How to become a minimalist!

How do you become a minimalist? How do you get started I hear you ask. Well, luckily for you have I have tried and tested many strategies over the last few years to understand how to declutter and adapt a minimalist lifestyle and these are the key things I have learnt along the way…

1. Know your why

It’s important to have a reason as to why you want to be a minimalist. I started due to the need to save money and as I stopped spending and had so much free time I began decluttering. Knowing that I wanted to save money for a house deposit was motivation to keep going and to spend less.

2. Start the decluttering process

With you reason inn the back of your mind, it’s time to start reducing the number of items in your home to an appropriate level. The good news is that you get to decide these. As you start decluttering you will gage an idea of what you want your home to look like so work to that level. There is no need to be excessive if you don’t want to – just aim for your desired look.

3. Assess your spending

You need to gain an idea of what money you have coming in and what is going out. Do you have a complete understanding of where your money goes? If not you need to read your bank statement and get some figures written down for each category, e.g. food, eating out, socialising, activities, hobbies, petrol, homeware.

4. Create a minimalist budget

Which a complete assessment of your spending for previous months, you will be able to work out realistically where you can reduce your spend. For example, if you spend £400 on food, could you reduce this to £350 per month. Do you need to keep buying new clothes and homeware items? Think about categories that you could cut or reduce the amount that you spend.

5. Have a 1 in 1 out policy

Now that you have decluttered your home, you need to find a way of painting this. The one in one out policy is going to be a game changer for this. If you buy a new pair of shoes, find another pair (for example) that you could declutter so that you are not building up the amount of items in your home.

Remember, the goal is to get to an acceptable level for you – so create your own rules so that it works for you.

Rachel, Declutter your life x

For more information on decluttering, check out this post… https://declutteryourlife.co.uk/minimalism/minimalist-living-living-with-less/

More information can be found on my youtube channel… https://www.youtube.com/c/RachelNoakes