When do you know that it’s time to embrace a more minimalist home?
Maybe you’ve had to move lately and you’re astonished at the number of boxes you had to buy and the amount of time required to pack up a single room.
Or you spend a larger and larger amount of your time cleaning up, organizing and maintaining your belongings–from the kids’ bedrooms to the kitchen to the garage.
Or you’d like to help your kids value a life of less waste and more sustainability.
Whatever your motivation, we’re ready with tips for achieving a minimalist home design. (And if you’re a maximalist and happy, we’ll talk another day!)
Step 1: Declutter
If you have a family, you’ll need to enlist support from them to achieve lasting gains from this process. But even if you begin only with things directly related to you, you’ll make progress.
Begin in a single room, maybe with a single closet or drawer. Assess item after item and ask yourself why you own it. Is it sentimental? Was it a gift? Is it a leftover from a former time of life? Keep it only if 1) you love it 2) you use it often and 3) you have room to use, store or display it. Obviously, you can’t answer yes to all these questions about every item you own or you would make no progress.
Move on to the next area. Play music you enjoy. Take it a step at a time. Get a friend to help you by being a dispassionate second opinion.
A declutter expert said, “If everything is special, nothing is special.” A helpful tip for dealing with sentimental items is to take a photo of it to remember the good feelings associated with it.
Be prepared with a donation or sell box and be ready to send the culls to a new home. A good book of how-to’s is Let it Go by Peter Walsh. There are also many blogs that can walk you through the decluttering journey, such as Becoming Minimalist.
Our emotions are naturally tied to our belongings. Reframe the “loss” of material items as a gain–a gain in space, of course. But also a gain:
- in freedom from maintenance
- in freedom to pursue what’s truly important to you
- in freedom from the guilt of having things you seldom or never use.
Step 2: Multifunctional furniture
One key to having less stuff is making the stuff you have perform multiple duties.
For example
- sleek living room accent chairs can be pulled up for extra dining chairs or a desk chair
- a storage ottoman can live many lives: footrest, coffee table, stow spot for pillows and throws
- a console table can also serve as a desk or a buffet
- round dining tables work just as well for game tables
- chests can be used for bedside tables and also provide storage
- cabinet furniture pieces allow versatile storage for everything from kitchen items to toys
- bookshelves give display space for the important things you intentionally keep and want easy access to.
When you have just the furniture you need and no more, then decorate and accessorize simply with the items that you truly love and that express who you are now. Add touches of nature, like plants.
Step 3: Live lightly
A lasting improvement in your lifestyle by decluttering and owning fewer possessions requires a continuing commitment to bring fewer items into your home. Which doesn’t necessarily mean you never buy anything new! Instead, some who commit to live more lightly adopt a “one in, one out” policy: when a new item comes into the house, a similar outworn or unneeded one goes out.
And remember, you don’t have to own a thing to enjoy it. Appreciate beautiful things in travel and in visits to museums. Treasure the glories of nature. Value people and experiences over things.
As you evaluate where you are in your goal of simplifying, let us know if we can help you with some multifunctional furniture pieces. Visit our Ridge Road store in Rockwall or shop online at mintjulepdecor.com.