Simple Living & Minimalism (sort of)

What is simple living & minimalism like? I love the idea of minimalism. But something about the trendy or modern day idea of minimalism doesn’t fit into my lifestyle.

It works for many people, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t work for my family dynamic. Instead, we choose to live simply.

To be organized, and live as sort of minimalists.

What are some of the benefits of simple living?

Not only has simplifying our lives made us happier, it has also helped improve our overall health. Because less stuff = less stress.  

Here are a few of my favorite benefits of living a simple life.

More time

When you live simply and own less items, there’s less stuff to clean or organize. This means that you have more free time for what truly matters in your life.

The more that I simplify around our home, the more time that I have to play with my children and to relax with my husband.

Saves money

Cutting out superfluous spending, leaves more money for buying something that is more meaningful. This also helps to eliminate debt.

It’s truly amazing to me when I hear stories of people racking up credit card debt for useless items of little personal value.

Because, you know what? I was there once. When I was young, I thought I knew everything and I wasn’t raised with good financial advice. So, I fell into the credit card trap and it is really hard to climb back out of that hole.

Peace & calm

You’ll have more space to think clearly. I don’t know about you, but my brain just doesn’t function well in a cluttered environment.

When I began to declutter and simplify our home, I started to become happier. My mind was more at peace and I felt so much less stressed.

Old time wisdom

Have you ever paid attention to older homes? They were built smaller than most modern homes. There were less areas for storage and the closets were much smaller than most of the homes today.

This is because there was a different mindset back then.

They didn’t need many items, times were simpler. Today’s times there are these standards and a constant competition with our neighbors or “keeping up with the Joneses”.

It really helps me to think of those simpler times and put those ideas into practice.

They truly had a place for everything and everything in its place!

How to get started

A key to simple living, is to well, start simple. Slowly make progress and changes in your life. These are a few of the steps that I started on to simplify our lives.

It took some time for me to adjust to country living, but it is simple and has helped me to truly appreciate life and the value of things.

Purge

Take some time and go through everything in your home. I have this awesome super detailed decluttered checklist available in my member’s freebie area. Sign up for FREE access below.

Think about what is a true need, but also keep the things that matter to you. You want to create a simple home, but it’s also a home full of love and memories. To me, it’s all about balance.

Change habits

After working on a massive declutter session, the last thing you’ll want to do is to allow all of those things to start filling up your home again.

What worked well for me was changing habits. It can take some time to build new ones and I’m definitely not perfect here. But the important thing is to keep working at it and never get discouraged.

New habits take time to form.

Encourage family

Get your family on board to support you in this process. The best way that I’ve learned to get my husband on board with simple living is to lead by example.

If I get too pushy, it never works in my favor. So, I’m really working on being patient (definitely not my strength) but I believe in it and I’ve seen it work throughout the course of our marriage.

Simple beauty routine

I love the idea of a capsule wardrobe, but I also don’t want to sacrifice on style.

Let me be the first to say that I’m a sort of minimalist here. I don’t own a ton of clothing, but I also like to dress nice for my family. Here’s the capsule wardrobe I put together for myself.

Decluttering with children

This can be a challenge in itself. Am I right? The main thing that I try to remember is to be mindful of my children and their favorite items. I’m not about to throw something out or donate it if my child is attached to it.

Instead, I’ll work on helping them overcome the attachment when the time is right. You know what else saves my sanity, I declutter their items and toys when they aren’t around to see what is going away.

I also believe in Montessori style principles, so I get them involved in the process (except when it comes to toys) because I need balance here.

My children are still very young and it’s hard for them to grasp that concept. All in due time.

So, all of these things have changed our life for the better. Each day, we continue to work on living a simpler life and it feels great! What tips would you add to this list?