Minimalism Will Make You A Calmer Person: Cleaning Out Your Home

You have lead a busy, complex and interesting life.

Along the way you have collected many a souvenir. These now gather dust on shelves, which are fit to bust, with all manner of things you've been gifted or bought. Your drawers overflow with every colour of your favourite t-shirt, numerous pairs of jeans, and scarves of various patterns.

You find you never have any space to put the new stuff you acquire.

If this does indeed sound like you, then you're most likely a human. And us humans generally collect, hoard and keep things. We end up with so many options and versions of the same object, yet usually favour only a small selection on a daily basis.

We hold onto things which remind us of a happy memory. We surround ourselves with artefacts of the past, and the future, in the form of DVD's, books, as yet unread, the promise of entertainment held within an object.

Contrasting our beloved nostalgic remnants, sit shiny smart televisions, laptops, tablets and state-of-the-art coffee-makers. In fact some of our most prized possessions our items that bring us instant gratification.

Our homes are saturated with evidence that supports the hopeful belief that yes, we are leading full lives; we are in touch with modern technology, but also cherish our past life moments.

But don't you ever feel smothered by it all?

I must confess, in my bedroom at home, only a select few sentimental objects are sat on the surface of the drawers or window-sill, as most of my things are orderly and neatly tidied away.

I feel calm and relaxed when I am not surrounded by stuff and that's how I kept my room something of a sanctuary. A place in which I can be creative, or relax, unencumbered by any random clutter, itmes representing hobbies which lasted 5 minutes or fashions that never really fit my style.

Our website says it all about our minimalist approach, as we like to keep the design simple and clean, because there are only a few important things that the reader needs to see on a page; the focus should always be the post content, not links or ad's, here there and everywhere.

I keep as much of my life as simple as possible.

I often view mess or clutter as being loud, or as disrupting my attempts to develop inner calm, with the purpose of meditation being that we find peace in the emptiness of a clear-mind. So I aim for a stress-free feeling by living in a minimalistic way.

I don't want to surround myself with literal or object noise, and so, to feel calm, I want my surroundings to reflect only calmness back at me.

4 steps to creating a minimalistic life inside your home:

It's time for a giant clean-out.

You have to begin somewhere and the best place to start is condensing your material possessions down to the categories of Needed, Irreplaceable and Redundant.

These things will then be sorted between rubbish/trash, charity, and keep.
Begin with a small room or a section of a room and start getting rid of things.
Choose a drawer, a side or a cupboard and remove everything from it and then consider each items use.
Ask yourself, always, does this item have any current relevance in my life and does it hold sentimentality.

More often than not you find yourself throwing away much more than you would of expected.

Say bye-bye to the three different electric whiskers but maybe not to the 35 baby photos; consider repurposing these into wall-art, or storing them for a less cluttered aesthetic.

Get Rid Of Furnishings

You may find less need for the 3 chests of chunky drawers once you've reduced your stuff down and so its time to donate these to charity, a friend, or the recycling plant, for some lucky person to make their own.

You could sell these things on and use the money to fund your travels or an experience, but not for buying more stuff.
Donating these things to a charity shop will allow them to take on new life, where people less fortunate than you who want to furnish their home on the cheap can re-use and re-purpose them for their own lives.
Consider how you use your current furniture. Is it organized, well-positioned and purposeful?

Focus on creating a more tranquil space that is more conducive to chill-time, and whatever it is you do to relax or unwind.

Like what you're reading?

Then sign up to our weekly update!

Organize Your Daily Life

Ted.com Writer and designer Graham Hill asks: Can having less stuff, in less room, lead to more happiness? He makes the case for taking up less space, and lays out three rules for editing your life.

Your giant clean-out doesn't mean you will suddenly have nothing to tidy, so its time to put things in the places that are at ease with your everyday routine.

I have all the random things which I use daily, neatly arranged in my desk drawer, so that I don't need to look through every drawer I have to find them.
My paperwork that I need to keep but never look at sits in the boring filing drawer, along with other stuff I don't need daily but still have to keep safe.
When doing this exercise you often find even more things to discard. Prioritizing organisation in your home or bedroom allows you to consider what things you really need and want.

It's amazing how much momentum you gain each time you de-clutter, you just get more bold and more brutal!

Now Discard Even More Stuff.

I may now live a more minimalist life but I once was the person who hoarded every plastic bag I ever acquired and managed to have three moneybags of batteries, none of which I could be sure had any juice left.

So quite often after I have already reduced down my stuff, I still find small extraneous bits that I can dispose of.

Maybe you weren't harsh enough to begin with and so its time to go full minimalist-mode!!

Clean out your kitchen cupboards. Donate good crockery and accessories to charity.
Look at your multiples. Do you have too many shoes that are all alike, too many pairs of socks, half of which have holes in. Leave yourself with less things but more quality options instead.
Assess your paperwork. Get rid of all the things you thought you should have kept that date back 5 years. Organize what remains into a file, and consider scanning really important doc's in and backing them up.

Its a constantly fun and never-ending release of tension downsizing my personal stuff footprint.

I have less desire for more stuff, thus less of that drive to consume, which allows me to live a financially sustainable and less wasteful life.

Maybe you too could try some of the above ideas, if you want to feel lighter in stuff and quieter on the inside, but heavier in the bank account, and more fulfilled in general. Having less can bring you so much more in quality interactions, relaxation time and unlock new interests and passions you previously hadn't considered.

You have lead a busy, complex and interesting life... https://t.co/Arx2obdZb7 #minimalism #minimalist #calm pic.twitter.com/bNlMYYcBUa
— Taran & Hannah (@Nomaderhowfar) May 19, 2016

Before you go, just to let you know, you can now buy my Minimalism book! It's a more in-depth guide to de-cluttering your home, organizing your life, refining your spending habits and simplifying your relationship with your technology.