Is A Minimalist Home For Me?
Many people have a misconception about minimalism. They think that it is merely an aesthetic, a style that is simple and clean looking that can be reflected in your material possessions such as your fashion and the way your house is decorated. But minimalism is so much more than that.
It is a whole different lifestyle change in order to “achieve this aesthetic”. Minimalism is about simplifying life by promoting things that serve a purpose and removing any unnecessary distractions that keep us from serving it. It is purposeful and intentional living that helps people to focus on things that really matter such as building relationships and experiences with others.
You will not be able to achieve a minimalist home if you don’t change your lifestyle. Yes, you may be able to keep up with it for a while by making an effort to keep your house tidy and clean looking, but you will most probably fall back into old patterns if you do not make this lifestyle change. What do I mean by this? If you still carry the mentality that “more is better”, and you enjoy accumulating things, always keeping an eye out or buying the next shiny toy that hits the market, it will become increasingly difficult for you to maintain this “minimalist aesthetic” once you run out of space to store your things. So to combat this you buy more storage space, a bigger house to store your things, and before you know it, you are knee-deep in debt, feeling suffocated. So you ask yourself, how did you end up here when you wanted to be a “minimalist”.
Well, the answer is simple, minimalism is not just an aesthetic, it is a lifestyle change. So how do you decide whether to take this big step to become a minimalist? Here’s some food for thought.
You Are Tired Of Being In Debt
It is easy for us to be enslaved to debt if we are always on the hunt for the next big thing. Debt holds us back from experiencing life to the fullest. By adopting minimalism, you would better appreciate experiences over material possessions, which helps you cut down on spending and hence frees you from debt.
Mess Makes You Stressed
Studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between physical clutter and stress levels. How could someone be fully relaxed in their own home when it is full of clutter? A little voice would be nagging away at the back of your mind “ Go clean the house, you said you would do it last week! What a bum”.
By buying and accumulating less, minimalism helps remove clutter from your life, making it easier for you to maintain your minimalist home. Through minimalism, everything you own has a proper place to go, and you would be less likely to leave it strewn all over the house.
You are Environmentally Conscious
Minimalism reduces our environmental impact by allowing us to only buy what we need instead of what we want. Smaller consumption habits result in fewer resources used for production, and fewer resources being wasted when you throw things away.
You Feel Empty inside
This is a heavy subject. Society teaches us that more is always better. Advertising is always telling us about the next big thing, probing us to get in on it. When you finally get your hands on the next big thing, you feel happy… just for a moment.
Minimalism lets you fill your life with the things and people that matter, and satisfies our heart’s desires, allowing us to be truly happy.
You Are Not Afraid of Change
Like everything mentioned in this article, minimalism is more than a design style, but a complete lifestyle overhaul. If you are not afraid of change and everything mentioned above deeply resonates with you, you are definitely ready to embark on this life-changing adventure that is minimalism.