Minimalism is not about having less its about having enough and realizing it.
When I think of minimalism I think it to be a path way to reducing stress in life.
Some Practical Tips that I would recommend
Take a closer look around you
Your house could be a good starting point as it is easy to minimize and the results are tangible.
Closet:
What I do to clean up the closet is to have 2 boxes - one that would go to Goodwill /Donation and one box for trash. I grab all my clothes out and keep only those I really need or use and the rest go either into the donation box or straight in to the trash. I realize I had been holding on to some clothes thinking I would fit in to them one day or just because it looked cute but dint realize I have out grown that dress a long while back *sigh*
Kitchen:
Look in to your pantry and am very sure you will pull out that can of beans or flour which is hiding deep in the shelf with expired dates on it. We some times walk through the grocery aisle and pick stuff up thinking we may use it but never end up using it. This is something all of us do. A tip for this would be to never shop when you are too hungry and always shop with a list of things you might need for that week or month. I personally like to shop for one week at a time.
Mails/ Bills:
We all know this is unavoidable. A tip to minimize this would be to set up to pay all the bills electronically. Assign two boxes one for junk and one for mails that you would need to act upon (like coupons, notices etc) and once the junk box is filled up you may just trash it.
Books:
I know most of us like holding physical books in hand and reading it. But unfortunately it does take up a lot of space and guess what most of these books are available online. I recommend you to use e-version of the books instead of holding on to physical copies of the books
Friends:
Aside from all the material processions, with the growth of social media, we tend to have way too many friends than what we need. I know this person who has 3463 friends of facebook. When I met him recently, he told me he doesn’t know 80% of them in real. They are ‘facebook friends’! I have heard school -friends, college-friends, we live in the same community-friends, I have even heard hey she/he is my friend’s friend but what’s this facebook friend? One who you don’t know really?
I think its better to have fewer friends who are real people with real emotions and people who really know you. Tell me what is the point in just having huge numbers?
And finally, Money - We keep chasing huge paying jobs and are never satisfied with what we earn. We lose track of the time we spend with our people, we lose track of the food we should eat on time and most importantly we lose track of our health. I agree we all need a good lifestyle for which we need money but we need to find a good balance. A great tip for this would be to be able to say enough is enough and learning to relax and just run your own race. Like I said before, Minimalism is not about having less its about having enough and realizing it.
These are some tips I believe would be a good start to practicing a minimalist lifestyle.
