Living as a minimalist can mean big changes as you downsize your life, but there are big advantages too. Living small means you give a lot of things up, but you can also gain quite a few things. I’ve learned about a lot of this as I’ve adopted a minimalist lifestyle, and I want to share some of those benefits with you.
Enjoy a Sense of Freedom
The things we own tie us to them. Wherever you go on a trip, you may feel like you’re leaving a lot of your life behind. All of your possessions can drag you down and make it difficult for you to do some of the things you might enjoy doing.
Owning a lot of things means that moving somewhere else will require a lot of effort. If you keep your lifestyle minimalist, though, moving is a much simpler and easier thing. You can pull up everything quickly and move to a new location without a lot of stress, and that gives you a lot of freedom in how you live your life.
That sense of freedom and having limited possessions means that you can enjoy yourself wherever you are, even if you have access to some of the things that many people feel are necessities. The minimalist lifestyle gives you the ability to feel happy almost anywhere.
Clean Faster and Easier
It also makes it much easier to clean up your house. When there are fewer things to clean around and clean under, the work gets done faster. There’s less to organize and less to put away, so tidying up isn’t as much of a chore. If you hire a cleaning service such as https://nychousecleaners.net for your home, it won’t take them as long to do the work if you’re living a minimalist lifestyle.
Think how much time you’ll spend every weekend cleaning when you pare down your possessions and live simpler. Maybe it will be as much as an hour or two each week, and that adds up throughout the year and then through the course of your life. That’s a lot of time being given back to you that you can use to do the things you love. You’ll be able to live a richer and fuller life because of it.
Save More Money
One of the big reasons I advocate people switch over to a minimalist lifestyle is because they spend a lot less money. First of all, there aren’t as many possessions that you need to have around you, so you save money up front. You don’t have to chase after the latest book, game, because you can learn to be happy with very little.
Secondly, having fewer possessions means that you desire fewer things to purchase as well. People who have a lot of stuff constantly have a drive to buy more and more. People who make spending money a part of their daily routine will often get antsy if they don’t have an opportunity to spend for the day. Most people aren’t quite that bad, but they feel that itch to buy something unnecessary every few days or every week. Think of all the money you’ll be saving over the years when you don’t have that burning desire to spend needlessly just to accumulate things.
Plus, a lot of those things might be items you would rarely or never use. How many outfits do we buy that we only use once? How many movies do we purchase that we haven’t even watched yet? You’ll be saving money in so many ways that you’ll have more funds available to go on adventures and do something spontaneous. Instead of accumulating possessions, you can make memories.
Get More Done
You may not realize how much time your possessions take up in your life. They can drain a lot of hours off your schedule as you search for things to buy, go and buy them, use them, and think about more things to buy. Consider how much free time you’ll have with fewer possessions to distract you from the world around you.
You can be incredibly productive once you have eliminated a lot of the possessions in your life. People who live a minimalist lifestyle will often talk about how much they get done and how wisely they’re using their time since they’ve gotten rid of the unnecessary items in their life.
Experience Deeper Relationships
Without all the distractions of excessive possessions, you can have more time for the people in your life that mean something to you. Think about how much time you spend for yourself with your possessions, and consider how much richer your life would be if you invested that time into your relationships. You could build new friendships, strengthen your current ones, and create a deeper relationship between you and the one you love most.
The minimalist lifestyle can actually be a great way to improve your relationships. A lot of the things that people fight about can be taken right out of the relationship and no longer be an issue. The money problems, hoarding issues, and a lack of one-on-one time can all be remedied by living as a minimalist. These are problems that a lot of relationships go through, and you may be able to repair a broken relationship by simply making this change in your life.
Enjoy the Quality Things
Do you feel like a lot of what you own is low quality because that’s all you could afford? With more money at your disposal and more discretion in what you buy, you can focus on buying fewer things that are of higher quality. That’s a great alternative to buying lots of low-quality things. So, you’ll be spending your money more wisely and effectively, and you will own items that last longer, that work better, and that bring you more joy.
These are just a few of the benefits of the minimalist lifestyle, and I think if you give it a try, you’ll find many more that reveal themselves to you.
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