7 Simple Living Tips for a Minimalist Lifestyle
What if you could live a worry-free, intentional lifestyle where you focus on what makes you happy? The answer is to edit down your life to focus on what matters the most to you.
This is the number one hack that has helped me manage my stress, be more productive and find more peace in my everyday life.
In this blog article, I’ll give you 6 simple living tips for a minimalist lifestyle. Yes, these are the only 7 ones you need. From decluttering your home and your mind to financial minimalism or even how to find what really makes you happy, this article has you covered!
Table of Contents
What is simple living?
Living a simpler life is being intentional with what you allow into your life, both physically and mentally. It is focusing on what matters the most to you and what makes you happy.
There are so many benefits of simple living:
You’ll feel less stressed, more productive, and live a meaningful life
You’ll find what works for you and makes you happy on your own terms
You’ll have a positive impact on others, and our planet by consuming more intentionally
You’ll be less attached to material things, have a clear space and a clear mind
1. Know what makes you happy and prioritize it
Minimalism is about identifying what makes you happy and try to eliminate everything else. This means you have to become more mindful of your values, feelings, and needs.
You will quickly realize that you need to really become intentional to prioritize what makes you happy. It is too easy to let your life get filled with physical and mental clutter or other self-imposed obligations that don’t bring you joy.
Only you know what is best for you so, listen to your needs and don’t be afraid to prioritize taking care of yourself. Click here for an easy self-care checklist you can use to do next!
2. 🏡 Simplify your home: my minimalist decluttering checklist
Here is how I simplify my home:
A smaller home: I picked my apartment to be in the smaller possible space that would make me happy.
Minimize visual clutter: I also prioritized having a lot of built-in storage space, to make organizing my house extra easy.
Clothes decluttering: I avoid buying clothes that I will not wear at least for a few years. I donate or resell what I don’t need.
Regular decluttering: several times a year, we look at all our belongings and decide to keep them, donate them or throw them away. This makes moving extra easy.
Not taking more what you need: I say no to any free samples, paper coupons, extra condiments, or other stuff that I don’t need.
Digital everything: I pay all my bills online to avoid extra paper and I have a Kindle instead of physical books.
One of my inspirations (and one of my favorite books on simple living) is from Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up . When choosing whether to get rid of an item, she asks herself “does this bring me joy?”, to only keep objects that truly spark joy.
I love adapting and applying this method to different areas of my life, to really make sure I only keep stuff that makes me happy! Decluttering and minimalism are here to make you happy, not to deprive you of stuff you love!
3. Declutter your life: get rid of the mental clutter
It is time to finally get rid of mental clutter: from that crazy long to-do list to preconceived ideas on how you should look or what success looks like. At best these thoughts don’t bring you happiness, at worst they are limiting beliefs and prevent you from reaching your full potential.
It is time to practice mental minimalism and get rid of thoughts that don’t serve you to only keep what makes you happy.
Here are a few tips to keep life simple:
Practice gratitude to become aware of all the good things already present in your life: Click here to create a reverse bucket list next!
Practice self-acceptance, you are doing your best! Click here to read an article about this next.
Get out of your comfort zone: Do not let your fear or limiting beliefs hold you back. Click here to read more about this topic.
Most importantly, have a mindfulness practice: Mindfulness is essential to build awareness of your thoughts and feelings and understand what serves you or not.
4. Simplify your work with the 80/20 rule
The 80/20 rule (also called Pareto’s’ law) states that 20% of your actions bring 80% of the results. This principle has been a game-changer in my business and means you should focus on what is truly essential to your business to be successful. No need to try to do it all!
A few ways to apply it are:
Single-tasking
Time batching similar tasks
Setting realistic goals: good things take time!
Not trying to do too much at the same time
Identifying your strengths and focusing on that
Inversely this means that 20% of the same things (or clients) bring 80% of the issues. When I understood how to apply that my mind was blown and my business was changed!
Here is what I did to get rid of 80% of my issues and increase my revenue:
Used an ultra-focused approach to getting clients: I now only work with people I’m 100% hyped up about!
Saying no to opportunities that were not aligned with what I want to do
Firing my problematic clients: This was a big and scary one as I had to come to terms with the idea that I couldn’t be everything to everyone. It also moved to needle the most. I am less worried and have more time, mental space, and energy to move forward on my goals.
5. 📅 Simplify your schedule: eliminate, automate, and delegate (in that order!)
Do you find your calendar getting fuller and fuller every week? It is time to re-think the way you spend your time.
Here are the three steps to reclaim your schedule and freedom:
Eliminate: Get rid of all the pointless tasks you keep doing but don’t really need to do. Can you cancel a few meetings, stop sending a few useless emails, or order your groceries online instead of going to the store?
Automate: Can you use an email template for that question you keep answering every day? Can you set up an appointment scheduler like Calendly instead of going back and forth?
Delegate: Once you’ve done the first two, you’ll have a few tasks left that you really don’t want to be doing or shouldn’t be doing. Ideally, you’d want to delegate almost everything that is not in your zone of genius or that someone else can do well on their own. This could mean anything from hiring a cleaner to a freelancer to manage an aspect of your business on their own or just asking for help from a friend.
Don’t forget to practice digital minimalism too and reclaim your freedom from interruptions by calls, notifications, or emails. Turn off your notifications.
Are you interested in having a healthy relationship with your social media accounts? Click here for my guide on how to do a digital detox.
6. 💵 Financial minimalism: reclaim your financial wellness
One of the main benefits of being a minimalist is that you have more money in the bank without making sacrifices! When you eliminate everything you don’t need to focus on being happy, it is easier to save and be financially secure.
Here are a few ways you can go a step further and be a financial minimalist:
Live below your means: Be realistic about how much you earn and adjust your spending to fully afford a simple frugal lifestyle.
Avoid credit card debt and high-interest debt: Only buy everyday purchases in cash
Set your bills to autopay: avoid mental clutter and late fees.
Eliminate even further: Can you find a membership or a subscription you don’t use? Tracking your spending and looking at your bank account will help you discover more things you can get rid of!
7. Rely on habits and go progressively
Consistency is key to avoid a relapse into your old ways and living a simple minimalist lifestyle is a habit.
An easy strategy to keep stress at bay is to create routines. Click here for an article on how to build a minimalist morning routine and click here for a mindful evening routine.
Don’t try to do everything at once when it comes to minimalism as it can be counterproductive. Keep making slow, consistent progress towards your goals and your simple lifestyle!
I hope you enjoyed this small guide to minimalism and simple living and feel inspired to apply these easy tips in your everyday life! If you enjoyed this article, I’d love it if you could share it with a friend