The rise of the minimalist lifestyle is causing many people to second guess what is in their homes, leading them to throw out unnecessary items to create more space. Minimalism is traditionally molded after Japanese lifestyles; the meaning is to live with less. Now that a lot of people are living in smaller homes, it’s important to use your space wisely through proper organization.
The minimalist lifestyle can often be seen as a light and airy aesthetic, often utilizing muted colors with a lot of white. If you’re looking to start this beautiful aesthetic, switching to interior French doors for a functional and minimalist feel will up your game tremendously. Utilizing french doors can allow more light to pour in, illuminating your home while being minimal and beautiful.
Tips to Create Space in Your Home
Whether you are a mother with messy children or a new student about to live the dorm life, learning some organizational tips to make the most of the space you have is a must. After all, if our homes are beautiful, we will be happier to be inside them, confident to have guests, and more productive with the lack of distractions.
To start your minimalist organization, downsizing is your first step. If you have a lot of items, there are plenty of ways to figure out what you truly want to keep and what is just gathering dust. One popular downsizing method is called the KonMari Method. The woman who came up with this method is the owner of a tidying consultant business who also has a few published books and a Netflix series, named Marie Kondo.
The steps in this downsizing process are:
- Tidy all at once. Don’t wait and do little by little or you may never finish.
- Visualize your destination. If you don’t know what you want your home to look like, how will you know when you are finished?
- Identify why you want what you envision. Remembering why we want to declutter will keep us making progress and will also influence our decisions on what to get rid of.
- Determine if each item sparks joy. Instead of just thinking utilitarian on whether or not to discard or keep, it’s important to only keep what you want. If the item does not spark joy for you, there is no reason to keep it.
- Tidy by category, not location. Categories force us to get everything together, instead of various items being spread around multiple locations in our home.
- Tidy in this order: clothing, books, papers, and miscellaneous. The KonMari method also creates subcategories for each main category.
- Discard before placing items back. If you place everything back before discarding, you are more likely to go ahead and place back things in the discard pile as well. Removing the discarded items for good prevents you from falling into keeping everything again.
Keeping fewer items is beneficial to your home as it creates more space and you will only be surrounded by what you love and need. If you don’t have much space, this is a necessity. If you are living in a studio apartment, for example, you can learn how to utilize that small space in the linked article. This can be beneficial even if you have a larger apartment or a full home as well.
The key to organizing your home post-decluttering involves the proper placement of furniture. After discarding unnecessary items, you should have more space to move furniture around freely and find the right space for everything. You will probably need to think of where the light hits best or where is shaded from glare, changing around entertainment items for proper distance from the television, and even where your vents are to decide where furniture is best aligned with potential hot or cold air.
If the KonMari Method is not quite working for you, or you need more decluttering ideas, this New York Times article has examples of similar methods to try to create more space in your home.
In summary, it can be beneficial to learn a downsizing method that works for you in order to create more space in our home. There are amazing benefits such as introducing a welcoming atmosphere back into your home and increasing productivity and happiness.
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