5 Week Jump Start to living a minimalist lifestyle!

How to Create a Minimalist Home

Monday I mentioned 5 ways you could get started living a minimalist lifestyle. Did you start googling minimalism after my post? There are a lot of great articles out there and examples of people you have really cut back on stuff in their life.

One example is Joshua and Ryan who write at The Minimalists. They packed everything up and started on their journey to minimalism with that method. They also have an excellent Start Here page to check out!

If you want to just knock out a bunch of stuff at once, check out Tico and Tina’s blog Make Room for Greatness. They have a great list of 20 + Things you can get rid of without even missing.

I love the question they post when thinking about getting rid of an object.

Would I choose to go out and buy this thing again right now today if I didn’t have it?

If the answer is no, then you are probably better off without it.

You might come up with some excuses that it’s the best you have for now, or you couldn’t afford to buy it again, or you got such a good deal on it…

BUT storing something you don’t use or like is costing you too! (space it take up, stress it adds, another thing to clean, etc)

As you are decluttering, think about:

Tackling just one room at a time.
Start with furniture. Simplify a room by looking at the big objects first. Go for a few pieces of plain, simple furniture perhaps with solid, subdued colors.
Clear floors. This will take away so much stress!! (believe me) Except for the furniture, your floors should be completely clear. Nothing should be stacked or stored on the floor.
Clear surfaces. Same thing with all flat surfaces. Don’t have anything on them, except one or two simple decorations. Donate, trash or find an out-of-sight storage spot for everything else. It will make everything much, much more minimal-looking.
Declutter. If you are clearing flat surfaces and the floor, and storing stuff in cabinets and drawers, you’ll probably want to declutter your storage areas too.
Simple decorations. Try out the look of just one or two simple decorations to serve as accents for a minimalist room.
Edit and eliminate. Once you have simplified a room, give it a couple of days and then you can probably go back and eliminate more. What is not essential? What can be stored out of sight? I know I’m probably going to be going through each room at least 3 times as I’m adjusting to a new home.
Place for everything and everything in it’s place. This is a motto I’ve been striving for the past several years. It’s so hard to do!! Give everything a spot – or work towards that goal. Aim for logical spots that are close to where that item is used.

5 Week Jump Start!

Over the next 5 weeks, the places and areas we are going to tackle are: the kitchen, clothes, decor, storage, office/paper clutter, and health/goals. See you in a couple of days when I introduce having a minimalist mindset in the kitchen! I’ll then give you time to work on it over the weekend. :-)