We all desire to lead a life full of purpose and meaning but often find ourselves over-committed and bogged down by the trappings of comfort.
Why not follow the path of living with less? Living minimally, as they are called. Living with intentions and bare minimum requirements for everyday living.
Today, the idea of living minimally has become a new trend. The desire to live less disorganized and without unneeded things are gaining traction. New movements are popping up each week to encourage people to live a simple life by forgoing unnecessary things and fancy gadgets.
But it is not just about living with fewer possessions in your home. It is about applying minimalism to all aspects of your life and not only decluttering your home.
Minimalism is a simple intentional choice that reminds people that to live a happy and fulfilled life you don’t need so many things in your life.
What Does Living Minimally Means?
Living minimally is not about leading a life of deprivation without all the gubbins of modern living; It is an intentional choice to live with bare essentials, learning how to be happy with what you have, and reducing worldly distractions.
It is not about preserving and living with less stuff. It is about saving your time, energy, and focusing less on unnecessary things, and making conscious choices about the things that matter most to you: your relationships, your goals, your dreams, and yourself.
To live a minimalist lifestyle, you have to make a personal choice of trading in your stuff for experience, values, and slowing down to appreciate what’s around us. It is an intentional lifestyle to maximize freedom and personal fulfillment. A simple, actionable way to live a life that makes you happy.
Why Living Minimally Is Considered More in Intentional Living
Living a minimalist lifestyle can have great benefits. The concept of less is more in intentional living because it is based on values of simplicity and going the bare minimum. By having less, you can still feel fulfilled and secure because you are gaining more experience and values.
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1. Makes More Time for What You Value
Having more time to yourself is one of the major rewards of living minimally.
After all, you don’t have to worry about unnecessary objects in your daily life. When fewer things are floating around your house, it means you have to spend less time organizing and keeping clean. This keeps your home and your mental state both in perfect arrangement.
When you are less concerned about worldly things you have more time to spare on purposeful things and persuading intentional living.
2. Gives You the Freedom to Live Freely
Minimalism comes with the freedom to live freely.
Removing meaningless things from your life can be liberating.
Letting go of the stuff that has a negative vibe around them and upsetting memories frees you from guilt. Holding on to them for a long time can make you heavy with an unneeded burden.
When you are no longer tied to the unnecessary objects in your life, it releases you from the responsibilities and obligations related to it. Which gives you freedom from stress and worries as well.
3. Help You Prioritize What’s Important
In a world full of constant distraction and consumerism, living minimally can bring clarity and focus.
When you splurge on things every chance you get, it invites more distractions in your life, and it often obscures your vision of what you want.
When you decide to let go of the things and thoughts that lack any purpose in your life, you become more mindful of what you let in. You prioritize creating a meaningful space for the things you really care about and love to use.
4. Brings Joy in Owning Less
The definition of joy is different for everyone. For some, it can be about living simply, and not seeing a towering pile of clothes or bags of random stuff roaming around. And for someone taking pride in showing their prized possession.
Most of the time living minimally isn’t about decluttering and clearing space to bare essentials. It can be about finding joy in what you own. When you discard the things that don’t hold any significant value to you, it brings calmness and joy to you.
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5. Makes Your Life and Home More Organized
Your home is the place for you to live in and not an empty space to fill in. Your living room doesn’t have to look like an art gallery or your kitchen counter to be the lost and found department.
It is your space. Your home should have pieces and objects that hold value and make your life simpler. Living minimally encourages you to create your own space, where you choose what will be in your home, which makes everything organized and less messy.
6. Simplifies Your Routine
If you are someone who is fond of collecting things, you can better understand how much effort it takes to look after them.
It takes so much of your time and energy to keep them organized.
Life is already complicated, and there are so many things that we have to take care of. But living minimally helps you find a happy balance.
Meaning you only have to do what feels necessary to you and have time and energy for it, which simplifies your daily to-do list.
7. Saves Money
Of Course, living minimally has its financial perks as well. When you are leading a minimalist lifestyle, less is always more. You are content with what you own and need fewer resources to lead a fulfilled and intentional lifestyle which helps you save money.
7 Simple Steps to Simplifying Your Life to Start Living Minimally
Living minimally is not about making sacrifices. It is about finding your own meaning of minimalism, but it should be defined in terms of what makes your life easier. By following simple steps, you can start to live a life a little more minimal.
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1. Eliminate Object With Negative Vibes
Every single thing in your home has an energy and sentiments to it. Some objects may have a joyful and positive vibe to them, or some might remind you of a bittersweet memory.
To lead a minimalist lifestyle, it is important to make intentional decisions about what you will choose to keep in your life. And you should always surround yourself with things you cherish.
This method was introduced by Marie Kondo, a renowned Japanese tidying expert. In her KonMari method, she introduces the concept of letting go of things that have a negative vibe around them. She also encourages people to imagine their ideal lifestyle and what they want to surround themselves with. For some, it can be living with bare essentials, and for some, it could be living with arts and their beloved heirlooms.
According to her, every single thing we own should bring joy to us rather than stress and worry. To her tidying is about what to keep in your life and not what you want to discard. While she has clarified her methods of tidying are different from minimalism, it is the leading aspect of living a minimalist lifestyle.
2. Choose Essentials Over Excess
We keep buying new stuff every now and then. Every day we keep stacking our house with new fancy things in the name of necessity. But do we need them all?
Instead of buying excessively and filling your home with new things, choose essentialism. Buy things that are irreplaceable to you rather than buying the same thing from different brands.
When you are mindful of daily requirements, it brings that awareness into your life to simplify what is essential to you, which can give you freedom from constant worry and stress.
3. Re-Set Every Now and Then
We easily accumulate things in our homes and our minds. Over a period of time, this can become a huge pile that becomes impossible to ignore, and organizing your thoughts and life become necessary. But why wait till the last call?
Rearranging every single thing timely prevents clutter from stashing in your life and helps you live more organized.
4. Have Room For What You Own
If you are someone who reportedly buys things online or on your way home and then forgets about them, then I feel you.
To lead a minimalist lifestyle you should only buy things that can have room in your house and not be put away in some corner or scattered around on your kitchen counter.
Having space for every possession you own simplifies everything. It provides a home to each of your possessions, which gives them a significant space in your home and life. And also keeps your visuals clean and makes organizing them easier.
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6. Simplify Your Space
Simplifying your space will not only declutter your home to start living minimally, but it will also simplify your life.
Your home is a reflection of your lifestyle choice and organizing it accordingly will order your life in a similar way as well. This may include making conscious choices in your house like decluttering your home by getting rid of redundant or adapting to a more sustainable and maintainable fashion style.
5. Be Mindful of Your Needs
Being mindful of your needs is a form of mindfulness.
Mindfulness and minimalism are the perfect duos that can help you achieve a minimal living lifestyle.
There is a difference between wanting something and needing something. And your choice will ultimately lead you to living minimally or giving in to worldly distractions. To be mindful of your needs, always ask yourself these two questions before buying anything.
Is this something I want or I need?
Will buying this bring any value to my life?
This way you can be more mindful of your needs.
7. Value What You Own
Living minimally isn’t just about owning less stuff, It is also about valuing what you own. When you have fewer possessions you value, you’re forced to think about how carefully to use them. This means over time they become more precious to us.
Find Freedom in Living Minimally
We unnecessarily complicate things in our lives. Rather than focusing on what is important to us, we keep inviting more. But living minimally can become a solution to it.
Going minimalist comes with freedom. It is rooted deeply in the idea of its simplicity that you can live a happy and enjoy meaningful life without owning an abundance of things. With the desire to live a life less messy and find a balance through simplicity.
Not everyone wants a minimalist lifestyle but those who do tend to follow it enjoy the benefits they receive from living with less.
