Minimalist Living Habits To Adopt Today
The truth is if you want to become more minimalist you are going to have to change things. I changed more than 5 key habits to become more minimalist.
Decluttering will help you become more minimalist, but it won’t help you stay minimal. Here are some minimalist living habits to adopt today.
Keeping your home clutter-free isn’t as easy as it seems. Unless you never shop for anything for the rest of your life, which is completely unrealistic.
There will always be things that we need to replace as time goes on, but these habits can help.
Replacing old habits that may have added to your clutter with new habits that avoid clutter will help you to stay clutter-free and minimalist.
Minimalist Living Habits To Adopt Today
These habits are easy to adopt right away! Like any new habit, it might take a little time to set it in stone, but the changes can be applied right now.
I always try to give myself 30 days of trying a new habit before I see if it might need to be adjusted.
Avoiding Ads Minimalist Living Habit
No more TV for me! Before we cut the cable connection I never realized how many advertisements are on a typical show. I know I wasn’t that swayed by the ads, but my kids sure were.
Now that my kids don’t see the ads for new toys they are never asking for anything.
It really stands out to me when I go to someone’s house with regular cable. My children will start asking for toys they didn’t know existed before.
This really illustrates how powerful ads are and how they influence our spending habits.
It is shocking how many ads we are seeing in 30 minutes of watching TV. “An average American TV show is 22 minutes long which allows for 8 minutes of commercials per half hour or 16 minutes of commercials per hour.” Peter Kai
I was so worried when we first got rid of cable that I was going to be so bored and have nothing to do, but it turns out I was able to fill the time easily.
We enjoy Netflix and Disney Plus completely ad-free.
As an added bonus we are saving a lot of money each month. Even with the added cost of Netflix and Disney Plus, we are still saving about $100. a month!
(NEW) RELATED: 32 + MINIMALIST YOUTUBE CHANNELS!!!!
Avoid Magazines
This was is an easy minimalist living habit to adopt today! All you have to do is AVOID something.
I personally stopped looking through magazines. I never had a subscription, but I would look at them when I came across one. Most magazines are 50% ads and fashion magazines have an even larger percentage of ads.
Even if you don’t buy exactly what you see in these magazines just the photos alone will probably make you feel like getting new clothes or a new car.
These magazines have way more influence than we think they do. After flipping through a fashion magazine for a few minutes I start thinking about my clothes and what needs to be updated.
Magazines can also make us feel bad about what we do have. After looking through a magazine I feel like my home isn’t good enough, I am not thin enough, and my life is not perfect.
There is a reason for this! Nothing in a magazine is REAL, everything is staged. So it is no wonder we feel we need to go buy something the second we read a magazine.
If I can avoid this influence I am much happier with what I have. Of course, it is great to get inspired, but if you watch or read something and feel bad about your life afterward you should think about the influence it might have over you.
Stop Shopping! It’s The Quickest Way to Adopt the Minimalist Lifestyle.
When we started decluttering I decided to stop shopping altogether.
I only bought something if I really needed it! What I found was really surprising.
It was really difficult to stop shopping.
Shopping was a habit, sometimes I would shop without even thinking. I had to reprogram my brain. Shopping was always a treat for me. It was my escape from reality. Just the act of going out and looking through the stores was nice.
Even if I didn’t buy anything, I was treating myself by shopping. The fact is just being in a store you are more likely to buy something.
If you aren’t in a store it is impossible to be tempted.
I reset my shopping habit by staying away from stores when I didn’t really need something. Once my shopping habit was replaced by other things I like to do, for instance, painting and drawing, I no longer felt I needed to shop for entertainment.
Be Aware of What You Have
When I have to buy something I like to be aware of what I already own. If I am shopping for clothes I will take a photo of the clothes I already have, this way I am reminded of what is in my closet. I like to shop my home first.
Go through your home to see what you might be able to use or repurpose.
It can cut down on buying new items. Just because we are minimalist does not mean that we don’t shop.
We still have to buy things. I just like to be aware of the items I am bringing into my home.
This is one of the best minimalist living habits you can adopt! Know what you already have and ask yourself if you really need more.
Avoid Too Much Social Media
I love social media, but there is a point when it becomes too much.
Have you ever found yourself scrolling on Instagram and you don’t even know what you are looking at? It reminds me of when I was a kid flipping the channels on the TV.
The SCROLL HOLE, mindlessly scrolling. This happens all of the time. I realized I would start wanting things I would see on Instagram, things that I didn’t need.
Now I limit how many times a day I use social media and I try to only check certain accounts that I love.
On the iPhone, you can set a limit on certain apps. I have set a 20 minute limit on my Instagram to ensure I am not wasting my whole life scrolling through the Instagram feed.
WATCH Minimalist Living Habits HERE:
Find Something New To Enjoy
Before decluttering and finding “less” my typical day ended by sitting on the couch and watching TV.
Usually, I would be scrolling through Instagram and having dessert.
There is nothing wrong with this, but after I started reading more about minimalism and intentional living I started to wonder if my time could be better spent.
For years I have thought about what I would do when my kids go back to school. That is when I realized my time spent in front of the TV could probably be used in a more productive way.
It is important to find something you enjoy to take up your newfound time. If you don’t find something new you are more likely to fall back into the old habits (AKA shopping or whatever your clutter collecting habit was).
There is More To Life Than Shopping
There are so many things to do; read more, work out, make healthy food, organize your home, go for a walk, get an extra job, learn a new skill, plan a vacation, go on a vacation, start a youtube channel. The possibilities are endless!
I personally redid this blog, started a YouTube channel, joined the gym, started reading again, organized my home, and started working on my art.
These are the habits I changed that have really made an impact on my life.
Change can be hard, but I have found even the tiniest change can snowball into huge changes. I started really slow, decluttering only a few things. Start with the easiest change you can think of and go from there.
The biggest change started when we got rid of the CLUTTER. Let me HELP you Declutter! SOMETIMES ORGANIZING JUST ISN’T ENOUGH. I WANT TO HELP YOU GAIN SOME TIME TOO!
If you are spending a ton of time continually organizing the same area, check out The Declutter Your Home Minicourse. I created this course for anyone who is sick of all the time wasted tidying their home. This course is easy to follow and helps you figure out a decluttering schedule so you can declutter your entire home.
This is the perfect course for you if:
- You worry about your home before having people over (aka shoving things in closets).
- Things are always “missing” in your home.
- You wonder why your home doesn’t ever look clean or tidy, no matter how much cleaning you do.
If you need direction on how and where to start on your decluttering journey check out The Declutter Your Home Minicourse!
I hope some of these tips are helpful. Comment below with some good minimalist habit suggestions.
Read About Our Minimalist Life:
20 Reasons your House still looks Cluttered
How Often Should You Declutter?
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Nice article Shannon! I really appreciated the emphasis on what you can do instead of shopping. I’ve noticed that one big temptation is when you buy something from a store online they will barrage you with emails about special deals just for you! And because it’s from a store you already like it is extra tempting. I make sure to unsubscribe to help me not buy more than I need.
Also I have found that when your life is full with things you enjoy doing like hobbies, esp creative and health oriented hobbies shopping becomes boring and is.no longer a draw.
That is such a great idea to unsubscribe, I try to do that regularly too. I hope you are doing well.