Six Benefits Of Living A Minimalist Lifestyle
#1 Cleaning and moving are no longer a hassle
Simply stated, a minimalist lifestyle is about living with the essential items and remove the unnecessary stuff.
Having said that, everyone has a different definition of what essential means to them so just because someone throws away their TV doesn’t mean you have to do the same.
Living with fewer items can generate a better life quality so let’s find out how something sounds so paradoxical can enhance your life quality!
1. Cleaning and moving are no longer a hassle
You might think that motivation is what you need to clean your place and you beat yourself up when you let it become messy.
Yet, the truth is you don’t need motivation. What you need is to make cleaning easier to do and a good habit of cleaning will follow with almost zero effort required from you.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, living a minimalist lifestyle can make it happen.
With fewer items, cleaning won’t feel like a chore anymore because less stuff means less dust and less energy spent while cleaning.
With fewer items, it’s easier to move and extra time can be saved. If back then it took you a week to move, then maybe you can move within less than a week now.
These advantages also open the door for freedom because if you are the type of person who doesn’t want to stay in one place for a long-term period, then you can move whenever and wherever you want to without worrying much about the hassle of moving.
So there you have it: killing 2 birds with 1 stone.
2. More time
Besides energy and money, you can also save more time by not spending endless hours wandering in stores or online to shop.
With this extra time, you can direct it towards the things that matter to you more such as spending more time with your kids or your parents or pursuing a project that you have long wanted to do.
It’s also a great opportunity to use the extra time to invest in yourself and read some more books. In the long run, you will probably be surprised by how much wiser you’ve become.
Successful people like Steve Jobs perhaps adopted this minimalist lifestyle because he almost always appeared with the same basic outfit (iPhone is also a very minimalist design). I suspect that he didn’t want to spend a lot of time thinking about what to wear. Instead, using that precious time for the more important things.
3. More inner peace
With the rise of the social media era, it’s hard not to compare yourself to others when you are constantly being bombarded with so many posts about people showing off their extravagance lifestyle or their expensive items.
Keep comparing yourself to others is unhealthy and it neither makes you feel enough nor happy.
The truth is, everyone has a story and what portrays on social media is usually not what it looks like in real life.
So when you feel obligated to buy stuff to impress others, yet not necessary, your mental health may suffer to a certain extent.
Choosing to live with what essential and remove what is not allow you to make peace with your mind. Eventually, those jealousy and negative thoughts will disappear.
4. More self-confidence
The thought that people would judge my appearance had always occupied my mind. Therefore, I was obsessed with buying fashionable clothes to the point where I couldn’t keep track of how many clothes I had in my closet anymore.
And when I decided to give away all the clothes that didn’t fit me anymore or the ones I didn’t wear often, I noticed that my mindset had started shifting.
I no longer have a desire to chase fashion trends and would care less about what people think about my appearance because knowing that I feel comfortable in my clothes is enough to make me confident.
5. More space
By only focusing on what you need, you will be able to buy less stuff, save money, and have more space in your house/room.
Before adopting this lifestyle, my room had always been a mess with stuff all over the floor, the drawers, the closet. It became frustrating to me that no matter how many times I cleaned the room, eventually, it would get back to this messy stage.
“How on earth did I let this happen AGAIN?!”
So I decided to remove the things that I didn’t need anymore and now, every time I look at the room with these extra space, I feel refreshed as if I saw a new room in front of my eyes.
6. Having better relationships with your loved ones
I have seen many arguments arise from everyday stuff, especially when it comes to family or couples.
You may not realize this but sometimes, an unnecessary item that you bought could create random arguments or issues for you.
For example, I once saw my aunt and uncle fought over a set of utensils. My uncle thought it looked fancy so he bought it while my aunt complained about how they didn’t need more spoons and forks in the house.
The bottom line? Less stuff, fewer issues, fewer headaches.
Having fewer possessions doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your life anymore. Like I said, only you know what is essential to you so if you have, let’s say, a shelf full of books and it makes you happy, then there is no reason to get rid of it.
The point of this minimalist lifestyle is to live with intentions and hopefully, it can help you find the meaning of your life.
“It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.” — Bertrand Russell
To read further on the topic of a minimalist lifestyle, check out my recently published article below.
Thanks for reading!
