Recently, I have been very interested in minimalism and the concept of discarding things that are unnecessary and excessive. This has been especially true throughout college as I have seen the large collection of things I own whenever I move into new dorms or apartments. Now that I am about to graduate, I want less stuff. I don’t want to be burdened down with things when I am at the point in my life where I will be moving around the most. I love the concept of getting rid of things and having only the most necessary, but it is hard to know where to start. I probably won’t ever become fully minimalist by definition (because I still like shopping and I need some things) but I have been slowly working on donating clothes and getting rid of things. I did some research on steps to take if you want to become more minimalist in your life. I also recommend the Netflix documentary “Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things.”
1. Discard any duplicates
Do you find that you have tons of extra makeup, too many coffee mugs to count, or an extra set of measuring cups “just in case”? Donate or give away these items because you really only need one of each until it needs to be replaced.
2. Project 333
A popular trend that has been going around the internet relating to minimalism is Project 333, a challenge where you can only wear 33 items in your closet for three months. Some people will even go so far as to include accessories in this. Most people say that this makes their life exponentially easier and most people don’t even notice that they are wearing the same things.
3. Travel lightly
If you are going on a trip, challenge yourself to only take what you REALLY need. Women (including myself) are notorious over-packers, so really think about if you need that pair of heels or the hat you will only wear once on your week-long trip.
4. Create a clutter-free zone
This could be anywhere in your house or apartment and it tends to be spaces that are more cluttered than others, like a coffee table, nightstand, or desk. Declare one of these a clutter-free zone to show yourself that you don’t need to fill space with junk. If this experiment works out, you can then try expanding the zone further.
5. Clean out your closet
Another popular method for cleaning out clothes includes turning around your clothes hangers and once you wear an item, turning it back so that you can see how much you actually wear out of your wardrobe.
Whatever you decide to do, hopefully these simple steps will get you on the right track to cleaning out your life and feeling less cluttered!