Minimalism for beginners
By: Ezrin Waggoner
Tags: Minimalism, Minimalist Lifestyle, Minimalist

So, you’ve decided to become a minimalist but you don’t know where to start. Or maybe you don’t know if you will actually like being a minimalist. Start by cleaning off the surfaces in the room you spend the most time in, have a maximum of 5 items on every surface in that room. Leave it like this for a few weeks and if you like it, start the decluttering process.

Now that you’ve decided to declutter, start in this same room. Don’t start by going through every item in the room. Just start with things you haven’t used in the last three months. Any decorations that no longer make you happy, get rid of them. Anything in the room that you can think of that you don’t use once a month, get rid of. If you’re unsure, create a maybe box for those items. Start slowly, don’t overwhelm yourself so you give up.

Next, move on to the other big rooms in your house (leave the bathroom, closet and kitchen for later). Do the same for these, get rid of everything that you can think of that you haven’t used for the last three months and decorations that you no longer want. Then, move on to the major rooms.

The first of the major rooms we’ll start with is the bathroom. To start with, have a spot for the items you need on hand, but don’t use every day. This means bandaids, pain-meds, thermometers, and things like that. Then go through old meds, makeup, and self-care products. For things like towels and sheets, try to have 2–3 sets per person in the house.

Then move on to the kitchen, get rid of dishes and pans that you haven’t used in the last three months. Throw out any expired food, spices, and snacks. Organise, this means you cabinets, fridge, and pantry if you have one.

Lastly, the closet. All of the clothes that you can’t wear this season, put them away. Don’t go through them now, just put them away. Now, this season’s clothes, go through the ones you won’t wear or haven’t worn. Get rid of those, as well as the clothes you no longer want. When the next season rolls around, go through the clothes for that season. Do the same for shoes.

After you are ready, sit down in every room and go through every item. This can be done all at once, or overtime. Go through all decorations, all clothing, all kitchen things, etc.

Now that you’ve decluttered, where does everything go?

The answer depends. For clothing, you can sell or donate it. Electronics and cords can be taken by select tech stores. Art supplies can be sold on Facebook marketplace or donated to schools. Furniture can also be sold or donated or given to friends. Pet food can sometimes be donated to pet shelters depending on the location. Books can be donated or sold. Plant pots can be taken to some plant stores. Old notebooks can be donated to schools if unused or shredded as pet bedding for small animals. The unused pages can also be ripped out to use separately.

To keep your space clutter-free, declutter every three months or so, or every time you clean the house. When decluttering after the initial big declutter not everything needs to be gone through, just the things that you’ve been thinking of getting rid of already or that you notice that you haven’t used in a while when cleaning. This can take some time to get in the habit of every time you clean and during seasonal changes for clothing.