This post may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure here.
Ever Wonder If You Might Be A Minimalist At Heart?
Had someone had asked me a year ago, “Is there any chance you might be a minimalist?” I would have answered “no!”.
As you may already know, I am all about simplifying life and improving productivity.
There are so many misconceptions out there about minimalism and embracing a minimalist lifestyle.
Although you live with less, It does not mean throwing all your clothes away, disposing of all your stuff and living in a tiny house. NO. Although some of those houses are really amazing!
We have a TV, phone, Netflix, cars, etc.
There is no one, right way to live a minimalist lifestyle. It is different for everyone, so you might be a minimalist and not know it.
Plus, there are no rules!
It is more about living a life that does not revolve around materialistic items, stuff, clutter.
Getting Rid Of Clutter
My daily actions and the life I lived over the past two years were “minimalist” even though I had not yet embraced the concept or knew much about it.
Frankly, I didn’t even realize that I was becoming one.
I wanted to declutter my life of all the things I no longer wanted. Physical and emotional.
In terms of the physical stuff, it irked me that we had way too much of everything.
Two people with the amount of stuff that might have been too much for a family of five.
We purged our home. Removing anything and everything that didn’t serve a real, genuine purpose. I felt fantastic.
When we moved, we got rid of so much stuff. Gave stuff away, sold things and best of all donated! It was such a freeing experience. Suddenly there was space! Space, space, space! I could see things, find things easily, was less anxious, and I loved it.
Have you been simplifying your life, or thinking about living minimally? You might be a minimalist too.
Cleaning out your attic, basement or garage does not make you a minimalist.
If you feel a sense of freedom when you free yourself of clutter in your life, then you may be on the way to making gradual but greater changes.
'It is better to donate, than to accumulate.'Click To Tweet
Here Are Ten Reasons You Might Be A Minimalist And Not Know It
- You love to organize everything in your life.
-
You don’t have a junk drawer in your home.
-
You cannot stand the site of junk and clutter.
-
You have a bare attic, garage or storage shed.
-
You go shopping and buy want you need not want.
- You give stuff away at least once a week.
-
You hate wasting things.
-
You gravitate towards even textures and neutral colours.
-
You value space.
-
You have a clutter free zone in your home.
Minimalism Is A Purposeful Lifestyle And Not Just A Phase
Before you ask – no, minimalists don’t all own only 100 things.
Some do, but not all. Certainly not me.
You might be a minimalist if you are considering simplifying not only your home but your entire life.
Diet, clutter, health, environment, friends, everything.
Simplifying life has made me feel less stressed, overwhelmed and anxious.
It will help you in many ways too. Ask yourself why you might want to live a simpler life.
If you are not a minimalist already but are curious, try decluttering your home one room at a time.
Take tiny steps and see how you feel about it.
The possessions in our lives have the potential to control us. Decluttering and simplifying your life will help teach you valuable truths about yourself.
Always pursue gratitude and generosity. As much as you can, invest in yourself your family, and relationships.
You will discover your authentic self and find your purpose.
Life is so much better when you are free of chaos.
Where do you fall on the minimalist spectrum? Do you think you might be a minimalist?
Share your thoughts with me in the comments section below.
42 comments
This defines me too well and yes I am a minimalist and I am sooo sharing this post.
You are so right, once I decluttered my mind was so much more focused. I am a fan and love your blog.
Oh wow. After reading this, I am starting to wonder if I am really a minimalist but I just don’t know about it. Very interesting post!
I have started to declutter an organize, one room at a time.
I am not sure if I am a minimalist but I’d love to clean and organize all stuff as much as possible 😀
We are trying to minimize and reduce our belongings at the moment as we’re fed up of stuff and clutter!
I love this! I feel like you are speaking right to me with this post. Just this morning I was bugging my husband to clean out all the thing so we could take it somewhere.
All your posts are inspiring, thank you!
Btw…I love your new blog look- simplified and minimalist 🙂
I love that quote that it is better to donate than accumulate. I need to make that my motto.
I am in the middle, not there yet. Your post inspire me to be one . Thank you for sharing!
I dont know whether i am a minimalist or not… but i think i am no, because i dont donate the old thing usually, i giveaway new stuff..but its not per week… so confused about it
I am guilty for some of the actions but for “giving stuff away at least once a week” not on that point yet… probably every month?? hehehe minimalist is far different from OC right??
I want to be a minimalist but I just can’t let go of some stuff that I hold dear to my heart. Maybe for furniture, I could be a minimalist, but for memorabilia, I don’t think so.
My husband is a minimalist for sure. I like clothes and crafts too much to be considered a minimalist. 😉
Haha I am really untidy so I doubt that I am a minimalist. I definitely have way too many things though so I could probably do with a secret minimalists help! x
I am not sure if I can be a minimalist but I love all those reasons. I like an organized home and hates clutter so maybe I should try to become a minimalist.
I am working on this right now as we speak. Definitely think it comes with age too. I wouldn’t have thought of myself as edging that way but I think I am starting to.
After reading your checklist I am NOT a minimalist. I actually think I would love to aquire that lifestyle more because I do value space but I love STUFF. I want to try to do better and incorporate some minimalist habits to have a cleaner and more clutter free life.
If that’s the case then I guess, I am a minimalist. I love things to be clean looking and simple too. I don’t want elaborate decor or anything like that. I also stay away from people that are toxic, people that will pull me down regardless of what’s happening in my life.
Can I be in the middle of minimalist and not? I think I am on the neutral side LOL. I do love to be a minimalist but there are factors which makes me not. I’m confused.. I don’t like clutter, I hate wasting things and I do give stuff but I can’t control myself buying things that I want..for my daughter.
I would say I am right in between. I de-clutter every weekend and dream of having my home renovated and those hide away furniture installed instead. If I had my way, I would love to have more open spaces in my home, however, there are items that I could not just let go of, even if it is just up on the shelf collecting dust.
Hi Sheri,
Nice Post!
Really loved reading this! A fresh and different take on what being a minimalist is about and I have to say I agree with all of it.
Even though I gravitate towards minimalism, I do not consider myself one, however, I can relate 100% to all points.
I will tweet your post.
Thanks a lot for sharing.
I’m not a minimalist but I do love get rid of clutter. As much as I can, I always maintain cleanliness in our home.
I love the minimalist lifestyle but I’m not sure if I fit into it entirely. I hate messes and clutter but I do have beloved books and mementos on all of my shelves…what does that make me?!?!
Oh gosh! Reading this I now realized that I can also be called a minimalist! Wow, sounds nice. 🙂 Well, it is always good to have only those things around that you really use and try and avoid all the clutter. Also the things that we do not use may actually be useful to someone else.
Love this list so much! I am not a minimalist at heart, but based on this list, I think a lot of my friends might be.
I only scored 4 out of 10 but I think there’s hope for me yet. Clutter has been putting me on edge lately.
I’m pretty sure that I am a minimalist. I don’t like clutter AT ALL and I tend to throw a lot of things out – and I’m totally ok with that!
My attic, shed, and other areas are bare except the garage. We love to go kayaking and work with wood so it’s full with those items we need to make that happen. Other than that, I fit the bill it would seem!
I do love to give stuff away, there others who in need and should get it. My husband can’t let go of most of his old stuff, so yes I struggle with that. I like to see empty spaces throughout the house. I think I am a minimalist but never categorized myself as one 🙂
I’m totally a minimalist. Problem is my husband is not. It’s a tough battle between the two of us when I get on one of my cleaning/throwing out sprees.
I can only imagine how that must be like Joanna! I have fun when I am throwing stuff out because I can get rid of stuff or donate then, and my hubby is happy because there is less stuff around.
I am 10000% certain that I am not a minimalist, not in any way shape or form. It could never happen.
Hahahahahaha! Why?
Well, I’m not a minimalist, but I do need to get rid of clutter! I know we have way too many “things” taking up space. I just need the TIME to do it! I love this list.
Thank you Christy, I am glad you liked the post. Even though you are not a minimalist, it is great to declutter and purge once in a while. 🙂
I can definitely say that I am not a full-time minimalist, but I do not like clutter because our house is not that big in the first place I don’t want stuff all over. I at least go through stuff once a year if not more just to clean out everything.
That is just perfect. So long as you have a regular schedule of getting stuff out, then you are fine. 🙂
We just got a rid of a lot of old baby and toddler things and it felt amazing. Now that we started that, we just kept going. It feels so good to declutter. However it’s those pesky drawers of things that keep collecting junk. How does that even happen?!
Oh Kimberly, story of my life. We have gotten rid of lots of toddler stuff over the past few months. I create a clutter free zone and somehow it is like there are clutter fairies who wait for us to go to bed, then create a junk drawer!
Do you have those in your home too?
I do love to get rid of clutter, but sadly I feel like as soon as I get rid of stuff there is something new to take its place!
Loved this rational version of minimalism. And I can check myself in a few boxes of the 10 reasons and that makes me happy :0