Becoming Minimalist

Becoming minimalist is all the rage these days but what exactly does it mean?
Well when you live in a country like the UK where the average house is the size of a shoe box and has no where near enough storage for the amount of people that inhabit the home, being minimalist is more of a necessity than a fad and to be honest something that most of us do anyway. Essentially it is when you decide to declutter your home and get rid of all the things you don’t need keeping only the essentials on display or creating an environment with “minimal” clutter.
 
Some of the benefits of doing decluttering and becoming a minimalist include:

• Having less to clean and dust: Obviously the fewer objects you have out exposed to dust and dirt the less you have to clean.
• Less stress: Having more space is associated with lowering stress levels, or rather having clutter everywhere you look is associated with higher levels.
• Less money wasted: Any object you do not need, you don’t need to spend money buying and if you already have an item you may even make some money by selling it online or at a car boot sale.

While the best outcome of decluttering is to get rid of the goods you no longer use altogether, there are some items that you may still need to keep hold of but do not necessarily need to be out on display or easy to access. An example of this is seasonal clothing and bedding while it is good to clear your wardrobe when the season changes to ensure you only have clothes that you will wear regularly, sadly there will be another dark cold winter to follow the spring and summer so you cannot get rid of them completely. A great way to store seasonal clothes during the off season is to use Vacuum storage bags that allow you to place your garments inside and suck the air out a vacuum cleaner or hand pump. This ensures that no moisture or dust can get to the clothes and by removing all the air you also compress the clothes which greatly reduces the amount of space they take up while being stored in the loft, cupboard or garage.
 
While most of us are forced to declutter and live the minimal life style in some shape or form, there are definitely some that are better than others at this practice.  
Here are some tips to help you with the process of decluttering your house.

• Start with one room at a time: even if you just do one room a weekend and focus on clearing all the unnecessary items from the room, you will be amazed what a difference it can make. Once you have seen the improvement for one room, you will be enthused to do the rest.
• Buy vacuum storage bags for seasonal clothes and bedding: As I mentioned above these are a must have for safely storing your garments and reducing the amount of size the take up. They are very affordable for the value they bring to your home.
• Have boxes or bags on hand for unwanted goods: Although the items you are getting rid of are no longer required by you, it doesn’t mean that they are not useful for someone else, so have some boxes and bags handy for transporting them to a charity shop or to be ready for a car boot sale.
• View your home as a prospective buyer: Think about when you go to view a home, particularly if it’s a show home of a new development, the houses look so appealing because they have little to no clutter. This is because the professionals who stage these houses know that they look better and more appealing when they are minimalist and that is why your house should be too.

 
These are just a few tips to get you started, I hope they help give you some ideas and inspiration on how to go about becoming minimalist.