Have you thought you can’t be a minimalist because you want to maintain the creature comforts of your material life? Good news! You don’t have to give up all of your stuff to be minimalist.
There are those out there who are extreme minimalists. Everything they own fits in a suitcase, by choice. It is rare that this level of extremism is sustainable. Just like hoarding behavior, the other end of the spectrum, isn’t sustainable or in harmony with a healthy life.
Minimalism is a way of being. It’s a perspective of simplicity that can create relief and a sense of peacefulness in the lack of noise and sensory input from excessive belongings.
Minimalism is not a fad, a trend, or something that makes one person better than another. In many ways it’s a return to how we lived in earlier times.
How can you start testing the minimalist waters? First, decide what area you want to focus on. This is a starting point. You’ll touch on all areas of your life, but what area do you feel most drawn to or feel the greatest need in?
For example: If you said your schedule, you might be referring to a hectic life in which you feel like you’re always running, always chasing your appointments, and never quite caught up.
In this case I would ask you to write down your daily schedule. How do you wake up? What do your mornings look like? What do you get done before lunch? When do you eat? What do your afternoons look like? What time do you eat dinner? What are your evenings like? When do you spend time with friends or family? How much time is spent in the car? That’s at least a few questions to get started with.
Now that you’ve looked at how you spend your days in detail, begin to identify what works and what doesn’t. What are you willing to change? What has to get done? What doesn’t? What do you tell yourself is a priority, but probably isn’t really? Create a structure for yourself and give yourself permission to follow that structure. Give yourself breaks, pad your time, never say “I’ll just get one more thing done”.
This is a process of minimalism. A way of being. A way of life that allows for space, time, errors. It requires a willingness to release your attachment to certain expectations that create stress and pressure for you.
Now, what if you said you wanted to attend to the clutter in your home. The classic version of minimalism in your physical environment. Minimalism is there to reduce that stress and pressure, as I said, not increase it. So, if you come at it with a perfectionistic perspective, you won’t achieve the rewards of minimalism.
Reducing your attachment to the physical clutter of the environment you live in is not about meeting some ideal that you think you “should” meet. It is about having a home that feels good, right, to you. Not to anyone else. To you. And the people you share that space with, of course.
When we work at something like decluttering and releasing our belongings, we are vulnerable to regretting our choices when we do it for reasons other than what feels right. That’s also why it takes a long time and a number of passes to go through this process.
To work toward minimalism in your home you can start small, in categories or areas that feel approachable to you. Become in tune with what you own. Why do you have this? Are you keeping it because you love it? Or because someone gave it to you and you feel bad getting rid of it? Because you spent good money on it, even if you don’t use it? Did you even know you had it? Is it covered in dust? That’s a pretty good clue it doesn’t get used, so, again, why do you still have it?
Ask yourself questions. If you’re honest with yourself and you know you don’t want this thing, let it go. See how you feel when it isn’t clogging the energy in your home any longer.
I’ve had moments in my own journey when I think of something in my home that I had previously thought I ought to keep, but, now, feel like it needs to go. I’ll become obsessed with getting that thing out of my house, and, until I do, I feel on edge. Once it’s gone, I feel that relief and peace. That’s what tells me it was meant to go.
I will also be on the fence about something so I’ll put it in a box that will get filled over time. I know the item is in the box, but I haven’t released it yet. I marinate over days or weeks as to what to do with that item. So far, I haven’t pulled anything out of the box. I’ve come to terms with that item needing to go. You may have a different experience. You may pull something out of the box. Ask yourself why, so that you are being intentional instead of reactive. If you aren’t ready to let it go, don’t. You’re on a journey. Minimalism doesn’t happen overnight. It’s okay.
You can still have stuff. You can still have clothes, run a business, and go to fancy dinners as a minimalist. You may find that you enjoy those things more and more as you allow yourself to have and do what feels right and good, instead of what you think you’re supposed to have or do to be a “good adult” or whatever your criteria has been up to this point.
That’s why minimalism isn’t a trend. Trends are things that come and go because they’re popular at the moment. Minimalism has been around since the beginning of time. You will live a minimalist life because it feels so great, not because your neighbor or favorite influencer is doing it.
So, start looking at your life and decide where you want to start. A habit? A space? A mindset? Wherever you choose to start will be the right place, not because I or anyone else told you what to do, but because you made the choice based on what you needed.