This is one of the quotes of my mentors, Joshua Becker and Courtney Carver, I cherish the most. To me, this really is the core of minimalism, the true essence of why simplifying your life is so important. I dedicated a whole page to this quote in my book ‘Less is Yes!’* because I want everyone to read this quote slowly and let it sink in.
We all have way too much stuff, way too much going on in our lives.
We are slaves to our lifestyle, we want it all, do it all, be everywhere…. And that is just not possible. Our stuff, our agenda, our demands, … are eating us alive. We have no energy left and still, …we want to do/have more.
I love dr. Wayne Dyer’s saying:
“We are human beings, not human doings!”
We need to be more instead of do more, have more.
You do not need a lot of stuff to be yourself, to be who you really are, deep down, away from all comparison. You’d be amazed by how little you need to be happy.
Stop comparing, stop letting yourself get convinced that you need this or that, to be happier in life.
“Comparison is the Death of Joy.”
Mark Twain
To be able to feel happier, it is important to feel light, to feel all the burdens being lifted from your shoulders.
A perfect way to start feeling lighter, is to take on all the clutter that is taking up space in your house. I wrote the whole first part of my book* to help you get through all the rooms in your house.
There are a lot of ways to do this. The most important part is, that you start getting rid of things. Do not organize your clutter, because organized clutter is still clutter. Get rid of your stuff, very consciously.
Know why you are doing this. Keep the vision of an uncluttered, spacious house in mind. And I don’t mean you need a big house, I mean, a house, free of all the too much, a house in which you can feel light, energized.
As long as you keep your why on top of your mind, you will keep going AND you will make sure you do not replace stuff with other stuff.
Really ask yourself:
Do I ever use/wear this?
Do I like using/wearing this?
Do I need this?
Do I have similar stuff?
Be very thorough.
Keep only one of all the doubles you have.
Let the shop be the place to have lots and lots of provisions, not your pantry. My rule is: we use one package of, for instance coffee, we have one spare. The moment we start the spare, I buy a ‘new spare’. That way, you know what you have, and it gets used. Otherwise, things slip into the back of your cupboard, and you forget about it.
The same goes with decorations: if you keep them all out at the same time, you don’t see them anymore, hence you do not enjoy them as much as you think you do. All they do, is eating away your energy.
Pick a few, enjoy them in the prominent place you chose for them. Hide the rest. And then switch every few months, if you have more decorations, you really like. Be very selective with what you keep. You’ll notice that with time passing, you’ll be able to say goodbye to more and more of your stuff. It really gets easier and easier.
Throw away when it’s not useful to anyone anymore.
Donate what is still usable.
Keep what really makes you happy.
When in doubt: put them in a box, out of sight, and see after a few months whether you have missed them or not. You probably forgot all about them… and so you can get them out of your house without any doubts left.
The same goes with your wardrobe… I took out a whole chapter* for that one… It really is absurd how many items we have/keep… We wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. I would even dare to say 90% of the time.
Make sure you actually see what you have when you open your wardrobe. All that is hidden, or in the back, gets forgotten. You do not even know that you have it anymore.
Make sure there is space between your stuff, so that you can really pick what you want to wear, just by opening your wardrobe.
A very interesting way to start simplifying your wardrobe is doing the Project 333 of Courtney Carver**. Choose every 3 months 33 items (Shoes, scarfs, … included) and only wear those. You’ll learn how you can combine a few things in many ways. I saw a very interesting item last week about traveling light: choose 3 tops, 3 bottoms, and 3 layers. If you choose this wisely, you can make 27 outfits just combing them in different ways! I really loved this!
You can do the same with your wardrobe.
I choose almost everything in either white or marine blue. That way, everything is combinable. Never an issue with ‘what can I wear with this?’…. And it’s never too chic or not chic enough as white/dark blue combinations are evergreens and suitable for most occasions.
Make it easy for yourself, make your ideal combination, make your capsule wardrobe, and you’ll be finally free of all the decision stress you feel when choosing what you’ll wear.
So much energy gets lost because of decision fatigue.
There really is a lot more you can simplify in life, when you get a little conscious about it.
For instance: what to eat?
Cook for 2 days, and half of all food related decisions are gone.
I think you already cover 2 major energy drainers when you solve the food-, and clothes-dilemmas.
You’d be surprised by how much time and energy gets wasted in choosing what to wear and what to eat.
Simplifying your home, and your stuff is a huge step towards living a simpler and happier life.
I believe that the perfect timing to start decluttering your house, is spring time. Everything awakens in nature, everything starts fresh and feels energized, so it’s easy to get swept up in this rejuvenating energy. But of course, any time works, if you just put your mind to it.
The more you start getting rid of clutter, the more you clear out all the garbage that is blocking your energy, the easier it will become to make decisions.
The clearer your mind becomes, the easier it will become to know what is important and what not.
When all the too much is gone, when all the things that are not adding to your happiness are gone, the better, lighter and happier you’ll feel.
You’ll get to know the real you again, you realize what you need and what you do not want anymore.
It’s a process, it’s a journey towards living as the real you, living what feels good to you.
The beginning takes a lot of effort, and also a lot of determination to keep going because clearing out your clutter is overwhelming.
But, the more you start to feel the energy flowing again, the more you start to feel lighter, the more you’ll be motivated to keep going.
The more space you create, the better you’ll feel.
Once you start getting your house decluttered, you can start looking at other areas in your life.
Simplifying your agenda is another big step. As most of us suffer from FOMO, we all have way too much in our agendas. Start making decisions there too. Even fun stuff can be too much. Build in space, make room for quiet time, alone time, time in nature.
Other very important steps to be taken are, cleansing your body, choosing wisely what to eat and what not, get enough sleep, get enough exercise.
And last but not least, clearing out all the dust webs in your head. Train your mental muscles* and learn how to declutter all the garbage in your head.
But those we’ll discuss in later articles.
For now, start with the things around you, make room, make space.
The rest will follow more easily.
Thank you all for reading me, and for supporting me on Medium. If you want unlimited access to all of my articles, and of many other authors, you can become a Medium Member. You’ll be supporting me and all the other authors. Many, many thanks to you all!!!
Katrien
*”Less is Yes!” by Katrien Degraeve.
**”Project333.” By Courtney Carver.