I’ve written before about how I toyed with the idea of minimalism for a couple years before I really took it seriously. One January I finally dipped my toe in as a resolution. I started by decluttering, then creating a capsule wardrobe, minimizing my beauty routine, and buying less. In the process, I was shocked by the realizations I started having very quickly. Here are 10 things that took me by surprise once I became a minimalist. 1. I felt better, not worse, after letting things go. As a tidy person, I had done superficial decluttering before. It always feels nice to clear out trash and obvious junk from your…
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Designing a Minimalist Wardrobe For most of my life, I was pretty clueless about style. I had way too many clothes but somehow still struggled to put outfits together. When I tried to declutter, I had no idea where to start. When I started my minimalist journey, one of the first steps I took was creating a capsule wardrobe. That involved decluttering most of my clothes and creating a curated collection of pieces that could be mixed and matched. I had no idea how to approach this, so I did some internet research and learned how to design a minimalist wardrobe. Now, I’m still not a fashionista, but I’ve figured…
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Why Pack a Minimalist Diaper Bag for a Newborn? When I imagined becoming a parent, I pictured families I’d seen around the city with their babies. They pushed babies in strollers, schlepping blankets, bottles, and toys underneath it, along with a suitcase-sized bag on their shoulders. They looked burdened and harried as they hurried along with their little ones. It’s understandable, of course – when you’re a new parent, you have more important things to think about than what to pack in a diaper bag for a newborn. Still, the sight did not make me eager to enter this phase of life. But could it be easier? I was dabbling in…
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Have you tried decluttering before and found that, despite the purge, you still have more than you need? There are some things we all have that are obviously junk – you know how to identify and declutter them. But other things survive the decluttering process over and over, continuing to take up space in your home after multiple spring clean-outs. This article describes some bad reasons that you’ve held onto these things. Once you can identify those, it will be easier to recognize which items seem worth hoarding but are, in fact, clutter. Bad Reasons You Hold Onto Clutter – and How to Shift Your Perspective to Declutter 1. It…
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If you’re buried in clutter, you probably have a similar mindset to mine before I embraced minimalism. So how do you change ingrained habits to become a minimalist? In our modern world it’s easy to accumulate stuff. It’s much harder to get rid of it. And after all, what’s the harm in keeping it? Anything could be useful someday, right? Why not store it in your living space just in case? This line of thinking makes it very hard to declutter. If you’ve tried it, you may have had these conversations with yourself. You’ll look at something you haven’t used in years and imagine scenarios where it could potentially be used.…
