Browsing Tag

decluttering

Budgeting

How I made $5000 Selling Our Clutter Online

Posted on October 4, 2022
A notebook with a $ sign on it
 

In early 2016 after decluttering many items in my home, and really leaning into our #debtfreejourney I got the idea to combine my decluttering and savings goals and try to make some extra cash by selling our clutter. I knew some of our things were worth something and wanted to try my luck at getting some cash for them.

Of course, there are some things you will have to just accept as a Sunk Cost (the money is long gone now). The fact that they are no longer bringing you happiness means they are now costing you in space, time and quite possibly your mental health.

Think about how good it will feel to see your savings climbing. Or how good it will feel to finally get your car into your garage. Or how much easier it will be to find your favourite outfit when you don’t have to pull out 10 pairs of jeans just to find your 1 favourite pair.

If you are holding onto some clutter that no longer adds value to you, it might very well be something someone else would be happy to take off your hands and gain value in. This way you can be kind to the environment by passing it on to a new owner who will love that item as much as you probably did at some point. And a bonus, you can use the cash you bring in from selling an item to put towards a financial goal that is important to you.

One of the hardest things when it comes to decluttering is to think of all the wasted money you spent on these things that you are now getting rid of. There can be a feeling of guilt around all the things you could have done with that money intsead. But it is important to not get frozen by those thoughts. Give yourself some kindness. Remember, that was in the past. Now we are going to move past any feelings of guilt and take action so that we can avoid making those same unintentional purchases in the future.

How I Got Started Selling

When I hit my late 20s, I had been living in my first home for about 5 years. And was amazed to see how many things had accumulated in such a short space of time. I had stuff every where in our modest sized home. Over time I started to notice all the STUFF. I was surrounded. I couldn’t open my drawers. My dining table was covered in crap. And it didn’t feel like a relaxing place to return to.

So I started to go around my home and declutter things. After a bit of decluttering I realised that some of the brand name items or electronics might be worth something. I came across 4 boxes of brand new hair dye that I hadn’t used.
I thought about selling them and soon enough I had put my first item up on eBay. I had bought those hair dye boxes for only $5 each. I wasn’t really sure if I could donate them so I figured I figure I’d try and sell them to someone else who would find value in them.

I listed them on eBay for $10 thinking it would be nice to get some of my money back. By the end of the week, I was amazed to hear my phone go off with numerous bidders for my unwanted hair dye. That listing ended up selling for $37. I couldn’t believe it, I had almost made back double what I had spent on them and also gotten rid of four items out of my house. Talk about winning.

How to Start With Identifying Things to Sell

To get started, you must first identify what you no longer want to hold onto.

In order to do this, you need to get decluttering.

Start with one room at a time so you can focus your effort on a single space and feel like you are moving forward as you finish decluttering each room or space.
To declutter the items that you will (sell or donate) use 4 boxes or containers and label them with the following labels:

  1. Keep

2. Toss

3. Donate, and lastly

4. Sell.

Once you have sorted your items in the room or space you are decluttering, Toss your trash items, put the Keep pile back in its home and pop the Donation box into your boot, ready to be dropped off as soon as possible to a friend or local charity bin/store.

For your Sell pile, find a location to store your box or container. Perhaps set up a “sell station” in a garage or spare room if you have one.

Question To Ask As You Declutter

To help you get started decluttering here are 3 Questions to help you make decisions on what to let go and what to sell.

1. ‘Do I love this?’

If I did I kept it.

2. Have I used this item in the last 12 months?

If not, it is probably time to let it go. Remember if you really need the item again, you could borrow it from someone or get a second hand one.

3. ‘Would I buy this again today?

That usually helped me differentiate between what I should and shouldn’t keep. Most often the answer to this was No.

With these three questions, I was able to minimise about 70% of the contents of our home.

My Favourite Selling platforms

During my decluttering journey, I used three selling platforms to sell my unwanted times: eBay, Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace. I am sure there are much more available now, but these are the ones I have tried and tested and will limit this blog to discussing. I will go in detail below as to when is best to use the three mentioned above and what the pros and cons are of each.

eBay

When to use eBay:

  • You have something to sell that is easy to post domestically
  • You want to reach a larger audience
  • You want to sell something for what it is worth rather than just what you can give it away for
  • To avoid the hassle of meeting with strangers and wasting your time with no shows
  • Items are of higher value so you can accept the higher fees
  • You want to build up an eBay account with feedback to make your selling into a side hustle

Pros:

  • free to list
  • no need to pay to bump up ads
  • access to the eBay search features with high-detail posts so your items are more easily found by potential buyers
  • only pay final value fees & Paypal fees for what you sell
  • feedback over time will let your buyers know if you are a quality seller
  • you can tick the relist option which will automatically list your ad for the next three auctions
  • You can pick the ‘auction’ option and potentially sell your item for more than your base price

Cons:

  • high fees, eBay charges on average 10% and Paypal 3-4% so everything you sell will come with a 14% fee
  • fees are chargeable on shipping
  • the hassle of posting items (but this is offset by no timewasters and not having to give our your address or meet a buyer
  • it can be hard to estimate postage costs correctly and you can leave yourself short, not to mention postage is ever going up
  • if you take too long to post something or it is damaged in transit etc, you can potentially get negative feedback or have to pay the costs by refunding the customer
  • even though with eBay you are entering into a contract, I have had to refund bidders their money when they bought without reading the listing properly. E.g. assuming shipping was free or buying something that was local pick up when they lived interstate.

How to get started: In order to use eBay you will need the following:

  • an eBay account
  • a Paypal Account (and email address).
  • The eBay app (ideal for quickly uploading listings and pics straight from your phone)

Setting up your eBay and paypal accounts are fairly straightforward. Check out the links to get you started. A few things to note:

  • Before you start using eBay if you may have to wait around a month for eBay to release your first lot of sale funds. This meant for the first 4 or so weeks of selling on eBay I had to use my own money to cover the shipping costs. It was certainly a hassle, but that was just a once off and I didn’t have to wait for that again.
  • You will be billed monthly for the final value selling fees which in my experience are really hard to estimate. But from my averages, it works out to being about 11% of your combined sales and shipping and an additional 3-4% in Paypal fees.
  • Your Paypal fees are deducted automatically at the point of sale, and eBay fees are billed monthly. So make sure  you don’t spend all your new cash and forget to leave some to cover the fees to eBay.

Selling Tips:

  • Before your list your item, do some research and see what the item is worth. You can make an estimate based on the original cost, but I prefer to check eBay for like items before I set the price to see what others are selling them for. I usually start my price at the higher end of what I think I can get for it and then drop it on subsequent listings from there if need be.
  • Be aware, once someone bids on your item you have entered a legally binding contract so you won’t be able to change your mind and cancel the bid. Don’t set the price lower than you are willing to take for the items otherwise you will be in for some disappointment.
  • eBay has sophisticated data recognition technology so don’t try and dodge out on eBay’s profits. I once cancelled a listing because a guy asked us if he could pay cash on pick up and within a matter of hours we received a warning from eBay that the account had been placed under review. If you make a sale on eBay you are obliged to pay the associated fees. If you don’t your account could be locked or completely banned so keep that in mind and just insist any buyers pay via the app even if they are picking up an item.
  • Put as many photos of an item as possible. The more the buyer can see of your item, the more likely they are to buy it and it saves you answering more questions about the item than necessary.
  • Provide as many details as you can I.e. Manufacture date, colour, material, wash instructions (I.e. dry clean only, 100% cotton)
  • Leave feedback for your buyers. It helps maintain the eBay buyer/seller feedback feature.

Postage Tips These are some lessons I learnt along the way with shipping items. There is a lot to get your head around and it’s best to do your research before you set your shipping prices and leave yourself short.

  • Research your shipping costs well. I got stung quite a few times where I only charged say $8 for shipping and ended up having to pay $15 or more! Ask the post office questions when you are there about the cheapest way to ship your item. I found that for months I was being charged $8.50 for posting something I could have posted for $3-4. That was a lot of money down the drain for me and the buyers. I found with the post office staff, they don’t always tell you the cheapest option so do your research on the website in advance as well so you know what it will cost so you can charge appropriately. Be sure to add in the cost of postage bags, bubble wrap and anything else you need to pack the item.
  • Don’t guess your item weight, because you will be wrong just get the kitchen scales out and be sure. Funnily enough just this week I paid for a 500g gram bag thinking I would be well under and the item ended up coming to 525g. That extra 25g brought my bill from $8.50 to $13.50 so it was a pretty expensive oversight.
  • Pack things well. I had one item get damaged because I assumed it would be okay in a regular bag. I lost my positive feedback streak and was really upset I had ruined someone’s buying experience. Bad feedback hurts so always make the effort to pack things so they arrive safe and sound!
  • Don’t ever try and short-change postage. I once sent something and through no knowledge of my own, I had underpaid the postage costs and had to reimburse the buyer. If you try and send something that is heavier or larger than what you paid, your buyer will have to pay the excess when they receive the parcel and you will need to reimburse them if you want a positive experience for the customer and positive feedback on your account.
  • For higher-value items, pay extra for tracking if it is not included. I once sent a $150 iPod without tracking and spent the next week crossing my fingers it wouldn’t get lost in the mail. Thankfully it arrived on schedule but definitely worth it for peace of mind to ensure most items, particularly high-value ones have tracking on them!

FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE

When to use Facebook Marketplace: Facebook Marketplace has pretty good reach so for that reason alone it is better than Gumtree, but as it is predominately a local selling platform your main buyers will be within driving distance so you won’t have the reach you would have on eBay. It’s also, at least in it’s current state, fee free which is a huge bonus! The app allows you to enter a location range, so no one will know your address until you decide to give it to them but they will have a rough idea of the area where the item is located so they can decide if your item is in driving distance for them.

Pros:

  • No fees
  • Great reach to local buyers
  • Easy to post listing with the Facebook app
  • There is a 🙂 and 🙁 rating system which helps know if people are worth working with which I think is a great feature

Cons:

  • The marketplace section of the Facebook app can be buggy, I found it defaulted to some European locations and I had to log into my PC in order to fix it. I also had one post that said it was listed but I couldn’t find it under my listings.
  • With the ease of the direct message I found at times I was being bombarded with messages with people asking silly questions E.g. Will you deliver the item? I didn’t have those issues with eBay or Gumtree.
  • I found people were generally more rude and annoying on the messenger app. I’d often get default messages saying ‘Is this available’ and then no response to my reply. Or being asked what is your address before I had even engaged in a conversation with people which made me feel pretty uncomfortable. Again, eBay and Gumtree were preferable for that reason as their message systems are a bit more removed so you don’t get very abrupt messages at least not in my experience so far.

How to get started:

You more than likely already have a Facebook account (if not simply sign up at www.facebook.com). All you need to do is select the menu item at the top middle of your Facebook home page or Facebook app ((that looks like a market).

For more info on using Facebook Marketplace check out the following link. Then click on Sell Something + and fill in the form below with your items details. Next add your photos. Don’t forget to mark your item as sold when it is no longer available and leave a 🙂 or 🙁 for your buyer.

List your item on Facebook in a quick moment.

Selling Tips:

  • Similar to the above ones I listed for eBay, make sure you put lots of photos and as much detail about your items as possible. The more you include, the less questions you will be asked… hopefully.
  • For your safety and convenience don’t give out your address or meeting place until you have agreed on a price and time. The last thing you want is someone rocking up at your house when you are out and insisting you hurry up to meet you. Or meet in a public place to avoid any risks with someone coming to your house.
  • Price your item higher than what you actually want for it. You will more often than not have to accept a lower offer.
  • Don’t be afraid to stand your ground on your lowest price. If you have patience you will sell it. But of course, if it is something you just want to get rid of it, negotiate and get rid of it!

GUMTREE

When to use Gumtree:

  • You want to sell something locally especially big bulky items like furniture or a BBQ – avoiding postage costs and hassle.
  • You want to try and limit fees on the sale like Ebay and PayPal fees
  • You’re not to fussed on what money you can get for an item

Pros:

  • Reach local buyers
  • Sell items quickly
  • You can list items as negotiable, free or trade or swap
  • Can pay to boost ads to get more reach for a quicker sale

Cons:

  • Low balling of prices
  • Be prepared to negotiate on price
  • Risk of people coming to your house if you choose to do that. Facebook seems a bit more connected to the actual person. 
  • Low reach visibility of listing after a couple of days unless you pay to bump or sponsor your ad

How to get started: Sign up for Gumtree and select Post an Ad.

Add a Title for your item and select the most appropriate category. Gumtree will pick one for you by default which you can change if need be.

Gumtree also allows you to select whether the price is negotiable, free or a swap or trade and allows a minimum offer amount to be set.

You can select a free listing which is what I usually do, but if your item is something more valuable it might be worth investing a few bucks into getting your ad Featured to reach more buyers.

Selling Tips:

  • Price the item higher than you want. People will lowball you, so if you want to sell something for $50, price it at $75 and you’ll generally be able to get what you wanted for it. Though of course, avoid overpricing your item or it will not sell.
  • When posting on Gumtree the first few days will be when your ad is most visible on the Free listing options. After a few days, it will start to be dropped into the abyss of items available for sale which means not as many people can see your ad. This is Gumtree’s attempt at getting you to bump up your ad to the top, which is of course how they make their money. If you are selling something for $300 or more it might be worth paying the fees to get a featured ad to sell your item quickly, but if you are trying to sell something for $20 I don’t recommend it. What you can do, is delete the ad and relist it as a new ad which will bring your ad back to the earlier search results.
  • Monitor your Ads position in your chosen categories pages. The ad will tell you what page it is listed on. If it’s anything after page 5 or so, it is going to get harder for people to find your ad and you might want to bump it up or try and relist it or relist it somewhere else.
  • You don’t have to provide your address until you are ready to accept an offer. Meet in a safe public place ideally. Never invite someone into your home and make sure someone is always home with you if people are coming to your house. 

There you have it! What are you waiting for? 🙂

Now I set you a challenge. Go through your home and start looking for things you can sell and get selling!
Good luck and please let me know in the comments how you’re going with it! 🙂  

Do You Want Help With Spending Your Money With Intention?

If you want to learn how to spend your money with intention and in line with your values and take the stress and anxiety out of your money, book in for a free Q&A call to see how Minimise With Me financial coaching can help you gain clarity around your finances! 

You can learn more about my financial coaching services and how I can help you achieve your financial goals here. 

How much money have you made selling your unwanted clutter online? And what items did you find were the most successful? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear about your successes 🙂 

[Photo: Raw Pixel, Unsplash.com]

Minimalism

How to Build A Capsule Wardrobe: A Guide For Beginners

Posted on March 11, 2022
Building a capsule wardrobe can be a great way to limit stress in your life. By picking a well-curated selection of 30 items of clothing in your capsule that you love, you can ensure you look stylish, and feel great each day with minimal effort!

A few years back at the beginning of my Minimalism discovery I came across the term Capsule Wardrobe. I’ve never been someone who points much thought into fashion. My wardrobe normally consisted of jeans and a hoodie and a band shirt. My friend and I used to laugh with our thrifty-ness of making old clothes last beyond their years through any means possible. If there was a way to look put together and coordinate an outfit without much thought going into it, this was going to be a game-changer for me.

Over the years I’ve done a lot of research on the subject, okay… a lot of Pinning more specifically. Whenever I talk wardrobes with people and mention the concept of a capsule wardrobe, I’m often surprised to hear that most people have never heard of the idea. Which is something I am hoping to change. Read on for how to create your own capsule wardrobe!

THE BENEFITS OF A CAPSULE WARDROBE

Before we start our capsule wardrobe we must understand the benefits.

Here are the benefits I have personally found of having a Capsule Wardobe:

  1. Having  a capsule wardrobe means it is less stressful to get ready. It is one less time consuming decision to make during your day so you can focus on more important or enjoyable things like spending time having your morning coffee.
  2. Having all your clothes in one area makes it easier to mix and match your outfits. A well curated capsule wardrobe means that your outfits easily work together and items that suit your lifestyle which in turn leaves your feeling more confident.
  3. It saves you time on your laundry. If you have a capsule of 30 items, you will probably only have one load of washing per person per week. This avoids the dreaded mountain of unwashed clothing that comes with your average wardrobe!
  4. You can feel comfort knowing that everything in your capsule has been hand picked by you and are items that you love. No more walking out the door only to realise the pants you grabbed don’t fit anymore or are uncomfortable.
  5. It will save you money. When you have 30 or so items that you love you feel less of a need to continually hit the shops trying to find the perfect outfit when you have a perfectly amazing wardrobe at home!
  6. It is better for the environment. Fast fashion has created 6000kg of clothing and textile waste every ten minutes in Australia. By choosing to adopt a capsule wardrobe you are helping to reduce the clothing ending up in landfill by only buying quality, loved clothing pieces and being more mindful of what you buy.
  7. Despite what you may think having a capsule wardrobe is less boring and more creative as each day you get to create a new outfit mix, rather than picking the same old items in your overflowing wardrobe.

Now that we understand the amazing benefits of adopting a capsule wardrobe we can get started!

FREE CAPSULE WARDROBE PLANNER PRINTABLE

I’ve created a free Capsule Wardrobe Planner Printable to help you get started on your very own Capsule Wardrobe. Simply click ‘YES PLEASE!’ below and fill in the signup form to get your free printable and get started creating your newly curated Capsule Wardrobe!

FREE CAPSULE WARDROBE PLANNER PRINTABLE

I’ve created a free Capsule Wardrobe Planner Printable to help you get started on your very own Capsule Wardrobe. Simply click ‘YES PLEASE!’ below and fill in the signup form to get your free printable and get started creating your newly curated Capsule Wardrobe!

WHERE DO I START?

Before you make a start on your capsule wardrobe you are going to need to identify what you want in it. This involves going through your current wardrobe and decluttering and only keeping what you love or in Kon Mari’s words what “sparks joy”. These steps will help you get your decluttering started:

  1. Prepare your working area. Make the bed as a clothing work space, grab a few boxes, containers – whatever you have and label them with the following 4 signs; Keep, Toss, Donate, Mend.
  2. Take all your clothing, all of it, and lay them out on the bed. Grab anything in your washing baskets so you can ensure you haven’t missed anything. If you are someone that only has small pockets of time to declutter you can do this by category such as shoes, shirts, dresses and so on until you have gone through each category. This will make the process slower but is better than not doing it at all.
  3. Next pick out the items that you love and wear on a regular basis from your pile. Put the “love” items into the container marked keep. It is often easier to choose what we love than what we don’t so is helpful to start with the ones you know you wear and love first.
  4. Go through your pile and put anything you don’t like, or don’t wear anymore in to two separate piles. One to be donated, any items that are still wearable. One to Toss, for anything else that is not in good condition. If you have the time and energy, you can also put some of the more pricey donate items into a pile to be sold to add some extra cash into your budget.
  5. If there is anything that you love, but that needs repairing put this into a separate ‘mend pile’ and action these in the next week or so. If they need a new button sew it on, if you need to take it to the professionals put them in your car to take to your alteration store.
  6. Continue to work through your pile until you have sorted all items.

If you are left with anything you are unsure about, I call these the “Maybe” pile you can do the following:

  1. If you are not yet ready to part with items in this pile you can place the items in a container to be stored out of your closet for a short period of time. I recommend no more than three months.
  2. Set a reminder on your phone to review the container once the time limit is up. If you find you do want to use something you’ve stored away, you can go and ‘save’ it.
  3. After three months donate the items in the container. Generally after three months you will realise that you don’t miss the items you stored anymore and don’t need them and be willing to let it go.

>> Check out  9 Decluttering Methods For Your Home for extra tips on methods you can use to declutter your wardrobe and home.

After this process, you will now be ready to curate a capsule wardrobe from your newly minimised wardrobe.

PICK CLOTHING TO SUIT YOUR LIFESTYLE

When it comes to creating your capsule wardrobe, it is important to be honest with yourself and what you wear day today. Are you really going to wear that old bridesmaid dress again? Do you own 5 pairs of short shorts but never wear them? Do you have clothing that needs ironing that you haven’t worn in six months cos you just hate ironing? This wardrobe is designed for your lifestyle now. Pick what you love to wear now, what you feel comfortable in and what suits your lifestyle. If you work in an office that might mean more button-up blouses, if you are a yoga instructor you might only own one button-up blouse and 10 gym outfits. Curate the capsule wardrobe for your present needs. To make your capsule flow day to day, try and pick a colour theme. Basing your wardrobe around three to four colours is ideal. For example, if your wardrobe is made up of black, white, grey and blue you can mix and match these colours effortlessly. Of course, feel free to pick whatever colours you love, it’s your capsule! 

OTHER CAPSULE WARDROBE RESOURCES

You can also check out Fashion Youtubers such as Lindsay Albanese for tips on How to Flatter Your Body Issues With Clothes to help you pick the right clothing choices for your capsule or watch Jennifer L. Scott’s Ten Item Wardrobe TEDx Talk for tips on where to start with picking the core items for your capsule wardrobe. 

My favourite Capsule Wardrobe blogger Courtney Carver’s Project 333 is a great starting point for your capsule wardrobe. Courtney started blogging about her wardrobe of 33 pieces including accessories and shoes in 2010, in which she picks a capsule wardrobe of 33 items including clothes, shoes and accessories for 3 months and changes them out each new season.

BUILDING YOUR CAPSULE WARDROBE

What’s Included:

 Include all other clothes – pants, tops, dresses, shorts, skirts and so on as well as your shoes. 

What’s Excluded: 

In my capsule wardrobe, I exclude pyjamas, gym clothes, loungewear, swimmers, underwear, singlets or thermals, and accessories. 

Accessories: 

I feel that buy the time you add in a couple of necklaces, a belt, sunnies, a scarf, a watch and bracelet to your capsule, a lot of your capsule wardrobe limit is taken up so I wanted to be free to mix and match accessories and not focus too much on those limitations within my capsule. 

By all means don’t go crazy but allows some variety! The goal is to limit your decision making and stress! My necklace collection is probably larger than others, but as I do wear what I have, I wanted to ensure my capsule didn’t restrict the freedom for me to do that.

GET STARTED

Grab a pen and paper (or your freebie Capsule Wardrobe Printable download) and create a list for your capsule wardrobe. Start with the numbers 1-30 on a piece of paper. Create a blend of items from your new wardrobe of ‘loved’ pieces. Pick out 30 pieces for your capsule, ones that are suitable for the season you are going to be in for the next three months. 

Once you have your 30 items hang them up in your wardrobe and box up the remaining items to be reviewed next season. I use space bags to minimise the space they take up :). 

And remember, avoid going and filling your wardrobe with new clothes now that you have more space unless you are missing key pieces or want to swap out items in your capsule.

Declutter With Me Decluttering Course  

Are you finding yourself overwhelmed and stressed out by clutter in your home?

If you’re looking to minimise the excess in your life, Declutter With Me: A 12 Week Guide to Declutter Your Home is a go-at-your-own-pace course that will give you the step-by-step, room-by-room instructions to help you clear the clutter in your home in as soon as just 12 weeks!

But clearing the clutter isn’t just about getting rid of your excess stuff. It’s important to change your behaviour and consumer habits so you can avoid re-cluttering your space once you have decluttered. Included in Declutter With Me, are “Keep It Minimal” tips for each area in your home + 7 Tips To Help You Keep Your Home Minimal, to give you strategies you can implement to help you spend with intention so you can avoid bringing clutter back into your home.

If you are keen to minimise your unwanted clutter check out Declutter With Me so you can create a home you love!

LEARN MORE

WHAT IF 30 ITEMS IS JUST TOO LIMITED FOR MY LIFESTYLE

If you find 30 items too difficult to get to, that’s okay! Try 35 or 40 items, or 50 and see if that can work for you. You might find you don’t need the extra items after all or even if you do, you’ve at least come a long way from where you were previously with a bulging wardrobe. Experiment and see what works for you. Keep in mind the 30 items isn’t your entire wardrobe, just one season of it.

REVIEWING YOUR CAPSULE WARDROBE

In order to check what you have and haven’t worn without much thought, use the Backwards Hanger Method. Turn all your coat hangers backwards when you start your capsule wardrobe and put worn items back the regular way when they are washed. 

At the end of the month you will easily be able to see what you did and did not wear. This will help you to make decisions on what to keep in your capsule for the next season and what to donate. 

At the end of the three months, check what you did and didn’t wear and alter your wardrobe accordingly.

KEEPING YOUR WARDROBE MINIMISED

A good rule of thumb to avoid getting carried away and refilling your newly minimised wardrobe is to implement a one, one out rule. This rule requires you to donate one item for every item of clothing you bring into your home. It will help you resist the urge to buy something unnecessary when you have to think about what  you are willing to get rid of in place of it. For more ideas on building your capsule wardrobe check out my Minimise With Me Building a Capsule Wardrobe board on Pinterest for some inspiration. 

If you would like to start your own capsule wardrobe check out 5 Lessons I Learnt From My Capsule Wardrobe for tips on how to pick and check out my Pinterest board for Capsule Wardrobes for inspiration.

Do you have a capsule wardrobe? Let me know how many items in your capsule wardrobe that you find works for you in the comments.

 If you found value in this post I would be super appreciative if you could share it with others who might also find value in it. 

Organising

12 Simple Bedroom Organisation Tips

Posted on September 10, 2021
Learn some bedroom organisation tips to keep your bedroom a clutter free space.

There is nothing worse than walking into your bedroom after a long day at work and seeing piles of mess all over. Laundry on the floor, loose coins piled up on the bedside table, your quilt, and sheets on the floor – this used to be my daily visuals until I decided that I needed to have my bedroom as a place of calmness and tranquillity. Here are some bedroom organisation tips I’ve found, that helped me achieve a mess-free organised bedroom without too much effort.

Let’s jump right in and declutter with these 12 Simple Bedroom Organisation Tips to help you keep your bedroom the sanctuary you’ve always wanted it to be!

12 Simple Bedroom Organisation Tips

1. Make Your Bed Every Day

I’ve included this first on purpose. Always make your bed. It’s the first thing you will notice when you walk into your room and gives a sense of cleanliness and order at a glance. Even better it only takes a minute or less! Making your bed alone brings your bedroom up to a semi-tidiness level and will spark the desire to keep going and get the rest of the bedroom in order!

2. Remove Unnecessary Items and Declutter

Remove clutter or items that don’t belong in your bedroom. The key is to make sure everything has a home. If stuff from other rooms in the home seems to be creeping into your bedroom it’s time to remove it. An easy trick is to have baskets for each person in the household which you can return their items to ready to be put back in the appropriate room without having to take multiple trips.

Think about when was the last time you used each item in your bedroom. If it was more than 12 months ago, or something that doesn’t really bring you joy anymore, then let it go. A great way to facilitate decluttering things in your room as you go is to keep a donation box or basket in the bottom of your wardrobe so you can donate things as you go.

3. Keep Clothes Hampers Close By

Put a clothes hamper in your bedroom, bathroom, or wardrobe to keep laundry off the floor. Better yet, get one with compartments for sorting to save you time when it comes to laundry day. Mine is on a rolling frame with bags so you can roll the hamper to the laundry or just grab a bag and go!

Check out these 6 laundry hacks to keep you on top of your washing pile! 

Declutter With Me Decluttering Course  

Are you finding yourself overwhelmed and stressed out by clutter in your home? If you’re looking to minimise the excess in your life, Declutter With Me: A 12 Week Guide to Declutter Your Home is a go-at-your-own-pace course that will give you the step-by-step, room-by-room instructions to help you clear the clutter in your home in as soon as just 12 weeks!

But clearing the clutter isn’t just about getting rid of your excess stuff. It’s important to change your behaviour and consumer habits so you can avoid re-cluttering your space once you have decluttered. Included in Declutter With Me, are “Keep It Minimal” tips for each area in your home + 7 Tips To Help You Keep Your Home Minimal, to give you strategies you can implement to help you spend with intention so you can avoid bringing clutter back into your home.

If you are keen to minimise your unwanted clutter check out Declutter With Me so you can create a home you love!

Learn more

4. Create a Capsule Wardrobe

In order to avoid the morning stress associated with having to pick something to wear from an overflowing wardrobe, and the resulting mess that comes from the mad rush, consider de-cluttering your wardrobe or creating a capsule wardrobe.

A more streamlined wardrobe filled with items you love will make getting ready a breeze and ensure those days of clothing strewn all over the floor are well behind you.

 

Related post: 7 Essential Questions to Help You Declutter Your Wardrobe!

5. Limit Items On Bedside Tables

Keep bedside table items to a minimum. It looks less cluttered and will be easier when it comes time to dust. Keep the things you need close by, such as the book you are currently reading but put the other stuff away. Ideally in your bedside table where they are accessible but not visually cluttering up your bedside table.

6. Organise Like Items together

Keep like items together; jewellery, hats, handbags, etc so they are easy to locate. And as an extra bonus, you can spend your money with intention as you can see what you have and know what you do and don’t need before going out shopping and coming home with duplicate items.

7. Utilise Over Door Hangers

Over-door-hangers are an easy storage option when you are lacking storage in your bedroom. The storage options for these are endless. You can use them to store things like shoes, socks, makeup, and jewellery.

Over-the-door hooks can be used to store clean but worn clothing so you can re-wear them. This will help keep clothes that can be worn again off the floor and provides great additional storage space and will keep your clothes lasting longer as you won’t be washing them every single time you wear them (within reason of course, please do wash your underwear after ease use hehe).

Minimise With Me Facebook Group

8. Keep the Floor Clear

Keep as little on the floor as possible. Open spaces do wonders for the appearance of tidiness. A hamper in the corner or cupboard will greatly help to achieve this! Place cushions back on your bed and fold any extra blankets.

9. Use the Kon-Mari Folding Method to Maximise Space

Fold your clothes Kon-Mari style. This method allows you to fit more in your drawers, reducing the number of drawers you will need which will help your room feel less cluttered. This folding method also allows you to see your clothes at a glance as they are ‘filed’ inside each drawer.

They will stay much tidier as you can pick what you want out at a glance, rather than having to dig through a vertical pile of clothes to find what you are after. This saves you having to refold everything constantly and allows you to easily close your drawers!
I made the change to folding using the Kon-Mari method years ago and will never go back.

Here is a video containing the instructions on how to fold clothing the Kon-Mari way if you are keen to see how it is done. Get ready to enjoy folding! 

10. Be Selective With What You Bring Into Your Bedroom Space

Be selective with what you bring into your bedroom. Try to implement the one-in-one-out rule for clothing to avoid closet chaos. Don’t buy endless decorative items that take up space and attract dust. Select a few you love and keep the rest from cluttering up your room.

Check out these 7 questions to ask before buying anything to help you shop and spend your hard-earned money more intentionally.

11. Use Boxes, Baskets and Containers For Drawer Organisation

Use boxes like IKEA Skubb or DIY versions to organise drawers into sections. This can be great to organise bras, underwear, and socks or shirts into sections and keep them tidy and sectioned so they are easy to find. They also look great! And why not have beautifully organised spaces in drawers as well as elsewhere in your home!

12. Implement a Plan For Worn Clothing

One of the biggest pain points for untidy bedrooms is dealing with clothing and laundry, whether it be clean, worn but still wearable, or dirty.

Ensure every time you wear something you assess: Does this need to be washed or will I wear this again?

Find a system that works for you. Here’s mine.

I put dirty clothes immediately into a hamper in the bathroom and if it is something that can be worn a second time, I will hang it up on hooks behind our bathroom door.

Alternatively, you can put it back on a coat hanger in your closet or have a specific drawer for clothes you want to wear again but to keep them separate from the unworn clothes whilst keeping them off the floor.

Once you get into the habit of this, clothes left lying on the bedroom or bathroom floor – or wherever is your clothing hot spot in the house – will be a thing of the past and will go a long way to keeping your bedroom a tidy oasis!

I hope these will be some useful bedroom organisation tips for your household so you too can maintain a beautiful calming organised bedroom space.

Let me know in the comments what bedroom organisation tips you have for maintaining your bedroom!

Organising

6 Decluttering Tips to Keep Your Home Tidy

Posted on December 15, 2020
A minimalist lifestyle can lead to more than just the removal ofclutter.

This guest post comes from Nancy Zafrani, the general manager of Oz Moving & Storage in NYC. A day-one employee of Oz, she has 25 years of experience in the moving industry. As a New Yorker, Nancy also has lots of experience dealing with small apartments and organizing. In this post Nancy, gives us 6 Decluttering Tips to Keep Your Home Tidy. You can find other helpful organisation and moving tips on Oz Moving and Storage’s blog.

Too much unnecessary stuff can make your home look untidy and feel cluttered. Still, it can be difficult to get rid of the clutter you’ve collected over the years. Even though you know you will never need the things that cause your drawers and cupboards to overflow, you can’t seem to throw them away. However, a few decluttering tips and tricks can help make the process easier.


When decluttering your home, the most important thing you should focus on is optimizing your space and throwing out useless things. Still, the way you declutter your kitchen will differ greatly from your bedroom decluttering habits.

Here are 6 simple decluttering tips for your kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom.


DECLUTTERING TIPS FOR YOUR KITCHEN
As you get older, you tend to collect more and more kitchenware. Although you use them frequently, let’s face it, we probably have more pots, pans, and utensils than you need. Thus, if your kitchen isn’t organized, you’ll often have to deal with mess and clutter. However, you can easily avoid that by following these simple tips for decluttering a kitchen:


Think About What You Use Often
If you want your kitchen to stay organized longer, you should think about which items you use regularly. If you use your blender every day, place it somewhere you can reach it easily.


Your kitchen should work for you. By organizing your kitchenware based on how much you use it, you prevent cluttering in two ways. Firstly, your frequently-used appliances will be in reach, so you won’t create clutter while taking them out of the cupboard. Secondly, you’ll find it easier to clean up after yourself, as you can easily put back the more frequently used items in the easier to reach areas of your kitchen cupboards.

Don’t forget to purge what you no longer need or use. If you haven’t used the gadget in a year, it’s probably time to let it go. You may also want to let go of any duplicates you come across.


Organize Your Spices
If you use a lot of spices while cooking, you should also organize them properly. You don’t have to do anything extravagant, simply organize them in a way that works for you. Make sure the names of the spices are facing forward, so you don’t mix them up. Additionally, you can place your most-used spices in the front, as they’ll be easier to spot. Throw out any spices you haven’t used in some time, or any that have expired.

DECLUTTERING TIPS FOR YOUR BATHROOM
Your bathroom holds a lot of clutter. With the half-used bottle of the shampoo you forgot about, the skincare products, and more, your bathroom can easily become messy. Even if you decide it’s time to declutter it, you may not know where to start. If you feel overwhelmed, follow these decluttering tips for bathrooms to make the decluttering process go smoothly:

Related Post: 4 Daily Habits for A Tidy Home

Decide on What You Should Throw Away
Before you start organizing your bathroom, go through everything you keep in there and sort it out into three piles — keep, throw away, or donate.


Firstly, check the expiration date. If the expiry date has passed, throw the item away. Additionally, if you’re decluttering makeup, throw away anything that you’ve used for more than two years. Makeup will usually last for about 6-2012 months after you open it, so if you have makeup from five years ago lying around, throw it away.

Secondly, see which products you’re nearly done with and make sure you use them up first. If you don’t want to use the product, throw it away.


Lastly, if you have unopened products, think about donating them. You may think you’ll start using the body lotion that’s been in your cupboard for years, but you probably won’t. Donating products you won’t use will make you feel good, help the less fortunate, and declutter your bathroom.

Position Your Products In a Way That Makes Sense to You

After you throw away and donate everything you don’t need, you may think about how to organize the things you do need. Every bathroom is different and, while some may not have enough space to fit everything they need in their bathroom, others have plenty of room to spare. However, no matter how big or small your bathroom is, you should place your toiletries in a way that will work for you long-term.


If you’re used to your facewash being near the sink, keep it there. The same goes for your shampoo, deodorant, and everything you use daily. However, make a dedicated space for your toiletries. You’re much more likely to put them in their place after you’ve used them if it’s in reach. Furthermore, you’ll end up putting your toiletries in the same place you’re used to after a while, anyway. So, why wouldn’t you make a dedicated place for them wherever is most convenient for you?

DECLUTTERING TIPS FOR YOUR BEDROOM
A bedroom should make you feel calm and serene. However, if your bedroom is full of mess and clutter, it can have the opposite effect on your mood. Additionally, having a lot of decor in your room can make it feel cluttered even when it’s not. If you want to declutter your Bedroom, start with these useful tips:

Dedicate Five Minutes a Day to Decluttering Your Bedroom
If you want to make sure your room doesn’t get too messy, dedicate five minutes a day to tidy and declutter. Put everything in its place, put your dirty clothes in the hamper, and throw away any trash. Make the bed and light up a candle if you feel like it.


On the other hand, if you don’t feel like cleaning up every day, you can also dedicate a larger chunk of time a few times a week to keep your room tidy and decluttered. This will take more than five minutes, but decluttering and tidying should suit your schedule so go with the option that suits your preference.

For more tips on how to declutter your bedroom check out 12 Simple Bedroom Organisation Tips!

Invest in Furniture That Doubles as Storage
If you don’t have a lot of storage space in your room, furniture with storage is a must. Nowadays, you can easily find beautiful furniture that doubles as storage. Even beds often have storage space underneath.
Simply put, more storage means less clutter. You can put anything you want into decorative storage boxes and furniture, including books, shoes, or linens. Thus, you’ll be less inclined to leave your stuff all over the room because you’ll have a dedicated place for it.


Be sure to take advantage and utilise over door hooks and shoe hangers for storing hats, shoes, bags etc, consider gas lift beds or beds with drawers for storing excess linen, seasonal cushions or clothes, and side tables with drawers to keep your items out of sight and make your space appear more tidy and minimal.

Photo by Kirill on Unsplash

Minimalism

8 Ways Decluttering Helped Me to Live a More Intentional Life

Posted on September 24, 2019
Declutter your home and live a more intentional life today

Before I started my decluttering journey I had no idea how much my stuff was holding me back. I wasn’t aware of the daily struggle clutter bought with it or how it added to my stress and anxiety. 

When I decluttered my first set of drawers that contained my shirts and shorts, I was amazed at the difference this one small change made to me. It seems silly that such a small change – decluttering two drawers, had any impact on my life but it did and that positive change grew exponentially from there with each decluttering project I tackled. 

Decluttering benefited me in many areas of my life that I couldn’t have ever expected. Here are 8 Ways Decluttering Helped Me to Live a More Intentional Life.

8 Ways Decluttering Helped Me to Live a More Intentional Life.

1. Decluttering highlighted my impulsive consumer habits  

Very early on in my decluttering journey, I became aware of numerous impulsive consumer habits I had picked up over the years. My wardrobe and bathroom were hard evidence of these less than desirable shopping habits. As I decluttered my bathroom, I saw lip balm collections, a foundation for every day of the week, and hand lotion bottles galore. 

I didn’t have what I needed – the essentials, or even just a little more in case I ran out before I could get to the shops. I was apparently preparing stockpiles for the shops to close for a good year based on my collections 

As I decluttered each item: shampoos, conditioners, hair products, makeup, and the like, I realised that I really didn’t need all those excess items and over time implemented new consumer habits to limit what I was bringing into my home. 

2. Decluttering helped me appreciate experiences over things 

Before I decluttered my home and cleared the excess, I was your average shopper. Most likely addicted and spending mindlessly on things I didn’t need. 

I’d wander on my lunch breaks shopping for nothing in particular, spending my hard-earned paycheck. 

Buy things just because they were on sale, even if I had no idea what I would do with them when I got home. 

Waste my weekends in the mall buying things I didn’t need instead of doing things that added value to me. 

Decluttering helped me lead a more intentional life as I slowly saw the value in experiences over things. After clearing over half my wardrobe, a buy one get one free sale sign lost its pull over me. I slowly started replacing my habits of buying things on impulse and instead learned to appreciate experiences. Experiences I could remember, and think back on with fondness, that didn’t require me to take some item into my home where I would have to find a place to store it, dust, and maintain it.

Over time I saw myself spending less money at the mall. Instead, I spent my money on experiences that I could enjoy and share with others, like going to the movies, a concert, or travelling. I noticed later in the year I’d long forgotten the new jewellery and perfume I got for Christmas, but years later remembered my first trip to New Zealand for my 30th with fondness and my honeymoon to Europe. I realised that when I invested my time and money into experiences and things I truly enjoyed, I didn’t need to go and shop to fill some void. 

Declutter With Me Decluttering Course  

Are you finding yourself overwhelmed and stressed out by clutter in your home?

If you’re looking to minimise the excess in your life, Declutter With Me: A 12 Week Guide to Declutter Your Home is a go-at-your-own-pace course that will give you the step-by-step, room-by-room instructions to help you clear the clutter in your home in as soon as just 12 weeks!

But clearing the clutter isn’t just about getting rid of your excess stuff. It’s important to change your behaviour and consumer habits so you can avoid re-cluttering your space once you have decluttered. Included in Declutter With Me, are “Keep It Minimal” tips for each area in your home + 7 Tips To Help You Keep Your Home Minimal, to give you strategies you can implement to help you spend with intention so you can avoid bringing clutter back into your home.

If you are keen to minimise your unwanted clutter check out Declutter With Me so you can create a home you love!

learn more

3. Decluttering helped me be more mindful of gifts I gave to others 

As I decluttered my home, I noticed a lot of gifts, that were bought with generosity and good intentions from family and friends had gone unused or weren’t adding value to us anymore. This made me reconsider my own gift-giving habits and be more intentional with what I gifted others. I stopped my usual gift buying habit of heading to the shop and browsing for the perfect gift, realising that the perfect gift isn’t always going to be found on a shelf at the mall. 

I started to get more creative with my gifts. Some new habits I’ve implemented:

  • Buying experience gifts such a a massage, tickets to a concert, musical or kids attraction
  • Asking people directly what they would like for a gift
  • Taking a loved one out for a meal or experience
  • Making a contribution to a loved one’s travel savings fund
  • Performing or recording a song for a loved one
  • Gifting gift cards to their favourite store

If I know someone needs something for their home or wants something specifically I am more than happy to go out and get that item for them, but the shops are now something I only step into with intention when it comes to buying gifts 

4. Decluttering made me more intentional with my time

After decluttering my home, I knew that I would never, ever, let my home get into the cluttered state that it was ever again. I wasn’t prepared to make all that decluttering progress just to go back into old clutter-accumulation habits. I was done. 

Decluttering also made me see how unintentional I had been with my time. 

Whether that be the time I spent looking for things around the house that had been misplaced, the time I spent trying to keep up with an overflowing wardrobe and the laundry that ensued, and the time I had spent shopping for things only to cluttering up my home that took up my very limited and valuable time.

I realised how I had used shopping as a hobby rather than a tool to buy things I needed as I needed them. As I decluttered the excess in my home I chose to utilise my time going forward more intentionally. Instead of shopping every week or on my break by default, I built up a list over time and only went to the shops once a month and made one trip. This saved me battling traffic and car spaces on multiple trips and meant I could free up some time to do things that actually added value to me. 

5. Decluttering made me more intentional with my money

After decluttering over 70% of our belongings, I was faced with the realisation of how much money I had thrown away over the years on stuff I didn’t need. I added up in my head the dollars each time I donated an item of clothing that still had the tags on or the art project or book I had never gotten around to. It was certainly an eye-opening experience and made me think long and hard each day that I tackled my clutter about how I could start being more intentional with my money. 

Decluttering my home helped me to see the wasted money. I refused to continue to waste my money on impulse purchases that I didn’t need any longer, I had wasted enough. I wasted money on clothes that didn’t fit or suit me because I was too lazy to try them on. There was wasted money on shoes I bought that were not something I would ever wear, I just liked the idea of them. There was waste when I bought more makeup than I could possibly use up before it expired. 

When I decided to spend more intentionally, it had a huge positive impact on our finances. We were less stressed about money, we had more money to pay down debt and work towards our financial goals, and could justify spending money guilt-free on things like an overseas trip.

It wasn’t my expectation when I started my decluttering journey to save money but was a hugely welcome side effect!   

6. Decluttering made me more mindful in other areas of my life 

When you eliminate the excess in your home, it’s bound to make you more mindful of other aspects of your life. It is not uncommon to declutter your home and decide to move houses, get a new job, or end a toxic friendship. Decluttering makes you assess everything you bring into your home and soon you will apply those same tools and skills to other aspects of your life. 

The Minimalists talk about how they decluttered their homes and soon after, changed their spending habits, left their corporate jobs to start their own blog and both moved homes. Like The Minimalists experiences, decluttering helped me realise what did and didn’t add value to my life. 

As I previously mentioned, I realised that shopping regularly did not add value to my life, so I reduced how often I spent shopping and built a list to get in one go. It helped me to reassess relationships and made me more appreciative of the friends and family that made an effort to be in our lives. It helped me realise what was and wasn’t important to me and gave me permission to let go of things like the hoard of books I’d hoped to get to and instead put my time and energy into things I was truly passionate about, such as this very blog  

7. Decluttering made us more content with what we had

Decluttering helped us see that we didn’t need much to be happy. We have now been in our fairly modest-sized home for 8 years and a bigger home hasn’t been on our agenda for some time now, and we don’t see the need to upsize our home when now that we just keep the things we truly enjoy and use. 

We still have the same TV we bought 8 years ago when we moved in, the same Fridge and Dishwasher and most of the same instruments  

We try to make do with what we have and use up what we have before we buy more. I keep limited stocks of makeup and hair products, I’ve just bought my first new sneakers in 5 years and shock horror I buy one book at a time to read. 

I don’t miss the days of duplicated nail polish, too many books to read, and the guilt that comes with that and having enough eyeshadow to commission an artwork. We try to be content with what we have rather than constantly chasing what others tell us we need.

8. Decluttering helped me to realise that it is okay to let things go  

As a former hoarder, and a girl who was surrounded by many other hoarders growing up and probably picked up a few bad habits along the way, I completely get that it is hard to let go of things. I was so worried when I let things go that I would regret them and curse the day I started decluttering my home. 

But to be completely honest with you. That hasn’t happened once. 

I found ways to ease my inner hoarder such as taking photos of sentimental items before disposing of them and asking myself questions like ‘would I buy this again today?’ which helped me part with the excess in my home again and again. And most things that I thought I might need Just in Case, I knew I could apply The Minimalists 20/20 Rule and get them at the shop if there ever really came a time when I needed that item again.  

And letting go of the excess came with so many benefits that outweigh any need to hold onto things. You’ll have more space to enjoy your home, homes are meant for living not storage. You have the ability to find and display the things that do add value to you, such as your favourite books not being covered by ones you’ll probably never read and the freedom of knowing that if you ever wanted to move, change careers, cities, or anything else, you won’t be burdened by all your clutter holding you back. 

[Photo by: Samantha Gades on Unsplash.com]

What’s your biggest decluttering struggle? Let me know in the comments! 

Minimalism

10 Surprising Things I discovered about Minimalism

Posted on April 10, 2018
When I started decluttering I was suprised to find unexpected benefits to intentional living. Check out the Ten Surprising Things I Discovered About Minimalism.

Often when you try and make a change in life you have some kind of preconceived notion about what the end result will be. Two years ago I started decluttering our home and expected what everyone else would expect after this process. Less clutter. But, that wasn’t all. I found there were some surprising things I discovered about minimalism which I didn’t expect.

Growing up I had all those ‘normal ideals’ that people throw around. Consuming is good and normal and everyone does it (even if you don’t have the money quite yet), sales are a great way to save money and the more the better. Adopting a minimalist lifestyle has changed my perspective on a lot of things and opened my eyes to new ways of thinking. Here are 10 Surprising Things I discovered about Minimalism.

1. You can still consume – guilt free

Being a minimalist doesn’t mean that you are against buying stuff or having physical possessions or that you don’t need anything. I still buy clothes, shoes, tech gear and make up and all the things you need or want in life – guilt free. Just now I just buy them with more intention than before. I don’t browse the aisles looking for a new pair of shoes to tempt me or research the latest make up trends. Instead, I wait until I need to replace something or have thought about something I want and put it on a wish-list. I also ask these 7 questions which keep me from making unnecessary, impulsive purchases. When I finally buy something it is after I have considered it over time, researched the reviews and specs, reviewed the prices and assessed if I can afford it.

2. The importance of quality over quantity

I used to get excited at going shopping and grabbing bargains, three pairs of shoes for $40? Winning! Three for the price of two when I actually didn’t even need one? Bargain. I now value quality over quantity and will wait to buy something until I am sure it is the right item for me. I’d rather have one really comfortable pair of shoes that will last me three years than 3 that feel horrible and end up sitting in the back of my wardrobe.

Of course, I still aim to save money and get discounts where I can but that is no longer the main purchasing decision. I thought after discovering minimalism I might be more reluctant to spend and feel more guilty about doing so. But what actually happened is it actually helped me see how I had wasted money on buying excess stuff based on how cheap it was, rather than just saving up and buying something that I loved, what I genuinely needed and something that would last.

3. The importance of planning for tomorrow

Before I discovered minimalism, I didn’t give much thought to my retirement. That seemed like a 40 or 50 year old future me problem. I’d hoped that I could retire at 60 rather than 70 or 75 but there was no real action plan. I was just trudging along figuring it out as I went.

A surprising thing about minimalism is that it got me thinking about my future and how long I wanted to trade my time for money. Did I want to be working full-time for the next 4 decades or did I want to plan ahead and claw back more and more time to enjoy myself sooner.

Minimalism made me reassess my spending across the board and has allowed me to set new financial goals so I can have more time in the hopefully not so distant future. It wasn’t just a process of getting rid of the stuff to free up space in my home, but also a reflection on how I could free up my future.

4. You’ll save more money. A lot of it. 

When you individually list over 200 items of stuff on eBay you no longer need, you start to realise that you probably have a spending problem. And also that you never want to go through this process again. I didn’t realise when I first started getting rid of my stuff how much money I had wasted over the years on things I didn’t need or how much I could save by shopping more intentionally. Over the past two years, after getting rid of over two thirds of our stuff I have slowly changed my spending habits and have not only made some money back, but have saved a lot more.

5. You’ll reassess your relationships

Discovering minimalism might be a lot about the stuff, but if made me see relationships in a similar light. It has taught me not only how to assess what physical items do and don’t add value to my life, but also how my relationships add or subtract from my overall happiness. Minimalism helped me to set new boundaries in relationships and given me the confidence to say no to things I am not thrilled about just to please other people.

6. You need less than you think you did

When I first heard about minimalism and capsule wardrobes I didn’t think it was going to be so easy to live a life with less. How on earth could someone live with only 12 shirts to choose from?! But over time I realised that I actually didn’t need as much as I thought I did. This was particularly true with my wardrobe. I realised I didn’t need 50 dresses and shoes, 10 belts, 10 handbags and a busting wardrobe and could be happy with much less. I was content in my smaller home and surprisingly, even started to reduce the food we kept in the house to just what we needed for the week ahead. It’s taken time, multiple decluttering sessions and lots of experimenting but I feel like I need much less to be happy now than ever before.

7. You’ll have more time

When you limit the time you used to spend shopping in store or online or saying yes to everything that come up in your events list you will open up new opportunities to spend your time or money on more fulfilling activities like a new hobby or travel. Having less stuff means you’ll spend less time working to earn money to buy that stuff you don’t need, you’ll spend less time cleaning around all that stuff and you will be more selective with what you add to your calendar.

8. You’ll appreciate the smaller things

Discovering minimalism has helped me to be more appreciative of what I do have. I no longer need a shopping spree and a new pair of shoes or DVD to be happy. I find that I am grateful at the end of the day to sit down and watch some TV with a white hot chocolate, or to put a nice smelling candle on. Even just cuddling up with my warm throw blanket and a book is something I look forward to on a cold night. I don’t need extravagant things to feel happy and try to find happiness in the smaller things.

9. You’ll enjoy space 

Whether it is an empty cupboard or free time in your calendar, you will learn to appreciate space. You’ll no longer automatically feel the need to fill every wall in your home or your wardrobe to the brim. You will enjoy having easy access to the items you love without the excess. You’ll appreciate a free night to chill rather than to worry about getting ready for a big night and rushing out straight after work.

10. You’ll start to assess money in time rather than dollars

It can be easy to look at things in terms of dollars, but what are dollars? They are something given to us in exchange for hours out of our lives. That $20 tee you didn’t really need might have been one hour of your time. Minimalism can help you to focus less on the dollars and more on what you are giving up in exchange for that – your time and freedom. If you started thinking of purchases in terms of how many hours of my time is this item you might start to make different spending choices. Suddenly that bargain you’ve stumbled across won’t seem so tempting.

Do You Want to Learn How to Spend Your Money With Intention?

If you want to take control of your financial future, stop stressing about money and learn how to spend your money with intention, book in for your free Q&A call to see how Minimise With Me Financial Coaching can help you gain clarity around your finances! 

You can learn more about Minimise With Me Financial Coaching services here. 

What have you discovered about minimalism that has surprised you? Share your experience in the comments below 🙂