The Journey to Living a Minimalist Lifestyle
Days, months, and years could go by without you ever realizing how much stuff you accumulate over time. With everything that goes on in our individual lives such as long work hours, dealing with the kids’ busy schedules, or maintaining a social life it can be difficult to keep track of what belongings you bring into your home daily. What if you could sell or donate all of your belongings and only be surrounded by the belongings that bring joy and meaning to you? This is one way to look at what a minimalist lifestyle is. It can serve as that “fresh start” that some people crave for or that “stress-free” lifestyle that some people can only dream of.
Why live a minimalist lifestyle?
When starting this journey, you want to be asking yourself: how does this lifestyle appeal to me? It is always helpful to identify the goals you have for yourself and have a purpose for trying to accomplish something. Here are 5 benefits for aiming to be a minimalist in your daily life:
- More time to focus on other areas of your life. For example, when you have fewer belongings in your home you do not have to spend a lot of time organizing or cleaning your space at home as often.
- Can improve your mental health by surrounding yourself with less clutter.
- Helps provide more meaning to your life by only keeping and purchasing stuff that you know brings absolute joy and purpose to your life.
- Makes you appreciate what belongings you do have.
- More financial flexibility since you are minimizing your materialistic purchases.
Where to start?
Decluttering
Once you have identified your reasons for wanting to live a more minimalist lifestyle it is time to start decluttering. Decluttering is our go-to answer when you want to get your home in order. Find some time to add organizing and decluttering your home to your to do list as it has plenty of benefits in the long run. You can start by going through all of your belongings room by room and identifying which of your belongings you want to keep, store, or throw away. This goes for everything in your home including all of your kitchen utensils, clothes, toys, books, and house decor. Ask yourself these questions while doing so:
- How often do I use or wear this item?
- Does it serve a meaningful purpose or use in my life?
- Can this item be replaced by something else I already have?
Making these small decisions with your belongings can make a huge difference in how you feel in your home and your life. For more tips on decluttering check out our past blog post on Ways to Tackle Your Physical Clutter.
Moving forward
When purchasing new items for yourself think about what purpose it will serve in your life and if it will provide added value to the way you live your life. You could take the extra time and effort to research what you want to purchase and sit on the options presented in front of you before making any decision. Another tip you might consider moving forward is thinking about purchasing more experiences as opposed to materialistic items. Experiences are a great way to enjoy life without creating clutter in your life by purchasing materialistic items that you will end up bringing into your home.
Storage
Having difficulty deciding whether you want to keep or throw away your possessions? Self-storage can be a wonderful storage solution for you and your family. This way you can keep some of the belongings that have sentimental value to you while creating space in your home for the belongings that serve a purpose in your everyday life. This is what we do at XYZ Storage and would love to help you organize and minimize your belongings.
From all of us at XYZ Storage, we wish you the best of luck on your journey to pursuing a minimalist lifestyle!
