Streamlining your home: The expert's one minimalism tip for a clutter-free life, with achievements rooted in your shopping decisions.
Accomplishing a minimalist, practical home demands careful shopping choices. According to professional organizers, prioritize functionality and selectivity in purchases to ensure long-term success.
Embrace a mindful shopping attitude to prevent unnecessary items from entering your home. This strategy is critical, as it either strengthens or undermines your efforts to maintain a clutter-free home.
For those pursuing minimalist living, this simple mindshift can be a transformative step.
Decluttering Begins at Checkout
While decluttering a home, room by room, typically focuses on clearing 'clutter coffins', the key to streamlined minimalism starts much earlier. Awareness of what and why you purchase helps curb the accumulation of unwanted items.
Ben Soreff, a professional organizer at House to Home Organizing, emphasizes the temptation of retail therapy and its consequences. Though not inherently problematic, shopping as a hobby often leads to unnecessary clutter because it encourages collecting rather than acquiring items for use.
If shopping for a specific space, consider taking a picture of it and referencing it while choosing new items. This applies to both decor and storage solutions for a harmonious minimalist look.
Critically examining purchases will help prevent the rapid re-emergence of superfluous items as you implement decluttering tips throughout your home.
Dana Reed, an organizing expert and Winnow and Bloom founder, suggests maintaining clutter-free surfaces but avoiding bareness. Small woven baskets with lids (like Birch Lane boxes from Wayfair) offer an elegant solution for concealing clutter.
Display essential items that bring joy and peace, such as flowers, candles, and decorative books, to maintain a warm and personalized space. Combining decor and practicality, like Trendy Deco Books from Amazon for hiding essentials, adds to the minimalist aesthetic.
Minimalism at a Glance
Minimalism targets calmness and cohesion, making simple, functional storage solutions crucial. Dana suggests aiming for a neutral color palette to minimize visual distractions. Clear containers, such as Sterilite boxes from Walmart, are ideal for food, toiletries, and creative supplies, aiding organization and ensuring a clean, consistent appearance.
Streamlined minimalism does not require a stark, monotonous home. Labeling items using a label maker, like the Phomemo machine from Amazon, facilitates practicality.
Smart Shopping for a Minimalist Lifestyle
Adopting the One-In-One-Out rule ensures new items do not contribute to clutter. Place a donation bin in a visible location, like the laundry room or closet, to encourage the donation of unwanted items.
Use stackable storage solutions for larger items like bed linens and clothes. Open, woven baskets help manage smaller items without creating hidden clutter. Coordinated book-shaped storage bins are versatile living room and bedroom storage options in white, coal black, and brown shades.
Expert Insights
Dana Reed, an organizing expert and Winnow & Bloom founder, specializes in organizing systems for busy clients. Joy Ramos, a cleaning expert at Bear Brothers Cleaning, is passionate about creating practical, pristine homes for clients. Ben Soreff at House to Home Organizing assists families with cluttered homes in achieving minimalism.
Adopting a minimalist lifestyle requires intentional shopping strategies, such as mindful purchasing and limiting storage solutions. Embrace these tactics to maintain a clutter-free, organized home that epitomizes minimalist principles.
When implementing the minimalist lifestyle, it's essential to apply mindful purchasing strategies, especially when shopping for home-and-garden or home-improvement items. Instead of collecting for the sake of collecting, focus on acquiring functional and practical items that support your lifestyle and home-improvement goals.
For example, opt for storage solutions that efficiently utilize space and offer a harmonious, minimalist look, such as clear containers or woven baskets. By critically evaluating each purchase, you can prevent unnecessary items from entering your home and undermining your efforts to maintain a clutter-free living space.
