When we think about minimalism, we usually think about the number of items we own or the amount of clothes we still “have to” declutter. I am not a huge believer in that philosophy and, to me, minimalism is more a lifestyle than a matter of material decluttering. Thus, I have applied minimalism to my lifestyle in order to simplify my own life, and not only my closet. If you are interested in knowing how I did it, let’s have a read!
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I stopped chasing for people.
I know a lot of us struggle with that point, so I made it my first one. You probably can’t imagine how much time & energy I have saved since I stopped chasing for people. When I talk about “chasing for people”, I do not even refer to romantic relationships as I have been with my boyfriend for a while now and have never had to worry about that aspect, but I am referring to friendships.
I used to be that person who constantly sent a message or said it would be cool to have coffee. However, once I realized that it was not my job to maintain friendships all by myself, my life became a lot simpler. I did not have to worry about these people anymore, and that is far more life-changing than your typical physical decluttering.
I started using Goodreads to know where I am at with my books.
As you may know, I write quite a lote of book reviews and books are a big part of my life. Even though I do not engage in the “competition” side of reading, I like to use Goodreads, not to show how many book I have read, but to actually keep track of what I have read, what I have enjoyed reading, and what I still want to read. It can indeed be really easy to simply forget about what you have read two years ago, and I want to avoid that by all means. If you love reading but Goodreads stresses you out, you can create an Excel file or a take a notebook in which you write all the books you have read, rate them and write all the books you would like to read in the future.
I went through all of my lists and decluttered them as well.
As I told you in that post, I am a big fan of all types of lists, but that can also turn to an obsession. If your lists are too full of too many things, it can easily become overwhelming. To avoid that, I regularly go through all of my lists and declutter what can be decluttered. Lists are here to help you, not to stress you.
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I started cleaning a little bit every day.
I am such a huge fan of cleaning. Some people say it is part of the French culture to always live in clean spaces, and when it comes to me, it is so true. Nonetheless, I used to have a GIGANTIC cleaning session on Sundays, which was not even particularly smart because for me and given the fact that I run two blogs, Sundays aren’t really “days off”. Thus, I decided to clean for real every day and not to overwhelm myself on Sundays. It simplified my whole life and weeks so much.
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I started decluttering my phone once a week.
Every week, I take around 15 minutes to get rid of conversations with people I do not plan to send a message to that week, I put picture on my computer and basically closes all the pages that I have ben too lazy to close in the course of the week. That may seem a little random but honestly, having such a “clean” phone helped me keep it a lot longer. I actually kept my first IPhone SE for about 4 years by doing just that and not downloading useless apps!
You understood that these ways I simplified my life suit my own needs and passions. Nonetheless, and even if you can’t implement these things to your own routine, you can get inspired by that philosophy and draw you own list of non-material things you can do to simplify your life.
The English-speaking Frenchie 