How To Become a Minimalist

"Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breath more,talk less, say more; love more, and all good things will be yours." --Swedish Proverb

I am breaking down Leo Babauta's book The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life into a post per chapter. This weeks post is on chapter three and its about how to become a minimalist. In Leo's book he gave us four main points for us:

1. Start by realizing you already have enough
2. Start cutting back on the clutter and possessions
3. Start simplifying your schedule
   
4. Slowly edit everything you do

To me how I am becoming a minimalist is slightly different but I do find that it is also very similar. I started realizing that I wanted to become a minimalist in late December 11 while I was at work one day. I still can't figure out where the inspiration came from but I just decided I owned way too much stuff. And so this is how I am becoming a minimalist

1. I realized that I already had enough (1 for 1 with Leo)
2. I am starting to cut back on my clutter and possessions (I am doing this in a few different ways which I will explain in a moment)
3. I am also trying to simplify my finances
4. Then I shall try simplifying my schedule
5. And I am sure eventually I will be able to keep editing (But I am a long way off from being close to done with my decluttering at the first stage)

Now going back to cutting back on my clutter I am doing this in a few different ways

1. I have for the most part already done my first round of decluttering for my clothing and scrapbooking items. The next step for my clothing is going to be looking at every piece and making it work as an outfit and if I can't it has to go. As for my scrapbooking I think I will do another round of decluttering to see what I am left with.
2. I am in the middle of doing a 10 Things Challenge on this blog where I get rid of 10 things for 10 weeks. This is helping me declutter the things I know I can get rid of now without thinking in all the different category's I hold within my "Stuff"
3. I will also of course be following Leo's guidelines once we get further into the chapters.

So that's it. I wanted to keep this one focused on only what The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life said this chapter because I think there is a lot of great advice out there that kind of all ends up equaling the same thing when you are cutting down the basics.

Minimalist Principles

I am breaking down Leo Babauta's book The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life into a post per chapter. The second chapter is called Overall Minimalist Principles and here are the principles I am choosing to live by from now on:

• Say Goodbye to Needless Stuff
• Keep Only the Essentials
• Make it Worthy of Keeping
• Keep it Going

These principles will be put into more use and explanation as I continue through this book and journey. I also found a great statement in The Simple Living Guide

"The bottom line is if you can become self sufficient in the basics of life, which are shelter, nutritious food and clothing... If you have these things covered then all you have to do with the rest of your time is make yourself a peaceful person rather than spending that same time buying things you don't need"!

I feel like these are very good foundational principles and have seen them repeated in multiple blogs about simple living so why mess with a good thing!

What is a Minimalist Life?

I am breaking down Leo Babauta's book The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life into a post per chapter. The first chapter is called what is a minimalist life? Here is what I came up with:

First off I want to make it clear that for the most part using either the words simple or minimalist are interchangeable for me. This may not be the case for everyone and once I get more into my simple, minimalist living I might decided that they are not interchangeable for me any longer as well. But for now this is how i feel.

From the information I have looked up I have decided that state that for me a minimalist life is one that is "Simple". Meaning I do not need tons of things to make me happy. Two or three pairs of jeans are going to be sufficient enough for me instead of the I need a pair for every occasion. I wont need to have the most updated phone because the one I have now is good enough.

In Leo's book for his first chapter there were two statements that I thought fit well with me;

"A minimalist embraces the beauty of less,

the aesthetic of spareness,

a life of contentedness in what we need and what makes us truly happy"

"A minimalist values quality, not quantity, in all forms"

I also have been reading Janet Luhrs "The Simple Living Guide" and found a great statement in this book that I thought helped answered the question of a minimalist life well.

"Simplicity means stopping for a moment and asking what the heck we are doing with our lives"

So all in all a minimalist life is one where you value quality over quantity and you do not feel the need to have the latest and greatest. You value family and friends more then your stuff and your life feels clutter free! Its just like the saying Less is More!