One unfortunate belief that keeps people from pursuing minimalism is the assumption that there are strict rules and guidelines to the lifestyle. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Let me try to break that myth for you:
Minimalism will always look different from person to person.
Find freedom to make it yours in a way that works for you and your family. Minimalism looks different in both practice and process.
In Practice
Consider how these different factors might affect the possessions you need:
Geography. Somebody who lives in a city will likely own different things than someone who lives in the suburbs, or someone who lives in a rural setting.
If you live in the city, you may not need a specific mode of transportation because public transit is nearby. If you live in the suburbs, that might not be a possibility. Or if you live in a rural setting, even further away from a store, your needs will change and the possessions you keep on-hand will differ.
Your Household. Minimalism will also look different based on your family or household. A single person in their twenties is going to own something different than a young family with children. And a family with young children is going to need different possessions than a family with teenagers. Or even empty nesters.
Your specific stage of life will affect your practice of minimalism in significant ways.
Your Career. Minimalism also looks different based on our careers, our work, or our job.
A minimalist blogger is going to own something different than a minimalist dentist, or a minimalist architect, or a minimalist schoolteacher, or even a minimalist farmer.
There is little benefit to comparing our possessions in this way. We may find motivation or inspiration in the story of the young minimalist YouTuber, but trying to apply their strict rules to your unique situation is rarely helpful.
I believe that anyone, regardless of their occupation, can pursue minimalism. It’s just going to look very different from one person to another.
Your Passion or Purpose. The good that we feel called to accomplish in the world may also impact the possessions that we own.
In 2015, I founded The Hope Effect, a nonprofit organization changing how the world cares for orphans. Because of my desire to do this work well, there are some things I own that I might not if this wasn’t a passion of mine.
Likewise, your passion for serving a purpose may cause you to own different items than your minimalist neighbor down the street.
Your Hobbies. Hobbies can become a source of clutter in our homes and lives—especially if we try to do too many at one time.
But the fact remains that hobbies are beneficial to us. They bring us joy, or peace, or entertainment, or exercise, or simply serve as a distraction. In theory and in practice, they help us live bigger, more intentional lives.
As a result, our hobbies will impact the items we own—even as we seek to live intentional lives.
In Process
It is equally important to realize that minimalism looks different in process. How we get there changes from person-to-person and family-to-family.
There are some people who hear about minimalism, rent a dumpster, and throw out everything over the course of a weekend. But those people are few and far between.
And there are some people who just seem to be minimalist at birth.
But for most people who choose to live a minimalist life, it takes a little more time. It also takes a little more intentionality, a little more strategy, a little more effort to wrestle with emotions that emerge.
For us, it took about three months to go through the “lived-in areas” of our home (living room, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, etc.). But it took us nine months to minimize all our possessions if you count the basement and garage and storage shed in the backyard.
In fact, we moved into a smaller house three years later, and got rid of even more things! So the time frame may vary significantly from one person to another.
The process can also look different in more ways than just time.
Some people can read one book or one blog post and that’s all they need to get started. Others need a little more help or someone to come alongside them in the process. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I created the Clutterfree App—it’s just another tool that might be helpful to someone seeking to own less.
Additionally, different people struggle to minimize different items.
One person might struggle with books or sentimental items, while someone else might have a hard time deciding what to do with their yarn stash or excess hobby supplies.
I want to encourage you today. Minimalism is a lifestyle with countless benefits. Owning less means less cleaning, less burden, less anxiety, and less stress each and every day.
You can enjoy freedom.
Minimalism will look different for you than it does for me, both in practice and in process.
But always remember, as long as you’re moving in the right direction, you’re moving in the right direction.
This post has made my day . Thank you for writing and inspiring us to do better than we were in our desire and our mindset . Still lots left on our plates and list to declutter though. 😊
Most of our grandmothers were not minimalists by choice, they were by circumstances. “made in China” and/or “Japan” was not yet a thing. The use of headlines that say “Not your Grandmother’s Quilting, Minimalism, Crocheting, Knitting, Decorating, Dressing, etc. etc. etc. ” may be a cute headline, I personally think it is a cop-out.
Enjoy your column, but think that is an unfair and inappropriate comparison.
We failed a lot at our attempts over the years. Finally realized that our attempts would only work when all involved agreed on a goal and were able to visualize the benefit/reward. That gives motivation to do the work.
We are both IT people, both married previously, and bookworms all around. Our first official stab at decluttering was about 10 years ago. Teenager still at home. 1500 sq ft merged 3 bedroom household crammed full of stuff. We took a 3 day weekend and gave away the entire book collection in bookcases wrapped around 2 rooms to the library. Bookcases went to a thrift shop. Rearranged furniture and wall pics to optimize space. Treated ourselves with 3 e-readers and spent the next 3 day weekend on a mini vacation as promised for the teenagers cooperation.
Then life happened and 10 years rolled by. All parents passed away. Found ourselves with a bigger house 2500 sq ft, all kids grown, and more stuff than ever as we acquired a huge amount of stuff when the last parent died. Somewhere during Covid the hours at work became unbearable so we retired (easy part) and decided to move to Portugal (but not ready).
With Portugal as our new motivation, we really dove in to our long talked about digitization project, which was a big one.
*Printed photos were gathered from all corners, attic to basement, and sent to a scan service. Applicable prints (I was surprised to learn they wanted the physical prints) and a full copy of scans sent to each adult child.
*My husband converted all media, music CDs and movie DVDs.
*I sorted through mountains of paperwork (old college stuff, career related stuff, medical records, financial records, and the largest collection of all – my genealogy paperwork, including about a dozen spiral bound family books.
Everything went in 3 piles:
1) Shred and Toss.
2) Scan and Shred.
3) Scan and Keep. This pile had only a few papers we knew we would need in Portugal, about a peechee size folder. For genealogy cousins, the family history books.
My husband scanned and I shredded. When done, we applied a file naming convention and filed the scans in virtual folders.
This project took us about 6 months, with daily walks for sanity breaks. About once a month we took a 3-4 day break. The entire lot fit on a surprisingly small external drive, about wallet size. We made a couple backups on additional drives.
The benefits are that our respective decluttered offices became much easier to clean, the dreaded pile of papers never has a chance to accumulate on the kitchen counter as we can process and shred the mail daily. And best of all we were now organized enough to apply for our visas. So we did.
The “stuff” stuff though, was still overflowing. Our things, our kids’ things, and our parents’ things. The latter was the toughest to process. We worked with each adult child and the one sibling in the US to divvy up any items they wanted. Facetimes and chats on repeat for awhile. UPS loved us as we let them pack and ship the boxes all over the US. It was not cheap, but well worth the peace of mind.
At this point we really felt free. If our visas were not approved, we could live in place with our new minimalist lifestyle. But, we were rewarded with the good news that our visas were approved!
So we sold the house and the car, let friends have their pick of furniture, and gave remaining worthwhile items to a charity. The rest was tossed. We arrived in Portugal with 6 suitcases that when unpacked, nested into 2. We now live in a 625 sq ft 1 bedroom apartment in an area where everything we need is within walking distance. In bad weather we have Bolt and Uber. If we want to travel we can walk to the bus or train or rental car agency. Now we really feel like minimalists!
My family is full of serious hoarders. I have always thrown out or recycled old magazines, newspapers, underwear, and empty cans and bottles. When an old T shirt is so ruined I can’t sleep in it or make art with it, I cut it up for rags. I very seldom buy anything new. A friend has a basement full of yarn and fabric. I have a plastic shoebox.
Thanks for all your inspiration. I´m from Germany and I started reading all these great blogs and articles about minimalism. Many things in my live and home absolutely feel absolutely right yet. On the other hand I love to shop and look for new and better things in a good quality.
It is not really easy to live minimalism, because my partner loves to shop cheap stuff – sell ist, and so on.
I would be interested how you find the right way to minimalism in your relationship or family, because this decision to own less doesnt only affects yourself – so there can be resistance against this new lifestyle in so many ways.
I´m very interested in tips.
Hey Sarah, I’m from Germany too. We are a family of 6 and my husband was not a minimalist at all. To make it short: Be a good example and try to inspire rather than convince. For us it started with cleaning out the wardrobe and then I moved from room to room (we live in a big house). We are still not hardcore minimalists but we are approaching towards a level we feel comfortable with. I first noticed that something “inside” my husband had changed when he observed that he wasn’t feeling comfortable in our living room because it felt too crowded (and in fact it is not really). If the act of buying stuff itself is so important (and probably not the cheap stuff you get) you might wanna look at the psychology behind (what is he trying to compensate?) If he is willing to dive into that, good luck. If not, you might find a hard time changing anything. After all – if you want to make longlasting change, you both need to be on the same side of that. I wish you all the best
Not really a minimalist (yet) just following from the social media. Being autonomous and living alone in the New York City since 2000. I’ve never been happier being in a 2000 sq ft , with walking distance from my office. Less stress about traffic is the best. My family is living in India. I am here just by myself and have no need to have many things to overspending. Just the renting and utilities and lessened on individual transportation. Never thought getting married but I have a couple of time beeing with someone and it has never been serious. So my life is very simply said simplified.
Hello,
During your decluttering process, when have you felt minimalist for the first time ? Where did this feeling come from ?
Thank you for your answer.
Hi Joshua! We just recently downsized our home… lil 2 bedroom ranch and we love it! I feel very peaceful here. Lots and lots had to go. Never looked back!