Three years ago I stumbled into learning about minimalism. I was originally drawn to the concepts because I was anxious, overwhelmed, and starting to learn about overconsumption.
Over these last 3 years, I have continued to evolve when it comes to utilizing and trying different minimalism recommendations. It has me reflecting on what I do now when it comes to minimalism. This includes concepts that have stuck and ones I continue to work on.
Declutter Often
I find comfort in reviewing what I own and deciding if it is time to let items go. I talk about this in my declutter process,. The two main declutter concepts I come back to are pulling things out of their spots and reducing responsibility.
- Pull everything out from an area and then decide what to keep. It is amazing how removing it from where it is stored can actually switch your brain into realizing you don’t use or need it.
- Make yourself less responsible for material items, so you can focus on what matters. If I am finding myself needing to continually fix or replace something, asking myself if I really need it saves me so much time by choosing to purge it. The time that I am saving is not present me, but future me.
Avoidance Can Sometimes Be the Answer – When it comes to shopping
I continue to have items that I can’t help but purchase if I stumble across them while shopping. Every minimalism tip for shopping goes completely out the window and I start putting items in my cart. To solve this, I have certain stores and sites I try to avoid. I am not perfect and sometimes I break these rules. However, I always see that the results lead to unnecessary spending on low quality items that add more complexity to my life.
To combat this, I unsubscribe from newsletters. Specifically stores that are alerting me of sales, new items, and coupons. If they really start to pile up in my email inbox, I will do a few unsubscribes and then delete all related emails out of my inbox. I know that every ad newsletter I delete now, will save me deleting countless emails later. Additionally, removing those ads from my email mailbox will keep me from buying items I wasn’t even thinking about buying until I saw that ad.
Curate Your Social Media Experience
We swipe, we like, we follow, and before we know it we are overwhelmed. Curating your social media is something you can do today. For me, I pay attention to who I am following and what they add to my life.
When I find it is not serving me in a healthy way, it is time to unfollow and move on. And if you are asking the question in your head right now, yes, you can unfollow friends and family. Your social media accounts should be used as a tool for you, not something that will negatively affect you.
If it all gets too overwhelming, you can always take a break on social media. I recommend uninstalling the troublesome apps to break the habit of checking in. My guilty pleasure of TikTok has lead to me installing and uninstalling more times than I can count.
Reassess Often
You are not the same person you were as a child, a year ago, or even last week. The exciting part of life is we evolve based on our experiences, education, and environmental factors. Accepting who you are today may bring about looking at your life different.
Setting aside time to reassess your goals, your intentions, and lifestyle is incredibly powerful. This can be done in a number of ways whether with a friend, family member, role model, coach, or independently. It could be done on a vacation by yourself, on a hike, in a library, coffee shop, or within those too short nap times for parents. This reflection helps you set those priorities and allows you grace to let go of the items that no longer serve you (mentally and physically). You may even find this reflection may lead you back to decluttering, addressing your spending habits, and how you spend your time.
I hope these ideas get your wheels spinning. If you have questions or comments, please leave them below. I would love to chat with you.
