Minimalism has taken over social media quite quickly over the last few months, and for good reason. The idea of decluttering your house and living with less use to be odd and for many extremely distant, constantly battling with the thoughts of "I will need this" never letting people let go of things int heir possession. Hoarding items all for the purpose of not wanting to let them go was the social norm.
Towards the tail end of 2019, this started to change with more and more channels and people speaking out against the "keeping up with the Jones'" mentality. Here are some things I learned when I decided to take on minimalism and merge it into my lifestyle.
1. Becoming a Minimalist doesn't mean All or Nothing.
Many people think that if they do something its 100% or nothing. Some odd reason it's just a pre-programmed notion in our heads. I was like this, I started removing all the excess clothing I had in my closet. If I hadn't worn it within a year I dismissed it and donated it to charity.
I would repeat this process over the next few months until I lost roughly 95% of my wardrobe and accessories (my partner was thrilled she got twice as much closet space). But I got addicted to decluttering and essentially tried to remove all clothing I had and wanted to rebuild it from scratch (spoiler: I did). I ended up with under 35 pieces of clothing all basically identical after the rebuild.
You DO NOT have to do this nor do I recommend it because for some they sell everything and then rebuy an entire wardrobe and actually never end up decluttering.
2. More money, less stress.
What first started as a test to see if I could do it ended up being something I loved so much. Having no clutter in the house and not spending money on things I didn't need, taught me what things I really wanted. Things like money for traveling, less stress and not caring about what anybody else thought. I would wake up every morning and choose one of 8 black shirts I had in my closet and one of 3 pairs of jeans and then got on with my day.
3. More room for the things you really want.
Living like a minimalist doesn't mean you have to let go of everything you love, you don't have to get rid of those old video game consoles you have been collecting or sell off half of all your photography equipment. Trust me as someone who has quite a bit of equipment for photography and video work it's not something I'm just going to get rid of because I love it and it makes me happy to use it. Minimalism is simply living with less on your own accord.
By removing all of the things within my house that did not serve a purpose, I had room (and money) to onboard higher quality goods throughout my home, I am much happier now with spending money on higher quality items rather than having to buy 3 cheaper alternatives that end up breaking or me getting annoyed/bored with them.
Hopefully, I didn't scare you too much, but I can definitely say if you decide to go with the slow living lifestyle or living with less, it does take a lot of stress and anxiety out of your life and leaves you with more than you think it would.
