5 Easy Ways to Simplify Your Home
There are so many ways to simplify your life and embrace minimalist living. One of the best ways to get started with minimalism is by decluttering and simplifying your home.
Practicing minimalism involves every aspect of my life. It’s not only about owning less stuff, getting rid of excess, and clearing out the clutter but also living intentionally.
Today, I’m going to share some tips and tricks on simplifying your home, which will make things a lot simpler and make your life easier.
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5 Easy Ways to Simplify Your Home
1. Declutter and Get Organized
We all love a clean and organized home. We tend to make an effort to organize everything we have.
I’ve got to admit that when I first wanted to make my home look more organized, I bought a lot of storage supplies.
I was trying to keep all the things but never thought about purging anything. As a result, things were moving around the house and clutter was just shifting from one area to another.
At that time, I was having too many things that I haven’t used for a long time. I kept all those things because getting rid of them makes me feel wasteful.
Finally, I realized I just got too much stuff and not enough space for them. Even though I bought a ton of storage containers, I didn’t feel that they would fit in my space. My home still looked cluttered.
So, I decided to get started decluttering the entire house and only keep things I truly need, use or love. I donated the clothes even though they were expensive when I bought them. I gave away a lot of books and duplicate kitchen gadgets to friends.
A cluttered home can be a source of stress. Throughout the decluttering process, I felt such a relief. I knew what I need. I wanted to create a calm, relaxing home and live a more intentional life.
If you want to simplify your home, I encourage you to declutter first, organize second. Get rid of the things that you don’t use or love anymore, you’ll then realize how many and what kind of storage containers you actually need to organize your stuff.
2. The 2 Minute Rule
I like the strategy of the 2-minute rule. Anything that can be done in 2 minutes or less, do it now. This concept comes from the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. Following this productivity rule helps to stop procrastinating.
You can apply the 2-minute rule to any of your new habits. Instead of accumulating your mail, just open and sort through them. Hang up your jacket and put your dirty clothes in the laundry hamper once you come home. All these things can be done in a minute or less.
It’s very easy for us to get out something but less likely to put it back immediately. Once we implement the 2-minute rule at our home, it became less cluttered and more organized.
3. Clean as you Go
I’ve talked about this many times. When you want to cut your cleaning time and keep your home neat, you need to adopt this habit.
Never let your dirty dishes pile up, hand wash them, or load them in the dishwasher while you’re waiting for your coffee.
Wipe down your countertop and stove after each use. Clean up spills immediately. Empty your garbage daily. All these cleaning habits help to simplify your home and save you time.
More articles about minimalist cleaning tips:
How to Clean Your House Fast and Efficiently
5 Laundry Habits as a Minimalist
4. Get Everyone Involved
I’m trying to keep our home tidy and let me tell you, it’s not easy. My husband is a naturally untidy person. When we talk about cleaning and tidying work, we’ve got different standards.
I have no idea why he likes to place clean outfits on the bedroom floor. I finally got a huge basket for him. Problem solved.
Give up perfectionism. Get every family member involved in tidying the house.
Even kids can help with small household chores. My daughter likes to help sweep the floor. I just let her do it though it’s not perfect. That’s okay. I can always fix it later.
5. Living with Less
I love to keep things simple. Having fewer possessions at home means you have more space to live and spend less time cleaning and organizing.
When I decided to have an intentional lifestyle, I focus on things that align with my goals and value.
Have a budget for everything, home, auto, grocery, travel, entertainment, etc. It lets you see how much you’re spending and helps you live within your means.
We like to spend money on travel which brings us joy and experiences. With that said, sticking to a budget made us do less shopping and save money for travel. We choose experiences over material possessions. Experiences create memories that bring us joy.
I’m so happy to live with fewer possessions. Fewer things mean less mess at home.
Having less stuff mean we don’t have to spend a lot of time cleaning and taking care of them.
Related Minimalist Living articles:
7 Easy Ways to Simplify Your Life
5 Ways to Simplify Christmas and Enjoy This Holiday Season
Simplifying our home gives me more time and space to relax each day and focus on what is important to me.
Do you have any tips to simplify your home? Please leave a comment and I’d like to know.
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My husband and I are in our 60’s so we have A LOT of pictures, framed and un-framed. Any suggestions?
Use s copier to transfer them to digital. Group them by years or people or places or whatever categories makes sense to you. We have ours on a memory stick so that we can watch them on our tv. You can then give the pictures away to friends and family or make memory sticke for family member and give them as a gift. There are companies that will do all the copying work for you.
I so need to simplify my home. I should use some of the tips here .. especially the 2 minute rule.
Thanks for stopping by!
I’m a big fan of having everyone pitch in for 15 minutes before dinner. Set a timer, everyone picks an area, and either tidies, declutters, or does a click spray and wipe. When there are 6-7 of us in the house, we can get a lot done in that time!
Awesome! Thanks for reading my post!