6 Simple Ways To Begin Living A Minimalist Lifestyle

Are you feeling drawn to begin living a minimalist lifestyle? 

You’re 100% in the right place!! 

Ever since switching to a minimalist lifestyle around 2018 ish, I have noticed massive improvements in my sense of peace and ease of living. 

Things are just so much easier when you don’t have so much clutter holding you down. 

In addition, simplifying your life is a great way to lower anxiety and increase contentment.

While a minimalist lifestyle may not be suited for all people, it certainly has helped many to reduce the clutter in their lives and come close to what really brings them joy. 

To begin living a minimalist lifestyle you need to shift your mindset first. In order to make outward changes, change from within is necessary. 

This is why you’ve got to embrace letting go when you begin your minimalist journey.

If your mind is still set on acquiring and gaining excitement from adding more stuff into your life, you will have a difficult time living a minimalist lifestyle. 

Overall, to begin living a minimalist lifestyle, you really need to step back and reflect on your life situation.

This is kind of like a self-audit where you assess what’s most important to you and clear out anything that doesn’t align with your core goals in life. 

In this post, we’ll show you how to begin living a minimalist lifestyle even if you’re a complete beginner! 

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.

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6 Simple Ways To Begin Living A Minimalist Lifestyle:

1. Do Some Self Reflection

This is a clear first step in order to minimize your life. 

Self-reflection is a great way to step back and look at the way your life is going.

You’ll begin to notice some things may not be the way that you would want and this is where you need to make your life adjustments and create the life that you want.

There will be some things that need to change…

Maybe you need to add some things:

• Embrace new positive habits 
• More exercise
• More personal time
• Read more

And maybe a whole lot of things need to go:

• Excess physical and mental clutter
• Bad habits
• Excess stress and anxieties 
• Unhealthy eating

Reflect On What’s Most Important In Your Life

In order to self-reflect, you should identify what is keeping you from living life to the fullest.

As stated above these could be some of the negative things that you are consciously or subconsciously holding on to. 

This way you’ll identify what needs to change in your life. 

If you have a family, this could be spending more time with your children after work and on the weekends. 

Whatever this may be, just make sure to find your true desires in life! 

Create A Plan To Make It Happen

One part of your plan could involve decluttering. And whatever it is that you plan on doing, always create a goal and map out a plan of action.

And when it comes to making a plan of action you should 100% make a to-do list to organize your goals.  

2. Get Motivated by Reading and Watching Minimalist Content

One of my favorite ways to find inspiration and motivation is to simply hop on YouTube and explore different topics that I’m currently interested in. 

In this case, exploring content related to minimalism and simple living will add the necessary fuel to the fire that will help you make your first steps. 

This type of content will also give you a peek into the lives of others.

You’ll learn about their journeys and gain more knowledge about how to begin living a minimalist lifestyle.

And the best part is that you’ll get to see just how some of these people live which can be very inspiring! 

Another way I love to research and get excited about a minimalist lifestyle is through the magical internet and reading other blogs!

This is a great way to get the perspective of other content creators that have some great tips and also share some amazing stories. 

Youtube Content 

There are tons of great content creators on YouTube!

When I first started researching minimalism, Matt D’Avella’s channel was one of the first that I watched.

This is because he was the director of the Netflix documentary “Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things”. 

His videos are great and give some helpful tips. Check him out!

Another one of my favorite things to look up on YouTube was people who could fit their entire wardrobe into a carry-on.

I still don’t know why I like the idea of fitting most or all of your clothing in a few bags. I feel like there is something so freeing about this. 

In fact, this is one of the first things I researched when I was in college. I was becoming obsessed with dwindling down my wardrobe to eventually fit everything into a carry-on myself. 

Blogs To Check Out 

Whenever I’m bored of watching visual content, there are times when I will just go straight to Google and search for certain topics.

Most of the time when I’m searching online, I’m looking to learn more about that person’s experience or story. 

There are a lot of good stories about decluttering and whatnot on YouTube, but if I’m strictly curious about how someone lives their life, I will search on Google for blogs first. 

Here are some of the blogs that I recommend if you really want to begin living a minimalist lifestyle: 

• Making Sense of Cents
• Simply + Fiercely
• Simple Lionheart Life

3. Change Your Mindset

Now that you’ve got your inspiration, it’s time to start getting into the practical side of living a minimalist lifestyle.

This first step involves changing your mindset. Like most things in life, your mindset is everything.

This can make or break your success. 

In order to live a more simplified life you first need to shift your thinking from acquiring and start learning to be fully content with what you already have and what you actually need.

Daily Minimalist Mindset 

In order to change your mindset, you need to actively practice this daily. 

First: you can look for ways to minimize items and things in your daily life 

Do this by:

• Minimize apps on your phone
• Declutter different rooms 
• Clear out unnecessary junk in your workspace
• Declutter your wardrobe

Next: Make a plan to limit your shopping.

We can’t forget about this step because, in order to prevent more junk from piling up in our lives, we need to put a lid on unnecessary impulse shopping. 

Make smart shopping decisions by:

• Saving items in a “cart” or for later when online shopping
• Delete (temporarily or permanently) apps like Amazon or other shopping apps
• Wait a least a week before making any purchase
• Think to yourself: “Do I really need this item?” 

Minimalist Mindset and Finances 

One of the absolute best benefits of living a more minimalist lifestyle would be saving more money.

Imagine all of the money spent on things that just sit around your house or apartment.

All of that money could have been saved or used for an awesome trip somewhere with family or friends. 

Here’s the bottom line:

• Prioritize your savings
• Limit spending
• Focus on getting out of any debt (if you have any)
• Be mindful of your spending and spending habits 

4. Plan Out Your Desired Minimalist Lifestyle

Now if you’ve read some of my articles before, you’ll see that I’ve gone over this before.

I’ll briefly go over minimalist living examples…

Overall, there isn’t one way to live a minimalist lifestyle 

There are many different minimalist lifestyles to suit your needs. And you actually don’t necessarily have to be a minimalist or consider yourself as so.

There are traditional names for these lifestyles like digital nomad, but some of these names below are just examples I came up with to show what’s possible with simple living. 

Just keep in mind it’s not about the labels or names, It’s all about what makes you happy and what is most practical for your situation. 

Here are 5 different examples of minimalist lifestyles that are common nowadays:

1. Digital Nomad Minimalist

This type of lifestyle is ideal for adventurous types. These are the free spirits that want to explore and have a serious passion for traveling and gaining new experiences. 

What’s required for this lifestyle?:

• Most items need to fit into a few bags (carry-on and backpack) 
• Have enough savings to travel for months at a time
• Have a remote job that allows for travel
• Make money from a blog documenting your travels

2. Modest Minimalist

Someone with a modest minimalist lifestyle is someone who has a balance of items they need along with some other possessions that bring them happiness.

The majority of people could fit into this category because it’s right in the middle. 

This type of person declutters all of the unnecessary junk from their lives but also doesn’t take it to an extreme. 

What’s required for this lifestyle?:

• Declutter unnecessary items in your life
• Create a simple wardrobe that suits your needs
• Live simply but also purchase items that you may not need but bring you joy

3. Extreme Minimalist 

Extreme minimalism is what one typically thinks about when one hears the word minimalism. 

This lifestyle, if not obvious enough, requires one to live with essentially the bare minimum that they need.

This may not be for everyone because you won’t be able to do much shopping or have too many possessions. 

What’s required for this lifestyle?:

• Declutter any items that aren’t needed or used in your daily life
• Minimize your wardrobe to a practical level (may need more clothes for work)
• Be comfortable living with only the items that you need and use every day

4. Minimalist With a Family

This type of minimalist lifestyle is a good fit for most people looking to simplify their life. 

Obviously, you will have more personal possessions out of need and practicality. This lifestyle may also be difficult to keep up with if your family members don’t buy in. 

What’s required for this lifestyle?:

• Maintain a balance between simple living and practicality with having a family
• Have more personal items but keep your minimalist values in other areas of your life
• Maintain a minimal wardrobe 
• Encourage your family to live a similar lifestyle
• Accept the fact that your significant other and children most likely will not live by these rules

5. Minimalism Without Labels

Finally, minimalism without labels is a type of simple lifestyle that may not exactly be “minimalist” but embodies the same principles. 

I personally prefer simple living as my preferred lifestyle “label” but in a way, it’s still minimalist to an extent. 

I don’t really like labels and funny enough I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a “minimalist”, but I try to live a simple lifestyle and I am doing my best to declutter and get rid of all the useless junk that I’ve accumulated in my life. 

My mindset has definitely shifted to a more minimalist mindset, and I’m very passionate about this lifestyle (hence the blog), but I just prefer to stay away from putting myself into a specific category. 

What’s required for this lifestyle?:

• Minimize your wardrobe
• Declutter unnecessary items
• Purchase items for pleasure on occasion
• Have the desire to live a simple lifestyle but still have some extra “stuff” that you enjoy

5. Start Your Decluttering Process 

Once you’ve chosen which type of minimalist lifestyle really suits your needs, you can begin your epic decluttering process. 

And once you’ve begun to declutter, you will start to realize that a lot of the items that you have in your life are just “things” that just sit around your house. 

Much of that “stuff” is old and is never used. 

Your job will be to purge your living space of these items and be relentless!

Determine what has value to you and what you need to let go of. 

Figure out what items to keep 

• Remember its a process
• It will take time! (months and years)

Declutter Your House/Apartment

Start by going one room at a time…

I explain this in detail in my post here.

When you’re decluttering you’ll want to create a plan to split up your junk into different areas or “categories”

I recommend separating your items into four categories:

• Keep
• Trash
• Sell
• Maybe

There could also be another category for “giveaway items” but you can choose to split up your stuff however you choose!

Go here for some extra decluttering tips! 

Declutter Your Wardrobe

Most of the time when we think of decluttering, we think of decluttering our living spaces and excess items that we own. 

But one of the best things to declutter is actually the thing that you use every single day and cannot live without (at least I hope not lol). 

This would be your wardrobe! 

Decluttering and downsizing your wardrobe is one of the best things that I’ve ever done for myself.

It has made my life so much easier and it’s one of the main things I would recommend anyone do even if they aren’t a minimalist or care for any type of “simple lifestyle”. 

Decluttering your wardrobe has a ton of benefits!

Here are a few:

• No decision fatigue in the morning picking out clothes
• Faster laundry time
• Less stress on finding what outfits to wear
• Save money 
• Update your style

If you’re interested in decluttering your wardrobe, I recommend checking out my post where I go into greater detail on a minimalist wardrobe! 

6. Maintain Your Minimalist Lifestyle

Lastly, if you’re looking to live this type of simple lifestyle, you may find that it’s difficult in the beginning to declutter, but once you’ve downsized it may seem very easy to maintain. 

While this may be true, there are some hurdles and pitfalls to be aware of as well as some rules that you should follow to ensure that you don’t fall into the consumerism trap all over again and repeat the decluttering cycle. 

Here are the rules I like to stick by:

• Replace old items if you buy new ones (especially with clothes)
• constantly look to declutter and downsize where possible
• Don’t forget to enjoy yourself

• You’re allowed to have things and stuff that makes you happy
• Don’t think “if I buy this I’m not gonna be a minimalist in the eyes of others”
• It doesn’t matter what “they” define minimalism as it only matters the simple lifestyle you determine

Begin Living A Minimalist Lifestyle Key Takeaways

• Reflect on your values and what you want most out of life
• Find inspiration from watching and reading the stories of others
• Change your mindset
• Figure out which minimalist lifestyle to live by
• Begin your decluttering journey
• Be disciplined and stick to your values to maintain your minimalist lifestyle

Final Thoughts | 6 Simple Ways To Begin Living A Minimalist Lifestyle

If you’ve gotten this far into the post, I want to say go to you!

The fact that you are this interested in living a simple lifestyle means that you’re already on your way to making this a reality!

Hopefully, this post gave you some helpful tips and gave you inspiration! Minimalism and simple living have helped remove so many headaches from my life. I now have more time for things because I have less “stuff” to worry about or maintain. 

Now is the time to begin living a minimalist Lifestyle!!

If you’re really interested in living this lifestyle and want some help organizing your minimalist journey, check out our free minimalist checklist bundle!

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