Minimalism – What It Is, Why It’s Worthwhile, And Tips To Get Started

While the term minimalism started as an art movement in the era after World War II, it has become so much more (or should that be so much less?) for an increasing number of people.

Over the past few decades, or maybe longer, the world has become more materialistic – how much and what you own has almost become a part of what defines who you are, and that seems to be backwards.

But some people are beginning to recognize this, and are going minimalist in an effort to simplify their lives.

This article talks about what minimalism means and some tips on how to begin what can often be a difficult process.

What Is Minimalism?

If I were to sum it up in one sentence, I would define it as living with the absolute minimum of items that support your chosen way of life, and engaging in only those activities that serve your purpose.

This means, for example, that if you live in a small rural area with no public transport, then a car might be one of those items it would be impossible for you to live without. On the other hand, if you live and work in a big city, then you could consider getting rid of you car because it’s not really necessary.

So, minimalism does not come with a set of rules you have to follow – it’s a subjective, personal state that depends on your own needs.

And it’s not only about throwing out (or selling) your possessions – it’s about much more than that, as you’ll see.

You therefore need to start by thinking closely about the sort of life you want to lead (and, by extension, the sort of person you want to be, which is a topic I’ve written about here).

Why Go Minimalist?

Before I get to the tips on how to accomplish this, you may be wondering why bother?

Well, here are some of the benefits that people have identified:

1. Happiness. With a simpler life comes a happier life, in many cases. Not having to worry about buying the latest gadgets or upgrading your iPhone just because a new model is coming out, and not because you truly need it, can remove a lot of unnecessary stress from your life.
2. Finances. Your financial situation can improve in several ways by adopting a minimalist lifestyle, including: not having to buy things you don’t need; being able to raise money by selling unwanted items; not needing to maintain one or more cars; being able to live in a smaller (and therefore cheaper) home.
3. Freedom. This comes from realizing that you are no longer defined by, and a slave of, your possessions (and unnecessary behaviours).
4. Present. When you are less distracted by possessions, you are better able to live in the moment and appreciate what is around you.
5. Space. Being minimalist can free up space in your home. According to Regina Lark, a professional organizer, the average American household has around 300,000 items in it, which seems incredibly high, but even if it’s out by a factor ten, that’s still an awful lot of things to find space for.
6. Time. Being a minimalist frees up time (after you’ve decluttered), because you will have fewer items to have to buy, less washing and dusting to do, and maybe even a smaller home to keep clean.

How To Go Minimalist

So, you’ve decided you want to simplify your life, but are wondering where to start.

Here are a few tips on how to begin.

1. Clothes. Take a good look in your wardrobe and drawers and honestly consider how many of those clothes you wear on a regular basis, and how many you actually need.
2. Music. I get that some people are attached to their LP or CD collections, but there’s not much that you can’t find in a digital format these days. Having your music available digitally means it takes up no space, and it’s available almost anywhere.

   And while I know that some people claim the sound quality is better on vinyl, is the cost of that worth it? And by cost, I mean the equipment you need and the storage space (for both the equipment and music?

3. Movies. The same sort of goes for movies and shows you’ve bought or recorded. Many of these are available online, sometimes for free, which means you don’t need shelves full of old VHS tapes or DVDs any longer.

   And, again, you can watch what you want anywhere you have a reasonable Internet connection.

4. Books. The advent of Amazon’s Kindle device (and the many other similar gadgets) means that you don’t need to carry around heavy books that take up space in your home or office. You can download them to your phone, tablet, or computer when you need them, and when you’re done, you can delete them locally, knowing they’re available to re-download if and when you need them.
5. Video Games. This may be tough for some people, but how often do you play them – not just for how long, but which games too? Not only do they take up physical space, but they can be a huge time-suck.
6. Furniture. This may seem a bit extreme, but if there is furniture in your house that you never, or rarely, use, is it worth having that space taken up? (And if you spring-clean your music, movie, book, and video game collection, as described above, you can probably free up no end of shelves and cupboards.)
7. Kitchen Gadgets. Again, be honest – how many of the appliances in your kitchen do you really use and need? The problem is, most households don’t have room to have all of them out on the countertops all the time, and having to go and get the device, take it out of its box, set it up, use it, clean it, then put it away again, is simply too much effort for many people (me included).

   I actually think that many so-called time-saving gadgets don’t save time at all, once you include all of the above activities. I once bought a juicer, but cleaning it meant you had to more or less take the thing to pieces, wash each piece, let it all dry, and then reassemble it. For me, it simply wasn’t worth that amount of time and effort.

8. Attic / Basement / Garage. If you have any of these, they are probably full of stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day for years, maybe decades. If you’re not using it, then why are you keeping it?
9. Transportation. I touched on this above, but do you really need one or more cars, are you actually using the bicycle(s) and/or mountain bikes that you have? And if you need a vehicle, can you make do with one that is smaller, cheaper, or more fuel-efficient?
10. Toys. You know how children are – they play with new toys for a while and then they lose interest as the next new item comes along. So why not donate old toys they no longer play with to a local children’s ward at a hospital (which is what I did when I was young) or to a charity – with your children’s permission, of course, because they need to understand why you’re doing it and have some say in which items you get rid of.
11. Social Media. There are plenty of choices these days, and if you are an active member of several of them, then you probably already know that you spend longer on them than you really should.

    So, if you want to cut back, you should either eliminate all of them but one, or stop using them altogether, which I realize would be a major wrench for most people.

12. Prune Your Friends. While I’m on the subject of social media, why not go through your friends list (as well as the list of pages you follow and groups you belong to) and remove those you no longer need (e.g. because you don’t even remember who they are, or because they post things that don’t interest you).
13. Emails. It’s time to unsubscribe from email lists that are of no interest or use to you. These days, it’s really easy to end up on lists you don’t even remember joining, but if you never (or rarely) open up their messages, then there is no point clogging up your Inbox with them.
14. Television. How much television are you watching, and have you considered the cost of this? I don’t just mean the cost of the device, which is not the real issue in most cases, but the time you spend doing that when you could be doing something more productive (e.g. learning a new skill, being creative, engaging with family and friends, volunteering).

    You should also think about whether watching the news is something that is beneficial. For example, it’s mainly doom and gloom, which can become depressing, and you need to realize that most of what you see is controlled by an incredibly small number of people, who own most of the national and local media these days, so you’re really seeing whatever they want you to see, which will depend on their agenda.

    If you’re not convinced of this, try watching different news broadcasts, and see how the people are using almost the exact same script. This would not be happening if truly independent journalism was still a thing.

    Also, don’t forget that advertisers can play a large part in what you see too – and I don’t only mean their ads, but the content of the shows and news as well.

    You may argue that you need to know what’s going on in the world, but in most cases, that is not anything you can easily change, so ask yourself whether knowing about elections in a far-off country, for example, is actually important or relevant to you.

    And, of course, when I say television, I include any form of visual entertainment that’s delivered electronically.

15. Social Events. How many of these do you really need to attend? How many can you actually afford to attend, in terms of time (e.g. the time spent at the event as well as the time you cannot spend on something else) and financial cost (e.g. because you have to buy new clothes or gifts)?

    I get that there some occasions you can not get out of, and some that you genuinely find relaxing or helpful, but remember that in most cases, you are allowed to say “no” – without an explanation.

16. Fads & Fashions. The media is usually full of articles about the latest trends and fashions, etc., but how necessary is it to follow any or all of them? By definition, a fad is relatively short-lived, so once the fad is over, will you really be any the worse off for not having followed it?

    The same goes for fashions in clothing and hairstyles, etc. – when you know who you truly are and what matters to you, you’ll find it a lot easier to not care whether what you wear is “last year’s fashion”.

17. Keeping Up With The Joneses. In a similar vein, do you need to buy the latest gadget, for example, just because somebody you know has? Life is not a competition to see who has the most stuff, even though that’s the impression you can easily get from watching television.
18. Don’t Stick Your Nose In Other People’s Business. One sure-fire way to expend time and energy and feelings wastefully is to get involved in other people’s drama.

    If you must, let people know you are there for them if they want, but leave it at that.

19. Handle Things Once. This is a practice that has evolved largely out of business, but it applies to your personal life too.

    The idea is that when you pick something up, or open something (e.g. a letter, or email), you either deal with it immediately, or you decide it does not need to be dealt with at all.

    And when I use the word “once”, that is the ideal (in most cases), but in practice, it means only handle things when you absolutely have to.

20. Declutter Your Phone. It’s easy to accumulate apps on your phone, but you will probably find that there are many you don’t use, after the first few days. The solution is easy – get rid of them!
21. Habits. Many of the things we do we do out of habit, and we’ve stopped to think about whether they serve a useful purpose or not. Some habits may even be detrimental to our health, for example.

    If you can have a spring-clean of your habits, you may find you can free up even more time and/or get rid of more items.

22. Work Through The House. Overall, you can just go through your home, room by room, and decide whether to keep or discard items. Many of these are covered above, but you know you probably have cupboards and drawers and closets, etc, that may also contain items you likely don’t need.

In terms of getting rid of things, you can:

• Give them to friends, family, and co-workers.
• Donate them to charities.
• Sell them.
• Re-purpose them.
• Throw them away.

And lastly, minimalism does not mean you cannot keep things that are purely sentimental in nature. These objects often do serve a purpose anyway – they are reminders of people you cared about, or places you visited, and they can bring you great happiness.

My Personal Experience

During my first marriage back in England, we accumulated stuff like most people do over the course of 20+ years, but it was when I decided to move to the USA after my divorce that I really had to make up my mind what to do with all of my stuff.

In the end, I whittled my belongings (e.g. clothes, books, items related to hobbies, computer software and equipment) down to 25 small boxes, which I had shipped over to where I live now.

I left behind most of my clothes, most of my hundreds of books (many of which I donated to an organization I supported), a whole heap of toys and games (e.g. jigsaw puzzles), my LPs and cassette tapes and CDs, my VHS video collection, most of the magic props I’d bought over the years, drawers full of who knows what knick-knacks and the such like, and, of course, my car.

On the one hand, it didn’t seem like 25 boxes was that much for somebody in their 40s, especially somebody who was a bit of a hoarder (because you never know when you might need something) but on the other hand, in the 14+ years I’ve lived in the USA, I probably haven’t even opened half of those 25 boxes – proof indeed that most of that stuff was not necessary.

Now, my late wife was even more of a hoarder than I was.

She’d moved to this house in 2003, and when I arrived in 2005, a large part of what she’d brought with her had never been unpacked either.

We discussed our future plans many times, which mainly involved emigrating to another country, but the thought of having to leave her possessions behind was a major issue for her. (She was still pissed off about a few items that had been forgotten when she moved here in 2003.)

For me, I was prepared to be even more ruthless than I had been when I moved here.

Those plans never came to fruition given her untimely death in late 2018, but now that I’m living by myself, I am having a clear-out.

I’m getting rid of her clothes, many of which were never worn, kitchen gadgets she’d bought that we never ever used, food that was bought for her (because she had some bizarre and ever-changing dietary restrictions) that I would never eat or that was out of date, and a bunch of other stuff.

This is partly to declutter the house, which has so little space to move in for a home with over 3,000 square feet of floor space, and partly because, for various reasons, I am thinking of downsizing too.

I’ve been considering anything from a mobile prefabricated home to a container home to a tiny home to some form of RV, all of which would be, of course, far smaller than what I have now.

And the thought of living in something that may be as small as 400 square feet doesn’t bother me at all.

On the plus side, this new building or RV would be on my property – I live on 20 acres – so I wouldn’t need to throw belongings away ruthlessly because could still retrieve items from the current house when necessary.

But I am also thinking about moving to another country (but only after my dogs are no longer with me, because I wouldn’t want to subject them to the stress of international travel), and if this were to happen, I know I could make do with a fraction of what I currently have – a few clothes, maybe some books, and my phone and computer, and that would be about 90% of what I would need.

Even the way of life here is much simpler than I had been used to. For example:

1. We worked together from home, so there was no need to commute anywhere, and no office politics or having to work with people you don’t like, etc.
2. We stopped going out into town in 2007, ordering 99% of what we needed online, which meant no more upkeep of a car.
3. We did not socialize at all, by choice – we were both 100% happy being by ourselves, with our dogs.
4. We spent very little on clothes because we never went out anywhere.
5. We did not need to keep up with our neighbours, because we didn’t really know who they were, and this is not exactly the type of area where that matters anyway.
6. We didn’t celebrate any of the usual holidays (e.g. Christmas, Thanksgivings, birthdays, anniversaries) because we felt no need to. In addition, neither of us have much family, and certainly none locally, and were under no pressure to conform to traditions. All of this, naturally, meant we spent almost nothing on presents.

And now that I’m by myself, all of this is still true.

All in all, I have found, and still do, that this simpler lifestyle is less stressful, gives you more time to do what you want to do, and is less expensive overall.

Would I recommend my life to everybody?

No, of course not – it takes an unusual person to be happy living by themselves (and, formerly, living and working with their wife 24 x 7), and different people have different needs. Having children at home, for example, clearly plays a major role in the lifestyle decisions you make.

What I’ve done may be considered extreme by many, but it worked for us (and now me), and I am honestly hard pressed to find anything from my life back in England that I seriously miss.

Conclusion

Some of these suggestions may be difficult for you to follow, for all sorts of reasons, but they will be easier when you stop to think about what you (and your family, where applicable) really want out of life.

In summary, then, when it comes to:

• Possessions, then you need to assess how often you use something, and whether you truly need it or not. In order words, does the benefit of having it outweigh the cost (e.g. storage space, time, expense) of owning it?
• Behaviours, then you need to match those to your chosen lifestyle (whether you currently live it or are moving in that direction). If you are spending time or energy doing things that do not help you move toward your larger goals, then should you really be doing them?
• Time, then you need to remember this is the one resource you never ever get back, so make sure you use what time you have in a way that supports who you are and what you want out of life. (This is not about being selfish and uncaring, of course – you should still do what you can to help those in need.)

So what minimalism is really about is living your life with intention – only doing and owning those things that you have actively defined as being necessary to you.

If you saw my house (which is less cluttered than it was a year ago), you wouldn’t think I was a minimalist, but in terms of the way I live my life, and the fact I am getting rid of a whole bunch of stuff, I’m certainly on my way, and not done yet.

If I can do it, so can most people.

And, of course, you don’t need to go crazy with it – whatever you remove from your life that does not serve you is a step in the right direction.

Ironically, this article about minimalism is one of my longer ones. 🙂

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. 30-Day Minimalism Game
2. Digital Minimalism
3. Minimalism