Aren’t you tired of seeing advice about minimalism like it’s so easy peasy? Alright, maybe it’s simple if you’re moving out of your college dorm room or out of your parent’s place.
But, what about if you’re a grown adult with stuff and maybe even lots of it? I had a shit ton of stuff! And huge attachments to that stuff. What took me years, perhaps someone can get done within a few months. But for me, minimalism has been one of my biggest challenges and biggest positive impact on my future.
Minimalism has been so huge in my life. Not only as it relates to possessions, but as it relates. to everything. Whenever I give advice, I see myself go back to saying something like “keep it simple, stupid” or “what’s the one thing that you can do right away?” A minimalistic approach to anything changes everything.
1. Tool-up your toolbox
What I mean is, get into the resources that are available to you. With youtube and google these days, there is no reason why you should start this journey completely alone.
Here are some of my favs (and that I’ve used personally through my journey):
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, book by Marie Kondo
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, book by Marie Kondo. Duh, of course, I had to start here. Before reading Marie’s book in 2015, I had already been exploring minimalism and tiptoeing in the resources below. But something about the simple phrases that Marie uses just clicked with me. I highly recommend you read it, listen to it, or just being on youtube related videos. Whatever works for you. Just listen to her message because it’s a great one. For some reason I can’t explain, the simple question of “does this thing bring you joy?” changed the game for me. Website: https://konmari.com/. Book: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
The Minimalists
Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus of The Minimalists might as well be the grandfathers of this movement. Actually this is silly to be called a “movement” and these are simply two dudes who realized the act of practicing minimalism has given them so much in life. They’re doing an amazing job at sharing it with the world. Check out their website, it speaks for its self. Website: https://www.theminimalists.com. What they said that always sticks with me is, “Love people. Use things. The opposite never works.” Along with all their awesomeness on the site, there are two amazing pieces of content that I always recommend: 1) Their Ted Talk: A Rich Life With Less Stuff & 2) Their movie on Netflix: Minimalism: A Documentary. You can watch it elsewhere, just go tho their website.
Racheal Aust on YouTube
This might be super random, as I’m sure there are a ton of YouTubers creating content about minimalism, but I’ve been watching Racheal since 2015. I’m pretty sure she’s been on this minimalist train way before then. She has really awesome content and created challenges and tools for you to use while decluttering your life and living more minimalistic. She was one of the first people I was introduced to online and her style clicked for me. I like how she lays everything out and she’s also an amazing videographer and artist as well, which doesn’t hurt. Racheal Aust’s Minimalism Series.
“love people. use things. the opposite never works.” – The Minimalists
2. Start Small
Don’t try going balls to the walls like “I’m just getting rid of all this shit!” Believe me, it won’t end well. Just like a change in diet, it’s best to start with the small, low-hanging fruit first. Like quitting soda first instead of snapping your fingers and become a raw-food vegan. The former is going to be more successful in the long run and will help you build momentum instead of being overwhelming.
This is what I started with:
First, start going through the stuff you care the least about. For me, I LOVE clothes, shoes, purses,….even belts, I had like 75 belts (wtf?). I knew that starting with my closet would be the hardest because it was the stuff I loved the most. So, I started in my garage 🙂
Second, when I went through all my stuff, starting with my garage, I had two boxes, one was marked “donations” and one marked “donate on 4/1/16”. Donations can be replaced with “yard sale”, if you’re up for it. Having a yard sale (or multiple) is a great way to make a little cash from all your stuff and it’s a lot of fun. Let me explain the second box “donate on 4/1/16”. What you’ll do is put all the stuff you’re not sure about keeping; if you’ll need it or not; or if “it brings you joy” or not. It’s exhausting to go through all your stuff and think of every scenario you might need this thing. So, instead, mark the box with a date that is 6-months from Today. If you end up using the thing within the next 6-months, then it obviously will be kept and everything that is still in the box when that date arrives gets donated or sold.
3. Give It Time
Along with the stuff sitting in boxes labeled “Donate on X-date (6-months from now)”, you’ll want to give this process of downsizing and minimizing your lifetime. In hindsight, I actually went through the process of getting rid of stuff and downsizing about five or six times. Each time, I got rid of more and more stuff and became more and more clear on what was really important to me.
This picture above is five years after starting my minimalism journey. I obviously wasn’t down to one bag or even a few. I’m counting at least 10 including the one on my back. Yes, that’s also a blender at the bottom of the shopping cart. This was me moving all the stuff I think I needed while living in Mexico. My backpack was so heavily packed with clothes. I leaned down to grab yet another bag and toppled backward, then was laughing so hard I couldn’t get up. My better-halve also thought this was hilarious and snapped this picture.
4. Things Are The Easy Part
Okay, so it may seem that cleaning out your closet, not once or twice but six times may have been the hard part. But, there’s a lot more that will come with living a minimalist lifestyle, and although not as easy as getting rid of junk, it’s the way more rewarding part. You’ll have your own journey and experience, but for me, getting rid of things (the easy part) dovetailed into getting rid of shit ideas, negative people and poor habits. Anything that wasn’t serving me, that wasn’t making me better or wasn’t brining me real joy was slowly but surely being removed from my life. Much of this happened consciously while as some was unconscious and just happen by osmosis of freeing myself from collecting and managing things.
5. Repeat
The thing about minimalism, it’s not one and done. When I was in the beginning stages, I still had a home and a car and an office, etc., etc. so it was challenging to always remind myself that I really didn’t need that new pair of shoes or a new piece of art for my apartment. It has gotten easier since it’s hard to buy a new pair of shoes if you’ve only got a 30-gallon backpack but even still I constantly have to remind myself to practice minimalism. Especially, since the stuff is the easy part. I always remind myself with a question, is this the simplest and most responsible way to go about X-decision? This question serves me in so many regards because if I’m over complicating something, it’s likely not minimalist or if I’m not being responsible for all the aspects of the decision, it’s likely not minimalist.
