What is Minimalism and How to Implement it at Home?
Coming straight from Asia, minimalism is now increasingly appreciated by people looking to simplify their lifestyles. Like a philosophy, this movement aims to help us achieve happiness thanks to a simple leitmotif: “live better with less”. A simple principle on paper but concretely, how to put it in place? Here are a few tips and advice that should help you.
What is minimalism?
How to adopt a minimalist lifestyle?
Reduce consumption
Sort
Detach from objects
What are the benefits of minimalism?
Save money
Win time
Relax
How to have a minimalist home?
Use natural light
Select your furniture
Reduce appliances to the essentials
Personalize your accommodation
1- What is Minimalism?
In this context of overconsumption where advertising reigns, many are turning to this movement to learn how to detach themselves from material things, make room physically (and in one’s head) or even adopt a more responsible mode of consumption for the good of our planet.
According to Fumio Sasaki, author of The Essential and Nothing But, “minimalism is a routine lifestyle in which you have limitation what you own to the absolute minimum you need to live”. It’s about regaining control of your mind by getting rid of extra things materially and relationally.
A decluttering that allows you to be content with the essentials while finding happiness in what you already have, in simplicity. Well beyond material possessions, it pushes towards acceptance and self-esteem without artifice.
Minimal dining room under wooden staircase
2- How to Adopt a Minimalist Lifestyle?
2.a. Reduce Consumption
Adopting a minimal lifestyle, therefore, begins with reducing consumption. Rather than jumping on the latest fashionable product according to advertising, enhancing everything you already have is better. Avoid, discard, and decline any advertisements that pressure you to buy something you don’t need. A decent way to do this is to ask yourself the following question: “Do I really need it? Or is it to fight against boredom, stress or any other emotions that I want to buy this product?
End overconsumption! Living better with less allows you to considerably reduce waste by developing your ecological awareness of our environment and the planet’s noble.
But living better with less also involves our relationships. The previous question can be adapted for this: “Is this a relationship that makes me fully happy? Or is it a relationship that I maintain out of habit?
Minimalism tends towards an improvement of our contact with others. It is a movement based on interactions with those around you and sharing. The Internet has facilitated our connections with the world but has also caused a decline in natural human relations.
2. b. Sort
It would help if you sorted through your current affairs to focus on the essential things that make us happy. For example, start with your dressing room by donating or selling the clothes you no longer wear. Then apply it to the rest of your belongings: books, magazines, papers, games, and utensils unless you prefer the sorting method by room (bedroom, kitchen, living room, etc.).
Please take the opportunity to store all the goods you will keep adequately. For example, the Marie Kondo folding method will allow you to see more clearly in your clothes. But above all, this storage will enable you to see more clearly in your mind and to feel calm and serene at home.
Remember that the remaining material goods will be used for your comfort or as an aid to achieving your goals
2. c. Detach from Objects
This simplicity pushes us to realize that we buy only to affirm our value. We often buy something to project a certain image of ourselves, so we give significant power to the object in question. For this reason, the minimal way of life tends to put things back in their place, giving them back their primary function as the supreme quality.
3- What are the Benefits of Minimalism?
Changing our way of consuming and lighting up physically and mentally brings many benefits.
3. a. Save Money
As you can imagine, buying less but better quality allows you to save considerably! You bought many things which were not required; instead, you can use this amount for more essential items.
3. b. Win Time
Household chores, for example, take much less time when you only keep the essentials. There are fewer dishes to do, fewer trinkets to dust during the weekly cleaning, and less laundry to wash. It’s a significant time saver!
Similarly, hours of window shopping are replaced by much faster shopping sessions because you know what you need.
3. c. Relax
By clinging to non-essential material relationships or possessions, we develop stress for fear of losing them. By adopting a minimalist lifestyle, we lose our attachment to these things to gain a more peaceful mind.
A minimalist person works to live and not the other way around. As long as she has the money necessary to meet her basic needs, she can take advantage of the remaining time to enjoy herself and her surroundings or accomplish projects close to her heart.
4- How to Have a Minimalist Home?
4. a. Use Natural Light
The source of life, light, is one of the essential elements for our well-being. For a minimalist apartment (or house), you need a space open to the outside, where natural light flows freely. She creates the actual continuity and harmony necessary for your area.
If there isn’t enough natural light, one of the best tips we can give you is to move to a brighter environment! Otherwise, lamps can be a solution.
Adding a few touches to personalize it is possible without having many of them. But it is also possible to bet on different materials (metal, glass, wood, etc.) to play on the color of your interior decoration. It does not mean you should only use cold colors such as white, gray, beige, and refuse colors!
4. b. Select your Furniture
Contrary to popular belief, this movement does not only apply to large spaces. It finds all its interest in small surfaces for which storage spaces are mandatory.
The idea is to have as many cupboards, wardrobes, chests of drawers, or even shelves to remove all frills and optimize every corner of your rooms. One of the tricks is to favor high furniture because they are considered decorative elements in their own right and will allow you to avoid the “dressing room” effect.
In the kitchen, storage space is essential. Clean up the area by optimizing the interior of your cupboards as much as possible! It will free your work plan of extra elements (toaster, fruit basket, etc.). This principle applies to your bathroom and its shower gels, shampoos, and other products on the corner of the sink or the edge of your bathtub.
When it comes to furniture, focus on quality over quantity. Choose pieces that will enhance each other, whether in your bedroom or in your living room. Your comfort, for example, is paramount.
4. c. Reduce Appliances to the Essentials
To declutter your home as much as possible, know that you can also replace some of your appliances.
The toaster, for example, mentioned above, can very well be replaced by your oven. The kettle can also be replaced by a cast iron teapot that can be placed on a hob. It will store much more easily and take up less space. Why not use an Italian coffee maker for those with more coffee than tea? It’s much easier to use, clean and store than an electric coffee maker that takes up half your countertop.
4. d. Personalize your Accommodation
To personalize your minimalist apartment, do not hesitate to recycle and divert elements from their primary function. Forget fashion or trends; if you make them your own, spend time personalizing them according to your tastes to make your space unique!
As mentioned above, minimalist decluttering does not mean “stripped down and soulless”. It’s simply a way of living better with less, with the things that bring us joy. Take your home like a white canvas on which you have to put a few touches of color so that it becomes a work of art. These few touches can be a vase, dish, painting, plant, or lamp. As long as these touches are essential and they bring you joy.
The minimum movement is specific to each person. What we consider essential evolves according to our needs, interests, and objectives. So stay open-minded! You don’t have to start at the extreme by withdrawing everything. Adopting this philosophy already begins with changing your habits. Go step by step, and give yourself time to get used to it!
Start by stocking up on a few things to see if the minimum experience is really right for you.
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