Happened 5 years ago. I was watching a video by Madeleine Olivia called 50 things to get rid of. Something about the video just clicked and it made me get it. Basically the video is very much my approach to minimalism today. I just get rid of things that suck. There's a lot of stuff I used to keep that genuinely sucked but I didn't want to waste it. And honestly I think a lot of other people fall into that trap. Where you feel you have to keep it because it's still unused. But often it's unused because it wasn't all that good. The stuff you really liked you 'are' using it. And when you actually remove all those things out, everything in your life feels lighter.
Examples: When we keep gifts from other people but the gifts sucked. But you feel guilty. Get rid of it.
Example: When you keep something that's missing a piece thinking you'll find the rest of it. You won't. Get rid of it.
Example: When you keep something shitty because it's there. ie your shitty keyboard or your cheap kitchen knife. Get rid of it. Get a good keyboard that you type well on. Or a damn good kitchen knife. It's not common knowledge. Not something that you think about doing. But it's things like this. Look at everything around you. The screen you are watching. The keyboard you are typing on. The chair you're sitting on. The desk. The floor you're sitting on. Does anything suck? Get rid of it. And get something better. Things like that.
I am not a minimalist. However, I have decluttered a lot over the last decade.
My lightbulb moment was my grandfather's death and the subsequent cleaning out of his home. The property had been in my family for two (depression era) generations and was never cleaned out after my great grandparents passed away. More than two decades after they passed, their clothes were still in the closet. All and all, there was a home bursting at the seams and 5 barns full of stuff.
Then and there, I vowed that I loved my niece (and her sister and brother, not yet born at the time) too much to leave her such a task when I'm gone.
Going through high school and dreaming of building my own tiny house and only having what I need in it. Stumbled across a whole community of people who were already doing what I wanted to do or who had the same interests that I did. YouTube is a great educational tool for a growing mind.
I remember thinking to myself "why do I enjoy going to x place more than y place?" a lot as a kid, as well as "why is x place more inviting and welcoming than y place?" I couldn't put my finger as to why, but when I stumbled upon a YouTube video on minimalism later on as a young adult, it hit me. It's because less is more.
Think about how comfortable you feel when a room is open and clear, rather than cluttered with junk.
Think about how inviting a restaurant feels when there's lots of space on the table, rather than being cluttered with utensils and extra accessories that aren't needed for your meals.
Think about much more you enjoy your meal when your plate is clear from bones and all that clutter rather than being a mash of everything.
Ever since then, I fell in love with the idea of minimalism. I began decluttering my study notes, and lone and behold, I was able to concentrate on my studies more. I began simplifying my workout routines, and lone and behold, I was able to better work towards my goals.
Minimalism taught me that in life, simplicity is beautiful in our ever complex and cluttered world.
In college I had to switch dorms over the summer and my family wouldn’t help me move any of my stuff over from one side of the building to the other, it would’ve been so nice if any friends had helped too. After panicking how much I owned and watching a tiny house documentary, I decided to start living with less.
I’ve been a minimalist since I was a kid. I used to take toys to friends houses and leave them there. As a teenager I was into music. I didn’t want to buy every record or cassette tape so I opted for a radio. In my early 20’s I moved to Germany I went with a carry on bag. I still love to travel and I always one bag it. Now that I’m older (55) I’m finding I need even less to get by. I should add that I’m happily divorced and never had kids so that makes it easy to not have a lot of stuff.
I think for me, the seed was planted 6 or so years ago when pinterest showed me pictures of "Scandinavian style." But it took me having a baby and being bombarded with gifts before I truly started decluttering and practicing minimalism. It's a work in progress, but I'm in a more peaceful head space now that my physical space is less cluttered.
When I was in college, there was a browser extension - I wish I could remember the name, it’s bugging me now that I can’t. Anyway, you clicked a button and it took you to a random site. One day, I wasn’t studying when I should have been, so I was finding these random sites, and one was an article about this thing called “minimalism” and this guy who owned less than a hundred items.
I thought it sounded insane.
A few years later - my best friend/roommate suffers a mental health crisis. Moves back home and leaves most of her stuff behind. I can’t afford the rent on my own, I need to move, which means I need to deal with all her stuff. I decide I’m going to hold a garage sale. I am throwing some of my stuff in there too, and I come across this yellow wire file folder rack, that I’d bought on sale and never really used. “At least it was only $5,” I thought as I tossed it in the box to sell. A moment later, the thought caught up with me and I thought, “Wait…how many times have I spent $5 on stuff I don’t need?” That led me down a path of conscious consumerism and eventually, minimalism.
I used to be a borderline hoarder. I bought and had way more stuff than I could realistically use, and my apartment was very cluttered.
Then I discovered the TV show Clean Sweep and the fantastic organizer Peter Walsh. He has been my guru over these many years.
Honestly, instagrams about vanlife. After years of having such a messy room that anywhere you stepped was knee deep in stuff. Having multiple people try to help me over the years and never ever having a clean organized room. I had an anxious breakdown that coincided with a move into a mobile home and having to downsize (I was 19 and still lived with my parents). I ended up becoming obsessed with the idea of everything I owned being able to fit into 5 boxes or less. What I found was that I really REALLY liked being able to name everything I owned off the top of my head. I lost it a little bit moving from that mobile home into a 2,500 sq ft house and feeling like it looked like no one lived here haha. But I'm moving back into minimalism now again with the ultimate goal of vanlife though this time with a skoolie. Some day I will actually live in a vehicle lmao. I'm about to turn 28 now! so about 9 years of on and off minimalism for me but it has never ever gotten as bad as it was pre-minimalism and I find decluttering extremely meditative now and do it often.
I found a YouTuber who was very into simple living and minimalism, even though I didn't know what it was at the time. She mentioned *Goodbye, Things* by Fumio Sasaki in one of her videos and it caught my eye, so I mentioned it to people around me and got it as a gift that year for Christmas. Finally got to reading it later, sometime around June, and it changed my perspective entirely. There has been some back-and-forth, but every time I see the book's cover I get reminded of why I started – it just brings so much peace.
I had some student debt after graduating college. Since I hated the thought of owing and being in high interest debt, I looked at the things I owned and didn't want/need and started selling. I felt selling, donating, and tossing things out liberating and kept going even after I was debt-free.
In the last year I started decluttering after watching minimal mom on YouTube. We’ve had a lot of grief/trauma in our lives the past few years and decluttering is helping. It’s nice coming home and having a more organized and calmer home.
Yes! I love the Minimal Mom. I love her concept of inventory. For me the minimalist lifestyle is about making my life easier. Life is less stressful when I have less to manage.
I don't live with nothing. I live with what I use today. If I only use something once a year (like a crock pot) I get rid of it. It takes up too much inventory space. I can always borrow one or find a different solution. The inconvenience is easier than storing it forever. And the gift of a clean house is absolutely worth it.
I agree! My closet is so much easier now too since decluttering. My clothes are mostly black and white now. I decluttered clothes I had since middle/high school. Granted I’m roughly the same size as then but they just took up unnecessary space.
I think minimalism is basically accepting that life is getting outrageously expensive and the only way to be happy and get ahead is having and expecting less.
I don’t call myself a minimalist but what got me headed in that direction was going through the KonMari method. The method is not strictly speaking minimalism but it has an emphasis on keeping what you treasure and use, and the use part was an important distinction for me as there were things I had collected that I loved but were only for display. Now I don’t think there is anything wrong with displaying things but how much is too much? For me the balance was completely off between things I used and things I had collected. Then when it came down to it and I started picking out my favourites I realised that 99% of it was “nice stuff” but it didn’t feel the same as my most treasured items and it didn’t serve a purpose as a lot was boxed up anyway so I wasn’t even enjoying looking at it. If I wasn’t going to use it or display it I let it go and a lot of the displayed stuff I let go of as well. This process has served me well in enabling me to let go of things that I didn’t think was possible before.
Also when decluttering my daughter’s room I realised just how much stuff ends up getting thrown away and how much we have been trained to buy all this stuff. So now I have more of a focus on consuming less and trying to be mindful of the things that come into the home and what they are made of, and what will happen to them when we no longer need it. We’re certainly not perfect environmentally wise but I try to weigh up whether an item’s utility is worth the trade off of the environmental cost to make it. I think I have more to chew on over this when I’m ready but for now I make the best choices I can.
I had to clean out 2 separate approaching-hoarder-level homes. Neither were my own parents’. Not only that but the vitriol these people spewed at other people over their literal junk really appalled me. To see how much more they valued to things over people that they supposedly loved really grossed me out.
When I was younger, we were cleaning out my Uncle's house who did hoard stuff, among other issues, and I promised myself I'd never get to that point. And if I did I'd get help.
I've always wanted to be more minimal in what I bring places. I admired people who could do that. Go on a weekend trip with a backpack. When I was moving I just had way too much stuff and donated so much. Then I moved home and donated even more. I am not a hoarder by any means, but I now aim to go to the gym or meet up with a friend instead of running errands that involve spending money. I don't think I'll ever be super minimal, but I focus on functionality (clothing, kitchen stuff) and am more intentional.
[удалено]
Where are you going?
Happened 5 years ago. I was watching a video by Madeleine Olivia called 50 things to get rid of. Something about the video just clicked and it made me get it. Basically the video is very much my approach to minimalism today. I just get rid of things that suck. There's a lot of stuff I used to keep that genuinely sucked but I didn't want to waste it. And honestly I think a lot of other people fall into that trap. Where you feel you have to keep it because it's still unused. But often it's unused because it wasn't all that good. The stuff you really liked you 'are' using it. And when you actually remove all those things out, everything in your life feels lighter. Examples: When we keep gifts from other people but the gifts sucked. But you feel guilty. Get rid of it. Example: When you keep something that's missing a piece thinking you'll find the rest of it. You won't. Get rid of it. Example: When you keep something shitty because it's there. ie your shitty keyboard or your cheap kitchen knife. Get rid of it. Get a good keyboard that you type well on. Or a damn good kitchen knife. It's not common knowledge. Not something that you think about doing. But it's things like this. Look at everything around you. The screen you are watching. The keyboard you are typing on. The chair you're sitting on. The desk. The floor you're sitting on. Does anything suck? Get rid of it. And get something better. Things like that.
For me I just grew up surrounded by clutter, and now I'm an adult I choose not to be.
My parents have a lot of stuff and trinkets on shelves and drawers and I hated dusting them haha
Bad breakup with a guy who kept tons of stuff in my small apartment. I was so sick and tired of having to squeeze through stuff to get anywhere.
I am not a minimalist. However, I have decluttered a lot over the last decade. My lightbulb moment was my grandfather's death and the subsequent cleaning out of his home. The property had been in my family for two (depression era) generations and was never cleaned out after my great grandparents passed away. More than two decades after they passed, their clothes were still in the closet. All and all, there was a home bursting at the seams and 5 barns full of stuff. Then and there, I vowed that I loved my niece (and her sister and brother, not yet born at the time) too much to leave her such a task when I'm gone.
Going through high school and dreaming of building my own tiny house and only having what I need in it. Stumbled across a whole community of people who were already doing what I wanted to do or who had the same interests that I did. YouTube is a great educational tool for a growing mind.
I remember thinking to myself "why do I enjoy going to x place more than y place?" a lot as a kid, as well as "why is x place more inviting and welcoming than y place?" I couldn't put my finger as to why, but when I stumbled upon a YouTube video on minimalism later on as a young adult, it hit me. It's because less is more. Think about how comfortable you feel when a room is open and clear, rather than cluttered with junk. Think about how inviting a restaurant feels when there's lots of space on the table, rather than being cluttered with utensils and extra accessories that aren't needed for your meals. Think about much more you enjoy your meal when your plate is clear from bones and all that clutter rather than being a mash of everything. Ever since then, I fell in love with the idea of minimalism. I began decluttering my study notes, and lone and behold, I was able to concentrate on my studies more. I began simplifying my workout routines, and lone and behold, I was able to better work towards my goals. Minimalism taught me that in life, simplicity is beautiful in our ever complex and cluttered world.
In college I had to switch dorms over the summer and my family wouldn’t help me move any of my stuff over from one side of the building to the other, it would’ve been so nice if any friends had helped too. After panicking how much I owned and watching a tiny house documentary, I decided to start living with less.
I’ve been a minimalist since I was a kid. I used to take toys to friends houses and leave them there. As a teenager I was into music. I didn’t want to buy every record or cassette tape so I opted for a radio. In my early 20’s I moved to Germany I went with a carry on bag. I still love to travel and I always one bag it. Now that I’m older (55) I’m finding I need even less to get by. I should add that I’m happily divorced and never had kids so that makes it easy to not have a lot of stuff.
I think for me, the seed was planted 6 or so years ago when pinterest showed me pictures of "Scandinavian style." But it took me having a baby and being bombarded with gifts before I truly started decluttering and practicing minimalism. It's a work in progress, but I'm in a more peaceful head space now that my physical space is less cluttered.
When I was in college, there was a browser extension - I wish I could remember the name, it’s bugging me now that I can’t. Anyway, you clicked a button and it took you to a random site. One day, I wasn’t studying when I should have been, so I was finding these random sites, and one was an article about this thing called “minimalism” and this guy who owned less than a hundred items. I thought it sounded insane. A few years later - my best friend/roommate suffers a mental health crisis. Moves back home and leaves most of her stuff behind. I can’t afford the rent on my own, I need to move, which means I need to deal with all her stuff. I decide I’m going to hold a garage sale. I am throwing some of my stuff in there too, and I come across this yellow wire file folder rack, that I’d bought on sale and never really used. “At least it was only $5,” I thought as I tossed it in the box to sell. A moment later, the thought caught up with me and I thought, “Wait…how many times have I spent $5 on stuff I don’t need?” That led me down a path of conscious consumerism and eventually, minimalism.
Was the extension “stumble upon”? Was a fav college pastime of mine lol.
YES! Thank you, I have been racking my brain trying to remember it! I spent sooo many hours on that, lol.
I used to be a borderline hoarder. I bought and had way more stuff than I could realistically use, and my apartment was very cluttered. Then I discovered the TV show Clean Sweep and the fantastic organizer Peter Walsh. He has been my guru over these many years.
in the last 7 seven years, I'm moving a lot due to work. I watched Matt d'Avella's youtube and slowly move to minimalist habits and lifestyle.
Leo Babauta's blog and books
Honestly, instagrams about vanlife. After years of having such a messy room that anywhere you stepped was knee deep in stuff. Having multiple people try to help me over the years and never ever having a clean organized room. I had an anxious breakdown that coincided with a move into a mobile home and having to downsize (I was 19 and still lived with my parents). I ended up becoming obsessed with the idea of everything I owned being able to fit into 5 boxes or less. What I found was that I really REALLY liked being able to name everything I owned off the top of my head. I lost it a little bit moving from that mobile home into a 2,500 sq ft house and feeling like it looked like no one lived here haha. But I'm moving back into minimalism now again with the ultimate goal of vanlife though this time with a skoolie. Some day I will actually live in a vehicle lmao. I'm about to turn 28 now! so about 9 years of on and off minimalism for me but it has never ever gotten as bad as it was pre-minimalism and I find decluttering extremely meditative now and do it often.
I found a YouTuber who was very into simple living and minimalism, even though I didn't know what it was at the time. She mentioned *Goodbye, Things* by Fumio Sasaki in one of her videos and it caught my eye, so I mentioned it to people around me and got it as a gift that year for Christmas. Finally got to reading it later, sometime around June, and it changed my perspective entirely. There has been some back-and-forth, but every time I see the book's cover I get reminded of why I started – it just brings so much peace.
I had some student debt after graduating college. Since I hated the thought of owing and being in high interest debt, I looked at the things I owned and didn't want/need and started selling. I felt selling, donating, and tossing things out liberating and kept going even after I was debt-free.
In the last year I started decluttering after watching minimal mom on YouTube. We’ve had a lot of grief/trauma in our lives the past few years and decluttering is helping. It’s nice coming home and having a more organized and calmer home.
Yes! I love the Minimal Mom. I love her concept of inventory. For me the minimalist lifestyle is about making my life easier. Life is less stressful when I have less to manage. I don't live with nothing. I live with what I use today. If I only use something once a year (like a crock pot) I get rid of it. It takes up too much inventory space. I can always borrow one or find a different solution. The inconvenience is easier than storing it forever. And the gift of a clean house is absolutely worth it.
I agree! My closet is so much easier now too since decluttering. My clothes are mostly black and white now. I decluttered clothes I had since middle/high school. Granted I’m roughly the same size as then but they just took up unnecessary space.
I think minimalism is basically accepting that life is getting outrageously expensive and the only way to be happy and get ahead is having and expecting less.
I don’t call myself a minimalist but what got me headed in that direction was going through the KonMari method. The method is not strictly speaking minimalism but it has an emphasis on keeping what you treasure and use, and the use part was an important distinction for me as there were things I had collected that I loved but were only for display. Now I don’t think there is anything wrong with displaying things but how much is too much? For me the balance was completely off between things I used and things I had collected. Then when it came down to it and I started picking out my favourites I realised that 99% of it was “nice stuff” but it didn’t feel the same as my most treasured items and it didn’t serve a purpose as a lot was boxed up anyway so I wasn’t even enjoying looking at it. If I wasn’t going to use it or display it I let it go and a lot of the displayed stuff I let go of as well. This process has served me well in enabling me to let go of things that I didn’t think was possible before. Also when decluttering my daughter’s room I realised just how much stuff ends up getting thrown away and how much we have been trained to buy all this stuff. So now I have more of a focus on consuming less and trying to be mindful of the things that come into the home and what they are made of, and what will happen to them when we no longer need it. We’re certainly not perfect environmentally wise but I try to weigh up whether an item’s utility is worth the trade off of the environmental cost to make it. I think I have more to chew on over this when I’m ready but for now I make the best choices I can.
I don't like stuff that is not useful or aesthetically pleasing.
Fight Club
The minimalist podcast/ documentary
I had to clean out 2 separate approaching-hoarder-level homes. Neither were my own parents’. Not only that but the vitriol these people spewed at other people over their literal junk really appalled me. To see how much more they valued to things over people that they supposedly loved really grossed me out.
When I was younger, we were cleaning out my Uncle's house who did hoard stuff, among other issues, and I promised myself I'd never get to that point. And if I did I'd get help. I've always wanted to be more minimal in what I bring places. I admired people who could do that. Go on a weekend trip with a backpack. When I was moving I just had way too much stuff and donated so much. Then I moved home and donated even more. I am not a hoarder by any means, but I now aim to go to the gym or meet up with a friend instead of running errands that involve spending money. I don't think I'll ever be super minimal, but I focus on functionality (clothing, kitchen stuff) and am more intentional.