How To Embrace Minimalism In Modern Society

Are you curious about how to embrace minimalism in modern society? As we all know, our society is heavily based on consumerism.

Most of the time this leaves our homes filled with tons of stuff we don’t need or barely ever use.

The availability of products online and the ease of purchase have also made spending and acquiring vastly easier than in the past.

In modern society is it possible to go against this and live an alternative lifestyle?

A more simplistic lifestyle?

Yes!! 100%

Even though it’s easier than ever to shop until you drop (from home and on amazon), there is a way to navigate this modern influx of advertising and spending to embrace minimalism.

Here are the steps to embrace a minimalist lifestyle:

Assess Your Goals in Life
Realize Where You Are Now
Focus on What You Enjoy
Remove Anything That Doesn’t Bring Joy or Value Into Your Life
Remove Anything That You Don’t Use Anymore
Live Simple and Be Free

In this post, we’ll cover how you can take steps toward living a minimalist lifestyle and hopefully by the end of the post realize why it will be one of the best decisions you will make.

Let’s get into it!

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Table of Contents

What Does it Mean to Embrace Simplicity?

Ultimately, embracing simplicity is about being content with less.

This can look different for each individual, however, the main theme is about stepping away from typical consumerism to a more minimalistic way of life that prioritizes experiences and people you enjoy.

This can also be a type of letting go that frees you from all of the clutter and baggage you have in your life.

Once you’ve let go and moved on, you may feel more relaxed and less anxious due to fewer possessions and clutter weighing you down.

Why Practice Minimalism?

You should practice minimalism mainly for any personal reason that benefits your life the most!

For me, this means reducing stress/anxiety from clutter and making my life easier.

I love that a minimalist lifestyle just feels so freeing!

I enjoy not having to worry about so much extra junk and I save more money by living this way too.

Another primary reason to practice minimalism would be to get to the core and find your purpose.

In theory, by removing distractions, you’re able to focus on and spend time on the things you love.

This could include:

Your kids
Your family
Friends
Hobbies
Passions
New skills
Travel

Overall, minimalism encourages you not to just get rid of things and have less, but to pursue what lights your soul on fire which will give you an infinite wealth of fulfillment in life which you will ultimately gain more from.

In this way, you’re actually acquiring more, but this isn’t a physical type of thing, it’s an internal type of joy that comes from living a life you love and not about the physical possessions you acquire.

Benefits of Living a Minimalist Lifestyle?

There are too many benefits of living a simple minimalist lifestyle but here are some of my favorites:

Less stress
Reduced Anxiety
Faster laundry
Easier to clean and organize your home
Easier daily life
More money saved from needless spending

Why Embrace Minimalism in Modern Society?

1. Avoid Accumulating Junk That You Will Ultimately Have to Get Rid of

One of the main reasons to start embracing simplicity would be to prevent accumulating large amounts of junk if possible.

Most of us have already amassed a large pile of junk and are decluttering it. However, if we have the chance to prevent more junk from entering our living space, we should attempt to do this immediately.

I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it can be to get rid of the junk that has accumulated over the years from family members and it’s not a situation I want to find myself in.

Not only does the stuff just sit around cluttering up your space, but it also takes even more time and headaches to get rid of.

Especially if these are large items like furniture.

The last part that is troublesome is the fact that if you hold on to this junk your entire life, it’s your kids that will have to deal with the mess in the end and it becomes their problem.

And we’re not talking about sentimental items, we’re talking about that dresser that hasn’t been used in 20 years but needs multiple people to lift and put on the sidewalk.

Yeah, that kinda junk. -___-

So the biggest takeaway is to be mindful of the stuff you’re bringing into your living space and the impact that this can have on your life and other lives as time goes on.

And remember we all have to leave this world and you can’t take anything with you. So remember anything you buy you’ll ultimately part ways with so make the things you do buy count and make them things you need.

2. Living A Simple Lifestyle Will Save You More Money

It’s pretty obvious simple living saves you money, but let’s talk about it anyway. A simple lifestyle can save you money in a variety of areas:

Save money on food (meal prepping)
Save money on clothes (minimalist wardrobe)
Save money on random impulse purchases (Smart money habits and saving for the future)
Save money on cable and other miscellaneous expenses that you might not need any longer.

3. Consumerism Will Keep You Chasing After the Next Cool Toy

This may not seem like a big issue, but the problem with chasing after more material items is the fact that it’s just temporary.

Any type of materialistic joy is gonna be temporary until you get that next dopamine hit.

Shopping can be like a drug and if you’re chasing the next best thing to be happy, you’ll end up with a ton of junk in your house, and still not be satisfied.

Just take a look at rich individuals (notice I say rich and not wealthy) who have an infinite amount of possessions. They have cars, a big house, and tons of luxurious amenities.

Almost anything they could ask for, but why do they need that sixth car when they already have 5? Why do they need to make $20 million when they already make $10 million?

It’s almost wired in our nature to never be quite satisfied. Even science backs this up with the way that our reward centers work in our brains.

Once we’ve had something for long enough, the dopamine hits we get will eventually even out, and whatever our new thing is that we have will become our new normal way of being.

They call this the Hedonic Treadmill and the only way to get that next high is by purchasing that next big thing or making that extra $30,000 a year.

The point is when you’re chasing after these material possessions all you’re gonna be left with is a mess and a sense of dissatisfaction (over time of course).

But if you can realize this early and prioritize your experiences and embrace simplicity, your life may be more fulfilling and deeper.

4. Modern Society Links Happiness With Materialism

Adding on to my previous point, we often times link this sense of happiness with our stuff or what we own.

Now don’t get me wrong owning a nice house and some nice cars can definitely make someone happier than before, but to link your sole sense of happiness with what you have is a mistake.

How would you feel if that nice luxury car of yours gets wrecked and you need repairs? Or a tree falls on your perfect house?

You may get sad or upset. Or become unhappy.

But if you aren’t owned by your possessions, you can be free to take control of your happiness and not be swayed by what happens to your stuff.

In addition, oftentimes we may think to ourselves if I only had this thing (mansion, yachts, vacation home, private jet, literally anything) I’d be happy.

But we have to realize that yes your happiness may increase for a good while, but ultimately that feeling will wear off. And you’ll be in search of the next thing to give you that happy feeling.

The Main Point: find deep fulfillment in pursuing what you enjoy and being with the people you love.

Travel if you enjoy it and seek out experiences that will give you knowledge and fulfillment. Don’t spend your life chasing after things to impress people b/c nobody really cares.

Side Note: I was watching a podcast interview with the author of ‘The Psychology of Money’ by Morgan Housel and he explained how anytime he’d see someone in a nice car, he never thought that the driver was cool, he only thought about how cool the car was or how cool he would look in the car!

The point he was making was the fact that he never even considered the person actually driving the car or how cool they were, he was only impressed by the car itself and wanted it for himself.

So just another example of the way as humans we may think we are impressing people with what we have, but in reality, the perception of others is often something different.

5. The Impact of Wastefulness on the Planet

I’ve been guilty of being wasteful just ask anyone who’s been around me when I use paper towels lol.

But an excellent reason to embrace minimalism in modern society is for the environment.

It’s hard to immediately see the impact that we have on the environment, however, we can make a positive impact with little habits that we take.

Now I’m no environmental expert or clean renewable lifestyle type of person, but I am trying to improve my wasteful habits little by little.

If you’ve paid attention to the news and all of the climate change issues going on, the world that we leave for our children is on track to be worse than the way it was left to us.

Regardless of which cause you to attribute climate change, it’s undeniable that the earth is heating up and that ice sheets are melting rapidly.

If we can try to make some little changes we can help possibly slow this process and live a simple life rather than being wasteful and consuming too many materials.

Going plastic-free is gonna be one of my biggest challenges, but I hope to find some alternatives to the household items that I use daily.

Ways that I’ve tried to reduce my plastic usage include:

Using a reusable water bottle
Using a water filter instead of buying cases of water
Using reusable bags at the grocery store

Although these are good starting points, I struggle with finding alternatives to:

Trash bags around the house
Tissues
Plastic wrapped items

In the future, I’m trying to do my best to reduce the waste and harmful environmental products that I buy.

How to Declutter Your life

1. Minimalist Mindset

First, when we want to begin living a minimalist lifestyle, we need to make internal changes.

It’s not all about the external removal of clutter…

Because if we are just focusing on the physical things and not going to the root cause and changing the way that we actually live our lives then we’ll most likely fall back into the same habits and bring clutter into our space all over again.

This is similar to diets and losing weight. It’s not going to stick unless we can make lifestyle changes or make being healthy our identity.

Otherwise, we’ll just go back to our old eating habits and gain the weight all back again.

This is evident with many celebrities that try out diet plans that seem to work and give great results, only for them to gain all of the weight back in a few months.

The Main Point: develop your minimalist mindset and make that your lifestyle. Go to the root and make internal changes.

Steps To Develop Your Minimalist Mindset:

Make your minimalist lifestyle goals
Start small and create little habits first
Be consistent and make content with less, your motto
Embrace consistent decluttering
Focus on limiting and eliminating unnecessary impulse shopping

2. Remove Excess

Removing excess is going to be one of your main tasks when you initially start decluttering your life. There are many places you can start and many areas to declutter.

The following are some good places to start:

Excess Clothes

First, start with decluttering your clothes and really assess the clothes you love and want to keep.

Highly consider creating these types of minimalist wardrobe wardrobes:

Traditional Minimalist wardrobe with a limited amount of clothing pieces.
Traditional Capsule wardrobe
Seasonal capsule wardrobe
Office capsule wardrobe
Loungewear capsule wardrobe

Excess Possessions

Next, you’ll want to start removing any excess possessions that you don’t use or need.

These types of items can take a while to declutter, however, if you have a plan you can effectively get rid of these items efficiently over time.

Here are some ways you can get rid of your excess possessions:

Sell on eBay
Craiglist
Facebook Marketplace
Sell on Mercari
Sell on Etsy
Donate
Trash

There are other different options, but these are some common ways that you can get rid of that excess clutter.

Digital Declutter

Get rid of any excess apps or other tech that you simply don’t use. This includes clearing out your email (my biggest issue cough cough) and any other excess that pervades your digital world.

Excess Mental Clutter

The final way we want to rid ourselves of excess is to cleanse ourselves of mental clutter. Here are some positive ways to reduce stress and get rid of excess mental clutter:

Find ways to relax
Write a to-do list
Stretch
Take walks outside
exercise

3. Pay Attention to Your Shopping Habits

As we mentioned previously, you really need to watch out for compulsive and impulsive shopping. Do your best to go to the core of the problem if you feel addicted to shopping.

Take time to check if you shop because:

You’re trying to avoid unpleasant feelings or negative emotions
Trying to fill a void for a passed loved one
Feeling depressed and using shopping as a coping mechanism
Low self-esteem

Like most compulsive behaviors, we use things like shopping to regulate our moods and often there are things that we are running away from and not facing.

This could be past trauma or subtle fears that we don’t want to face in our lives.

Whatever the issue may be, take some time to do some self-reflection and try to get to the bottom of why you’re feeling the compulsion to continue to shop even though you don’t need anything new.

This way you’re not bringing in more junk after you have decluttered.

4. Asses How Much Stuff You Need to be Happy

After doing some self-reflection on the reasoning that you may feel the need to shop, take time to reflect on what type of lifestyle/amount of things you’d like to live with to be content.

This number will be different for every a variety of factors:

Having a family
Being single
Location of residence
If you live in a house or apartment

5. Build A Foundation to Maintain Your Minimalist Lifestyle

Create some systems to ensure that you’re able to maintain the minimalist lifestyle that you’ve created for yourself.

This could mean performing a wardrobe audit every 3-6 months or every year.

This practice consists of going through your minimalist wardrobe and determining if each clothing item still fits your style, fits, or no longer fits your needs.

This also includes making sure the wardrobe stays in line with your minimalist wardrobe goals for how large you’d like it to be.

If you decide you can live with less, then you may want to either replace some of your old clothing pieces or donate/ get rid of the clothing pieces you no longer want.

If you find that you enjoy all of the clothing after your audit then feel free to keep what you have if it makes you happy and meets your goals.

How to Embrace Minimalism

1. Asses your goals in life

Consider what lifestyle you want or want for your family. If this is an extreme type of minimalistic lifestyle then clearly, you’ll need to make some drastic changes to your current situation depending on where you currently stand.

Regardless of the goals in your life, you must first determine what your life will look like moving forward and take the necessary steps to make that happen.

For instance, If you really want to live a content life with the family but also have a minimalist outlook on life, you could aim to own

2. Realize Where You Are Now

After determining your goals and what you want your minimalist lifestyle to look like, assess where you are currently and you’ll gain a better idea of how much work you need to accomplish to live the simple life you want.

For instance, if you’re single and don’t have kids, you’ll have significantly less to declutter and minimize when you’re beginning your minimalism journey.

Overall, determine how realistic is it for you to declutter and downsize at this time.

3. Focus on What You Enjoy

For me, it’s blogging and teaching about simple living. This could be anything you enjoy for money or as a hobby.

Create a list of different activities and things you’d like to spend more time on.

This could be:

Traveling more
Practicing your instrument more
Blogging
Spending more time with family
Spending more time in nature
Exercising more
Practicing your cooking

4. Remove Anything That Doesn’t Bring Joy or Value Into Your Life

This one is simple, go through all of your stuff when decluttering and be ruthless.

If something isn’t used or doesn’t bring you joy, get rid of it!

We want to be creating a life not just with less for the sake of less, but so we can focus more on what we love and enjoy.

This means putting our energy into those things and letting g of that stuff we might use but know doesn’t really give us value.

5. Remove Anything That You Don’t Use Anymore

Finally, this is one of the last tasks when embracing minimalism.

Getting rid of the things you don’t use.

This may seem super obvious but if you look around in your living spaces, is it really clear what stuff you don’t use.

Because if we’re being honest, a lot of the stuff that we have we may think we’re gonna use in the future, but in reality, we haven’t used it in months.

Take Action: So just take some time during your decluttering process and really think twice or maybe three times if the items you’re considering removing or keeping have been used in the last few weeks or months, if not, consider setting it aside and either selling it or donating if its in good condition.

All other items that don’t have value can easily be trashed.

6. Live Simple and Be Free

Now you can enjoy the minimalist lifestyle that you’ve chosen and reap the benefits simple living has to offer.

Find contentment in whichever level of simplicity you prefer.

Final Thoughts | How to Embrace Minimalism

Do ya have a better understanding of how to embrace minimalism in modern society? Let us know anything we may have missed or any questions you may have!