How To Efficiently Declutter and Adopt Minimalistic Habits That Last
By: Antonelle Cara
Tags: Sustainability, Decluttering, Minimalism, Consumerism, Habits

What To Do Before You Start Decluttering

When it comes to adopting a minimalistic mindset to declutter more efficiently, it usually takes a variety of things to get us to that point. This is what kept me on the path of less clutter.

1. Read relevant books

Every time I want to make major changes in my life, my first go-to are books. This is what started my journey into minimalism and decluttering.

The two books that have guided me in my journey are “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” by Marie Kondo and “Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism” by Fumio Sasaki.

“The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” actually was as life-changing as the book title claims. I know there was a lot of hype around this book and I think it is well deserved. If you ever watched the Netflix series “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” and felt underwhelmed by it, that is just 10% of what the book itself entails. It pushes you to take action and motivates you on a different level.

“Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism” goes further than teaching you how to tidy up your space and dives deep into why you should incorporate minimalism into all areas of your life and not just your physical things.

Marie Kondo taught me how to declutter while Fumio Sasaki taught me why I should live a minimalistic life.

While you don’t have to read these specific books, it’s always good to look for guidance and motivation from an outside source so you can use that information to form your own thoughts and opinions.

Before reading these books, my living space was a complete mess. I kept every little thing I owned and never cleaned up my space. I was keeping things that didn’t bring any value into my life. But once I started letting things go, the amount of freedom and relief I felt was irreplaceable.

Tip: You can probably find these books at a local library to save some money and to prevent the collection of additional items in your home.

2. Watch documentaries

Another resource you can use — especially if you can’t get access to books — is documentaries. My favorite documentaries are “Minimalism: A Documentary About The Important Things” (Netflix) and “The True Cost” (Tubi).

“Minimalism: A Documentary About The Important Things” really puts into perspective how we’ve allowed material things to own us and how they have driven us further away from what really makes us feel fulfilled.

“The True Cost” emphasizes the downsides of fast fashion and the people behind it whose stories are often pushed aside and ignored. If there’s one category of things that we all spend a lot of money on, it’s probably clothing because it’s something we all need. Sometimes, when we have another reason other than benefit to ourselves to commit to something, it pushes us to keep that promise. This is the perfect example of why we should do it for reasons beyond saving money and having a tidy living space.

3. Focus on the why

Do you want a clean tidy house? Do you want to free yourself from the stress you feel when you look at all the things you own? Define your why and focus on that every time you question if this process is worth following through.

That feeling you get every time you clean up your space doesn’t have to be temporary. You can feel that feeling every day once you stop bringing new things into your life. If you focus on the why, then you can set yourself up for success.

4. Have the willingness to change

You have to be ready to let go of your things and any emotional attachment to them. It can be hard at first. I know it was for me, but because I was willing to change for the betterment of my life, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

The more meaningful an item was, the longer I waited to get rid of it. Clothes were the first to go while sentimental items were the last. While it took me a couple of months to really embrace living a minimalistic life, it was an overall easy transition once I realized all that I was gaining.

5. Let go of your perceptions of what it means to be a minimalist

We all have this picture in our heads about what minimalism means. Those who may not understand the true meaning of being a minimalist might imagine someone who sleeps on the floor with no furniture and white walls and owns less than 100 items. I let this perception get to me at first. After my purge of all my unnecessary things, I took a trip to IKEA and bought new light-colored furniture that I thought looked minimalist because my current dark wooden furniture was not igniting joy in me. So no that obviously wasn’t the “minimalist” thing to do.

You don’t have to get rid of everything that you have to fit the image of a minimalist. Embracing minimalism can look however you want it to. I will admit that the change in furniture from dark to light really opened up my bedroom space and made it feel brighter. So, as far as regrets about getting new furniture to change the vibe of my room, I have none.

We all have our own way of doing things and it’s okay to make mistakes. Just take note of why you want to buy something before you actually buy it. You shouldn’t have to buy additional things to fit the image of being a minimalist. It would actually defeat the purpose — something I realized a couple of months too late. But like I said, don’t retract on your progress because you made a mistake. It’s perfectly normal and mistakes are meant to be learned from.