Life as a minimalist hasn’t been easy for me. It required me to completely transform the way I looked at my home. As someone who has always found happiness in the little materialistic things, it has been a struggle to learn to live with less. It took me years to unlearn the habit of finding joy in buying too much stuff and learn to appreciate the limited stuff I owned. I gradually learned to enjoy my minimalist closet, clean home office and vacant flat surfaces and loathed even the tiniest bit of clutter. But it wasn’t an easy road. I was met with a whole new set of challenges when it was time to declutter with a goal of minimalist living.
If you’re here with the intention of becoming a minimalist, let me tell you that it isn’t an easy road. It’s no cake walk to be a minimalist in a world that is consumed by the constant need to compare yourself with others and buying things on impulse. It takes a lot of intention to live your life with less stuff. But no matter how hard it is, minimalist living is worth what it takes to become one. When you know that your life is not being controlled by the material stuff anymore, you’re bound to feel a sense of power in your life.
This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures.
If you’re looking for some very real tips & strategies for decluttering with the intention of becoming a minimalist, here are some that I have learned over the years:
1. Create A Realistic Vision
Don’t just fall in love with the idea of ‘minimalistic lifestyle’ but focus on what your home needs. You may think that you don’t need a certain set of items but the reality might be different. For instance, if you have five sets of bedding for a family of three and you’re thinking of getting rid of two sets, ask yourself a few questions:
- Do I have an extra set of bedding if the weather conditions change?
- How frequent are the guest visits at my home? Do I have extra beddings for them?
I am a minimalist who has more than six pots for cooking and I can’t get rid of any of them because they all meet different requirements.
You need to figure out what works for your home and not what the homes of other minimalists look like. The purpose of minimalist decluttering is to give yourself a calm and relaxing living space with stuff that adds value to your life. Make sure that you don’t get rid of stuff on impulse.
2. Focus On One Area At A Time
Minimalist decluttering requires you to do a heavy purge of the items in your house and can end up taking a lot of physical and emotional energy. In order to keep the momentum going, try to accomplish one area or one task at a time. Don’t try to spend more than half an hour a day for decluttering or you’ll lose the motivation.
For day 1, pick an easy decluttering project like cutting down on the décor items in your house or getting rid of the duplicates in your shoe rack. Get the momentum going and slowly move on to the bigger decluttering projects.
3. Create An Outlet For Discarding Your Stuff
Minimalist decluttering will require you to make a lot of decisions as you start dealing with the stuff in your home. You’ll come across an old piece of furniture lying in your garage and you’ll wonder whether to keep it, sell it, donate it or trash it. Make sure that you have a proper system in place to sort this stuff into categories. If possible, have at least 7 large boxes labelled with categories – Sell, Keep, Donate, Give away, Repurpose, Trash, digitize (for paperwork that can be scanned and stored digitally). Toss the stuff in relevant boxes as and when you find them. This will make it easier for you to deal with stuff once you’re done decluttering it.
4. Decide What’s Enough For You
We all have a tendency to create backups for ourselves. We like to have duplicates for as many items as possible because it makes us feel secure. There’s always an extra pair of office shoes lying in our shoe rack because ‘what if the regular ones get damaged?’
We always have a nice dress readied up in our cupboard because ‘what if an occasion arrives suddenly?’
But minimalism is different. It requires you to stop taking into consideration the ‘maybe’ and ‘someday’ items while focusing only on the ones that add value to your life today. You will have to decide how much is enough while also making sure that you don’t find yourself running to the store to buy items similar to the ones that you’ve discarded.
If you’ve decided to give your closet a minimalist declutter, start with defining your personal style. You might have to get rid of the clothing items that don’t go along with your style and rotate more often on the ones that do. Similarly, you may need to let go of some of the cutlery and utensils that have many duplicates. Deciding what’s enough for you will give you a clear picture of the extent to which you need to declutter.
5. Learn To Find Joy In Having Less
The need to own too much is the biggest decluttering roadblock that many of us face. Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of consumerism. You may find yourself experiencing a strange FOMO while looking at those large homes full of beautiful things. But don’t forget that your reality is your own home and it’s your duty to make it a relaxing sanctuary for yourself and your family.
So there you have it! These simple minimalist decluttering tips have helped me transform my home in a way that it is no longer a dumping ground for irrelevant stuff. Although I don’t own even half the stuff I had in the past, I feel relaxed every time I step into my home.
I hope these tips turn out to be as helpful to you as they did to me. What other minimalist hacks do you practice to declutter your home?