Minimalism for Beginners: Where to start & how to SUCCEED

so i think there's kind of a lot of wrong ideas or misinformation when it comes to what family minimalism is but also the type of person that it works for or who's brave enough to try it or who might benefit from it i don't know if that always comes across right and so today let's talk about what is family minimalism who is it best suited for who can succeed with it who will it benefit and then also where's the best place to get started so you can see some really quick progress and decide if it's for you or not [Music] well hi i'm dawn from the minimal mom we love talking about family minimalism and tips and tricks to simplify your house quickly how you can make it work for your family how you can make it stick and also some of the really awesome benefits and so what's funny is that i've had this channel i've had a blog for i don't know three or four years now and i've very intentionally not told any of my friends and family about it because why because i didn't want any of them to think we were weird and that was one of tom's caveats in the in the beginning was he was like you can highly simplify our house but just please don't make us look weird and i think that is probably one of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to minimalism is that we're gonna look weird right someone's gonna walk in our house and be like oh my goodness where's all your stuff right were you robbed are you moving and we never want to be weird well i take that back some of us have a higher threshold for it than others but i would say at the end of the day most of us don't want to look weird right and i totally get that so today let's talk about what is family minimalism who is it best suited for and where's some great places to get started so you can just kind of test it out for your family and see if it would be a good fit so what is family minimalism i like to think of it as only keeping the stuff that we actually use and like in our house so just keeping the stuff really that we have a value for because we use it it makes our life easier or it makes our house enjoyable to be in what it's not is it's not actually depriving ourselves or making our life harder like well i'll reduce all the stuff in my house so that it's easier to keep clean but you know there's gonna be times where i'm not gonna have the things i need and it's gonna make life harder that's not it at all we still have our computers we've kept our microwave i'm totally okay with that but we have just enough plates and dishes to cook the meals that we need to but not any extra so we don't get stacks and stacks next to the sink and so here's how i like to think about it have you ever gone to one of those places where you can pan for gold or for fool's gold and so they give you the pan and you dip it in the little stream and you get some sand and rocks and and then you sift it right and you shake it and you shake it and then the gold or the gold painted rocks kind of they rise to the top and all the other stuff gets sifted out and that's kind of what i think the process of going through our house and simplifying and minimizing our house is is it's kind of just shaking everything out what stuff aren't we using what did i buy thinking it was going to be awesome and it did not it was like it was clearly falsely advertised right it did not live up to that expectation so as i'm sifting what do i need what makes my life easier and what things am i keeping out of guilt because i paid money for it what things would i if i'm like if i could just give this back to you and get the money back for it i would totally do that right and so we sift and we go through our house we go layer by layer and we just look at the things and we get rid of the stuff that we're not using that's just taking up space and so again i think sometimes the idea is that that minimalism is for a certain type of person maybe someone who's more of a hippie or more granola or who likes very simplistic decor who lives in a condo in the city or i don't know people that don't mind looking a little bit weird right but i think that's a big misconception that it's only for a certain type of person or my house will have no personality if i highly simplify it or that i can only wear black t-shirts and jeans right i have to have a uniform and wear the same shirt every day right and that couldn't be further from the truth really what minimalism is is it's a makeover on your house it's a simplifying process so that you can enjoy your house again that your house feels plenty spacious and big enough so that you don't fight with other people in your house about keeping it clean and it always being cluttered so that it feels more peaceful scientifically if you look at the facts when our spaces are cluttered it releases the stress hormone in our brain and so if you ever feel stressed out in your house a little bit anxious then it could be the stuff around you and so minimalism is really saying i value my peace of mind i value time with my family i value my relationships more than the stuff in our house that's filling it up cluttering up that i don't actually even have any value for anymore so really at the end of the day it's a way to promote the things that you like that make your life easier that you enjoy having and maintaining and keeping track of and getting rid of that other stuff that's just found its way in that you don't really care about anymore and that's just taking up space in your house we all have this stuff we've all come by it different ways it all it we all have it right and so it's not bad or wrong the only thing that would actually be bad or wrong is to know there's a better way and that your house could be better and to let this stuff stay here and not do anything about it so if you're like okay i think this sounds good i think i could get on board with it but honestly looking around my house i feel a little overwhelmed well i love dana from a slob comes clean she has a great book called decluttering at the speed of life of course i'll link to it down below but she talks about that when she first got started she wanted to pick an area that visually it would make a big impact and so she said when you walked in their front door one of the first things guests coming into their house would see was their dining room and like many dining room tables or any flat surface it got piled with stuff and it was more of a storage space than a dining area right we know how that goes and so she wanted to start there to get that room completely decluttered because she knew it would make a big impact that her family would notice anyone that stopped by the house would notice she wouldn't have to be embarrassed to to not let people in because that space would be decluttered and then from there when she had it simplified she worked to keep it decluttered so that when she had time to work on her house some more it was always straighten up that space first which once you're in the maintenance mode that goes very quickly right so she still has that win under her belt she doesn't feel like she's spinning her wheels or losing traction because your family will still live in these spaces and put stuff on the dining room table right but if we're if we start getting the habit of tidying that space up and then going to work on another space that's how we feel like we're making progress and we're not spinning our wheels another great place to start would be clearing your kitchen counters now i know a lot of people say i hear this comment a lot well i don't want to be as minimal as you or i don't want to be a complete minimalist but hear me out just try it just try clearing off your entire kitchen counters i know some of us have smaller kitchens than others but finding space in cabinets to put all of the the gadgets and the things that normally sit out for us we make an exception for our coffee pot because we use it multiple times a day but other than that we tucked everything into drawers and cabinets and it takes a little bit of getting used to but it feels so good again clutter makes our brain feel stressed feel anxious it releases those stress hormones and so if you're ever like why don't i ever want to cook in my kitchen or why do i just not even want to be in there that could be part of it and so just try for a month having them completely cleared off and then from there if you want to pull some stuff back out or have some decoration totally fine but just try it or right now just walk over to your fridge and clear everything off of it every photo every coupon every schedule that's hanging on there just totally clear off your fridge and see how that feels and again let it let it be like that for a month or so and just see how it feels it takes a little time for our brain to adjust but i think you're gonna find that it feels awesome to just kind of have some breathing space in our room but i also think your family is going to like it and they might comment on it too and when we're doing these spaces that really make a big impact visually that's what then spurs us on to keep going because we really do like how it feels and then we're like hmm okay how would this feel in my closet if when i open the closet doors in the morning or if i could even close the closet doors again right to when i get up in the morning and i walk over there i just everything fits in there and i know the stuff hanging on my rack is real options that i have to wear today and oh what if i cleared off my bathroom vanity what would that feel like i wonder and so it just kind of keeps the ball rolling and i think you're gonna find that it feels so good to have this clear space in your house that you're not going to want to go back and then you'll be like me and you'll think wow all those people that keep all that extra stuff in their house they're the weird ones right i'm not weird they're weird they are keeping stuff in their house they are paying for storage units they cannot park in their garage because they're keeping all of this stuff out of guilt or for some day why am i the weird one i'm not the weird one they're the weird one right and so you'll feel like come over to the side of the fence and it's great it's not cluttered over here um and it's it's really awesome so i do hope this helps a little i hope you subscribe so that we can spend some more time together and we can go through kitchens and bathrooms and clothes and kids clothes and toys and all of that together is so much better when we do it together i'll link to dana's book down below i think it's awesome and i think if this is something that you want to start or you've started but you've kind of you know got bogged down and spun your wheels it's always helpful to keep this information in front of you and different ideas and tactics different things click for different people so any resource that you can consume while you're going through the process i think it just makes it a whole lot easier so surround yourself with people even if it's virtually that are on the same path as you and it does make it go a lot easier but a thumbs up is always the best compliment that you can give us i do hope you subscribe so that we can spend more time together and i'll definitely look forward to visiting with you again soon coming up on friday we'll tell you which project we picked i think i think we're gonna be in trouble a little bit so anyways that'll be coming up on friday but i love you and i'll visit with you again soon

Channel: The Minimal Mom

Views: 286,604

Rating: 4.9739509 out of 5

Keywords: minimalism, family minimalism, minimalist, the minimal mom, the minimalist mom, minimalist home, minimalism for beginners, minimalism decluttering, minimalism with kids, minimalism challenge, minimalist house, how to minimalism, minimalism where to start, how to be a minimalist

Id: YleXafJzgtE

Length: 10min 26sec (626 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 16 2020