Discover the life-changing power of decluttering and detaching from materialism. Learn How to Breathe More Freely, Find Freedom, and Pursue Genuine Happiness!“
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Seeking a life through a minimalistic lifestyle: What are the odds?
It is a topic that has been swirling in my head for many years. I always wanted to live life minimalist-size. Sounds odd, right? People around the globe want to live life king-size, and here I am talking about living a life with minimum stuff, which requires decluttering for sure.
What I wanted and what I did are totally different things. I wanted to declutter my house with unnecessary items, especially those that have no significance in my life, when in reality I kept on buying and accumulating things with or without any purpose.
Differentiate Between Absolute Necessity and Extravagance: Decluttering Basics
We have a habit of keeping our needs and luxuries related. We often do not differentiate between absolute necessity and extravagance, and it leads us to buy all sorts of things that are not even close to a requirement.
The purpose of writing this article is to learn, inculcate some habits, and bring awareness into my life. I believe if you want to remind yourself with something, write those verses down, it will act like mantras and you will be prompted every now and then by your soul.
Unlocking Productivity: The Power of Minimalism
Some might wonder why would we or anybody want to live a minimalistic lifestyle. People are overwhelmed with all the physical, mental, and financial clutter. They don’t know that clutter in mind, and the house is making them unproductive.
Just imagine a scene for me, will you? Imagine you have an important presentation or a project to prepare, or you have to prepare for an important exam. You went to your room, reached for your desk, and it has all the significant and insignificant things.
You started doing your work after a small arrangement, but things keep falling from the table, you are unable to find the essentials you need at the moment; ergo, it took three hours instead of one to complete the project or presentation.
Ok, snap-out! It is what happens in real too. When you don’t declutter more often, it hampers your productivity and sometimes creativity.
Let’s try, for our mental and financial sake, the art of minimalism.
For starters, Prepare a checklist
The first thing one needs to do if they are going in the minimalistic direction is to list all the items they have. It will help in getting an idea of all the things they had and went unnoticed.
Prepare a list of all the things, whether it has a sentimental value, financial value, or it is of no value. It will be a tiresome job, but believe you me not as tiring as living with a pile of junk.
Once-Twice-Thrice a year
After the first step, you need to put the items in an order. There may be some belongings that you use perhaps once a year, some twice a year, and some thrice a year.
There will be things that you never use at all, they are the ones that you should discard. The once in a year should be discarded too if they are of no use and you are using it only for the sake of “I bought it, I probably should use it”. The twice and thrice should be kept for some time, and they should be again tried against this concept. The decluttering calendar is important.
Detach the Attachments
No, don’t get me wrong. I’m personally a very emotional person, I always keep old things close to my heart for their sentimental value.
But often we keep all the stuff that does not necessarily have an emotional attachment for us. We need to check for our attachment with the belongings.
Do the things have anything to offer after ten years? Will they make me happy when I see or hold them after five years? Are they providing my collection any sentimental value? Am I keeping them just because I’m not getting any time to discard them?
There you may get the answers, follow them and get rid of maybe some of the bitter memories as well. A gift from someone who is not your friend anymore, a return gift from someone who is not on your guest list anymore, some piles of clothes that don’t fit anymore (you kept it as you bought it from your first pocket money perhaps).
Less Claustrophobic, More Oxygen, More Freedom
The basic principle of minimalism believes that less is more, whereas the advertising principle is about creating the need for more. Every day we are constantly bombarded with advertisements about materialistic measures and an illusion is made that we need all of them; it just never ends.
Those unnecessary things at our house are a result of our insatiable appetite for resources that makes us materialistic and stops us from seeing the world or our life from a different perspective.
This doesn’t mean you should just throw everything out and start living like a monk. To be honest that is a difficult and impractical approach to follow in a newfound direction without putting any thought.
Start by following one thing at a time, start by not buying for few months, start by decluttering a corner of the house or a folder on your computer, start by donating some good valuables to feel satisfied.
A clear corner, cupboard, folder, or mind will make you feel less claustrophobic (even if you are not one), and you will breathe more. Less attachment with worldly possessions will eventually help you to have more freedom.
Pursuit of Happiness
Following the above points will help you find the happiness you always searched for, but in the wrong places. The stress of maintaining the status quo never untangled you to enjoy life with utmost happiness.
When the string of attachments with materials is detached, you feel relaxed. You don’t always have the fear of losing them as they don’t hold the same spot in your life as they used to. Who needs to be more afraid of losing, a person who has millions or who has just enough to live?
I wanted to keep the article minimalistic too, but the insatiable hunger for writing kept me going on and on. Let us think for a while and declutter everything that we don’t need. Let’s make the world around us a better place starting with our home.
HAPPY DECLUTTERING