Today's blog post was written by professional organizer, Ashley McLean, the owner of Home Steps.
MINIMALIST LIFESTYLE
What is a minimalist lifestyle? If you were to google minimalist lifestyle it can be explained as “keeping things very simple” or “intentionally living with only the things that you absolutely need”. Why would someone choose to live a minimalist lifestyle?
Let’s chat about a handful of the benefits:
Confidence | When someone really takes the time to make decisions regarding what truly matters to them, this builds confidence. When making the conscious choice to live with less the confidence built through this journey can be reflected in other parts of our daily life.
Focus | We all have priorities in life, small or big and we should make sure that we have the time to focus on these priorities. When we clear our home of the physical clutter this also allows us to better focus mentally. Think of being able to focus more on your families nutrition by meal prepping on Sundays, instead of constantly picking up the same toys over and over, by having a more manageable amount so that your children can do this instead.
Money | Most of us have goals and with that comes needing to create paths that get us to that end goal and along the way most goals will generally have some costs. If we only live with what we need this allows us to save more for short and long term goals. This could involve nutrition, fitness, travel, starting a family, buying a home or retirement. We could have a walk-in closet filled with all the clothes that we could ever need until they go out of style and we need more. Or we could be content with a reasonable amount of quality pieces that fit us well and make us feel confident. The second example here gives us more freedom to save towards our future goals as well as payoff or stay out of debt.
Stress | I don’t know about you, however if my home is calm this enables me to be more calm personally, we can’t control when the world is chaotic however we can control how our home makes us feel. And let's face it the world is chaotic most of the time, so lets create a space that allows us to leave that stress behind as soon as we walk through the door at the end of the day and prepares us for what is to come as we wake up and start a new day.
Time | “I love doing laundry and cleaning dishes” said no one ever. Imagine a home with less time spent on everyday tasks and more time to focus on what truly matters to you. If you need more time to relax, light a candle, have some tea and read a book. Or maybe to you this means getting out in nature more, going on a hike, running or biking. Simplifying our belongings will allow you more time to do that thing that makes you, YOU.
Overall, I personally believe that in order to be more organized there has to be some sort of simplifying or decluttering involved in the process. Otherwise, we would just continue to spend so much time managing, sorting, folding or dusting, etc. all the items that we never use.
How do you feel about simplifying your life? Contact Ashley, for more information on how she can help you!
Ashley is a long distance trail runner and backpacker, living in Squamish, BC. When not working or doing some crazy endurance thing she also loves to volunteer with animals. She currently volunteers with an organization, fostering and transporting neglected farm animals to farm sanctuaries across western Canada.