How I Became a Minimalist: Little Steps I Took Towards Bigger Change

And how you can be a minimalist, too.

Published in

The Minute Minimalist

9 min readJun 17, 2019

I have always had anxiety. I have always lived with the fear of loss. What I was so afraid to lose, I’m not really sure what. Even as a child, my fear of loss was so great that whenever there was a storm, I would pack all my belongings into a little toy stroller I had. Then, as the storm raged on, I would sleep with the stroller beside my bed, always just an arms reach away, ready for anything.

Growing up, it was such a struggle living with the need to always be ready. My anxiety became an anchor that stopped me from living my life the way I wanted to. My earliest memory of this anxiety literally weighing me down was when I was in grade school. As a pupil, it was normal to lug around so many stuff. My backpack was always filled to the brim. Every day, I carried 10 notebooks, a pencil case full of pens and pencils, a box of crayons, a huge sharpener, another case for a huge eraser, a plastic file case for worksheets, and books. I did not have to bring all of these things every day, yet bring them I did. My mother often scolded me for bringing so much unnecessary stuff all the time. Soon, I suffered the consequences. As I came from a family of scoliotics, I became back bent earlier than most.

My anxiety became an anchor that stopped me from living my life the way I wanted to.

Marie Kondo is an Angel

I continued living like this until I was in high school. My closets (yes, closets) were overflowing with clothes. My bag was still stuffed. My school locker was always full. I was still anxious about my stuff. The only noticeable improvement was that everything was neat. I have developed the new found skill of organizing, thanks to my angel Marie Kondo.

Marie Kondo is the author of the best selling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Here, she discussed two themes: techniques about how to only keep the things that sparked joy and useful strategies to maintain a neat space. She called her method “KonMari”. I came across her book one day during one of my many excursions to the local bookstore. I was interested in the Japanese culture and that part of her title was the first thing to catch my eye. Upon reading the whole book, however, I was hit with inspiration.

“Maybe,” I thought to myself, “All I need to do is keep only the things that I really love!”

I felt energized. I immediately set out to sort through my things. Carefully emptying out all my closets, drawers, and storage spaces. I followed the KonMari method as faithfully as I could. I held each item and decided if it sparked joy. All the items I decided to keep were organized and stored. This somehow eased some of my anxiety, but I was still anxious. I still owned so much. My attacks were still triggered by the fear of loss — the fear of losing my now sorted and organized things. Marie Kondo has saved me in many ways, but I wanted to push further. I need to overcome my anxiety caused by being invested in too much stuff.

I Found Two New Best Friends; Josh and Ryan

Marie Kondos book became an overnight hit in Japan when natural disaster shook the nation. The people started questioning what really mattered to them.

“Am I surrounded by things that truly bring me joy?”

I read further into how the KonMari method became a Japanese norm. As I was browsing through online articles, I eventually came across minimalism. Apparently, there were some people who enjoyed throwing out so much stuff and clutter that they managed to pare down to the bare essentials. These people were finally surrounded only by the things that truly brought them joy. This seemed too extreme for me. I scanned my room, touched my clothes, sniffed on my books, and found that all these brought me joy. I can’t possibly go that far.

Right before I was about to close the browser window, an article caught my eye. It was “What is Minimalism?” by The Minimalists. I clicked on the link and read about Minimalism from the perspective of Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, also known as “The Minimalists”. They said that Minimalism is a tool to find true freedom. They observed that most of the common day problems come from the meaning we associate with the things in our life. They proposed breaking away from this problem by being more conscious and deliberate in our decisions. We can achieve this by ridding our lives with the unnecessary, the excess, to give more time and energy on things that really matter to us. What I liked the most about The Minimalists is that they do not force their concept of Minimalism on other people. How you live more deliberately and more consciously is up to you. For me, this meant freedom from being so anxious all the time. This was enough motivation to take the plunge.

How you live more deliberately and more consciously is up to you.

So, For the Actual Steps I Took…

Now that I told you my back story, let us talk about how I started my journey as a Minimalist.

1. Research methods and choose what fits your style and personality.

When I started to be more deliberate and intentional in my life choices, I combined the KonMari method (Does it spark joy?) and the method introduced by The Minimalist (Does it add value?)

Once again, I sorted through my things and became very honest with myself which brought joy and added value to my life. I asked myself item-specific questions and gave direct answers. Does this shirt contribute to my goal? Is this helping me become more intentional? Everything I did (or at least most of what I did) was directed towards living a simpler, more meaningful life.

There are many articles on the internet that can give you ideas about how to start your own journey. Here are some of them:

2. Have a purpose.

Just like every other activity you engage in, you can perform better if you have an end-goal in mind. Ask yourself why you want to be more deliberate and intentional. Who are you doing it for? What are the things you want to give more time and energy to?

Visualize what you could do with the time and energy you will be freeing up. Have you always wanted to go hiking? The time you used to spend doing the laundry could now your time for hiking. Does traveling sound appealing to you? All the money you can save from buying less stuff can be spent to pay for that plane ticket. We all have something we always wanted to do but it seemed like we never had the time or resources to do them. Use these goals as your driving force. Turn those daydreams into day trips.

3. Set up a plan for YOU.

Depending on your research, you can come up with a strategy that is tailored fit to your lifestyle. Do not be pressured to follow a specific set of instructions to become a minimalist (like this one). Josh and Ryan always remind us that there is not a singular “recipe for minimalism” that is all-encompassing. After all, we are all unique. But this does not mean that you can’t take advice from others. At the beginning of my journey, I followed the procedure of The Minimalist. They wrote about their experience in the article Our 21-Day Journey Into Minimalism. In this article, Joshua helps Ryan convert his cluttered life into minimalism in 21 days. Why 21 days? Because that is how long it takes to form a habit.

I found that taking the 21-Day challenge was what satisfied my needs the most, but I tweaked it a bit. I incorporated the KonMari method (as mentioned earlier). In the Minimalists method, you started with Decisions, then Planning, then Packing and so on. In the KonMari method, you started with things you could let go of easily then gradually worked your way towards things that have more meaning to you.

I stuck with decluttering in 21 days but rearranged what to deal with per day. For example, for Day 1 I started with sorting through clothes, following the KonMari method. This exercise helped me improve my decision-making skill. For Day 2, I went with Decisions which was originally the Day 1 for The Minimalist. I made my Should Vs Must list. Because I was able to exercise my decision making during the first day, this second-day exercise was a lot easier.

By setting up this plan that is specifically for me, I was able to maximize my 21-Day journey as a minimalist. I made the experience more meaningful.

4. Be committed.

The article “6 Gentle Reminders About Minimalism” gave clarity to one of the major things about Minimalism — that Minimalism is a repeated choice. Every day, in everything you do, you must constantly remind yourself about choosing to live as a minimalist.

Staying committed to Minimalism was easy at first. But when the novelty of the experience began to wear off, Minimalism became a chore. There are times when the urge mindlessly scroll through pages or surf through channels was great. It is sometimes greater than the desire to focus on tasks that will add value to my life.

To counter this mindless urge, I resorted to asking myself two questions whenever I made a decision— “Does this activity or decision bring me joy?” and “Does this activity or decision add value to my life?” Every activity has to either bring me joy, add value to my life, or both. This way, I can limit my choices and focus on things that really matter to me.

As you go on your journey to minimalism, practice to increase your consciousness about your choices. Always return to your purpose and remind yourself why you are taking steps to be a minimalist. This can be an effective way to stay committed in your day-to-day life.

5. Share by example.

I live with four other people in our house — my mom, my sister, my brother, and my boyfriend. All four of them happen to be living differently from me. From my perspective, they live with a lot of excesses. Pretty much like the way I was living years before: closets filled with clothes, shoes, and bags; collecting trinkets; participating in activities that have no particular goal; name it, we have most likely gone through it as a family. Recently, however, I started noticing small changes in their behavior. My sister sorted through her belongings and gave up more than a third of her clothing. My brother limited chose to hang out with friends who share a common goal with him. Even my mom started going out less during the weekends. I would like to believe that these small changes were influenced to some degree of my being a minimalist.

I never forced Minimalism unto them (though sometimes I’d interject a joke or two about how much easier life would be if they were surrounded with the things they actually value and use) but they picked it up by observation. When I started living as a minimalist, I had more time doing the things I love. I became a more active Animal Rescuer. I had more time with my boyfriend improving our music (we are local musicians with gigs in some bars). I enjoyed creating art more. I had time to start a blog, something I always wanted to do. By showing them that living simply means doing more, my family is becoming more deliberate in their own choices.

Time to Take Those Baby Steps

Now that I have shared how I started my journey, its time for you to venture out on your own. Let us review my roadmap:

Research methods and choose what fits your style and personality.
Have a purpose.
Set up a plan for you.
Be committed.
Share by example.

As you prepare, keep in mind that Minimalism is a never-ending process. Minimalism is the journey itself. It is not the destination. You are not alone on this trip. Many people (like me) will be here to hold your hand, one baby step at a time.

Have you ever watched the anime series Doraemon growing up?