Minimalist Lifestyle: You Can Keep Your Stuff

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

I’m not a minimalist (not yet) I’m just too lazy to take care of my belongings, so I prefer to have a small collection. When the term “minimalist & minimalism” became popular, I looked into it because it fit my lifestyle. Quality over quantity is one of the minimalist’s main taglines, and I take it very seriously.

Rather than using what I have and stopping purchasing new products, I intend to replace everything with a new high-quality product. I’ve been buying things online, I thought that a higher price equals a higher quality. Well, I was wrong, not every expensive item has high quality. At the end of the day, I ended up buying unnecessary items.

To prevent the same problem, below are some of my strategies for starting a minimalism lifestyle:

Your Lifestyle Matter

Not all items are necessary; for someone who enjoys cooking, having various of cook-related items is essential; however, if you are not into cooking, owning basic utensils is enough.

I’m not going to tell a cooking enthusiast to get rid of everything and stick to the basics. It will be difficult, and people are likely to leave the minimalism lifestyle if the first step requires them to give up their favorite items.

Simply stop buying and get rid of items that no longer fit your lifestyle, such as an unused guitar or old art supplies from high school.

Again, The Color Palette

Color palettes are not only crucial for capsule wardrobes, but they can also be used for home decor, cooking utensils, art supplies, etc. Some people like to collect one item in multiple colors. Or buy something that is out of harmony and end up buying something that complements that color.

For example, your clothes are mostly blue and grey, one day you buy yellow shirt, and nothing in your wardrobe matches it, you will end up buying another piece of clothing to fit your yellow shirt.

So, find your color palette, and stick with it.

Quality Over Quantity

YES. Quality is better than quantity. But don’t make the same mistake I did. I realized that I needed to use my old stuff until it’s not functioning before purchasing new high-quality items.

I use 90% of my clothes, I know this because I’m too lazy to do laundry, my wardrobe will be empty if I skip laundry for 3 weeks, bad habit, trying to fix it. However, I want to remake my whole wardrobe, some of the clothes are not matching my style, I want to buy pajama, new office shirt, sport wear, new shoes, etc. But I couldn’t, and this is the hardest part.

Less is More

Right now, I’m talking about skincare and cosmetics. I’m a skincare enthusiast; I used to buy almost all of the 10 step Korean skincare routine products, expecting my skin to shine and shimmer like a Korean actress. It has a great effect on my skin, but apparently using only basic skincare has the same effect. My current skincare routine consists of facial wash, toner, serum, moisturizer, and sunscreen. Apply the mask once or twice a week. And that’s it; I sometimes skip serum, but I’m thinking about investing in an anti-aging serum and eye cream.

Buy only what you need and use it until the bottle is empty; don’t buy another hype moisturizer if yours is still half full. Stop buying too much lipstick, limit yourself to three lipsticks, and avoid buying new ones if you already have a lot of them. Unless you’re a beauty vlogger or a makeup artist.

Get Rid of Your Apps and Pictures

Of course, your app and the never-used screenshot images on your phone are included. I saved a lot of pictures from Pinterest and Twitter, as well as screenshots here and there, but I rarely go back to my phone gallery to look at them. I ran out of phone memory, and for what? Why do we save pictures offline in this digital world when everything can be saved in the cloud? I deleted nearly 5000 pictures a few months ago, but I still have a lot of unused pictures on my laptop. And various applications for which I believe I may need it.

Right now, I’m trying to avoid saving photos and instead keep them in the cloud. Pinterest has a ‘save pin’ feature, Twitter has a ‘retweet & bookmark’ feature, Instagram has a ‘saved’ feature, and there’s Google Drive, One Drive, Adobe Creative Cloud, and so on.

Being a minimalist can be exciting, you do not have to get rid of everything. The main keys are stop buying things before the old ones stop functioning and stick to your preferred lifestyle and color palette.

Anyway, thanks for reading, cheers!