Embracing Minimalism: A Few Simple Steps to a Clutter-Free Life

From receiving presents from family and friends to buying what you love at the department store, the many possessions in your home can accumulate over time.

This increased clutter can create undue stress if it isn’t organized. Visual clutter on flat surfaces like kitchen counters and bedroom dressers can be stressful because it will always be in the back of your mind that you have to clean up that mess. 

Why not tackle the clutter in your home by adopting a minimalist lifestyle? Less stuff in your home means less maintenance cleaning you have to do when sprucing up. Let’s discuss what minimalists do and a few simple steps for achieving the lifestyle over time.  

What Is a Minimalist?

A minimalist is an individual who owns a limited number of belongings. The main difference is that this is their intentional decision to live with fewer items in their home to reduce stress when it comes time for cleaning up the nest.

Minimalism helps practicing people focus more on their relationships, self-care routines, life experiences, and personal growth. 

Ways to be minimalist include:

• Have a few select decor pieces throughout your home, such as family photos or some art pieces that resonate with you.
• Maintaining a capsule wardrobe of about 40 pieces that can be mixed and matched during the season. 
• Rotating clothing by season and only keeping clothing in the main storage area that makes sense for the season. 
• Unsubscribing from email lists you no longer use.
• Deleting old pictures that are on a smartphone or unneeded files off a laptop. 
• Batch cooking to minimize how many days you cook weekly. 

As you institute a couple of ways to be minimalist, it will come naturally to you over time as you look for more ways to have less stuff and more experiences. 

What’s Your “Why” for Minimalism?

Discover your “why” for taking the steps to be minimalist. Whether to reduce stress, save money, cut the clutter out of your home, or a combination of specific goals, reflect on your “why” before getting started.

Discuss it with family and friends before jumping into the lifestyle. If it helps, journal how you feel; explore your motivations for minimalism and the steps you’ll need to take to reach that point. 

Minimalize Little by Little

It’s impossible to become a minimalist overnight, just like you can’t become a Blackjack master in just one day. Make a list of small, cluttered areas in your home. Tackle everything one area at a time.

Trying to declutter too many areas of your home at once can cause burnout and overwhelm, possibly preventing you from continuing your minimalist journey.

Small is the call for becoming a minimalist in the fall. Of course, you can transition to minimalism any time of the year, but maybe now you will be encouraged to do it this fall!

Set a Timer

Whether it’s a timer on your phone, stove, or special kitchen timer in the shape of a hen, set it to 15 to 30 minutes. This tactic goes hand-in-hand with the starting small approach explained above. Minimalizing your home in small steps will make the goal of becoming minimalist more achievable over time. 

For example, if you have 10 areas in your home that need decluttering, it can take about a week and a half to get it done if you finish one area per day.

You can also take a couple of days per zone to work on minimizing, which means the project may take 20 days instead, and that’s ok! This is your journey, so plan it out how you desire.