The concept of minimalism, ie. living with less, has become a huge trend in recent years, and has become a buzzword in the lifestyle, wellness and interior niches. But for true minimalists, living with less isn’t just a fashionable phase, but a lifestyle that has brought them more happiness, freedom and a whole new perspective on life.

In this post, I’ll be sharing some ways that you can begin practicing minimalism even if you LOVE buying new possessions, or you’re maybe just a liiiiittle bit of a hoarder. For more information on decluttering your home and life, check out my recent post on the KonMari method here.

1.Minimalise Your Closet

  • Take all your clothes out of your wardrobe and only put back in the clothes you wear all of the time and/or are sentimental.
  • Decide which clothes to take to charity or sell on Depop or Poshmark.
  • Organise your wardrobe in a uniformed way that suits you – category, colour etc.
  • Have a shoe and handbag review – if you only wear one handbag and pair of shoes the whole time, it’s time to get rid of most of the others.
  • Neatly organise your underwear and socks, reviewing which ones are probably a little too old or not worn enough.

2. Minimalise Your Office

  • Go through your bookshelves and only keep books that you go back to or are sentimental.
  • If you haven’t read a lot of your books, decide whether realistically you will ever actually read them – if not, donate them.
  • Spend a day going through that big stack of paperwork that lives in your drawer, firstly binning all of the paper that’s unecessary.
  • Organise like papers with like papers – letters with letters, etc.
  • Only keep the essential stationery – there’s no need for hundreds of pens and pencils.
  • Go through any drawers and trays to remove all the old documents or scrap paper that may be hiding.
  • Remove any items that you don’t really need on the desk so that you can feel organised when working.

3. Streamline Your Beauty Products

  • Go through all your makeup and beauty products, firstly throwing away anything that’s expired.
  • Remove or get rid of any products that you don’t use, for example wrong tone foundations, super colourful eyeshadows you’ll never use etc.
  • Put all of your makeup essentials into a pretty bag or container, and then put any makeup that you wear occasionally into it’s own separate space.

4. Organise Your Electronics

  • Go through all those wires and chargers that don’t seem to have partners and either find their partners or get rid of.
  • If you have any old phones or laptops that are no longer used, decide whether you want to sell them, donate them or trash them.
  • Decide whether you still want any CDs or DVDs, whether instead you can listen on Spotify and watch the movie on Netflix, or if they are sentimental and you want to keep.

5. Clean Up Your Digital Space

  • Clean up your desktop, only keeping the things you need.
  • Find things to put into Trash and then empty it.
  • Review all of your pictures, removing any duplicates, blurry snaps or ones that you don’t like/want anymore.
  • Organise your Apps or documents into specific folders to make it easy to find what you’re looking for.
  • Uninstall any apps or programs that you don’t need or want.
  • Go through your subscription list on YouTube and unsubscribe from any channels that you aren’t interested in anymore.
  • Review who you are friends with on Facebook.  Try to unfriend people you don’t really know or aren’t close with anymore.
  • Unfollow any accounts on Twitter and Instagram that you don’t care to see, or that make you feel down, angry or depressed.
  • Go through your email subscriptions and only keep the ones that you’re actually interested in.
  • Declutter your inboxes by deleting emails that are no longer important, or are spam/trash.

Some Final Pointers…

  • Start small – just minimalise one room, or even area of your house first.
  • For every one thing you buy, give one thing away.
  • Try only buying what you NEED for one week.
  • Imagine all of the experiences you could buy with the money you save from only buying the necessities.
  • Only own things that spark joy in you.

I hope you’ve found this post helpful!

Lots of love,

Natalie xx