Why Less is More | MINIMALISM

less is more how can you apply this minimalism principle to your life for more happiness and satisfaction that's what we're talking about today what's up fam and welcome back or if you're new around here welcome for the first time my name is marissa and i'm a minimalist mom living with my family in germany but back before we had kids in 2010 i had the opportunity to take a trip to china with my husband and his family and visit the village where he grew up and at that time we flew into shanghai and took two days to check out a few of the local historical sites and cultural events in the area and then after that it took us a seven hour train ride and several taxis to get us to his village and we had to do quite a bit of walking to get to the places that we wanted to go we did things like climbing the mountains to go visit his ancestors where we burnt ghost money for them to use in the afterlife and we also went to the small two-bedroom home where my husband grew up he showed me their humble kitchen where his mother cooked their meals with no gas electricity or running water and the bedroom where all seven of them slept together he also took me to the center of the village where he used to play as a child and we also visited the river where they washed their clothes and the kids liked to splash around in the summer and the streams where they got their drinking water and the one thing that stood out to me as my husband was showing me around was how he couldn't stop smiling like non-stop smile from ear to ear and from the stories that my husband has told me about his childhood i knew that their life was tough at certain points they barely had enough food to eat to get by and yet my husband has always looked back with such a fondness on that time despite all the struggles and hardships and it was like that all around the village everywhere we went everyone is still living with great simplicity and contentment everyone was cheerful and so welcoming and kind we had a chinese-style lunch at one of the neighbors houses with local delicacies including fish that came from the local markets and potatoes and vegetables harvested from their fields and even though i barely spoke any chinese at that time they communicated their kindness and generosity in the way that we shared food and laughter together and what this trip really taught me and that my husband has always kind of tried to impart to me and our children is that we really need much less than we think and in fact research has demonstrated over and over that buying things and owning a lot of stuff isn't what makes us happy today i would like to share with you a few of my favorite ways to implement the less is more philosophy into your daily life and routines and if you're looking for more ideas about this topic i encourage you to go check out the blog post that accompanies this video with all 21 reasons to make less is more your mantra for life before we get started i would love it if you would go down to the comment section and drop me a comment with your favorite way to implement the less is more philosophy in your daily life and you can see if your favorite made it onto this list or in the blog post below i look forward to reading your comments sorry they're doing construction upstairs [Music] okay [Music] number one less past and future more being present for a long time i was someone who struggled to let go of the past losing my family and my home left this big black hole inside of me not only was i unable to let go of the clothes and accessories and the knickknacks and other things that they left behind but i also found myself trying to find other items that reminded me of the past it was like i was trying to fill up that hole again i spent a lot of time and money hunting thrift stores and secondhand resale websites just trying to rebuild my life like a puzzle i bought books that i had owned as a child and lost in a fire copper jell-o molds and barbie dolls and christmas decorations like the ones that used to decorate our mantel and along with that i had trouble letting go of things because i was worried that i might need them in the future i kept every single book notebook and scrap of paper for my college years and hauled them around from place to place without touching them once in 10 years when i started decluttering it was hard for me to look at these things and think about the memories and the time and the money that i'd spent hauling them around but then at the same time i realized that just because those things had made me happy in the past or because i'd sunk time and money into them didn't mean that i needed to keep carrying them around forever so when i committed to not living in the past and to stop worrying so much about the future i gave myself the gift of being present in my own life right now number two less furniture more space one of the most common complaints i get on this channel is people telling me that our home is too empty that we need more artwork on our walls more furniture in the corners more storage to serve this or that function but what i've found in practice is that we really enjoy having the extra open space in our home and having a less is more mindset has really helped us be more creative in how we decorate our home and live in it for example we knew that we wanted to buy patio furniture for our balcony so we selected a set of comfortable and high quality wood pieces to put out there but instead of keeping them out there in the sun and the rain we move them inside at the end of each day and throughout the winter so not only will that patio furniture last much longer but it can also double as extra seating indoors when the kids want to read books and hang out in my office library and we found that we need the extra table and chairs to serve as a kids table when all 20 plus of our in-laws gather together to share meals so you can see how easy it is to really find creative ways to own fewer items so that you require less storage space for them and in turn that frees up more open space for your living and enjoyment number three less clutter more calm studies have shown that having a cluttered home can result in increased cortisol levels and if you aren't familiar with cortisol it's known as the stress hormone often associated with that fight or flight feeling and over time not only can cortisol manifest in stress anxiety and depression but it can also have negative physical effects such as insomnia headaches digestive issues and weight gain one study found that people living in cluttered environments were 77 percent more likely to be overweight or obese so a clutter-free home can not only give you more peace of mind but also make you healthier and happier and by the way all of the statistics and the infographic that i shared here are discussed in more detail in my video and blog post on the benefits of minimalism which i will make sure to link down in the description box below for you if you want to check those out number four fewer options means easier choices have you ever heard of the pareto principle it's this idea that eighty percent of any outcomes come from 20 of the causes or effort and in the home that can mean that 80 of the time you're only using 20 of the items that you own when you think about it that way it makes sense that cutting back on the excess can help you save time and energy and how many of us have wasted time standing in front of our wardrobe trying to decide what to wear or scroll through netflix to find something to watch and felt too overwhelmed by too many choices when you decide to prioritize the things that you truly love use and value and naturally own less then choices about things like what to eat for dinner what to watch on tv or what to wear can become much easier and speaking of things to wear number five is having less clothing means a simpler laundry routine when you have too many clothes it can be easy to let things pile up until the sheer quantity becomes so overwhelming and it feels like you'll never be done with laundry but when you have fewer items of clothing you'll find that it's easier to know when to do the laundry and it's going to be much less likely that you allow it to get out of hand it's far easier to do smaller loads and it's also easier to fold and put those loads away instead of letting them sit in laundry baskets shoved in the corner of your bedroom for days on end number six less spending means more saving another excellent benefit of minimalism is more money in your pocket as you move towards minimalism and become more intentional with your life and habits you'll probably find that you naturally start spending less money and are more careful with your purchases of course impulse buying can still happen especially if you're in the beginner phase of minimalism so if you need help with that make sure to go check out this video and my helpful tips to curb emotional spending we also recently did a no spend challenge on this channel and a lot of people said that they had great results with not spending any money for the entire month of february for each of us the important thing is to decide what our money goals are and how to put our money towards the things and experiences that we value and that bring us lasting joy for my family we like to save our money in certain budget categories but allocate money towards eating good food whether it's at home or going out to eat every once in a while so i encourage you to find ways to spend less money on the stuff that doesn't matter so that you can save or spend on the things that do this brings me to the next point which is that when you consume less overall you can focus less on the quantity and more on the quality and i used to be someone who just wanted to save money so i would often buy the cheapest product available but what i found was a lot of times those items would be broken or worn out very quickly like clothing fabric that was such a poor quality it got holes in it immediately and i ended up spending more money replacing those items faster than expected and i started to think about how i had some higher quality kitchenware that i inherited from my parents like plates and cookware and a set of knives that had been going strong for 20 30 or even 40 years and i realized it's better to buy less choose better quality and find things that can last longer which not only saves money but also time and effort that comes when you have to search out and buy new things to be constantly replacing the old ones that were of poor quality number eight less comparison more connection social media has made the world more connected than ever and yet many of us have never felt so unhappy or lonely it's easy to log on to platforms like instagram youtube or tick tock and watch other people leading these seemingly amazing lives dancing around the world and they make us feel like our own lives are so average and boring by comparison but i want you to remember that social media is real but it isn't reality and as teddy roosevelt once said comparison is the thief of joy so i would encourage you to compare yourself less to other people and try to find ways to be more connected with the people who make you feel good in your life stop comparing your life your home your marriage your body your clothes or whatever it is to someone else in a negative way because that is a downward spiral to nowhere good but instead look for opportunities to go out with people who make you laugh or who share a hobby that you enjoy doing together maybe something like running or having a quilting circle you could also start a gratitude journal and take 15 minutes at the end of each day to write down the things that you did or things that happened that you were grateful for and that's a much better nighttime routine than scrolling on social media anyway number nine less feeling spread too thin more life satisfaction it's hard for me to admit this but i'm a former doormat and i used to say yes to everything and everyone no matter how much i had going on in my life or how overwhelmed i was feeling and what's worse is most of the time those so-called friends were never available to help me in the times when i so desperately needed them i once helped a friend move his entire home five blocks by hand because he was too cheap to hire movers for such a short distance it was so ridiculous that i had to bring my camera with me and get a picture of us on each corner with the couch it was in the middle of the summer and we were sweating like fiends and during one of those breaks of hauling the couch as we were sitting there i asked him if he was going to help me move my stuff in the future and he laughed at me and told me there was absolutely no way he was ever going to reciprocate this favor i thought that he was joking but it turns out he wasn't so when people tell you who they are do yourself a favor and believe them learn to prioritize yourself and your time and energy and don't be afraid to say no to people who want to drain you and use you take it from me no is the magic word and finally on this list number 10 is when you have less stuff to do that means more time for you when you declutter your home and your life you reclaim your time in so many ways and you are free to do with that time whatever you want maybe for you it's having more time to read books in the evening or traveling around the world to exotic places or something like learning a new language or a new skill whatever the case it is i hope you enjoy all that you time i hope you enjoyed this video on why less is really more if you did i would love it if you would hit that like button and maybe consider going down and hitting the little red subscribe button to subscribe and join our minimalist family where we are passionate about making a simple minimalist lifestyle easy and accessible to everyone no matter what their life currently looks like the size of their home or the size of their family that wraps it up for today i will see you in next week's video until then take care bye bye you

Channel: A to Zen Life

Views: 134,246

Keywords: less is more, minimalism, minimalist, ways that less is more, minimalist lifestyle, less is more minimalism, simple living, minimalist living, why less is more, simplify, simplifying life decluttering, how to simplify your home, downsizing, downsizing your life, decluttering, declutter your home, declutter your life

Id: 2AtNAhpyTD0

Length: 15min 13sec (913 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 17 2022