6 Tips on Becoming a Minimalist

In my last blog post, I spoke about how practicing simple living had a positive impact on my life. Today, let’s look at one of the ways in which I achieved that – by becoming a minimalist.

I find it interesting that the first time I decided to make this lifestyle change was after I started living in the States- the land of the plenty. In fact, during my initial days in this country, I was awed by the abundance of choices everywhere. The restaurant menus are almost books and the usual soda serving can last me more than a couple of days.

But jokes aside, I did make the choice of simple living after I arrived here and one of the first steps I took in that direction was to reduce my material possessions. The fact that my husband is a minimalist actually made my transition a lot easier.

However, if you do not have the good fortune of having a minimalist partner or you are simply hesitant to take the plunge, fret not. I am listing out some very basic and others not so common ways in which I did it. 

But before that, I would like to mention a couple of important things.

Know why you want to be a minimalist

The decision to pare down possessions to become a minimalist is a tough one, especially if you have always been attached to things. That is why it is important that you are very clear about why you want to do this. 

Your reason for doing this does not have to be related only to living a simple life like it is for me. Maybe you are doing this because you want to save more money or you are downsizing to a smaller living space (Tiny House Movement, anyone?). But whatever it is, please have conviction in your why. 

That way the process becomes a lot less emotionally conflicting.

Select your Battles

Secondly, please understand that you need not do this for every aspect of your life. You can definitely start with one part where you feel you have more than what you need. And proceed from there. 

It is also very much possible that you choose to exclude certain areas of your life from the minimalist lifestyle. In my case that is my hobby. I love to paint and while I do not buy every second paintbrush or color set, I do relax my reigns when it comes to owning painting stuff because it makes me happy. I know that this sounds contradictory but if I do not have the luxury of enjoying my passions then I feel that I am failing this life.

So with that in mind, read on to find my tips on owning fewer things. 

Pare down clothes

This is where I had started my journey and actually spent most of my time and energy. I followed the famous KonMari method to decide which articles of clothing sparked joy and which didn’t. In the process, I reduced my wardrobe by about half. 

Here is the thing. For some reason, I find that my clothes last a long time. I have never been someone who was interested in the latest trends; my sartorial choices are very ageless. I am a firm believer in classic pieces that never go out of style. As a result, I was still wearing the white shirt from 6 years ago. However, while doing the Marie Kondo exercise, I found a lot of pieces that seemed to have served their purpose. 

And out those went. I gave some of them to my sister, donated a few boxes to the local thrift shop, repurposed a few into washcloths and rags and threw away what couldn’t be salvaged in any other way. I tried to reduce the garbage as much as possible.

Now, with fewer items of clothing, I find getting dressed is such an easy task. I no longer have to worry over which shirt goes with which pants or the color combinations. 

And someday, I aspire to own a true minimalist capsule wardrobe.

Related Read: Need some inspiration for organizing a small space? My friend Jessalynn from Doable Simplicity has written an awesome post on this topic. Do check it out.

Remove Duplicates

The next step that I took was to remove any duplicate items that I owned and did not use. This included mostly books in my household. As an avid reader, I often get books as a gift and this sometimes results in two copies of the same one. Over the years my sentimental nature made me hold on to them, but I finally found the courage to go through them and donated the duplicates.

Another place I had to do this was in my kitchen, but there the process wasn’t as emotionally draining. It was in fact quite liberating to see the empty spaces in my cabinets after I gave away a couple of my bigger pans which I was not using anyway.

Organize the Overlooked Spaces

Speaking of duplicates, a lot of it results from not finding what we need at the right time. Somehow the spare staples always used to go missing when the stapler was empty and I was holding a bunch of papers in my hand. And when I bought another box and went to store them, I found an almost full box in my junk drawer. 

So that’s why it was necessary that I organized my junk drawers. I sorted through piles of stationery and found a home for everything. That way now I know exactly where the essentials are and don’t have to go on a searching frenzy, only to give up and buy more of the same thing.

Shop with a purpose

Nowadays it is very common to enter a shopping mall with the purpose of buying a pair of leggings and return 3 hours later with multiple bags full of things. The shops are designed in a way to entice us into buying more things. And once you are back home you realize that perhaps you really did not need that 4th set of cushion covers.

To break out of this habit, I started avoiding the aisles where I knew my self-control will get tested. I will admit that for me this was a particularly difficult thing to do, especially at Target. However, doing so has allowed me to shop mindfully and not wander off. Having said that, there are days when I do hop from aisle to aisle and end up putting random things in my cart. But hey, no one is that perfect.

“No Spend” Time

This is one of my favorite ways to check my spending. I borrowed this idea from a vlog and tailored it to my needs. Basically you select a time period during which you only spend money on the necessities. That means you can buy things like groceries or fuel for your car, but no impulse buys.

This trick not only ensures that I buy less and therefore own less but also saves me a lot of money. I have tried this for different lengths of time- from a week to a month. In the month of July, I even tried a variation of this. I challenged myself to not spend money on any item of clothing or accessories until absolutely necessary. And I succeeded in doing so. 

Simplify Everyday Routines 

And finally, simplify wherever possible. Look for places where you can make something multi-task for you. For example, I make my own cleaning solutions using Dr. Bronners Castille Soap. I follow the instructions on their website and dilute the soap suitably and make my dishwashing liquid, floor cleaning solution, handwash, and even a bathroom cleaning solution. This way I do not have to worry about 10 different types of cleaning products. I simply refill my spray bottles as required and one large bottle of Castille soap usually lasts me for a couple of months.

Another area of my life where I followed this rule to pare down my belongings is in my skincare and makeup routine. I have found the few products that do wonders for my skin and plan to keep on using them forever. I tried to follow the famous Korean 10 step skincare process and found myself getting tired mid-way through it. No wonder good skin requires so much dedication. But now I have a simpler minimalist routine which uses at most 5 products and I am happy with it. As for makeup, I never used a lot of it and that works perfectly well with my current lifestyle.

To sum it up

It is not easy to make a lifestyle change towards owning fewer things. I learned that the hard way. But once I could look beyond the bumps on the road and knew how to tackle the problems in my own way, things fell into place. 

Now, more than a year into this journey of mine, I feel I have finally found the freedom from material things. My things no longer own me and knowing that makes my life much better.

And I sincerely hope that you find some of these tips helpful in your own journey as well.

Peace

Do you have any related experience or story to tell? Please share in the comments below. I would love to hear from you.

Related Reads

• 7 Reasons to own less
• 11 Reasons to own less stuff
• Goodbye things, hello minimalism: can living with less make you happier?