Benefits of a More Minimal Lifestyle

 

Living a more minimal lifestyle has been a wonderful thing for me. I say MORE minimal because I of course am not an extreme minimalist by any means...I mean I have over 90 houseplants. But I have worked hard to only own what I love and need, only do things that bring me joy or are necessary, and only think and focus on things that are positive and benefit me. So I wanted to share some of the benefits I've noticed from this new lifestyle.



I have less mental noise. 

Since I have less to do and maintain in my life I have less mental noise reminding me of it all.  I only commit to events that I really want to go to.  My to do list is much smaller because there's less to do and maintain when it comes to cleaning.  I don't put things off for another day because I do things as soon as I can. If I get a package in the mail, I open it immediately, deal with it, and clean up the remainders of it. This means it's not sitting in a pile somewhere waiting to be dealt with. 

 

Entertaining is easy. 

If someone wants to come over there's virtually no prep I have to do. My cleaning schedule is simplified. I vacuum on Wednesdays and Sundays, wash floors on Thursdays, do laundry on Wednesdays, and I dust and clean windows every 2 weeks.  I also do deep cleans once a month so at any given time when someone comes over unexpectedly, there's really nothing I have to do to make my home look nice.  

 

I enjoy my hobbies because I have so much time for them. 

I can easily do arts and crafts, gardening, exploring outside, and reading books because I have plenty of free time to do them. They are actually no longer something I do in my free time necessarily but something I can actually plan specific time for. I don't feel any guilt over it either if I decide to read books for 5 hours on a weekend because what else was I going to do? 

 

I have minimal stressors. 

I don't have a messy home so I don't feel overwhelmed by "stuff" and "all the things I need to do." I only have people in my life that are positive influences on me.  Even if they have something stressful going on in THEIR lives, it's easy to be there for them because I'm not overwhelmed by my own life. 

 

I have more money. 

I'm no longer buying things I don't need or wastefully using things that I need to replace sooner than later.  I am so mindful of what I bring into my home that most of the things I spend money on are consumables like food, cleaning products,  and beauty and health care items.  If I do decide I need something like a new plant stand for example, I see if I already have something I can use for that and if not, I may check out a garage sale or thrift store because it's a cheaper price.  

I'm much healthier. 

I have time to dedicate to staying disciplined with my diet and time in my daily routine for exercise (I run a 5k every other day first thing in the morning). I even simplify my exercise options by choosing things I don't need to spend money on. It's free for me to run in my own neighborhood, and for recovery I just stretch on my own.  We have some gym items in our basement so I can lift weights down there or use exercise bands.  I do a lot of outdoor activities like gardening and yard work in the warm months so that also helps with my daily calorie burn. 

I have little waste. 

This is important to me especially with food. I meal plan religiously so I only buy what I need and I use up anything extra we have in our cabinets by incorporating it into a meal on my meal plan for the next 2 weeks. If we have leftovers, I take advantage of that and that's the meal for the next day. 

 

I don't bother with sales. 

If I really need something and there's a sale on it, I may get it but aside from that, if it's not something I truly need, I am not tempted by sales anymore.  

Living a more minimal lifestyle takes discipline but gets easier the more you do it.  How do you live a more minimal lifestyle?

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