I strongly believe your space and your life should be filled with those things that help you be the person you want to be. I love minimalism as a filter of the extraneous.
Instead of thirty passable shirts, I have sixteen that I love. Instead of eight pairs of shoes, I have four that fill all my needs. I care more for the things I have because I need them every day.
I started actively paring down because it was difficult to move. Most of the stuff I was carrying in and out of 3rd floor apartments wasn't worth its weight. I would prepare to bring something out to my car and think 'oh, I forgot I had that'. Hauling unread books from apartment to apartment. Unused art supplies. That sewing project I wanted to do someday. The scarf I wanted to knit. Multiple guitars.
The funny thing is that physical clutter often reflects our mental clutter. In order to part with those things, I had to give up the ideal version of me that would use them. I had priorities that I cared about far more than being a musician or an artist, books I wanted to read more than the backlog on my shelf. Releasing myself from the obligation to fill those roles was liberating.
On the flipside, it is possible to take minimalism too far...and I did for a while. Lamenting over the fact that I owned two backpacks instead of one. Constantly stuffing things in buckets to see if I could live without them. Luckily I caught myself before I got to the 'I only own 300 items' level. There is a sweet spot in the spectrum where you control your items, they don't control you.
I have gathered a few different tricks from numerous different minimalist sites (most of the sources have already been listed) and will list them here:
-Pare down items by group. Gather all 68 of your pens into one pile, and then decide how many to keep. If you have a lot of stuff, this method has a real shock factor to it
-Ask yourself 'when will I use this next?' If you have no clear answer, or you catch yourself saying 'someday when...', you may not need it. Be real with your expectations for your future self. Asking too much will just lead to stress.
-'How easy would this be to replace?' I was recently gifted 2000 drip coffee filters. I was very grateful, but I don't have room to keep that many backups. I distributed them among my friends instead, and will drop a few bucks on replacements when I need them. Coffee filters sounds like a silly example, but if you keep too many extras it adds up ridiculously fast.
-Go for the small victories first to gain momentum. Old clothes or decorations that you haven't used in years? Easy pickings! Hauling a few bags of goodies to the thrift shop is a great feeling.
-Don't try to do it all at once, break the problem down into bite-sized pieces. Pick a single type of clothing, or a single room. Work for half an hour. Otherwise the whole house will get torn apart and you'll be burnt out.
-Don't be afraid to challenge yourself. Try and put one item in the donation box every day. If you fail, you will still learn a lot.
-Compare to your past self, not to others. Take progress photos, take time to enjoy how far you've come.
Instead of thirty passable shirts, I have sixteen that I love. Instead of eight pairs of shoes, I have four that fill all my needs. I care more for the things I have because I need them every day.
I started actively paring down because it was difficult to move. Most of the stuff I was carrying in and out of 3rd floor apartments wasn't worth its weight. I would prepare to bring something out to my car and think 'oh, I forgot I had that'. Hauling unread books from apartment to apartment. Unused art supplies. That sewing project I wanted to do someday. The scarf I wanted to knit. Multiple guitars.
The funny thing is that physical clutter often reflects our mental clutter. In order to part with those things, I had to give up the ideal version of me that would use them. I had priorities that I cared about far more than being a musician or an artist, books I wanted to read more than the backlog on my shelf. Releasing myself from the obligation to fill those roles was liberating.
On the flipside, it is possible to take minimalism too far...and I did for a while. Lamenting over the fact that I owned two backpacks instead of one. Constantly stuffing things in buckets to see if I could live without them. Luckily I caught myself before I got to the 'I only own 300 items' level. There is a sweet spot in the spectrum where you control your items, they don't control you.
I have gathered a few different tricks from numerous different minimalist sites (most of the sources have already been listed) and will list them here:
-Pare down items by group. Gather all 68 of your pens into one pile, and then decide how many to keep. If you have a lot of stuff, this method has a real shock factor to it
-Ask yourself 'when will I use this next?' If you have no clear answer, or you catch yourself saying 'someday when...', you may not need it. Be real with your expectations for your future self. Asking too much will just lead to stress.
-'How easy would this be to replace?' I was recently gifted 2000 drip coffee filters. I was very grateful, but I don't have room to keep that many backups. I distributed them among my friends instead, and will drop a few bucks on replacements when I need them. Coffee filters sounds like a silly example, but if you keep too many extras it adds up ridiculously fast.
-Go for the small victories first to gain momentum. Old clothes or decorations that you haven't used in years? Easy pickings! Hauling a few bags of goodies to the thrift shop is a great feeling.
-Don't try to do it all at once, break the problem down into bite-sized pieces. Pick a single type of clothing, or a single room. Work for half an hour. Otherwise the whole house will get torn apart and you'll be burnt out.
-Don't be afraid to challenge yourself. Try and put one item in the donation box every day. If you fail, you will still learn a lot.
-Compare to your past self, not to others. Take progress photos, take time to enjoy how far you've come.
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