Saturday, February 9, 2019

LIFESTYLE

By Claire Hastings


Minimalist Lifestyle Essentials

Photo courtesy of Unsplash



It’s not only your wardrobe that should be minimal, nor only your furniture and interior design. Minimalism is the way of living, and a very popular for that matter. It represents the quite opposite of consumerism, and it’s very important that we learn to live as minimal as we can in this day and age. Yes, this might be quite difficult, not to say challenging, mostly because of all the options that we choose from, but that doesn’t mean that’s impossible. If you really want to live a life of a minimalist, then you should incorporate it in all aspects on your life, and we are here to help you achieve just that. There are numerous books written on this matter, numerous podcasts that recorded, and they all state the same – minimalism is learning how to live with less of everything.


The minimalist wardrobe

If you’ve heard of the term “minimalism” in terms of fashion, then you’re probably been reading different articles on how to make your outfit combos minimalistic – that is wearing plain, monochromatic clothes with statement jewelry. However, a minimalistic wardrobe is much more than that. Namely, since minimalism represents spending less and owning less stuff, the best way to achieve this is by purchasing eco-friendly and sustainable clothes that will last you for a much longer time. That way, not only will you be spending less on your clothes, but you will also possess items of clothing that are made out of high-quality materials. The most important thing is to determine what is important to you and what you’re wearing the most, and get yourself high-quality, sustainable items that you won’t have to renew next season.



Photo courtesy of Unsplash


The minimalist wallet

Speaking of spending money – contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to buy new minimalistic items every month, season or year, as spending less money than usual is also a way of living this lifestyle. Apart from creating yourself a minimalist wardrobe (from the section above), you also need to see where you can cut expenses and try to save money on the side. If you really write down all the necessities during a month and take out everything that’s unnecessary, you can save a great amount of money in the end. It is quite difficult to save money in this day and age, but there are great tricks on how to do that, such as the 52-week money challenge that’s quite popular and rather effective.


The minimalist table

If you pay attention to your expenses and follow your cash flow, you will see that you spend more than 50% of your monthly income on food. However, ask yourself if it is really necessary – food is definitely something that we need to spend our money on, but if you play your cards right, you can go minimal in this department as well. In order to be minimalistic here, make sure to have a couple of dishes that you will rotate each week – you don’t need so many choices as they will only spend both your money and time. Opting for a healthy diet is the right way, and even if you don’t have time to cook at home or in the office, you can always choose to have tasty and healthy meals delivered to your office or home as you will be letting professionals make the meal choice for you. Focus on all the things your body needs – protein and vitamins – and nothing more.



Photo courtesy of Unsplash



The minimalist home

Yes – a minimalistic home means that you should have minimalistic pieces of furniture, simple yet elegant, good lighting. But it also means that you need to de-clutter as much as possible, which can be quite a tricky thing to do, especially if you own many things that have a certain sentimental value. What you can do, though, is focusing on the duplicates and getting rid of them. Take a box, go through the house and throw away all the duplicates that you have – if you have two measuring cups, for example, get rid of one, since you obviously don’t need it. What is also quite positive is that if you really do this, the clutter-free zones will definitely motivate you to live with less.



Photo courtesy of Unsplash



To conclude, minimalism is not only wearing all black everything. It also doesn’t mean framing a sheet of plain white paper and putting it on the wall above your pitch black couch. It means living with less – less spending, less clutter, fewer things, less choices. It’s definitely something that you should try out as it will help you focus on what’s really important.





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