More appealing. Think about photos of homes that are cluttered, and photos of minimalist homes. The ones with almost nothing in them except some beautiful furniture, some nice artwork, and a very few pretty decorations, are the ones that appeal to most of us. The feeling is both calm and elegant. Things that value most are proudly on display. You can make your home more appealing by making it more minimalist.
We have found this to be true in our home over and over again. Whether it be something simple like removing crowded knick-knacks from a shelf or something large like removing unused pieces of furniture, we continue to enjoy the look of our home more and more as we continue to become more and more minimalist.
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I very much agree with this benefit of being a minimalist. Clearing up the places of our daily life and make them visually ‘clean’ is certainly a great way of uncluttering your life. Not only in a physical way (less stuff) but maybe even more so in a psychological way (visual clarity helps calming our senses and thus the way we feel).
There is one minor draw back; what is in emptied rooms becomes significally more important. As there’s less to focus on, the things which are there demand attention (why did you choose specifically this to be in the room and not something else). A lot of time this means setting a much higher standard/demanding more quality, which most of the time means spending more time searching for the ‘right’ thing (not neccesarily a bad thing) and more important, spending more money on them. This last point is certainly a draw back and goes against benefit #1 (dollars and sense).
My personal experience up till this moment is thus, contrary to benefit #1, being a minimalist does not necesarily help you save money more easily.
I definitely agree that homes with space, less clutter, and beautiful artwork are much more appealing than homes crowded homes with mismatched junk. However, I find the challenge in my newly minimalist life to be HOW to fill up the large space we have in our living room to make it more visually appealing but without STUFF. I will be moving into a new apartment soon, leaving every piece of furniture behind except for a beautiful, simple IKEA dining table (and four chairs). I’m really excited for the challenge of creating a peaceful, minimal home in a relatively large space (I believe the apt is a bit too big). Thanks for sharing!
Laura M:
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”
–William Morris (1834-1896)
You could go even further and be strict that anything going into a space must satisfy both the practicality and beauty criteria.
I have one house-hold vice, and that is cutlery and crockery. Villeroy and boch have a design called NewWave, and it is (in my opinion) the most beautiful, practical, and ergonomically ideal set you can buy. Plain White (although there are varieties now), with enough detail in the actual design of the cups etc themselves to make them a special and aesthetically pleasing. Very expensive though, the only thing I’ll ever collect, but it’s worth it!! And I’ll take care to only collect 6 of each item that I actually need. You also tend to take more care of your things when you only have little, and you appreciate what you’ve got.
I find this to be truer the farther I go. Empty rooms aren’t for me, but I find, for example, the fewer pieces of art I have in the room, the more I enjoy what is there and the better it looks.
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