10 Minimalist Rules That Changed My Life

today I'm sharing 10 minimalist rules that changed my life for the better and before I discovered minimalism my life was pretty messy inside and out I was anxious overwhelmed and felt like I was a failure at everything from keeping my home clean to being a good mom but then one day I woke up to the fact that there was only one thing that was stopping me from creating the home and the life of my dreams and that was me as I simplified my home and life I figured out a few rules that not only made decluttering easier but also helped me heal and let go of the past Achieve Financial Freedom and just overall make more space to welcome in all of the good things that life has to offer so I wanted to share those rules with you today in the hopes that they might improve your life as well rule number one on this list is the poop rule which is something that I picked up from my friend Rachel over at nourishing minimalism and I will put a link to one of the videos where she talks about that down below but basically what happened was a toilet in her house overflow and sewage got all over a ton of stuff that she was storing in her basement just in case so at that point she had to ask herself do I care about this stuff enough to clean poop off of it and this question completely changed the way that I think about decluttering and my relationship with stuff and I had to ask myself this exact question right before we moved from Germany back to the USA because I took my youngest son to his end of year party that his class was having in the park and it wasn't until we were ready to go home that I picked up the picnic blanket that I had spread out on the ground only to realize that I had laid it down on top of a huge pile of dog poop I'm fine it just uh threw up in my mouth a little bit as a side note I would like to say that I think that there's a special place in Hell reserved for people who don't pick up their dog poop comment below and let me know if you agree or disagree anyway I have to admit that for a few minutes I contemplate throwing the whole darn thing into the trash but at the same time I started remembering how practical and useful it had been for things like going to the park or the beach and I thought back to all of the fond memories that we'd created with that picnic blanket which I'd bought when my oldest son was a baby so it had been in the family for over 10 years at that point so I got over my poop phobia and I cleaned up the picnic blanket and I'm happy to report that we still have and use it to this day so the next time you're struggling to side if you want to keep something or Let It Go consider asking yourself would I be willing to clean poop off of this and you might be surprised just how much easier it becomes to let go of clutter after that number two on this list is the OneTouch Rule and this rule is a total GameChanger when it comes to keeping your home clean and tidy the idea is that you save yourself time and energy when you touch something once and deal with it right away rather than putting it off until later so when you touch something thing don't put it down put it away normally the countertops in my kitchen stay pretty clean and clutter-free throughout the day because I've turned the One Touch rule into an automatic habit but if I stop doing that even just for a few hours it is shocking how much stuff can accumulate which not only makes it feel messy and overwhelming but instead of taking a few minutes here and there to clean dishes or put stuff away instead I would have to spend a ton of time cleaning up at the end of the day when I'm already tired now I try to implement the OneTouch rule as often as I can like putting our coats and shoes away right when we get home instead of throwing them on the floor to deal with later and when paper and mail enter the home it either goes to the recycling bin or to my or my husband's desk to be dealt with immediately I'm not saying that I or the rest of my family are perfect when it comes to using this rule but we try to use it as often as possible and like I said this concept has really helped things in our home run a lot more smoothly and I think it's a perfect example of working smarter not harder next up on this list we have the iceberg Rule and this is a rule that I created to explain why decluttering is so hard because in the process of decluttering my entire home and the 30 years of stuff I'd been accumulating since my family's passing I realized that the hardest part wasn't dealing with all of the physical clutter because that was just the tip of the iceberg and the truth is that the the physical clutter that we see only accounts for 10% of the total clutter and the rest of it 90% or more is lurking below the surface in the form of internal clutter things like impulsivity and shopping addiction limiting beliefs about what you can or can't do indecisiveness procrastination or poor time management skills and even things like past traumas and a family history of mental illness and the fact that these things are invisible makes them even harder to deal with an overcome come and I've noticed in a lot of Articles and videos about decluttering they make it all about the fancy organizing bins and the pretty checklist and principles and challenges and a lot of us end up decluttering backward and putting our energy and attention towards stuff that doesn't matter when what we should be doing is reverse decluttering our home from the inside out but I know that for a lot of us that's easier said than done and for me one of the best things I did to work through my internal clutter was go to therapy which is why I want to give a big shout out to thank better help for sponsoring today's video I know from personal experience how tough it can be to face your fears and try to break free from old habits and beliefs let alone trying to find time to do it as a busy mom and one of the things I love about better help is that they make starting therapy easier and a lot less intimidating since it's 100% online to get started all you have to do is go to my Link at betterhelp.com in life to fill out a questionnaire about your needs and preferences in therapy so that better help can match you with the right person from their network of over 30,000 licensed and experienced therapists after that you can schedule your therapy sessions at a time that's most convenient for you and connect with your therapist however you feel most comfortable whether that's through a phone call a video chat or even by messaging them and another reason to love better help is they make it easy to switch therapists with the click of a button at no addition cost to you if you feel like your therapist isn't the right fit for whatever reason so if you're ready to join the 4 plus million people who have used betterhelp to start living a happier healthier and all-around better life you can click the link in the description box below or go to betterhelp.com tozen life to save 10% off your first month of therapy clicking that link not only helps support this channel but can also help you declutter your life from the inside out with the help of a licensed and experienced therapist I hope that you'll join me in taking charge of your mental health and thanks again to better help for sponsoring today's video and speaking of mental health another rule that helps me protect mine is the rule of Equivalent Exchange those of you who have been following me for a long time here at aen life know that I'm a huge anime fan and one of my favorite animes of all time is called Full Metal Alchemist now I'm going to try not to spoil it as much as possible in case you haven't watched it yet which you should but one of the big themes in Full Metal Alchemist is this idea of Equivalent Exchange which is the principle that something cannot be created from nothing and in order to create something something of equal value must be exchanged and lost and along my minimalism journey I realized that the exact same thing applies to decluttering and it's just like the Henry David tho quote goes which states the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it I know this is a bit heavy to think about but all of the stuff in your home is costing you in some way whether that's in the actual money that you paid for it upfront in the first place or the continued cost for you to store and maintain that item or through hidden costs like the time and energy that it's draining you to clean up and care for those things not to mention the negative impact that owning too much stuff can have on your physical and mental health which is something that I talk about in more detail in this video on the benefits of minimalism that I'll link up here for you so I encourage you to look around and start noticing all of the ways that clutter is cosing you in one way or another and begin to ask yourself is this stuff worth the price that I'm paying for it next up on this list I've made it a rule to always put function before form and it's kind of like that funny meme about books that says that buying books and reading books are two separate hobbies and I think the same thing applies to decluttering and organizing Solutions all of the aesthetic Pantry organizing container ERS and pretty storage cabinets in the world aren't going to matter if they don't work for you effectively in your home if you buy something that you hoped would help you declutter and organize your home only to find out that it doesn't work for you that's okay accept that as a lesson and know that it is not your fault and it's okay to let those things go as you continue to try to figure out Solutions and systems that do work for you rule number six is the Ben Franklin rule which I named after his famous quote that states a place for everything and everything in its place this rule is deceptively simple because it's not always easy to figure out where every single item in your home should go but once you do you will be amazed at how much easier it is to keep your home clean and clutter free because not only do you know where everything goes but the rest of your family does too which means that everyone in the family can share the responsibility of putting things back where they go and it'll also save you time and money in the long long run as you spend less of both searching for and replacing lost items the next rule on this list is the 30-day Rule and this is a minimalism rule that can help you reduce impulse spending and save more money by adding a small time buffer between that moment where you have the impulse to buy something and the actual Act of buying that thing and even though it's called the 30-day rule I don't think the amount of time that youa matters as much as it does the simple habit of waiting so feel free to make up your own rules whether it's waiting 72 hours or 7 days just adding in a small window of time to cool down and evaluate the pros and cons of any purchase before you buy is almost certain to reduce impulse buying by 80% or more which not only saves you money but also means less clutter coming into your home minimalist rule number eight is the use it or lose it Rule and this is a great rule for anyone who has trouble letting go of just in case clutter we keep expensive shoes we never wear just in case we get invited to a fancy party we keep gifts we don't like because we worry about hurting other people's feelings and we keep stuff in the off chance that we magically lose 25 lbs and can suddenly fit into our high school swimsuits again but the problem with keeping too much stuff just in case is that it fills up our homes and our minds with stuff that doesn't add value to our life and that almost never ends up getting used and some of the mindset shifts that helped me adopt a use it or lose it policy is saying that the things in my home either need to a get used on a regular and repeated basis B contribute a high degree of value in some way to me or my family or C be something that I want to display and have the space to do so and if my stuff doesn't meet one or more of those criteria then I know that it's time for me to send it on for a new chance to be that to someone else or to trash it if it's not in donatable or sellable condition next up on this list we have the one in one out rule which is easy to follow and really helpful when it comes to balancing the inflow and outflow of stuff in your home and the basic idea is that for every new item that you bring into your home one old item should then go out which means that the amount of stuff in your home stays at a relative equilibrium for example I recently had to get a new wallet because the old one didn't have enough C storage space inside and once I found and purchased a new wallet I was then able to get rid of the old one but I would actually encourage you to consider this more of a guideline versus a hard and fast Rule and be willing to adapt it to best suit your current lifestyle and needs someone who has a lot of stuff to declutter might find it helpful to increase the ratio of items going out to items coming in such as getting rid of 10 things for every new item they buy and on the other hand someone who who has finished decluttering and is on maintenance mode to stay clutter-free might find it hard to stick to a 1:1 ratio because they simply don't have as much inventory and might even need to swap across categories so feel free to adapt this rule however you see fit and finally the last rule on this list is the F minute Rule and this is really helpful for people who struggle with procrastination like I do so let's say that you have a big project that you've been wanting to tackle like your messy garage for example and you felt super motivated when you first started decluttering the garage but then as time wore on your motivation slowly fizzled out but there's still a ton of clutter to SAR through but you keep putting it off and avoiding it and the great thing about the 5- minute rule is that it works even if you have zero motivation to use the 5-minute rule all you have to do is set a timer and commit to doing the work you've been avoiding which breaks through your internal resistance to get the ball rolling and then you go in with the condition that you're allowed to stop after 5 minutes if you really don't feel like doing more after the timer goes off but a lot of people find that once they get past that hurdle of getting started they're able to keep going because they've built up momentum you see and speaking of which if you're trying to declutter but you struggle with procrastination or overthinking or just plain feel like you don't have enough time so relatable I know make sure to go check out this video where I talk about the secret laws of decluttering and how you can harness them for maximum success or I'll see you next week until then take care bye-bye

Channel: A to Zen Life

Views: 325,890

Keywords: minimalist rules, minimalist rules that changed my life, 10 minimalist rules, 10 minimalist rules that changed my life, minimalist, minimalism, rules that changed my life, rules of minimalism, habits that changed my life, minimalists, minimalist habits, change your life, how to become a minimalist, minimalism changed my life, how to change your life, life changing rules, life-changing habits, simple habits, rules for life, life rules, a to zen life

Id: G9qNRtuJ5II

Length: 14min 44sec (884 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 04 2024