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minimalism

8 Questions to Ask Yourself to Help You Stop Impulse Buying

Posted on November 27, 2022

Manequins at a store with a special sign on the front window

If you are prone to buying on impulse and want some tricks up your sleeve to spend your money with intention, here are 8 Questions to Ask Yourself to Help You Stop Impulse Buying.

The next time you go to buy something, pause before you reach for your credit card, or opt for a Buy Now Pay Later payment and ask yourself these 8 questions.

The more of these you ask yourself, the less likely you will be to bring something home that you bought on impulse. No one enjoys that post-shopping spree regret. Here were get, let’s help you spend your money with more intention!

8 Questions to Ask Yourself to Help You Stop Impulse Buying

Is This Item Going To Add Value To My Life?

If you are buying something that will not add value to your life why are you buying it? Sometimes we get so used to our shopping habits that we forget to stop and ask ourselves this.

If something is not going to add value to your life, you are truly just adding clutter to your home and wasting valuable resources: your time and money! You may justify buying something because it is so affordable, but there is more cost than the dollar amount exchanged.

The next time you face any of the following experiences or similar remember to ask ‘Is this item going to add value to my life?
You’re buying another book to add to your overflowing bookcase filled with books you still haven’t read…

You just added an outfit to your car that you only plan to wear once… (ignoring that you may already have something similar at home)…

You are stocking up on craft supplies when you haven’t even touched the collection of art supplies you already have at home….

If you aren’t planning to use that item in the immediate future, leave it on the shelf or delete it out of your cart.

2. Is It Something I Will Use Regularly?

When shopping, think about how much use you will get out of the item and use this to help determine firstly if you really need to buy it and secondly, the amount you are willing to pay for it (with the cost per use in mind).

When you buy something you can use regularly, you get more bang for your buck. It’s a good habit to focus on quality over quantity. Spend more on what you will use regularly.

For example, an expensive quality jacket might end up costing more upfront, but less per wear, than a cheaper one that is lower quality and falls apart in a matter of wears forcing you to rebuy another jacket sooner than you would have had to.

Your things should also ‘earn’ storage space in your home. If an item is used regularly, it deserves that valuable space on your kitchen counter or in your wardrobe more than something that is not used regularly.

With housing becoming more and more unaffordable, it is going to be more important than ever to ensure what you are bringing into your home deserves to take up your valuable space. So reserve your space for what you will use frequently and get the most value from.

If it is something you only need once off, perhaps you can borrow it from a family member for that one time and return it, saving yourself money and valuable storage space.

3. Will It Bring Me Joy?

Before making a purchase, ask yourself “Will this item bring me joy”? This will help you separate buying something that you want and that you will enjoy from something you are just buying out of habit, or boredom. It’s important to recognise that buying a want and buying on impulse are two different things. We can still purchase wants with intention!

Skip the purchases that won’t really bring you joy and save for the ones that do! Often we will say no to the things we really want (like a Summer holiday) but won’t hesitate to spend $10 here and there at Kmart on nothing in particular. That $10 may not sound like much in one shopping trip but trust me, it adds up!

For me personally, you won’t see me spend $1,000 on a handbag or a pair of shoes, but I will spend that (and more) on a mobile phone or laptop that I will use every single day and get 365 days of use out of the item! Work out what spending brings you joy, and what spending doesn’t, and spend accordingly!

4. Do I Have A Specific Use For It and A Place to Store It

Before making any purchasing decisions, have a think about what you will use the item for and where you are going to store it. This may seem like a weird thing to think about but it can help you avoid a lot of post-shopping guilt and anxiety.

I know a constant stress for me, back when I used to spend my money with less intention was buying a whole bunch of stuff and coming home and having to think about where the hell I was going to store it all. I know some days I just left the bags on the dining table or my drawers so I could deal with that issue later.

If your closet is busting at the seams and you don’t have room for another piece of clothing, or you have no shelving space for another stylish ornament, avoid the stress of finding somewhere to shove it in your home by asking before you walk out of the store with the item where you intend to store it.

Picture it in your head.

Will it go in your drawers or cupboard? Will it fit in your linen closet or on a particular shelf? Consider, does the idea of thinking where to put your new purchase when you get home frazzle you? If that is the case it might be time to declutter your home before you think about bringing anything more into your space and just leave that item in the store.

5. Is Having This Thing More Important To Me Than *insert goal here*

Sometimes you might have the best intentions when it comes to your money. You set yourself a goal but end up spending money you don’t have which takes away from your goal. Perhaps you don’t even have set goals for your money, which can lead you to impulse buying and spending more money than you would have, had you had those goals front of mind and a plan for your money.

By setting yourself regular goals, you’ll have more direction with how you spend your money and can then frame your purchasing decisions with questions like;

Do I want this dress more than I want to go on my holiday to _______
Do I want a new car more than I want to save up for my first home?
Is this new book more important to me than putting that amount on my car loan to pay down my debt?

When you have a clear goal, you are more aware of what your spending is making you miss out on and you can use that goal to motivate you to spend more intentionally.

6. Am I Willing To Put The Time In To Maintain This Item?

Whenever we buy things, they come with a certain amount of maintenance which might not be so obvious at first. That is until it is in your home.

This maintenance might include washing and ironing an item of clothing, dusting around an item of decor, and so on.

Buying a car comes with the requirement to service it every 15,000kms, buying a new ornament requires picking that item up to dust or vacuum around it once a week.

These considerations convinced me to stay in my humble-sized home, rather than upsizing and taking on extra maintenance every single day.

These small chores add up over time and need to be considered when making a purchase.

Before impulse buying, ask yourself if you are willing to pick that item to dust around every weekend when you are doing your chores.

Ask yourself if you are willing to wash all those clothes you plan to buy and deal with the never-ending pile of laundry that comes with a large closet.

When you think about the commitment your stuff requires, it eventually looks a little less desirable and helps us to stop impulse buying.

7. If It Was Full Price Would I Still Buy It?

Sometimes a sale can completely blind us to all the things we should take into consideration before making a purchase. By pausing and asking ourselves ‘Would I buy this if it was full price?’, we can identify if an item really does meet our wants and or needs, or if it was just us impulsively acting because it was on sale.

When you change that price tag in your mind back to full price, suddenly you are asking yourself:

‘Do I love this enough to pay the full price’?

It’s a quick tool to have up your sleeve to put the brakes on grabbing for your credit or debit card, before you’ve really assessed how much you really want or need that item.

Sometimes after asking this question your answer would still be yes, and that’s when you know you can go ahead and make that purchase intentionally. If the answer is No, try and dig into whether that’s just a love of sales that’s got your saying no, or whether maybe you don’t really like the item as much as you thought you did when it had a for sale tag on it.

8. Is This Thing Worth My Time?

Most of us trade our time for money. I would suggest very few of us have an endless amount of money to pay for the things we want or need.

Every dollar we spend is therefore actually time from our lives that we can never get back.

When we buy things we need to consider how much of our lives we are willing to give up, or trade essentially, for that thing we want. When we think long and hard about our purchases in this light, it might help us to rethink how we spend our money and time and help us to stop impulse buying.

I was faced with this same scenario in my mid-20s when I worked two jobs. There came a point when I decided that losing my Sunday night, my time to relax and refresh before my work week started, wasn’t worth it in exchange for what I was paid and what I could buy with that money. I ended up quitting that second job after 5 years of working in both jobs simultaneously and never looked back. Nothing was worth more to me than having my Sunday night and my free time back.

Of course, there will be things that are worth spending on and exchanging our time for money, like food for our family, lights, water, and the clothes on our backs. There will be other things we find value in, like a decent computer or phone and the occasional book or movie to enjoy.

But when we buy things that we don’t need like our 50th pair of shoes, or a new phone when our old one is only a year old and works perfectly fine, we are throwing away hours of our lives that we can never get back on things that we don’t really need. I hope this question helps you to spend your money with intention and think of your purchases not just in terms of the cost, but the cost to your time, a resource that you can never get back.

Summary List

Is This Item Going To Add Value To My Life?

2. Is It Something I Will Use Regularly?

3. Will It Bring Me Joy?

4. Do I Have A Specific Use For It and A Place to Store It

5. Is Having This Thing More Important To Me Than *insert goal here*

6. Am I Willing To Put The Time In To Maintain This Item?

7. 8. If It Was Full Price Would I Still Buy it

8. Is This Thing Worth My Time?

This week’s comment questions: What do you find is the most helpful question to stop impulse buying? Let me know in the comments 🙂

Minimalism

6 Ways to Reduce Your Social Media Use

Posted on October 10, 2022

How addicted are you to your phone and social media? If your answer is anywhere between ‘heaps and extremely’, it might be time to set some boundaries to reduce your social media use.

It doesn’t have to be anything drastic, like swearing off smartphones (unless you want to, then go for it!), but here are 6 Ways to Reduce Your Social Media Use to help you be more intentional when it comes to your social media use so you can have more time for the more important things.

6 Ways to Reduce Your Social Media Use

Consider deleting your social media apps from your phone

If you have a bad habit of reaching for your social media apps on auto-pilot you might want to consider disabling or deleting your social media apps from your phone. This might mean that you can only use your social media from your home PC and this might go a long way to putting a barrier between you and your phone addiction.

You can also do things on your home PC, such as disabling your Facebook newsfeed which can help you limit distraction when using social media and eliminate some of the ‘noise’.

2. Set a timer as a boundary for your use

If you want to avoid blowing time checking your social feeds and be more intentional, it might be a good habit to implement time limits on your social media use.

You can do this, by agreeing to a time you will allow to use the app on your phone or computer, and then when your timer goes off on your phone, or watch (I use my FitBit for mine) you know that you have used up your allocated scrolling time.

You can go a step further with this and set time blocks when you are and aren’t allowed to use your phone. Perhaps you are only allowed to use it on designated break times, or you only want to check it on the train ride between 7 and 8 am or 5 and 6 pm, you can choose to disable your app outside of these times.

Plugin Self Control will also allow you to block access to pages on your computer for a period of time, or all together! Of course, you can turn it off when you wish, but it’s another excellent barrier option to help you be more mindful of your time!

3. Find new things to do

Instead of aimlessly browsing social media put your phone down and do something else. We’ve all had access to our mobile phones for so long that we don’t even know what life is like without them. Let’s try and remember and do things that don’t involve scrolling our phones.

You might do the following which will go a long way to using your time in a better way.

Read a book (these are some of my favourites*)
Go to the gym
Go for a walk (leave the phone at home!)
Text, email or call a friend
Declutter a space in your home
Ask a friend to come to meet you for lunch
Watch a new vid of a favourite Youtuber or a doco on a topic that is important to you

4. Be more selective of who you follow

When was the last time you reviewed your followed accounts or friend list? Unwanted accounts that don’t add value can take up valuable space in your news feed, so you don’t get to see the posts you really want to. This means you stay on the app longer and spend more time on there. Good for social media companies, but not so good for you.

Not to mention the negative impact when you follow particular accounts whether that is people you no longer want to associate with or accounts that make you feel worse about yourself. If you aren’t learning, feeling inspired, or being entertained it might be time to unfollow some accounts.

Take a few minutes to sit down and unfriend/unfollow people who don’t add value to your life or news feed. This is a great time to unfollow family, friends, acquaintances, etc whose posts don’t add much to your online experience. If you have any negative nellies on your social media, be sure to unfollow, or unfriend them as well. I’ve had to unfollow a few people due to their negative posts and have felt all the better for it.

Once you have minimised your social media lists, your feed will ideally be more relevant and show the people’s posts you want to see.

If you are a member of too many Facebook Groups, it might also be a good time to reassess how many you actively participate in and leave any others that don’t add any value to you.

5. Resist the urge to share everything

I’ve made a conscious effort over the years to reduce posting on my social media and restrict it to the things I really want to share and want to look back on. A picture of my plate doesn’t really cut it anymore and takes me away from just enjoying the moment. I prefer to reserve my posts for those things I really want to remember such as photos of a trip or a photo taken on a special occasion.

This year, see if you can limit how frequently you post on social media.

Enjoy your amazing breakfast without sharing the photo. Walk out the door without taking a selfie of your outfit. Resist posting that 3rd post today about your dog, cat, car, meal, etc. Maybe keep the sharing for just the big stuff like your birthday, or a holiday rather than posting multiple times every day about what you are eating, wearing, what you are doing, who you are with, and so on. Of course, it is great to keep friends and family updated with what is going on in your life, but let’s try and make an effort this year to post with more intention.

6. Implement a Social Media free day each week

The Minimalists have a challenge ‘Screen Free Saturdays’ which is another way to limit your social media use. It doesn’t have to be a Saturday or even a whole day, but if you can a time during the week to go without your phone and social media it will go a long way to giving you some of your valuable time back. Even if you can make your own Screen-Free rules such as no phones after 7 pm or before 9 am. Whatever you like! Any attempt to reduce your social media use will make a positive difference!

Photo by Rahul Chakraborty on Unsplash

How do you plan to reduce your social media use? Let me know in the Comments!

Budgeting

How I made $5000 Selling Our Clutter Online

Posted on October 4, 2022

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:

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.

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

8 Things I Used To Do That Now Seem Weird To Me As a Minimalist

Posted on March 17, 2022

A very minimalist space, a lounge room that is light and bright with minimal furniture.

It’s been about seven years now since I discovered my minimalist journey so I thought I would reflect back on how my habits had changed over that time and the things I used to do that now seem weird to me as a minimalist.

Of course, the habits I used to have were what many of us would consider normal, but that now seems wasteful to me, whether that be environmentally or wasteful of my time or money.

Living a minimalist lifestyle is by no means easier than not. It takes a lot of work for me to make fairly small purchases, but I know that in the end, being a more mindful consumer has added immense value to my life and for that reason, I will continue to be as intentional as I can be with my daily consumer decisions.

Of course, by no means am I perfect or encouraging anyone to give up consumption altogether. These are just the personal changes I have noticed over the past five years that may help you to add value to your own life and I hope that they do 🙂

Things I Used To Do That Now Seem Weird To Me As a Minimalist

Buying enough food for the apocalypse

When I discovered Minimalism, it soon enveloped so many other areas of my life, including my grocery shopping. I realised how wasteful I had been with shopping in the past and was constantly annoyed at how much food I would end up throwing away each week. It was horrible for the environment, wasteful in terms of being a valuable resource and a complete waste of money.

Shopping used to be guesswork for me. I’d come home from the store and realise we had bought more than we could fit in our pantry or fridge or freezer. Finding anything was stressful. And trying to cook meals when you have 4 weeks of food at the ready was not any easier.

Now when we shop we are a more well-oiled machine.

We generally shop every Sunday. Having a routine has been a huge game-changer!

We look at what we do and don’t have, so we don’t come home with excessive amounts of food we didn’t need.

We Meal Plan around our schedule for the week so we know what meals we need to buy and what we don’t and plan our shopping list accordingly.

We buy only what we need for the week ahead. This is important for two reasons, it gives us a cut-off for our shopping list. If we need something on Monday in 7 days it can wait for our next shop. It also means that we aren’t buying food that might not get eaten. Plans change, so we avoid buying food too far in advance in case our plans do change and we end up throwing the extra we bought out.

Our new shopping habits have helped us to save thousands on our grocery bill over the past few years and will continue into the future and has helped us to ensure the food we are buying, goes into our mouths and not the bin or landfill.

2. Buying clothes without much thought as to what I already had

Clothes shopping without intention is one of the things I used to do that now seems weird to me as a minimalist. Before I discovered the minimalist lifestyle, my shopping habits looked a little like this: I’d have a spare couple of hours so would proceed to the local mall and my favourite clothing stores. I would pick out some clothes I liked without really asking questions like; Do I really need this? Is this me? How much of my clothing budget do I have left to spend? Do I have something similar at home to this already?

If the change room line was too long, there was no way I was going to be bothered to wait so I’d just walk away and leave the store…

Jokes! Almost had you there. I would just buy the item telling myself if it doesn’t fit I would return it. Whilst standing in line to pay, I would notice some tops on sale and again, grab some without thinking, justifying it as they were only $10 each, how could I resist?!

I would then come home and realise that I already had 4 stripey shirts that looked just like the one I grabbed at the counter. And that the other item I bought didn’t fit. Sometimes I’d been in such a rush I took the wrong size home. WTF was I doing?? Basically if it fit into my colour scheme of black, white or purple it was coming home with me.

These clothes were then shoved in the bottom of a drawer or back of my wardrobe, never to be looked at again. They had served their purpose – fulfilling my desire to shop, providing me with a moment of entertainment and that rush of nabbing a bargain. But the reality of this scenario wasn’t so simple.

The truth was that I had a wardrobe full of clothes that were ‘not me’.

I owned two pairs of stilettos even though I hate heels, let alone ones I can’t walk in.

I had clothes still with tags on them.

I owned 50 dresses even though 95% of the time I prefer to wear pants or shorts.

My drawers were so packed that closing them was a physical challenge.

I truly had no idea what I even owned. My wardrobe did not represent me.

When I learned about the minimalist lifestyle, I came across the term ‘capsule wardrobe‘ which was an absolute game-changer for me.

I realised that I didn’t need to own 50 of each individual type of clothing and finally understood that the issue with my wardrobe was not a lack of clothing, but that I had too much.

I soon decluttered over 50% of my wardrobe and created a new capsule wardrobe for every season during the year. I now only shop for gap pieces for my wardrobe and know what I need to buy before I even leave my house.

This has made getting ready each day such a breeze, knowing exactly what I own, and that most pieces can be mixed and matched. It has reduced my stress and anxiety. I now love opening my drawers and wardrobe and seeing space. And it has saved me so much money as I used to shop very frequently.

3. Buying shoes in quantity, not quality

In my non-minimalist days, I used to love a good shoe sale. Unfortunately for me, Kmart shoes were basically always on sale, even when they were full-priced because they were so cheap to begin with. And so I would often venture to Kmart and come home with a new pair of shoes. My specialty was buying more flats, and heels that I would never wear (As I mentioned, I actually hate wearing heels – go figure!).

At my worst, when I started my Decluttering Journey I counted 56 pairs of shoes! And that might not seem like a lot for some of your out there, but it was for me.

I remember I used to go shopping with friends and stand outside of the shoe store waiting when they stayed for longer than I had liked as I just found it so boring. My shoes were all over the house. I have some at the front door floor, some in the drawer at our entryway. Some were in our wardrobe and then I had to buy another set of drawers that were in the spare room to store the rest. It was just a disorganised mess.

The silly thing was, that although I often bought shoes, I was never really that much of a shoe person. I was just doing what I had always done and hadn’t caught onto how I was wasting my valuable time and money.

Every time I went out, I’d feel overwhelmed when trying to select from my 50 odd pairs of shoes. Soon I would have a pile strewn across my floor and 9 out of 10 times I would always end up wearing the same select few. Who knew $8 shoes weren’t that comfy? (Apparently me!)

Eventually, I realised how much stress my huge shoe collection was adding to my life.

In my first decluttering session, I got my shoes down from 56 to just 19 pairs. Almost 1/3rd of my original shoe collection. And I quickly realised that I didn’t miss any of them. To my surprise, getting ready became so much easier than ever before.

Over time I changed my shoe shopping habits and stopped buying the cheapest shoes, and instead opted for quality over quantity. Instead of buying 10 new pairs of flats over the year at $10 a pop and not wearing any because they were practically made of cardboard, I would spend $100 on one pair of quality, comfortable flats that I loved.

I can’t tell you how much this simplified getting ready day-to-day!

Since making the change I have never gone back and am pleased to say my shoe collection has never surpassed that initial 19 number! And funnily, now I actually get annoyed when shopping for shoes and only cheap options are available! Quite the transformation ‘;)

4. Think spending money on anything other than physical things was a waste of money

I was raised in a house that didn’t value experiences over things. I had multiple hoarders in my family (love them all but wasn’t the best environment to learn about letting go) and the message to me growing up, that might not have been said in such words but that I picked up on, was that physical things are more valuable than experiences.

And without knowing why at the time, this never really sat right with me. I would consume things like the next person (see shoe shopping habits above ;)), but I also often struggled to spend my money.

Having a January birthday meant that I was bombarded once a year with gift money that I often struggled to spend. Each time I would spend a small amount and wonder why I couldn’t find enough to buy and then throw the rest into my savings.

It took me until my mid-20s to realise that it was okay to not have to buy something you can physically hold onto. I believed from those around me that travel and similar experiences were a waste of money or something out of reach for people like me. It took me until my mid-20s to realise that this wasn’t the case.

When I thought more about it, I realised that I wanted to experience new things. The fact that I didn’t have the newest phone or a trendy wardrobe was okay by me.

I went on my first overseas holiday at 25 to Thailand and have never looked back. Since, we have traveled all over Europe, to New Zealand, Hawaii, and around Australia with more travel planned in the future!

And you know what I discovered when I implemented a new goal to shop more intentionally? I had more money to spend on things that really added value such as travel.

I also spend on services that add value to my life including a gym membership, Spotify, Netflix, and Audible subscriptions.

I may not own a library of books, the latest makeup, designer clothes or live in a McMansion with expensive furniture, but I am living the right life for me and one that aligns with my values.

Spending all my money on physical things was one of the things I used to do that now seems weird to me as a minimalist.

5. Make a big spending decision without researching it thoroughly before buying

We are so lucky that there are so many resources at our fingertips to make more informed purchasing decisions. We have websites completely dedicated to customer reviews of products and companies, YouTube reviews, price comparison websites, and a vast array of info to help us with knowing what is worth our money.

In the past, I would walk into a store and pick an item based on what was written on the in-store ticket and what advice the salesperson could give me. Now, going to the store or purchasing the item online is the last step in the process of consuming. Sometimes I even omit it and just buy online because why leave your home whenyou don’t have to, right?!

I now rarely spend money without researching an item reasonably thoroughly beforehand. I can’t tell you how many reviews I have read just to purchase my microwave and a new mattress.

And by no means is it an enjoyable process. Buying stuff for me is now a chore, but I don’t mind that as it means that if I do buy something, I better really damn well want or need it in order to put in the work to get it (I’ve come a long way from my clothes shopping days :p).

I’ve made my fair share of bad purchasing decisions in the past, and now know that putting in the effort at the start such as reading reviews, asking family and friends for recommendations and price comparisons pays off and means that hopefully, I can keep the item I am purchasing for the long hall.

Buying things without researching them for at least a few weeks in advance is one of the things I used to do that now seems weird to me as a minimalist. I work hard for my money, and there are many things I can do with it: travel, save it, invest it, pay down my mortgage, help others, or work less so I am not keen on splashing it around without doing some thorough research first.

Declutter With Me Course

If you want help decluttering and simplifying your home – and keeping it that way – check out my course Declutter With Me, where I will teach you home to minimise the clutter in your home and give you tools and strategies to change your consumption habits for good.

If you are interested to learn more about my course you can by clicking the button below!

DECLUTTER MY HOME? YES PLEASE!

6. Shopping for entertainment

Before my Minimalism journey shopping was a pastime for me and one of the things I used to do that now seems weird to me as a minimalist. Every Thursday night was Late Night Shopping night when the stores stayed open after 5.30pm so I could go and shop after work.

Weekends were also time for shopping so on a Saturday or Sunday, more often than not I would head to my local shopping mall to browse. And you better believe it, when I had my lunch break at work, most days, I too would head to the local shopping centre to browse the stores.

And then there was shopping with friends or my husband. Why go out for a lovely meal when you can go and shop together?

It was a habit I had developed from a young age. As I mentioned above, my family wasn’t huge on experiences so every weekend we would find ourselves at the shops. And once I was an adult, I didn’t really know any different so for a long while I carried this habit on. This now is one of the things I used to do that now seems weird to me as a minimalist.

My main weakness used to be clothing stores. I just couldn’t get enough clothing, even though in reality I hated trying things on and waiting in line for change rooms.

This all seems completely alien to me now, and I have done a complete 180.

My shopping habits now look a little more like this.

I might go to the shops once a week or fortnight on my lunch break, generally only if I need to. Often I will go just to get lunch and then go straight back to my car. On weekends I do everything I can to avoid shopping. If you see me at the shops on the weekend it is because I really need something.

If I do need to hit the shops for any reason, I’ve usually built up a list over time so I only have to go once that month, rather than multiple times. Where possible, I will build up a list of things I need to buy and buy them in one go online so I don’t even need to leave the house and can save on shipping. Oh the Joy!

I also use my budget to help set spending limits.

Now instead of shopping for entertainment, I do things that add more value to my life.

I’ll go an have a meal at a cafe with my husband, or spend time with my nephews. I’ll learn a new song on bass or write a blog post for this very blog. I’ll create a new organisational product or financial tool to help people I’ll catch up on a favourite show or watch a new vid of my favourite YouTuber. Shopping is no longer a hobby for me or entertainment and changing the way I shopped has made a world of difference to my life and given me so much time back.

7. Valuing money over my time

Having more money is a good thing and can go a long way to creating a financially secure future and paying down debt but there comes a point when time is more important than more money, and I got to this point about seven years ago.

When I started working my full-time job as an Accountant, I kept the casual position I had during my Uni studies at Coles and worked a 5-hour shift on check outs almost every Sunday night.

I worked two jobs for five years! And the silly thing was, I didn’t even need that extra money, I just convinced myself that more money was more important than allowing myself to rest! Why would I rest when I could earn money??

Somehow I justified the time I spend at my second job. I did enjoy my job for the most part. I worked on Checkouts at Coles, and enjoyed the people I worked with at night and talking to the customers. And I didn’t mind the penalty rates either. But I was giving up a lot for that.

Every Sunday I would have to rush home from wherever I was to get home in time to leave for work.

It meant that instead of getting two full days of rest from work, I only got 1.5.

It meant that I subconsciously said no to planning things on one day of my weekend as I knew I had work at 5 or 6pm.

It meant that I often missed out on events that happened on Sunday nights which always sucked the most.

It meant I didn’t have the mental energy or time to do things I needed to do like exercise, meal plan or just relax.

Finally, after years of losing half my Sunday to working my second job, I realised that the money didn’t mean as much to me as my time.

Quitting my second job gave me six hours of my week back (Including travel time and getting ready!) and I finally realised how precious every one of those hours was to me.

And it wasn’t just the work hours I gained. It was the 40-minute return drive, that seemed to take longer and longer with continuous road works, speed limit reductions or just hitting every red light. It was getting ready for work, which might have only taken ten minutes but was still in addition to everything else. It was the getting home at 11pm and knowing I had work the next day and not being able to unwind and get a good night’s rest.

I didn’t regret giving up that job and the income for one second. Sure I missed the job and seeing my friends at work regularly, but what I gained was much more important to me.

This was such a huge lesson to me in my 20s and something I haven’t forgotten. I now place greater value on my time, rather than just what money can give me. Chasing money for the sake of it and the things I could buy was one of the things I used to do that now seem weird to me as a minimalist.

I completely understand that some people have no choice but to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, but a lot of us work multiple jobs or additional hours, just to consume more and more and I would advocate doing a budget, paying down debt and spending more intentionally can eliminate some of those additional hours and give you back some of your precious time.

8. Spending My Money Without Intention

As you can see from the above points, in the past I didn’t spend my money with intention which seems so weird to me as a minimalist.

I shopped for entertainment and out of boredom.

I chose to work more hours than I needed to just to keep up with unintentional spending.

I bought things and tried to justify them with how hard I worked even if I didn’t really want them and would have preferred the free time.

I now spend my money much more intentionally and in line with my values.

I spend on things that add value to my life like vitamins, my gym membership, and quality shoes. And I don’t spend on things that don’t add value to my life.

Spending money with intention freed up a lot of money in our budget which allowed us to pay off $40,000 in student loans and pay down our mortgage much faster. We were able to make huge strides in our finances without feeling like we missed out on any of the good stuff. And the most amazing thing is. the savings we’ve made by spending our money with intention are compounding year after year!

What did you use to do that now seems weird to you or super wasteful? Please let me know in the comments! 🙂

Photo by Breather on Unsplash

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:

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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:

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.
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.
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.

Minimalism

10 Benefits of a Minimalist Inspired Life

Posted on December 24, 2021

When I first discovered the ‘minimalist lifestyle’ five years ago now, I was keen to learn everything I could about this idea of living a more meaningful life. After reading everything I could possibly find on the subject, I started making small gradual changes and found very quickly that this was having a positive effect on many areas of my life.

By reflecting on what my experiences were on this minimalism path and the benefits I experienced I hope it might help inspire others to discover the benefits of living a more intentional life. Keep in mind that there are no set rules for minimalism. My version of minimalism will be different from your version and so on. It is different for everyone but is a useful tool to help you create a more intentional and meaningful life.

Here are 10 Benefits of a Minimalist Inspired Life that I have found over my journey.

10 Benefits of a Minimalist Inspired Life

You’ll Feel Less Stressed

A minimalist-inspired lifestyle has helped me to feel the least stressed I have felt in a long time.

Minimalism is all about living a more meaningful life and in turn, empowers you to be more comfortable saying no to things that you don’t enjoy and yes to the things you do enjoy.

It will allow you to reassess the relationships in your life, which could entail leaving a bad relationship or setting new boundaries with a friend or family member to ensure those close relationships aren’t detrimental to your well-being. It might give you the courage to leave a job that is negatively impacting your health or consuming all your time.

By identifying your core values, and understanding what is most important to you and your happiness, you can reduce stress when you eliminate non-essential things, such as going out more than you want to or working more hours than you might need to.

You’ll Have More Free Time

On your minimalism journey, you will start to identify which aspects of life bring you joy and which don’t. Once you start saying no to things that don’t bring you joy, you can start freeing up more time to say yes to things that do.

I managed to swap out a lot of activities that didn’t add any value to my life for ones that did. For example, I watched TV less so I had more time to exercise. I only bought things I needed so I didn’t waste my weekend shopping for things that added no value to my life. And I chose the people I spent my time with more selectively. These small changes freed up time I wouldn’t have otherwise had.

You’ll Have More Spare Cash

Adopting a minimalist inspired lifestyle frees up money to spend on things that are truly adding value to your life.

Consider this example. Removing the excess in your home means you might reduce the need for a larger home now that you have fewer things to store in it. If you reassess what you actually use you might find that you don’t need a big two-story house after all. This awareness could give you the opportunity to:

Downsize your home saving you money on your rent or mortgage
Allow you to potentially work less hours as your smaller home takes up less of your paycheck and frees up money for other things you love
A smaller home costs less to heat, cool and clean again saving you more money

Removing the excess in your life can free up cash in your budget that can go to things that you didn’t think you could afford before, such as taking up a new hobby you have always wanted to or enabling you to see more of the world.

Shows You Experiences > Things

Minimalism has helped me to realise the joy of experiences over material possessions. Buying material possessions may bring a temporary increase in happiness, but that disappears over time once we adapt to having that item. Having that item, and the temporary dopamine effect it gives wears off much quicker than experiences.

When you prioritise experiences over material possessions it provides you with joy that no physical purchase can really come close to, particularly if that experience is shared with someone.

My husband and I often talk about all the trips to different countries we have done or gigs we have gone to and it brings us so much happiness to think back on these occasions! I can’t say that talking about an outfit I bought years ago or an eyeshadow pallet does the same. I grew up in a family that didn’t prioritise experience over things and it took me until my mid-20s to change my mindset around this and realise how much experiences added to my life.

These experiences give us memories that we can talk about for years to come with loved ones. Although they may not provide us with a physical thing to place in our homes, the memories are with us for life.

For more ideas on giving more intentional gifts check out 10 Minimalist Gift Ideas that Add Value, Not Stuff!

You’ll Get to Live Your Life For You, Not Others

There is so much pressure placed on everyone to have an impressive-sounding career, the newest car, biggest home, and the focus has shifted away from what makes us happy to what we can do to impress others.

A minimalist-inspired lifestyle helps us to shift the focus, from being defined by others’ expectations helping us put our needs first. If it is important to you to be debt-free and drive a reliable, affordable car instead of a new more impressive vehicle do that. If it is more important to you to have more free time to follow other passions than having a high-stress managerial position with long hours, go for it!

When we spend less time worrying about what other people’s expectations are of us we can focus on living a more meaningful life and being true to ourselves. Stop listening to what others expect your life or lifestyle to look like and start living the lifestyle YOU want.

You’ll Focus More on Your Health

Minimalism helps you to prioritise the essential things in life, one of the most important being your health.

It can be easy to get caught up in day-to-day life. There are bills, chores, work, and so on. Over the long term, your health is going to suffer if your well-being takes a backseat to those other priorities.

Minimalism can help redirect your focus away from what you might be spending your time on, to your detriment, to more productive and positive habits. These changes will feel like a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders, a weight you might not have even realised was there.

You might pay off your debt and reduce your stress and anxiety around your finances. You might realise that you don’t need a six-figure salary and the stress that comes with working 80 hours and choose to downsize your workload. You might try and minimize habits that don’t add much value, like scrolling on Tik Tok or watching too many hours of TV and replace them with ones that do add value, like exercising more.

You’ll Be More Intentional In All Areas of Your Life

When you clear the excess clutter and get down to what truly adds value to you, you’ll start applying the minimalist-inspired lifestyle to other aspects of your life – not just the stuff.

You might find yourself asking: Does this house bring me joy or does it just take up my spare time cleaning it? Am I really that passionate about this degree or career? Could I have my dream job if I could take a pay cut? Do I want to be in debt for the next 30 years?

Minimalism seeps into all areas of life and can open you up to a new way of thinking about all areas of your life. It helps us to regularly reassess where we are in life and over time, trains us to apply our thinking of small decisions such as do I need this kitchen gadget to the bigger decisions that have a larger impact on our life.

You’ll Have to Make Fewer Decisions

Making decisions takes more brainpower than you may realize. Every time you make a decision on something you are using up mental energy.

When you think about your day and what decisions you have to make: what to have for breakfast, what to wear today, what watch to wear, what bag will you grab, what route will you take to work, what will you have for dinner and so on – it’s no wonder we are at decision overload and have little attention span left to do much else with our time. For me the worst part is standing in the shopping aisle trying to pick one item from a section of 20. It all gets a bit much!

Minimalism helps us find ways to reduce everyday decision making which takes mental energy away from more valuable uses of energy and creativity. This frees up mental energy to do more value-adding activities like writing that book you’ve always wanted to or learning a new language. It’s why people like Steve Jobs and Matt D’Avella wear the same outfit every day!

Here are a few ideas to get you started to help minimize your decision-making overload.

Create a capsule wardrobe like Courtney Carver’s Project 333 as a curated selection of your favourite clothing, shoes and accessories that can be mixed and matched and save decision overload.

Meal planning once a week can save you time each day thinking about what to cook and save you from having to hit the grocery store with its 20 options for each item.

Life can be simplified so much more by limiting everyday decisions so we can focus on more important things.

You’ll Spend Less Time Cleaning

Nothing has sped up the cleaning process in my home like adopting a minimalist-inspired lifestyle has. Less is definitely more here.

Clearing the excess from your home allows you to spend less time cleaning it. Fewer things on the floor make for quicker vacuuming and mopping. Limited stuff on the countertops and tabletops allows you to use those surfaces for what they are intended and makes them much easier to keep tidy. Less decor saves you on dusting extra stuff. You get the idea.

I now see things in stores I am tempted to buy and ask myself – would I be willing to dust that? The answer is no 99% of the time!

A minimalist-inspired lifestyle has allowed me to have a more intentional wardrobe, which has made it so much easier to get on top of our laundry instead of attempting to try and tackle baskets of unwashed clothing, we now have manageable loads.

And with all the money I saved from spending with intention, I invested in a robovac that vacuums and mops my house for me!

You Are More Appreciative

After realising how much I don’t need to be happy I’ve developed a greater appreciation for what I do have.

I don’t feel the need to have the best of everything and am so grateful that I have the knowledge at this age of how important experiences and relationships are over things. Minimalism has helped me to acknowledge the small joys in every day, whether that be time spent with a close friend, a walk-in nature, or a lovely home-cooked meal. The emphasis is not on what you buy or accomplish to impress others but on what truly makes you happy.

I am excited to see where minimalism and intentional living take me in the future and hope to see even more benefits over time.

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.

If you have adopted a minimalist inspired lifestyle comment below with what benefits you have found and how minimalism has helped you.

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