12 Ways that Less is More | Minimalism

hello you guys and welcome to abundantly minimal my name is Sarah and thank you so much for joining me today for our video about how less is more I specifically want to talk about 12 ways that my life has become better with less of that particular item or part of my schedule anything like that so with this we are going to work backwards it's going to be a countdown I will start with the 12th most important point and we'll work our way all the way down to number one so I'm very excited to share these with you and of course this list is by no means all-inclusive when I was reflecting about my life in thinking about 12 categories these are what I came up with but I'm sure that I could probably come up with a list of 20 30 maybe even 40 if I really spent some time thinking about all the ways that minimalism can be a beneficial lifestyle and I think a lot of these things affect you no matter what age you're at so let's get started number 12 on this less-is-more list is the accounts we follow and I'm specifically talking about social media I personally find that by following fewer accounts it allows me to actually you know see more of what I want to see with these posts and not for you overwhelmed by an overabundance of accounts maybe this is my own bias because I'm not really much of a social media fan I'm always very interested when some people aren't following hundreds and thousands of accounts I know I personally don't have much time to be able to keep up with that many people so for me it's something that I choose to only follow maybe you know close friends or and others in the minimalist space I try to keep it more simple and it is something that it's easy to randomly add accounts over time so what I like to do is periodically declutter some of my social media accounts as well to make sure I'm not following too many people sometimes I get a little bit too into YouTube subscriptions so periodically I go through and unsubscribe from different channels that I'm not actually really interested in anymore or that I know might be fun but aren't really contributing to my main vision in life that's the first way where I feel like less is more number 11 on our list today are cleaning products I think that the beauty is once we discover that we can clean most things in our spaces without the huge array of products we thought will be a lot better off so definitely less is more with cleaning products now only you open up more space and save money but I think these more simple cleaners work just as well maybe even better than some of their other very specific counterparts number 10 of ways I feel like less is more have to do with tools now I think I've been admitted it before I'm not super handy and I don't really know exactly how a lot of these different tools work but what I know for sure is that especially given my lack of understanding about certain tools and projects before I'm actually needing to use them and do them I find that I like to have a much smaller supply of things it's very easy to get an overabundance of tool related products you maybe assemble a piece of furniture and it comes with a few little knickknacks that you put together or sometimes you might get a set of them and you only need a part of the set if we are able to simplify those extra ones that we don't use it makes a lot easier to know what you can do with the tools you have rather than being overwhelmed and not knowing where to start number nine for me is clothing now personally I don't have a capsule wardrobe but since I started my minimalist journey I have downsized my wardrobe over half as I've mentioned before there are different pieces that go out but then other pieces come in based on like changing size as I've been losing weight gradually but with that in mind having a smaller wardrobe can be very helpful in just making sure you're actually wearing all your stuff before handling I had so much more than I that I do now I wasn't always wearing all my things these days I actually even though I still don't have as minimalist of a wardrobe as I could I wear everything at least a couple times per year obviously depending on the season but for me that's been really exciting and I do really enjoy all the pieces that I own just that theme where less is more if you have fewer pieces you can actually wear them more and enjoy them more what's the point of having extra clothing that you never wear so that's definitely something that has helped me a lot number eight is TV shows back when I was in high school it was really fun my family and I used to watch several shows during the week together and it was always kind of like our nightly routine I get home from school after track practice as well dinner shower and then usually work on some homework we'd have some TV time and then I'd continue a little bit more homework after that and it was always something I really enjoy however after that point in my life I've really not been watching much TV I hardly have any shows that I follow on a regular basis but I think our culture today has shifted a bit and I think there's more people who are hooked on more shows and of course this is a personal list so maybe this one doesn't apply as much to you but one thing that TV can be kind of a challenges is that it takes up a lot of time and I'm not talking just traditional TV viewing on the actual TV Netflix Hulu all the other streaming services that I don't even know about because I don't use them there are so many shows that are always coming out there's always new ads and trailers that are trying to make us excited about different shows and it's really easy to get sucked into the premise they're really good at what they do and they put these shows together but when you commit to trying out a show and if you like it that is a lot of time and so for me I find that I don't want to just get sucked into watching all that granted I've never had an account on Netflix Hulu anything like that and we don't have cable TV at home but I think for me not having very much TV to watch is very helpful and allows me to focus more on doing what I actually want to do with my life than just passively watching someone else or someone else's character kind of achieve their dreams so for me less TV has been very beneficial for number seven I want to talk about paper paper clutter can be such a challenge and as a teacher I deal with a lot of paper on a regular basis with this paper clutter in mind if we've got way too many papers and we're saving everything then when we actually need to find certain things it's gonna be a lot more difficult and we might be saving more paper than we need trying to streamline the papers I'm keeping have been really helpful and now we're actually in the best state and we've been before in terms of how we organize our papers and actually how we decide which papers we keep you can shred a lot of stuff recycle a lot of the extra stuff simplify your mail situation get rid of junk mail or get yourself off lists for junk mail and that can help a lot number six is furniture now furniture is not something I can declare often but when I do I always am amazed by the feeling of openness in our space once we let go of certain things having fewer pieces of furniture whether it is something you use often or whether it's more of a decorative piece or storage piece having less furniture can make our space just feel so much more open it's amazing I know back if you've been watching for a while you know we had this black futon here and I'm trying to work a different filming setup I can't imagine having that futon back in our space with all the other stuff again you know it's really funny I even was looking back at our minimalist apartment tour from when we first moved in here and even just to see the journey from that point now fast forward a little bit over a year later and I was like oh you know a lot has changed since that point we've gotten rid of a lot of things since then it didn't seem to be a problem to me then but now it feels like a completely different situation and I feel like we have a lot less now so it's so interesting how it changes but definitely if there are pieces of furniture that aren't being used letting that go feels incredible and can totally transform your space number five is body care and I think the best part about this one while s is more is because of the time savings now personally I don't use too many products in terms of body care and that sort of thing I have a shampoo conditioner so that's in the shower and then every day like for my everyday life I comb my hair in the morning that's all I'm doing oh and deodorant of course too so I've got those things I'm not using any hair product to style things I don't color my hair I don't really wear makeup except in videos and that sort of thing I don't really use a whole lot of like lotion or things like that it's really a simple setup and when I don't have that many products I have to deal with then it saves so much time I guess toothpaste as well for tooth brushing my teeth but in general having fewer products saves time I did used to have significantly more products different creams and treatments and and all of that but the thinness I think a lot of the beauty and body care industry a lot of those products are built on making us not feel as good about ourselves and we need a certain product to fix a certain thing or make it feel more confident and I think there's definitely specific cases where products are necessary Jake wears contacts so obviously he needs contact solution there's things that are more so needs but a lot of products that I know I used to have for more so I do this to your hair or do this for your acne or whatever it is and after a while I just I've stopped caring as much and I find that oftentimes those products that claim to fix something or do something a lot of times I feel like they don't actually even work that much I have found that other factors more so contribute to things than you know just using that product number four on my less is more or less is notifications I think there's a lot of us who might have more notifications than we need on our phones or other devices and I would recommend if you can turn off certain notifications I'd probably be helpful now I think for me since I'm still relatively new to the smartphone game it's been still less than a year since I've had a smartphone I don't have a lot of notifications set I have a notification for when a text and call come in which I think are default at one point I had a notification for a podcast when we were traveling and listening to him a lot but as soon as our trip was done I turned them off each time a notification comes in it takes our attention and diverts it elsewhere and when our attention is diverted it makes a lot tougher for us to focus on the ones we love or the activities that we're doing that we want to be doing or are supposed to be doing you know whatever the case is and when I remove that distraction it really helped I find that I don't need to have a notification every time an email comes in or every time some new post happens on social media it's very nice of you if you have no turn notifications on for the videos but you'll notice I never actually tell you like hey hit the notifications because that's ultimately your choice I don't want you as much as I love for you to watch my videos I hope you enjoy them I don't want to be that extra buzz or blip on your phone when a video pops up you know unless that's adding value to you limiting those notifications can be really helpful for us to focus on what matters or focus on who matters to us so definitely that's that's one of the reasons I intentionally never tell you to you know hit the notifications button or anything like that because ultimately that's your choice and I don't want to clutter up your notifications or whatever else number three has to do with our food that we have in the fridge or pantry I know myself if I have too much going on in the fridge or in the pantry or wherever it feels a bit stressful and especially within the last year or so we have been working on doing better with this because when you've got so much food in the fridge it's really tough to know everything you have and you're much more likely to waste food not only that but you probably also spent more than you intended on your groceries now I'm so guilty of that by no means I'm in perfect shape on that but if we are able to limit the amount of food we have our space not to a point of scarcity but just not to the point of being overstuffed or overabundance of it I think that can be really helpful and then you're actually able to eat more of it you are maybe more likely to want to cook with it because you're working through certain ingredients you haven't it's just not too much the number two way that I think less is more has to do with obligations and social commitments now personally I am kind of on the border between introvert and extrovert I definitely enjoy social interaction and enjoy being with others but I know personally my own recharge comes from being by myself or being with Jake those are really the ways that I recharge as a person and that feel really good I love teaching because I get to be really social and interacting with lots of students during the day as well as some other co-workers but then when I come home I like to be more so a lot more chill I'll talk to Jake and you know we'll hang out a bit but in general it's more so kind of me doing my thing doing my work and doing the things that make me happy but it's typically a few things on my own or just with Jake like I mentioned sometimes there are pressures inside you to go to certain events or like oh I'm invited to this but do I really want to go and I've gotten a lot better at just saying no upfront and not really caring too much if other people are upset or if I'm hurting anyone's feelings you know you altima to what is best for yourself of course there are certain situations where it is important maybe that you attend certain gatherings but like I said you have to do what's best for you and if you're putting yourself in the negative state or a negative situation by attending something just because you don't want to say no that might not be the best approach especially think about you know the trade-offs of this do you actually value these relationships or is it more so just kind of an acquaintance type of thing it's very important for us to be honest with ourselves about what matters what adds value and not just try to do what others want for us and finally for our last item on this less-is-more checklist if you will or list I wanted to talk about the videos on this channel and give a little bit of a channel update now this probably isn't actually number one but I wanted to save this one till the end here I have recently decided that going forward on the channel at least for the short term maybe for longer as well will see I am going to be switching from the two videos per week to one video per week and it's going to be uploaded on Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. now why am i reducing from two videos to one it's not that I don't have enough time in my schedule it's not really that I don't have topics to talk about it's actually mostly because I want to be able to make my videos better take my videos to the next level I think things are at a very comfortable point if you've been watching the channel for a while you know no I need five percent of the videos are me talking here with this background and talking about minimalism things and I'm not saying that's bad obviously you know you've stuck around here because you enjoy that but there's a lot more that I could be doing to improve them and what I would rather do is scale back a little bit so I can put together a much better video a higher quality video that's gonna support you the best and also it's fun for me to make I'd rather do that then divide my time between two videos and not really have the chance to do that I know it's kind of crazy at this point there's over 200 videos on this channel I think we're around 225 although I don't really look at the number of the videos that much but we've done a lot here and there's a big variety of topics I know there's a lot of topics you guys have really enjoyed but I think that ultimately I can make much better content and higher quality content if I scale back like I said I don't know if this is short-term or long-term but I think that your time is very valuable so if you're gonna watch a video I want you to feel like your time was really well-spent since you give any time as an incredible resource if you're choosing to watch these videos and if you've made it all the way to this point you know you are giving up a lot of time and it's I take it very seriously I want what I'm doing with these videos to be adding value to you and making your life better just like I know if I'm watching a video I want it to make my life better too that's kind of my aim with this so I'm hoping that starting next Wednesday you'll notice an improvement now that's going to be for like the I don't want to say hardcore minimalist videos but you know the main focus here with minimalism live your best life with less kind of mentality if there's a video that's a less related to that or it's a collaboration video or something like that those still might pop up at any time during the week but the main focus will be on that one video on Wednesdays it's also pretty crazy because depending on when you're watching this we're either very close to hitting 10,000 subscribers or we may be already have hit that depending on if you're watching this a bit later and that's just pretty crazy to me and really exciting back in May of 2017 I've been putting some videos up but I didn't really have a clear direction we had 33 subscribers and it was much smaller community I said you know what if I'm gonna do this I want to do it right started narrowing down my vision with minimalism did a bunch of videos that first month tried every day almost got every day and then I was doing three times a week two times a week and there's definitely a lot of content here but like I said I do want to make it better and think that I can serve more people and make better things by doing one video so I hope that is a welcome change again there's plenty of videos on this channel if you if you miss the twice a week you're welcome to go back and look at any of those but I really appreciate your support and hope this video was enjoyable to you if you guys would like to check out any of our past videos you can check those over here and if you have not yet subscribed to the channel you can join our community right up here we'll see you guys next time bye

Channel: Abundantly Minimal

Views: 357,808

Keywords: minimalism, minimalist, abundantly minimal, 12 ways that less is more, minimalist lifestyle, less is more, less is more minimalism, simple living, minimalist living, 12 ways to simplify, 12 ways to be a minimalist, why should i be a minimalist, how to become a minimalist, live simply, why less is more

Id: YVj_ZHEfLjo

Length: 17min 39sec (1059 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 04 2018