21 Life Changing Minimalist Experiments to Try in Your Home

Maya Angelou changed my life with one simple sentence we need much less than we think we need as soon as I heard it in my heart I knew she was right I need less than I have and I need less than I think but how could I go about learning this truth how could I learn how little I actually needed in October 2010 I tried my first minimalist experiment I Define a minimalist experiment as any intentional decision we make to challenge our assumptions about how much we need to live Society is constantly calling us to expand and upgrade every area of our life our home our kitchen our car our wardrobe our technology and so living with less experiment provides us the opportunity to see if there's a more intentional more focused better way to live to conduct a minimalist experiment number one choose an assumption in your life to test for example how many articles of clothing do I need number two choose a new amount less than you own I'll try 50 percent less clothes in my closet number three choose a period of time I'm going to test this out for two months number four remove the excess from your field of vision I'm going to put my extra clothes in the basement the number five after the experiment re-evaluate what you learned this was amazing I love owning less I'm going to leave a comment below about how brilliant Joshua is for each of these experiments I encourage at least a 29 day test in your home but the longer you go 60 days 90 days the more you learn about yourself and how much less you actually need so here are 21 minimalist experiments to try number one project 333 this was the minimalist fashion experiment that changed forever the number of clothes that hang in my closet and it's the one experiment I think everybody should try I'll include a link in the description below but the basic premise is this wear just 33 articles of clothing for three months number two keep one television when my kids were six and three we decided to test out having just one TV in our home rather than the existing four and try it out for three months over the summer we loved it and to this day 14 years later there's still just one TV set up in our home number three have your decorations it's important to remember before we go much further that these are simply experiments you don't need to burn your extra clothes in the backyard or throw your extra televisions off the roof just move them somewhere else for a period of time after the experiment you can bring everything back if you hate it for two months try fewer decorations in your home you can cut them in half for one-third whatever you choose but choose the least meaningful Decor in every room remove them and try keeping just your favorites and then see what you think number four you could try a no buy challenge for just one month buy nothing but groceries and toiletries see if you find the experiment more difficult than you thought or easier than you thought there's lessons to be learned either way also take note how much your bank account can change in just one month number five one coffee mug pick your favorite mug and decide to use only that mug for the entire month store the rest somewhere else maybe you need fewer mugs in your cabinet than you think number six you could try out Less Furniture choose one room in your home and temporarily remove one or two pieces of furniture move the items out of your way as best as you can as you do how does it make you feel to have extra space in the room furniture takes up more space than we think number seven limit your makeup options for one month experiment with less makeup this could mean wearing less makeup on your skin or just limiting the makeup options in your drawer choose the colors you love best and see if there's any benefit to your morning routine and or how you feel all day long number eight you could watch less television many of us got into bad habits during covid and shaking them can be difficult so to help realign my life around greater priorities I'm currently testing out 30 days of no TV this is the living with less experiment that I'm working on right now you could also apply this to social media or video games or podcasts or any other number of activities that you think are taking up too much time number nine clear off your kitchen counters try clearing everything off your kitchen counters for 29 days you'll love it number 10 remove half of the books from a space books can be beautifully decorative items they can also encourage reading and learning but too many in too small a space can become visually distracting especially in open shelves and bookcases so test your assumptions on how my books is the right amount by removing a half or a third for a period of time number 11 leave a corner empty years ago I helped a woman declutter her living room and at the end one of the corners was entirely empty and she said are we just going to leave that empty I don't think I can do that and I replied well maybe not but if you rush out to buy something just to fill the space you'll never know for sure how about we give it one month if you still hate it empty we can go buy something and you can fill the space but maybe you'll start to like it more than you think last I heard a new decoration still hasn't filled the space number 12 limit Tupperware to eight containers find eight food storage containers with easy identifiable lids and put the rest of your containers in a box write the date on the top of the box and take it away from your kitchen and commit to this experiment for at least three months I can guarantee you'll never go back to a cluttered Tupperware cabinet again number 13 one place setting per person now personally we keep two place settings per person which comes in handy when we entertain but there are lots of people who do keep just one and they love it maybe it's an experiment worth testing out in your home you'll never know until you try number 14 hand washing your dishes we first tried hand washing our dishes in November 2010 as one of these experiments and I immediately loved the intentional closing of a meal in this way and so still years later we hand wash almost every meal only running our dishwasher occasionally number 15 rotate some toys out owning fewer toys benefits our kids in numerous ways they learn how to be more creative helpful careful and they learn how to share better although you may want to consult your children before you decide to relocate their unused toys there's a pretty good chance that after only a few weeks of rotating out some old toys they'll be entirely forgotten number 16 your kitchen gadgets there never seems to be enough storage space in our kitchens yet most of our grandmothers cooked far more often far better and more elaborately than most of us today in Far smaller kitchens the truth is that when it comes to cooking simple is almost always better so try storing all your unnecessary utensils in a plastic bin put them out of sight and see if you just enjoy cooking a little bit better number 17 you could try a simplified meal plan I started eating the same breakfast and lunch several years ago and although my hope at the time was to make it a long-term habit change I knew I could stop anytime and could go back to my old variety but nope I learned to love eating the same breakfast and lunch every day and maybe you will too number 18 unsubscribe from email lists try unsubscribing from every email newsletter that you receive in the next month you can always go and subscribe back if you want but maybe you'll find the calmer more peaceful inbox more enjoyable than sales offers constantly arriving number 19 spend one day a week unplugging from work and other responsibilities rest can quickly become a neglected priority in our busy lives so for the next month choose one day each week for intentional rest no work allowed number 20 try Hotel living in your bedroom there's this growing movement online to style home bedrooms like Hotel bedrooms so if you want to try it out Begin by simply removing everything from your room you wouldn't normally find in a hotel room you'll be surprised how big of a change that makes number 21 you could spend a week only using public transportation or walking instead of driving a car if your city's amenities allow try one week without driving your car at all maybe you hate it and you rush back to grab the keys on the eighth day but maybe you find your area's public transportation more convenient than you thought either way you'll discover something new about yourself and something new about your community there are any number of experiments you could try in your home fewer pillows fewer coats fewer magazine subscriptions fewer hobby supplies the list goes on and on choose one that seems like a good fit for you and your home test your assumptions there's beautiful life-giving joy to be found in the realization of how little we actually need and experimenting can help us discover that [Music] number three cut your decorations in half look at your decorations in half it's have your decorations but I didn't want to say the exact same thing as I did in the last video so I thought I'd change it on the fly but that's not good okay

Channel: Joshua Becker

Views: 241,043

Keywords: Joshua Becker, minimalism, minimalist, becoming minimalist, simple living, decluttering motivation, minimalist living, decluttering and organizing, how to get rid of stuff, clutter

Id: 7KUsX32YKOE

Length: 10min 46sec (646 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 14 2023