There is so much freedom in letting go of what no longer serves you to make room for what brings you joy.

Here are 5 tips that have helped me to live a more simple but richer life:

  1. Only keep things that spark joy. If you don’t love it, get rid of it. 
  2. Don’t keep things out of guilt. If someone gave you a gift and you feel obligated to keep it, realize that it was generous for them to give it to you, that it brought them joy to give it to you, and let it go. You will feel a burden lifted. 
  3. Eliminate paper clutter. Buy a scanner and scan the things that are important. Recycle the rest. If you need to refer back to some document you can most likely find the information online.
  4. Less clutter equals more calm. Don’t fear having an empty shelf or space in your home.
  5. Think before you bring new things into your home. Ask yourself, “is it worth my time and energy to take care of this item?” Bonus: you will save money. 

Minimalism =
Less cleaning, more experiences.
Less organizing, more memories.

Ever since having kids, life has gotten a bit more busy and chaotic and time seems more precious than ever. In that spirit I’ve been reading a lot about minimalism and simplifying life. I’ve struggled majorly with decision fatigue in parenting and anything I can do now to eliminate the amount of decisions I need to make and things that I need to take care of the more peace and calm enters my life! 

This is why I like Trader Joes. It feels like such a good shopping experience and less overwhelming than other grocery stores because they have just a few options for each type of food. You know that they’ve already curated the options and given you only good choices, so anything you choose will be a good choice. I try to take this philosophy into my business and my home life. I have a much easier time implementing this in my business than my life. 😉 

Every week or two I get overwhelmed with all the clutter I’m constantly cleaning up and all the things in our closets and my wardrobe, so every two weeks or so I go through my clothes and get rid of about 30% of the items. Even if I just got rid of 30% of the items a week prior, I always find so much more that I’m now ok with getting rid of. 

The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up is a book that truly changed the way I see stuff and has helped me let go of so many things. Hosting clothing swaps for the past 7 years has also made it much easier to let go of things in my closet. 

As we pack our belongings to move across the country, it is even more evident to me that I don’t want to spend my time on holding onto things and moving them if they don’t serve us. With less things to take care of we can focus our time and energy on taking care of each other. 

I would love to hear about your experience, if you’re a minimalist what do you love about it or if you want to be more minimal what is your motivation? Please comment below!