minimalist “blog and author of The minimalist home: A room-by-room guide for a tidy, reoriented life.
Minimalism can be applied to many areas of our lives – our schedules, our relationships, and more – but a central part of minimalist life is often home. When you think about what a minimalist home looks like, you might think of white, open spaces and bare walls first – but the truth is that everyone can practice minimalism differently, says Becker. “A minimalist home is very intentional,” he explains. “Every property is there for a reason.” As such, minimalist life usually involves debugging, organizing, and “minimizing” your home – all to lead a simpler, more targeted lifestyle.
Advantages of minimalist life:
If you’re wondering why you should start accepting minimalism in your own home, here are some of the best benefits of minimal living:
- More money. Fewer items in your home mean more money, says Becker, because you buy less and worry less. You’ll also find that your money can be used for better things than just buying property – including more experience and family time!
- More time. If you If you live with fewer items in your home, you spend less time cleaning and organizing (and shopping), so you have more time on your day to engage in what is most important to you.
- Improved well-being. A minimalist home is significantly less stressful. “Having less stuff means that we have less stress in life,” explains Becker. “Any increased possession increases fear in our lives because everything we own has to be dealt with – treated.”
- Good for the environment. By buying less and consuming less, you also reduce your consumption of the planet’s natural res – and thus make your contribution to environmental protection!
- More gratitude and mindfulness. If you live with less, you can find more gratitude for the things you have. “In a physical space, you can do a few things more with minimalism than with a lot of crowded things,” says Chayka. “It has a lot to do with mindfulness because it encourages you to think about what you include in your life or not.”
Tips for a minimalist life:
When you’re ready to take full advantage of this simple and targeted lifestyle, here’s how to create a minimalist home and start a more minimal life:
1. Concentrate on one room at a time.
It is often the most difficult to minimize your home, knowing where to start. One thing that is clear, however, is that trying to tackle an entire house at once is overwhelming – so you should focus on one room at a time. Direct your time and energy into the simplest space first – and then use it as inspiration for the others as you walk through the rest of your home. (And if you’re having trouble finding the best plan for your home, Becker recommends its Clutter-Free app, which you can use to create a personalized, step-by-step roadmap to debug.)
2. Start with the visible areas first.
When you have decided on a room that you want to focus on, you should start with the visible areas – shelves, furniture and things on the floor – before you deal with the hidden areas in the room, e.g. B. with the organization of your drawers, cupboards and the closet. That way, you can actually see your progress over time, says Becker. This can be immensely helpful if you feel overwhelmed by the number of items you have to go through.
3. Troubleshoot by keeping only the essentials.
When it’s time to start debugging, it’s a good rule of thumb to keep only the elements that are really important and meaningful to you. Advice for Becker: “Move through your home, the easiest to the most difficult, touch every object and decide: ‘Is this something that adds value to my life? Does it help me to create the desired home? does it actually depend on it? ‘”
If you are still having trouble keeping or throwing something, Becker recommends four specific questions you should ask yourself about the subject:
-
- I need it
- I use it
- What would I use if I didn’t have it?
- Why do I have it?
4. Limit your decorations to meaningful items.
When it comes to home decor, it’s easy to decorate your home with various beautiful items that you have for sale or discovered in your local home goods store. However, if you want to opt for a minimalist home, it’s best to limit your decoration to those that have special value or meaning, says Becker. “The problem is that over the years people tend to collect decorations that are not particularly important to them,” he says.
As a result, Becker encourages people to have fewer decorations by keeping only those that are most meaningful to them – like family photos and special heirlooms – that can better tell your story to both your family and visitors at home. “If we have fewer decorations, we bring more attention and value to those who mean the most to us,” he explains.
5. Clean up regularly.
It’s one thing to effectively transform your home into a minimalist one – – but it’s another to keep it that way forever! Your home is a space in which people live constantly. So it’s inevitable that things will get messy after a while. That is why it is important to continue to have good cleaning habits in the future, says Becker. “It’s about tidying up the rooms and knowing that some rooms need daily attention, some rooms need weekly attention, and some rooms need seasonal attention,” he says.
6. Avoid the temptation to buy more.
In times of constant and ubiquitous advertising, it can be particularly difficult to buy fewer things. That’s why Becker advises you to reject advertising as much as possible, regardless of whether you unsubscribe from emails, watch less TV or throw away junk emails. This can also mean rejecting materialism to focus more on the things that really matter to you. “Think about what you really like and what you like about materialism or advertising,” Chayka advises. “Find out what your taste is and what makes you happy in your room.”
7. Find your purpose.
Here is one of the most important parts of minimalist life: if you are thinking of living in your home more minimally, take some time to think about it Why you do it – – Be it because you want to save more money, because you want to spend more time with the family, or because you want to retire early and enjoy your retirement years. This is particularly important because minimalist life is ultimately about leading a more purposeful life with meaning. “The goal of minimalism is not just to have less stuff, but to live a more meaningful life than what I live,” says Becker.
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