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You might have heard the term ‘minimalism’ used to describe art, fashion, and design, but it’s also a lifestyle that’s become popular in recent years.
Minimalist living can offer various benefits, such as saving money, reducing stress, and encouraging sustainable living. But what does it actually involve, and how can we incorporate it into our lives?
Below, we’ve taken a closer look at minimalist living and its benefits, plus offered tips on how to get started.
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What is minimalist living?
Contrary to popular belief, minimalism doesn’t mean living in a bare room with a handful of possessions. Instead, it typically involves living only with essential items that add meaning and value.
American author and minimalist blogger Joshua Becker describes it as “the intentional promotion of the things that bring you joy and the removal of those that do not.”
Minimalist living can involve decluttering physical possessions, from clothes to cars. It can also include organising our digital spaces, distancing ourselves from negative relationships, and cutting down unnecessary commitments and responsibilities.
A minimalist lifestyle attempts to draw your focus to what matters most and remove distractions. This can have a powerful effect on health and happiness.
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What are the benefits of minimalist living?
Minimalist living can boost productivity
Cluttered lives demand lots of time and energy. Many of us spend large portions of our days keeping things in check – for example, doing household chores or organising our desktops. And these activities can distract us from being productive in other areas.
Even when we’re not physically sorting things, research shows that simply seeing clutter around us can reduce our productivity by distracting us and draining our mental capacity.
By reducing clutter, we can give ourselves more time and energy to focus on what matters most – like pursuing our passions, looking after our health, or spending time with family.
Minimalist living can help save money
Taking steps towards a more minimalist lifestyle can help you save money. Not only can you find things to sell while decluttering, but living minimally also involves making more thoughtful decisions about your spending habits.
Many of us buy things impulsively. But by deliberately considering whether items will add meaning and value to our lives, we can cut down frivolous spending.
Minimalist living can reduce stress
Research tells us that cluttered minds and spaces can cause stress. For example, this study found that women who described their homes as more cluttered had higher cortisol levels. This is the body’s main stress hormone released in our fight-or-flight response. So, streamlining your life can be a good idea if you’re looking to reduce stress.
Minimalist living can help you become more sustainable
Embracing a minimalist lifestyle can be a powerful step towards living more sustainably.
Minimalist thinking encourages us to shop more intentionally, discourages unnecessary spending, and means we’re more likely to buy higher-quality items that typically last longer. All of this means we throw fewer things away and avoid contributing to landfills.
There are also more extreme examples. Some people who live near public transport and are seeking a more minimalist lifestyle choose to sell their cars – or go from two cars to one – which can significantly reduce their carbon footprint.
“Instead of thinking of minimalism as a lifestyle, consider it a decision filter that you use to make important decisions in your life. Those decisions start small and might not carry much weight in the beginning, but the value you gain from it certainly grows over time. With each decision, you increase your ability to shift your life in any way of your choosing.”
– Anthony Ongaro, creator of Break the Twitch
Minimalist living can lead to greater flexibility
People who welcome a minimalist lifestyle often report feeling freer. When it comes to material possessions, having fewer items can make it easier for us to be flexible and make changes in our lives. For example, it’s much easier to move house or country if you have fewer things to take with you.
Minimalist living can promote better sleep
We all know the importance of sleep, and research indicates that minimalist living can help with this.
Studies show that cluttered bedrooms may put us at risk of lower-quality sleep. On the flip side, this research found that those who regularly decluttered their bedrooms experienced improved sleep quality and fewer sleep-related problems.
If you’re looking to declutter your mind before sleeping, you might like to try our evening wind-down yoga over on Rest Less Events.
Minimalist living can boost happiness
Another (and perhaps the most important) perk of embracing minimalist living is that it can improve overall happiness.
In our modern, consumer-focused society, things like constant advertising and social media can often convince us that the more things we own, the happier we’ll be. However, research tells us that materialism can harm our overall quality of life because it convinces us that what we have isn’t enough, leading to dissatisfaction and a never-ending pursuit of more.
Adopting a minimalist lifestyle can help us break free from this pursuit and reassess our priorities. This can give us more time, energy, and money to engage with things that research shows will boost our happiness, such as travelling or attending concerts.
8 tips for minimalist living
Now that we’ve taken a closer look at what minimalist living is and some of the potential benefits, you might be wondering how to embrace it in your daily life.
We’ve pulled together some of our favourite tips below.
1. Start by removing one item from your home
If you’re only just embarking on your journey towards a minimalist lifestyle, it can be easy to feel daunted. With this in mind, many find that focusing on one thing at a time is more manageable. So, to start, why not try removing a single item from your home?
It can be helpful to apply this one-at-a-time approach to the rest of your minimalism journey, too. For example, when decluttering your home, try to focus on one room at a time. This will allow you to see the impact of your hard work more quickly and motivate you to keep going.
For more tips on decluttering your home, check out our article on the subject. And, to find out how to get rid of unwanted items sustainably, take a look at this blog post from Plain Sailing Removals.
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2. Ask yourself whether something provides joy or value
It’s easy to say you’re going to let go of something, but it can often be more challenging in practice. The decision to keep something or get rid of it is highly personal, so there isn’t one right way to go about it. However, it’s worth exploring tools that minimalist experts use to find a method that works for you.
Famous minimalist expert Marie Kondo suggests holding items and deciding whether they spark joy. If it doesn’t provoke joy or have a practical use, she suggests letting it go.
On the other hand, Joshua Becker offers a slightly more practical approach. He suggests considering the following four questions…
- Do I need it?
- Do I use it?
- What would I use if I didn’t have it?
- Why do I have it?
Questions like these can also be helpful when deciding whether or not to buy something. After all, minimalism isn’t just about spring cleaning our homes once – it’s an ongoing process.
3. Make a budget
Cutting down on frivolous spending is a great way to make your lifestyle more minimalist. But spending less is often easier said than done, so it can be helpful to work out a budget.
One of the best ways to do this is to assess your spending from the last three months or so and decide what’s necessary and what isn’t. If you’re struggling to sort the must-haves from the don’t-needs, writing a list of your financial priorities, from most to least important, can help put your spending habits into perspective.
For example, a coffee on the way to work each morning might seem necessary at first, but when you compare it to other priorities (such as travel or paying off your mortgage), it might not seem all that important.
For more budgeting tips, why not head over to our everyday finance section?
4. Spend a little more on good-quality items
While reducing unnecessary purchases is often a key part of a minimalist lifestyle, it’s important to remember that it doesn’t mean cutting out spending entirely. You can still treat yourself by buying things that bring you joy and value. Being minimalist simply means being more mindful and intentional about your spending habits.
One way to do this is to invest in high-quality, well-made items when you decide to buy something. While this often involves spending a little more (though not always), focusing on quality over quantity will likely save money in the long run, as our possessions will be more durable.
5. Create a capsule wardrobe
Is your wardrobe bursting with clothes, but you only find yourself wearing a handful of items? If so, you’re certainly not alone.
Studies suggest that a quarter of the clothes in UK wardrobes have gone unworn for a year, while other research suggests that, globally, 40% of clothes made each year go unworn
One way we can keep clutter out of our closets is by creating a capsule wardrobe. This concept is widely embraced by minimalists and involves owning only a small selection of high-quality clothing that can be mixed, matched, and worn year-round.
With an emphasis on basics – which can be layered to create many outfits – you might be surprised at how versatile a capsule wardrobe can be. Check out our article about creating a timeless and sustainable capsule wardrobe to find out more.
6. Remember that it’s not all about physical possessions
While decluttering our possessions can be a helpful starting point when embracing a minimalist lifestyle, it’s worth remembering that this is only one aspect of minimalism. Other features of our lives that we can consider applying a minimalist approach to include…
- Time commitments – are there any unnecessary responsibilities in your life that you can let go of to give you more time and headspace?
Negative thoughts – we all have negative thoughts now and then. But if you experience them often, it can be worth taking steps to minimise them and replace them with positive ones. For advice on minimising negative thoughts, have a read of this article from Verywell Mind.
Screen time – in our modern world, we all spend time in front of screens. While some instances may be beneficial and essential, such as during work, there are moments when it might not be as necessary, like scrolling through Facebook before bed, and can even be harmful (for example, causing sleep problems). So, to free up time for more positive, productive activities, it’s worth considering how to cut down unnecessary screen time.
- Goals – do you have lots of goals? If so, could concentrating on one or two of them make them more manageable?
- Relationships with others – while positive relationships can increase self-esteem, energise us and motivate us, toxic ones can have the opposite effect. So, as you take a more minimalist approach to your life, it might be worth considering whether you need to distance yourself from any relationships or if there are any you want to invest more time in.
7. Look for minimalist inspiration and resources
While embracing a minimalist lifestyle can be rewarding and refreshing, it can feel like a step into the unknown. With this in mind, it can be useful to check out online resources for practical tips and inspiration.
For example, Instagram is a goldmine for home and fashion inspiration. Norwegian blogger Elisabeth Heier (@elisabeth_heier) and Swedish designer Louise Hjorth (@lojsanhjorth) both have excellent accounts if you’re looking for home decor tips.
If you’re looking for fashion inspiration, you’ll find plenty of great ideas on Fiona Milne’s (@shopwithfifi), Melissa Meyers’ (@melissameyers), and Mads Keilberg’s (@scandinaviancloset) pages.
And if you’re interested in practical tips to help you lean into the minimalist mindset, Becoming Minimalist, The Minimalists, and KonMari are all full of helpful information.
8. Give minimalist apps a try
If you’re looking for handy tools to help you streamline your life, there are plenty of useful apps out there.
For example, Olio is an app that connects people with surplus food to those looking to take it off their hands – saving people money, eliminating waste, and leaning into the minimalist mindset. Meanwhile, Google’s PhotoScan will help you digitise all those annoying documents, receipts, and other papers cluttering your home.
To find out about more apps for minimalists, why not check out this article from Surf & Unwind?
Give unwanteds a better next chapter
Your once-loved items are just waiting to be useful again. Pop them in a box, send them to Vintage Cash Cow for free, and they’ll make you an offer to rehome them all.
Final thoughts…
We hope that you’ve enjoyed our brief introduction to minimalist living. If you decide to take steps to streamline your life, remember that there’s no right or wrong way to embrace this. For some, minimalism means living with a certain number of possessions, and for others, it simply means more mindful and intentional choices about what – and who – they allow into their lives.
You also might try adopting a minimalist lifestyle and find it’s not for you, so it’s important to take your time and ease into it. Along the way, you could try checking in with yourself and asking questions like: Why am I doing this? Is it positively impacting me? This can help ensure you’re on the right path to achieving greater happiness and life satisfaction.
For more advice on how to arrange your life to reduce stress and reap other benefits, check out our articles: 8 ways to use feng shui for a happier home and 10 tips for a digital declutter.
Are you interested in minimalist living? Or have you already started to embrace it? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
* Links with an * by them are affiliate links which help Rest Less stay free to use as they can result in a payment or benefit to us. You can read more on how we make money here.
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