This last year or so I’ve been on a minimalist journey to simplify and downshift my lifestyle.
This is Part Two.
You can read Part One here: How to Minimize Your Life. Part One: My Journey Into Minimalism
Before then I used to be a real pack-rat.
I then embarked on a personal journey into minimalism. I’ve since got rid of around half of my stuff and the process is still continuing right now.
I’m finding I can live with less and less. And I’m still some way yet from reaching the end of my minimalist journey.
So what have I learned from my minimizing so far?
Here are my ten practical tips on minimizing based on my personal experience…
1. Minimizing is a gradual process. It involves a personal realization of how you relate to your stuff. It takes time to change your attitude to it and to work out what you really need and what you don’t need.
This means you should minimize in stages. Don’t try to dispose of too much stuff in one go; you risk getting rid of things that you actually need if you do.
Also you need to give yourself time to accustomize yourself to your new way of living with less stuff.
2. Eliminate duplicates (and triplicates). A good way to start minimizing is by getting rid of the items that are duplicated. Duplicating things was something I used to have a tendency to do. Two PCs, two bikes, two or more jackets, far too many towels, bedding, kitchenware and other items. It’s just not necessary.
3. Don’t be a spare parts depot. I used to hold all sorts of stuff in reserve for “just in case”: loads of light bulbs, pots of paint, electric cable extensions, spare bike parts, boxes of computer accessories. Most of this stuff you just don’t need.
Don’t keep things for “just in case” – this is what causes people’s homes to become cluttered up with too much stuff. Chuck out “just in case” as a concept as well!
4. Eliminate “legacy possessions”. These are items that you keep mainly because you have had them in your possession for so long and have just got used to them. But they don’t serve any useful purpose anymore. This can also include items that you have received as gifts from people years ago, but which are no longer of any use to you (or never even were).
Refusing to dispose of items simply because they were gifts from someone in the past will burden you and prevent you from minimizing effectively. For this reason gift items can be some of the most stubborn objects to bring yourself to get rid of. But you should still ask yourself if you really get any value out of holding onto them. If need be, keep quiet about getting rid of one time gifts, or give the person who gifted you another gift in return.
In one case I actually gave the gift back to the gifter as a gift from me! Not quite politically correct I know, but maybe better than just throwing the item away.
5. Sell what you can, give away what you can’t and dump the rest. eBay is your friend here. Or hold a car boot sale.
It can be surprising to discover how little many things fetch. Which just goes to show how little your “valuable” stuff was really worth. But it varies. Sometimes high, more often times low.
No matter. With each thing that disappears out through the door, your life is made much simpler and easier. It’s one less thing to take to the dump. And it’s one more thing that another person is able to gain some use from, rather than it just going to landfill.
But don’t have any misgivings about dumping stuff that doesn’t sell. In my experience if something doesn’t sell on eBay, it’s not worth the time, effort and cost in bothering to relist it. If you can’t give it away, just dump it and be done with it.
There’s no need to keep an item if you or someone else doesn’t have a real practical use for it. And if you can’t dispose of it in this way, then it’s only worth dumping anyway.
Don’t forget family and friends. I don’t mean dump them – rather that they can often have uses for the things you no longer want. But don’t treat them as dumping grounds for your junk – only gift them items that you know they would like and have use for.
They can be surprised by the things you are willing to give away and which up to now you used to hoard. It can also lead them in turn to start taking a look at the potential for minimizing in their own lives.
6. Cut down on storage space. Having less storage is a good way to cut down on your possessions. The less storage space you have, the less room there is for you to hoard things. As you minimize, storage space will become free. But you can also speed up and encourage the process by getting rid of some storage space straight away.
7. Digitize your life. There should be no need for people to have to file pieces of paper, bills, statements, contracts or any of that stuff anymore. Instruct banks, utility companies etc to stop sending you paper through the post. Scan the important stuff and shred it if you can. The unimportant stuff you should just shred. Don’t keep pieces of paper.
Most paper stuff that gets filed in the old way never gets looked at again. So filing things is a waste of time and space and simply unnecessary.
Same for photo albums, CD and DVD collections. It’s all obsolete. Just make sure all your digitalized stuff is backed up securely. This means backing up both locally on your PC, laptop or USB drive as well as a couple of copies out in the cloud with reliable providers.
8. Switch off old style media. There’s no need to buy newspapers, or for the most part even magazines. It’s all available online now. More environmentally friendly too. I can’t remember the last time I bought a newspaper but it’s at least a decade or more now.
Get rid of satellite and cable TV. Again, there is little need for them. You don’t need channel TV anymore. It’s all becoming available online. You can choose and select yourself specifically what you want to watch from online.
I got rid of my hi-fi and radio sets. I never used them anymore, so why keep them? I only ever listen to “radio” and podcasts via the net.
9. Stop buying stuff. OK, there are some things you need to purchase occasionally. But you no longer need to go “shopping”. This New Year, seeing everyone rushing around frantically shopping in the winter sales looking for bargains, I realized how I was now free from this urge. There was practically nothing I needed. So there was no need to take part in the buying frenzy.
It means though that when you do buy things, you will select them with much more care and thought than before when you used to “go shopping”.
And challenge the assumptions you might have held up to now. I used to think it was “essential” to have a wrist watch, to watch cable TV, to have a coffee table, a clock on the wall, an alarm clock in the bedroom, or to have a wardrobe.
Now I know these things aren’t essential and they may not even make sense to you. They certainly don’t make sense to me anymore.
10. Finally, enjoy the result! A much less cluttered life, which gives you clarity of thought and vision, makes you feel calmer and more contented.
You’re freed from your stuff. It no longer owns you. It means less stress. You start to value the things you do have more. You’re rescued from the “shopping” and bargain-hunting compulsion. And you save money as well.
So minimizing is well worth it. Just how far you want or need to minimize is a personal thing and depends on your own outlook and circumstances.
But I hope the above tips and ideas will be useful to you if you’re also interested in starting your own personal journey into minimizing your life.
Image: Clutter – courtesy of Sean MacEntee
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Written by kevin
Topics: Travel Adventure