“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury; to be worthy, not respectable; to be wealthy, not rich.” –William Henry Channing
People love labels and rules. We like to define measure and compare.
Who can call themselves a minimalist? Who is living a minimalist lifestyle?
Is it an interior design trend, an organization system, or a life hack for gaining time?
Minimalism is releasing everything that no longer serves us, so there is more space, time, and energy for people, things, experiences, work, and meaning.
We can change our lives in an instant. To flip the switch and make the change we need to know WHY. Unless there is an understanding of how our values, habits, approach to life, and the definition of success are causing us to feel
empty and discontent,
burnt out,
cut off,
depressed,
or desperate, we won’t ignite the energy to make a change.
You could experience the loss of a loved one and come home and purge your house of everything you don't like or need, as I did.
Or you could see, all at once, that by decluttering your home you could calm your mind and free up time to invest in what is truly important to YOU in life, right now.
Win time to devote to your health, self-care, relationships, hobbies, career, or community. Yes, decluttering and organizing your home and life will free up hours.
You will no longer be picking up, sorting, cleaning, and putting away belongings. There is no longer any pick-up game before a clean.
When you remove the pick-up step, you find it takes less willpower to do a quick clean, every day. You won't spend your weekend morning cleaning the entire house. You will be keeping it clean with a few minutes of effort, daily.
STEP 1 to MINIMALISM: Nothing New Comes IN
The first step is the foundation of a pyramid of cards. Are you ready to stop the flow of things coming into your home?
Unless we stop bringing in new clothes, décor, electronics, magazines, books, toys, and kitchen tools…(include the unmentioned category of possessions here), it won't matter how well and often we release things back out of our homes.
Our life will be a revolving door.
In comes new things, out with the old. In new, out old. Repeat until the happily ever after that never arrives.
Do you want, deep down to create white space in your life through decluttering your home? How will you fill this white space? What do you want to start saying yes to, but there isn't the time, money, or space?
Write it down.
Know your #ReleaseReason.
Know the why that will keep you from buying, and yes, accept new possessions into your life.
Fan That Flame of Desire for Change
Have you experienced how much more relaxed and serene you feel without clutter and mess all over the place? It's time to earn yourself this calm in your own home but without the effort of a significant time and energy investment. Fan that flame on your desire for a minimalistic life by investing just 20 minutes.
STEP 2 to MINIMALISM: 20-Minute Game Changer
What is your favorite room in your home? Grab a plastic bag or a box. Clear every surface in the room of clutter and place it in the box. Open the closet and drawers.
Throw in everything you haven’t used in the past thirty days.
There’s no need to debate on whether you should keep, not keep, love, or not love anything. Just throw it all in the box or bag, seal it, and place it in your basement or attic for the next month.
Enjoy the feel of a de-cluttered and minimalist life in your favorite room for the next month. Keep a daily one-sentence journal of home you feel in the place now that it is Spartan and clear of clutter.
STEP 3 to MINIMALISM: Plan Your Declutter Strategy
Declutter Magic: Method 1
Kon Mari, the author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, advises a strict approach to purging your home of clutter and non-essentials. Pick up every possession in your life and ask ‘Does this spark joy? Do I use this?’ Everything that doesn’t pass the test is sold, given away, or thrown away.
Kon Mari advises you to decide on a category, like all your books, and collect all of them from everywhere. Proceed to release all books that don't spark joy, or that you no longer use.
My experience: I highly recommend reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The book is pure inspiration and a fountain of motivation to change your life.
Kon Mari's approach is effective but time-consuming. Unless you are an energizer bunny, you won't be able to apply her declutter magic method at the end of a long workday.
I tried applying her method a few minutes a day every evening and failed. To do this method, you need to devote at the very least an entire afternoon to tackling a few categories of belongings. I'd advise reserving a day or a whole weekend.
On the bright side, with this method, there is no waiting for change to appear slowly. In one intense weekend, you can clear your home and change your life.
Declutter Method 2: The Minimalist Game
The Minimalist Game comes from the book Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life by Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields. Mark a month for your minimalism start on your calendar.
On the first day release one thing from your home. On the second day, get rid of two things. Continue for the rest of the month purging the number of items from your life that correlate with the day of the month. You will need to find thirty-one belongings to get rid of by the last day of the month.
In total, the month of daily effort will reject 496 items from your life.
My experience: Do you make to-do lists and check items off a list? Are you busy and want to devout a few minutes a day to ditch unloved and needed belongings from your home? This method will fit you well and get your house clean and decluttered.
I followed through with this method until day nine. On day nine counting the items to discard started to irritate and limit me.
I’m more of an all-at-once and take half a day or an entire weekend for a project type of person. I ended up getting rid of over a hundred items on day nine and pressing a pause on decluttering for the rest of the month. My total was 138 items for the month.
If you can keep with the minimalist game, you will achieve a higher reduction of belongings from your home than the all-at-once method at a staggering 496 items.
Declutter Method 3: Sunday Gift Day
In this method, you make a goal of finding three items every Sunday to gift or give to someone. It can be difficult to release sentimental, high-value, and brand-new belongings, even if you don't love or use them. It will help you to release these high emotional charge items if you decide on a specific person to gift the belonging to, or at least reflect on how someone in need will enjoy the thing.
My experience: The systematic approach to releasing brand new, expensive, or emotionally charged belongings each Sunday is a gradual process to free yourself of belongings that no longer serve your happiness and well-being.
Wrapping up the items helped me to distance myself from the belongings and release ownership more easily. I did find Sunday gifting somewhat random and unpractical. Most keepsakes and treasures I wrapped on Sunday, but I set them aside to save to give for birthdays and special occasions in the coming few months.
Declutter Method 4: The Packing Party
The Packing Party comes from the book Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life by Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields. Pack everything you own into boxes. Next, only take out the items in the next few months that you need. After a few months, you will be able to see what you don't use, and you can dispose of everything left in the boxes.
My experience: The packing party is great for singles or couples but not for a family of five like mine, unless you are moving. So I applied the packing party to just one room: my kitchen. I was surprised at which items came out of the boxes first and which didn’t. Sure, I’ve always meant to use that raclette grill, but it never happened. Same for the expensive pressure cooker.
By the end of the few months, I wrapped up the brand new, never-used raclette grill and pressure cooker and gave them away as presents. I didn’t even bother to look at what was left in the boxes. I just got rid of them.
You could apply my version of the packing party to any room or category in your home. Place all your clothes into bins, for example, or all your kids' toys. See what you take out and use. At the end of a few months, release what's still in the bins.
Declutter Method 5: Daily 5
Dispose of five items per day, every day perpetually, at the same time every day. Link the decluttering habit to another activity, such as right after you finish dinner.
My experience: Looking for a releasing five things per day is an effective way to keep counters and your front entry clear. I started doing this every evening after doing the dishes and at last, had all mail, school papers, artwork, and miscellaneous items tidied away each day.
I enlisted my kids to make a daily backpack and room search for five things, and this helped immensely in keeping the front entry, and their desks clutter-free.
The Daily 5 method won’t enable you to make a clean sweep and create a minimalist home, but it is an effective way to maintain a house already purged of non-loved and non-used things.
Declutter Method 6: Four Boxes
To declutter and create a minimalist home you can try the four-box method in which you have a box marked give away, put away, throw away, and undecided. Sweep through the house daily and sort the items into the four boxes. At the end of each week, you can process the contents of each box.
My experiences: Are you crazy busy right now but want a decluttered home? The 4 Boxes method will enable you to live in a decluttered and bright space. If you can't find the time to apply one of the other ways, then this is a solution, but it will cost you more time and effort in the long run.
It takes less time to process and release each item sort them into boxes and then work through each piece every weekend.
It's more efficient to return favorite items to ‘their home,' as Kon Mari explains, the place where each of your belongings should return to after use. For all unloved or unused items, it's better to toss these things immediately in the trash or in a bag to give away later.
Still, keep four boxes on your go-to list when illness strikes, an unexpected visitor will arrive in a few minutes, or you’re going through a stressful or tragic time in your life. You’ll be able to keep your house clear and clean despite the pressures in your life.
STEP to MINIMALISM: Plan Your Declutter Strategy or Go Complete Minimalist
Why are you reading this article?
Is the amount of clutter and unnecessary things in your life causing overwhelmed?
Or did you experience a life-changing event, like the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or a major upheaval that is causing you to look at your life with new eyes?
It happened to me. I held my grandma's hand as she took her last breath. When I returned to the cozy nest of love she created as a refuge for all her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, I paused in the kitchen mid-step.
I opened the spice cabinet.
It wasn’t there.
The crystal bowl containing rainbow crystal sprinkles, translucent and magical, was gone. I recalled all the mornings I had fetched fresh raspberries from the garden, running barefoot through the dew-covered grass to fill my bowl. My grandma would pour cream over the berries, take out the crystal bowl, and sprinkle the bright crystals over my berries.
More than anything else I wanted to take that bowl home with me, to share that magic with my children. And I’m a wellness coach. I’m not sprinkling sugar on anything these days.
For my uncle, it was the vase she kept in the front entryway. Every week my Grandma filled that vase with flowers. She would pause on the way from the kitchen to the living room, from going up or down the stairs, and stop.
For a moment she stood still, taking in the beauty of the flowers.
My uncle took home the vase. I flew from the Northwest back to Switzerland empty-handed but with a heart full of gratitude for having my grandmother in my life.
My grandma was a minimalist. I don’t care that she had figurines on her surfaces, and piles of magazines in the kitchen.
She understood that we shouldn't give too much meaning to possessions. She also only kept things in her home that added beauty, convenience, and joy to her life. And those magazines? She saved them to flip through with visitors.
My grandparents could have built a house five times the size if they had wanted. They could have taken five-star holidays and indulged in luxurious experiences.
“Create a life and a home you don’t need an escape from, and you won’t ever want to go on holiday,” she’d tell me. “Except to see people you love.”
I wonder what my grandma would think of my minimalistic home, with its white space, floor-to-ceiling windows, and clutter-free surfaces.
Would she wonder at the lack of photos and letters pinned to the fridge, the missing décor items, the Spartan bedrooms, and the missing china for festive occasions?
I know she would approve of the fresh flowers, ever-present, on the kitchen table. She would ask me at breakfast for the homemade jam.
Wishing your a home you love, Heather