Living a Minimalist Lifestyle Plus Decluttering Ideas to Make a Change in Your Life

Elle Uy, a popular YouTube vlogger who specializes on home interior design, décor, and makeover videos of houses and establishments. Elle Uy was also a renowned interior designer and most of her videos are about her job and some tips that would help viewers understand that living an organized and minimalist lifestyle makes a huge change in your life.

Elle decided to share her tips on How To Be A Minimalist and Disposal Tips for Decluttering:

1. Know your purpose for living a minimalist lifestyle. Decluttering old things that no longer serve its purpose, whether in functionality or aesthetics, has to go. Hoarding is huge issue when it comes to decluttering, and living a minimalist life means you have to let go of things that no longer matter. Aside from that, an organized, clutter-free environment leads to a happy life.

2. Declutter. Part of a minimalist lifestyle is removing clutter from your life. Although decluttering can be a bit overwhelming especially for the sentimental values that the Filipino household upholds, you can start by scheduling or even doing decluttering area by area. Start small, like your closet or wardrobe, then move on to shoes, then beddings or sheets, and makeup. Then move on to bigger cluttered areas like the kitchen, bathroom, and living area. There’s a lot of things in the house that is no longer being used and has been kept to collect dust on the shelf only. Learn to let go of things, throw away or donate items that could serve other people the same way.

3. Don’t have too much storage. People obsess about filling up empty spaces whenever they see one. But being a minimalist, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to fill everything up because you see it is empty. Having a lot of storage areas means having a lot of unnecessary objects or items kept only to collect dust and remained unused for long periods of time.

4. Have a space for everything. The keyword: ORGANIZE! Clutter is everywhere when you don’t have a home for your items. Make sure to put away items on their designated “homes” or places so that they won’t have to be scattered everywhere.

5. Buy with purpose. Impulsive shopping and unnecessary purchases contribute to clutter. So to combat overspending and hoarding, buy with purpose. Ask yourself, do you really need to buy it? Will it be used frequently by you? Buy what you need, not what you want even though it is on sale.

Now the final question remains: Where do we put all these clutter? There are many ways to get rid of clutter such as online selling, garage sale, give them away or even donating these items to the poor and the needy.

Minimalism is not a trend, and it takes a handful of commitment to actually live up to the lifestyle. It’s not accustomed for most of us, but it doesn’t mean it is not achievable.