The 7 Simple Factors That Helped Me Become Minimalist

Last year, I started reading some articles, and also did my own research about a certain movement. I knew the word “minimalism” was related to art and design. However, the minimalist lifestyle got my attention when I started to really understand it. The concept of living with less.

It didn’t seem too appealing to me at first. I thought the term was related to wearing the same every day and not using any cosmetics at all, but I kept doing my research and ended up discovering that minimalism could be applied to every person in a different way.
It’s true that in general, more minimal lifestyles deny excess and clutter. Is also true that most minimal lifestyles want to keep it simple in order to make life more productive and clean.

I have always had a bunch of stuff around me, both important items and unimportant, but I never really got educated about minimalism and lifestyle. In London, our tiny flat was making me feel like the excess was actually a huge hassle. Every time we were going to move to a new place, just the idea of getting all those meaningless items and finding some space was a mental burden.
Yesterday, I realized there were a few circumstances that made me start my journey as a minimalist:

1. Living in tiny flats

I don’t like spending time organizing. Neither myself nor my partner love putting every single item where it should be every day. It’s a common habit for us to just leave things around. Then, once twice a week we organize and leave everything in their respective places.
This “messiness” gets worse if we have countless items. The truth is that the less you have, the less it’s going to be around bothering you. And when the organising day comes, the less you have, the less you will need to organise.

2. Moving a lot

We move at least once a year and sometimes even more. Every time we learn new tips and tricks to make the moving less of a nightmare for us.
I go into the bathroom and start getting all my cosmetic and hair products in a box. That’s when I realize that I have some many hair conditioners and hair masks that, apart from making the box extremely heavy to carry, will take me months, if not a whole year or more to empty.
In fact, after moving for the last time I made the decision of not buying any other shampoo, conditioner, etc. until I finished with the current product I was using or at least until it’s next to being finished.

3. The aesthetic factor

I would be lying if I just ignored the simple reality: I love the superficial aesthetic factor. I love minimalism as an art, I do enjoy looking at designs, stationery, jewellery and clothing that apply this principle. This pleasing appearance plays an important role here. I love to contemplate interior designs with clean spaces.

I also like the minimalist style when it comes to fashion and creating outfits, I find them comfortable and easy to combine. The “capsule wardrobe” has become a really popular concept for many people who enjoy minimalist lifestyles.
I am on my way to create a “capsule wardrobe”, but my love for clothing and different fashion styles is making it a bit harder.
Anyway, I have improved so much over the last two years!

4. Freedom

Getting rid of useless items, as well as setting your mind to stop getting attached to them gives you a similar feeling to freedom. Freedom from needing possessions. Freedom from feeling the need to check almost every day which the new games/clothes/cosmetics are…
The freedom to feel fulfilled without needing to bring things into your life that you won’t use.

And last but not least important, the freedom from your past. We accumulate a ridiculous amount of items because we value them as memories. We keep magnets, little teddy bears and items that we got in trips or used to love years ago, but they are not useful anymore and now I don´t think I want to keep material stuff holding onto my past. Experiences are the only things that matter really, and they will indeed stay in my mind if they are worth it. Also, I keep images from past trips on a hard drive. That way, if I feel the need to remember a certain trip in particular, I can just check the hard drive out and enjoy the memories.

5. Self-improvement

We often buy things when we feel bad about ourselves and our lives. To be self-aware is the first step when it comes to improve and grow as a human being. When you stop before buying something and think about it and wonder where does the impulse that makes you want to buy the item come from, you can come to interesting conclusions about yourself. Maybe you are not feeling well because of a previous bad decision you have recently made, or you are just going through a bad time. It’s extremely easy to feel the need to fill up that void by buying material items.

I always keep in mind that my purpose is to minimize the number of items that I have. My purpose every day is cutting down the materials that I need to have. With that mentality, I move towards that goal.

6. The mission

Sometimes, trying to reduce the number of items that I don’t need feels like a mission (but a possible one). For example, last week I wanted to buy some clips that I actually needed. I got the chance to go to one of my favourite places, my personal Disneyland of sorts: a stationary store!

I admit it. It was extremely difficult to buy ONLY paperclips. The were some rose gold pens that got my attention from the beginning, as well as some other cute accessories that would look beautiful with my paperclips. However, I didn’t really need them.
Leaving the place with the paper clips only felt like a mission once I was inside, but it also felt like a victory when I left the place with only the item I was looking for in my bag.
I felt proud of myself, I felt free and ultimately a few pounds richer too!

7. Less quantity, but better quality

One of the best parts that come with owning less items is the possibility of choosing more carefully which qualities or properties of an item you appreciate more. When you buy less, you can take more time to decide which items have a better quality.

You just operate with a different mindset: is not a compulsive buy, it´s something you need. With that in mind, you put more effort into deciding which item will be better for you.

Conclusion

I feel the reason why some people may feel a bad vibe about minimalism is that they feel it’s all about restrictions. It is not!
You can have a perfectly minimalist lifestyle with a night routine that consists of 7 cosmetic products, as long as you actually use them and feel that you need them. The difference lays on not going overboard. You don’t need 2 items of the same product just because it was on sale when you will be using just one of them, because let’s be honest, there are sales all the time isn’t it!

It´s about not buying something just because it´s cheap or looks nice. There is not a strict set of rules you should meet to consider yourself a minimalist.

In my case, I won’t have stored any extra toothpaste or mouth wash I don’t need for the time being. I do allow myself to have 2 different shampoos because it’s good for my hair to change from one to another every other week. However, that’s enough for me, so every time I see a new product launched by a hair brand that I love, I write in on my wishlist and wait until I have finished my current shampoos.

In order to keep my word, I made a really simple Excel template where I wrote every single item that I had.
This was one of my best minimalist decisions ever, as it has been effective (more than I initially expected) and after a year, I still keep it.