How do you feel after Christmas day. Have you ever found yourself with a pile of gifts that you have no idea where you are going to put, and maybe even some that you have no use for? Now you have to ‘hoard’ said gift until you are able to regift it to someone else or have waited the appropriate amount of time (whatever that is) to donate it.
A survey conducted by Roy Morgan (source) has found that Australians are planning to spend $11B on gifts for Christmas 2021. To make sure that money is well spent and doesn’t end up as one of the 41% of gifts that are re-gifted (source) check out these clutter-free gift ideas for your loved one. These might even inspire you to change your gift-giving traditions and change your focus from gifting physical things to experiences or even just your time.
This blog post was inspired by Becoming Minimalist’s 99 Clutter-Free Gift Ideas so check out Joshua Beckers post for even more clutter-free gift ideas to inspire you!
85 Clutter-Free Gift Ideas
ExperienceGifts
Axe Throwing
2. Go Karting
3. Bowling
4. Rock Climbing
5. Lunch or Dinner Cruise
6. Comedy Show
7. Musical
8. Orchestra
9. Symphony
10. Concert
11. Art or craft workshop
12. Paint and sip class
13. Yoga Class
14. Pottery Class
15. A meal on you
16. Zoo/Aquarium
17. Museum
18. Movie/Drive-In Tickets
19. Flight Simulator experience
20. Facial
21. Massage
22. Floatation tank session
23. Sauna
24. A gift voucher for their favourite dessert place, I.e. Krispy Kreme’s, Donut king etc
Every day we are faced with a barrage of noise and stresses, such as ads, traffic, social media and other constant distractions. Sometimes the only way to reduce or eliminate these distractions that take away our time, focus and attention is to make intentional actions each day in order to simplify our lives and focus on what truly matters to us, and do our best to turn down the other unnecessary noise.
Here are 25 Things You Can Do to Simplify Your Life.
25 Things You Can Do to Simplify Your Life
Avoid Ads
Wherever possible keep your eyeballs off advertisements. If you don’t know what is for sale, you won’t be so tempted to buy it. A few years back I became very interested in learning how to do makeup and before I knew it, my wishlist for designer make up grew. It wasn’t until I stopped watching makeup videos that I stopped wanting to buy more and more and learned to be content with the makeup supplies that I had. Now that I avoid those ads I only buy makeup when I need to replace something that has run out. Replace makeup in this example with whatever thing you seem to buy too much of.
Avoiding advertising is no easy feat. There are ads everywhere but there are things you can do to avoid as many of them as you can and remove the temptation to consume.
Some practical tips you can implement to avoid advertising:
Don’t read magazines.
Consider paying for services like Youtube or streaming services for ad-free viewing.
Avoid watching free-to-air TV and instead stream ad-free content.
Keep shopping and dining in at places that have TVs and advertising around to a minimum.
Turn off your Facebook news feed and the ads that go with it by installing a browser Facebook News Feed Eradicator.
All of these attempts to avoid advertising still do not completely eliminate all ads that you’ll end up seeing, but they’ll certainly limit the number!
2. Be More Intentional With What You Watch on TV
Be more selective with what you are watching on TV, rather than just watching whatever is on at the time. I no longer just watch Operation Repo, RBT, or whatever show just because it is on TV at that moment. I limit watching TV to only watching specific shows I enjoy watching.
This has allowed me to get some much-needed time back into my schedule for more valuable things like going to the gym or working on my blog. Think of all the amazing things you could be doing with that newly freed-up time!
3. Downsize Your Stuff
Five years ago I decluttered over 70% of my belongings. This in itself has been a huge step in simplifying my life. It makes getting dressed, doing laundry, and cleaning my house easier just to name a few benefits.
When you own less stuff, there is less stuff to maintain, clean around, replace or spend money on. You might even realise that you don’t need as big a house as you thought you did, which will lead to even less work for you and more money in your pocket!
4. Stick to a List For Grocery Shopping.
If you walk into the supermarket unprepared you are going to end up buying things that you don’t need. Often you’ll end up forgetting the things that you did and you’ll have to waist time and petrol making an additional trip. Save yourself the stress of going to the shops and the guesswork and bring your grocery list with you.
This goes for all shopping. I will not step foot into a Kmart, Bunnings, or anywhere without my list! Not to mention it frees up time that would have been wasted wandering down aisles if that is not your idea of fun!
5. Use a Planner to Stay Productive.
Those super-productive people that you see on YT or on Facebook are not unicorns. They are most likely good planners and you can be too, simply by having all your To Do’s and schedule in one place.
What To Do items I have for myself, the band, my website, and anything I need to buy like a gift for an upcoming birthday party.
I don’t know how I used to function without one, but it’s great to have a place to write down all your thoughts so you can forget them and yet feel confident you can get what you need, done. This helps you to let go of all that info rolling around in your head, get it down on paper, set your timers or reminders, and give your brain a much-needed rest. Simply write what you need on your planner and get back to focusing on your current task or goal.
6. Simplify Your Wardrobe.
One of the most effective things you can do to simplify your life is to minimise your clothing and adopt a Capsule Wardrobe. A capsule wardrobe is a well-curated small wardrobe selected for each season on pieces that mix and match and take the stress and work out of getting ready each day. With so many things to juggle on a daily basis, not having to worry about finding outfits that go together will help you simplify your life every single day.
7. Avoid The Shops
I try and spend as little time as humanly possible at the shops. I don’t go shopping unless I have something specific in mind and usually even then it needs to be a few things to warrant me even driving there. Some might find the experience of shopping thrilling and enjoyable but for me, it is filled with stress from crowds, loud music or advertising, and frustration at waiting in long lines for parking or to pay for your items or the changeroom.
Simplify your life and your schedule by shopping less and only shopping when you genuinely need to, not just to pass time. Keep a wishlist of things you want or need to buy and build that up over time so you can hit the shops once that month rather than going multiple times.
8. Learn to Say ‘No’.
For some time, I felt extremely stressed thanks to not having enough downtime. On weekends I’d cram in band practice or a gig, on top of trying to see family, go to the city with friends, see more family, get groceries, attempt to catch up on housework, and still have an outing with my husband. After a few years of this, I found myself completely burned out and overwhelmed.
If this sounds like you, and you want to simplify your life, start making space in your schedule for rest and downtime. Don’t feel the need to fill every hour with some kind of social event. The next time someone asks you to do something you aren’t feeling, just say ‘I’m sorry but I won’t be able to make it’, and give yourself some time just for yourself.
9. Use Homemade Cleaners.
I know this seems the opposite of simplifying when I tell you to make something yourself, but stick with me here.
I started using homemade cleaners a few years back. I love that with only a handful of products I can clean my entire home as well as avoid nasty chemicals as much as possible. And best of all – no more overflowing under sink cupboards packed full of different cleaning products!
Instead of having 20 different cleaners, you’ll find that just a handful of homemade cleaners can do the work of many different products. Basic ingredients like vinegar, bi-carb, dishwashing liquid, and lemon you most likely already have in your home.
For more homemade cleaners be sure to check out Clean My Space for some of Melissa Maker’s amazing cleaning recipes!
10. Learn to be Content With Less
When you minimise the excess you can begin to enjoy the benefits of minimalismand simplify your life. Minimising your wardrobes make for less laundry and a less stressful time getting ready.
Minimising your makeup collection means you can easily find what you want to use and everything can have its own place and not clutter up your vanity top.
Having fewer books means you can see the ones that truly bring your joy and you can eliminate the guilt you always felt for not reading the others you never got around to.
It may sound opposite to what we are always told – having more is more, but I promise you when you own what you love and what brings you joy you will have a newfound appreciation for what is essential and not miss all that extra clutter in your home making your life more stressful and disorganised than it needs to be.
11. Let Go of Your Aspirations For a Carrie Bradshaw Esque Shoe Collection.
Before I discovered Minimalism, I was a shoe hoarder. At my highest count, I had about 50 pairs of shoes. That may not seem like a lot to some of you but to me it was. I have since eliminated the excess shoes I owned and now have selected a few shoes that are versatile enough to go with everything.
Most of my shoes are black and there is a reason for that. It means I can run out the door in whatever shoes I have and know that there’s a 99% chance they will go with what I am wearing and also be comfortable. Not all of us are gifted fashionistas, so having a simple shoes collection helps simplify leaving the house everyday.
It may be time to be honest with yourself.
Ask:
Do you really need 10 pairs of heels when you only wear them to weddings twice a year?
Do you really need 20 pairs of sneakers when you prefer to wear two of your favourites and the others just sit there on show?
Do you really need 10 pairs of $10 flats from Kmart or would one quality pair do you?
After a while of living with just the shoes you need and love, you’ll wonder why you didn’t downsize your shoe collection sooner!
12. Automate Your Finances
Simplify your life and take the mental workload involved in paying your bills by setting up direct debit billing.
This has saved me in late fees that are no longer an issue as the bills are paid before I can forget to pay them.
Don’t forget to do the same for your savings transfers each month! Taking the work out of paying bills and savings means you can ensure your finances stay under control without too much work from you.
If you hate filing, I’ve got a simple solution for you, e-filing. Request your bills to be sent to your email rather than by mail. It means not only less time spend sorting mail and filing it, but leaves less in terms of paper clutter!
An added bonus is this saves you the fee most companies now charge to mail you paper statements and only takes a once-off quick phone call to make the change.
14. Learn to Delegate.
I used to think that I had to do it all. I soon learned that this is not sustainable and things getting done by someone else, is better than not at all, or that task staying on your never-ending to-do list.
If you can afford to, consider hiring someone to help mow the lawns or clean your home once a week or fortnight to give you back a few hours of your freedom and make day-to-day tasks that little bit less overwhelming.
And the same goes for work, if you are snowed under speak up. There’s no shame in asking for help!
15. Unsubscribe
Something as simple as a full email inbox can be a huge stressor! Take a quick moment to action emails as you go, rather than letting them build up where you feel that you can’t catch up.
If you get an email for a store or a website you either haven’t signed up for or aren’t interested in seeing in your inbox, quickly open the email and select Unsubscribe. Then delete those emails from your inbox. (type in the search the company name and all emails will show up so you can quickly delete or prior ones from your inbox).
This will save you one set of ongoing emails from taking away your attention on more important things and will help you keep your inbox under control and organised.
16. Focus on One or Two Hobbies.
Sometimes we can get carried away with multiple hobbies and interests, but the most effective way to get good at something is to limit those hobbies to 1-3 max. For me, that is my blog, music, and gaming.
Sure I would love to add some DIY projects in, to learn to paint and learn more instruments but those expectations are just not going to happen in my life right now where I am balancing full-time work with my social life, cleaning, my current hobbies, and having downtime.
The last thing you want is for your passion to turn into another stressor in your life and chore. By limiting your hobbies to just a couple you can get the most out of those hobbies without them taking over your life. As a bonus, by limiting your hobbies you can also limit the clutter that can come with having too many hobbies.
17. Speed Clean
Cleaning used to overwhelm me on a daily basis until I discovered the art of Speed Cleaning. Instead of letting cleaning take over my entire weekend, now I try and speed clean for 10-15 minutes most days. This doesn’t always happen, but if I can keep the house reasonably tidy day-to-day, and save the bigger stuff like the floors and bathrooms for the weekends, I don’t get as overwhelmed. And the best part is, it’s such a short time family might be more willing to join in and help.
Speed Cleaning has simplified my life as it is not something I dread as much compared to a huge clean-a-thon and makes it easier to clean in smaller chunks rather than tackling a disaster zone at the end of the week.
18.Meal Plan
If you only adopt one thing from this list, I highly encourage you to take up Meal Planning. And I am not even talking about Meal planning where you cook for three hours on a Sunday and eat the same 3 meals day-in-day-out. That’s not for me, although you may prefer that version of Meal Planning.
I am talking about Meal Planning where you select your meals for the week ahead and shop accordingly.
This allows you to:
a) Not have to stress about what to cook when you get home – you’ve already sorted that part out
b) You don’t have to rush off to the shops after work to buy groceries meaning you get home even later and still have to cook. That part has already been done.
c) You can save money as you will only buy what you need and plan to eat. This helps reduce food waste
Once you have seen how much just 10 minutes of meal planning a week can help you simplify you’ll never look back!
19. Be More Mindful of Photos by Deleting As You Go
Have you ever gone through your phone to look for one set of photographs only to see hundreds of blurry, poorly shot pics.
Yep? Me too.
So here I am going to suggest that rather than leaving these photos to take up space in our phones and clog up our phone, laptop or cloud memory that we get into the habit of deleting these unnecessary photos as we go.
If it takes 20 photos to get the perfect selfie, delete the other 19 that looked not as good.
Better yet, don’t take hundreds of shots in a day, just take a few and enjoy the moment without the camera. Curate your photo collection to only the best shots.
This can also be applied to anything that you want. If you are done with a to-do list get rid of it. Have an app you used once but aren’t happy with it? Delete it as well.
Keep only what you love and need.
20. Less is More
The Minimalists always say ‘less is more’, but what does that mean?
‘Less is more’ is about all the things that come about from having less.
It means less time spent cleaning because you have less decor to dust around
It means less photos to sort through as you only kept the ones that bring you joy
It means less time looking for your favourite lipstick because you only have your two favourites
It means less time finding an outfit that matches because you have a capsule wardrobe with only the clothes you love!
When you eliminate the excess: the decor you don’t love, the clothes that no longer fit you, and the overflowing makeup collection, you can simplify and claim some of your time and mental energy back.
When you have a smaller home you have less space to organise, upkeep, and clean.
You have less bills to pay like electricity to heat your space and can spend less money on furniture and decor.
You also have smaller rent or mortgage payments so you can choose to work less if that is your desire.
Bigger is not always better.
22. Eliminate Wasteful Spending
When you spend more intentionally you can simplify your life. Eliminating wasteful spending can allow us to eliminate unwanted clutter from our homes and ensure that we only bring what truly adds value into our homes.
Instead of buying every book that takes your fancy, only buy books as you are able to read them. You can always write a list for new books that you want to get when you are ready to read them.
Buy clothes to fill the gaps in your wardrobe rather than just grabbing anything at random because it is on sale.
Don’t buy anything for your home unless you know there is a need for it, or you have a designated place to put or store it.
By being more intentional with spending we can simplify our life and reduce the excess stuff in our homes that can add stress and anxiety.
23. Create a Morning Routine.
Having a morning routine can make all the difference in simplifying your mornings and having a good start to the day. The best part is it can be completely catered to you.
Avoid just waking up and looking at your phone or hitting the snooze button and take charge of your mornings. Even if it is just a small 10-minute window where you try and enjoy the start of the day.
Your morning routine might involve sitting and reading before starting the workday with a coffee or glass of lemon water. It might involve a workout, yoga, or stretching. You might get started on tidying up so you can come home to a tidy space later on in the day or dedicate your morning to journaling.
24. Create a Nightly Routine
A night routine can also help set us up for a restful night’s sleep and a stress-free morning.
You might choose to have a shower or bath before bed to relax and wind down.
Moisturise and have tea.
Set out your clothes and lunch for the day ahead so it’s one less thing to worry about the next morning.
You might choose to meditate or tidy up rather than do those in the morning.
This routine is something you can curate and tweak over time to see what is the best fit for you and help you simplify your nights.
I have recently started tidying before I go to sleep, getting my work clothes ready, and preparing my lunch, and have found this to be a huge stress relief come morning and a great and easy tool to help me simplify my life.
25. Have an Emergency Fund
I have never felt as at peace financially, as I have since having an Emergency Fund.
When you have money set aside for unexpected financial emergencies you take a weight off your shoulders that many of us carry around with us everyday!
Having an emergency credit card is not the same. It needs to be a saving’s fund set aside purely for financial emergencies.
Once you have one you will never look back or miss the days when you were potentially a moment away from financial stress.
This weeks comment question: What have you implemented to simplify your life? Let’s discuss this in the comments 🙂
Want to Simplify Your Finances?
If you want help to simplify your finances and spend your money with more intention so you can create your ideal life book in for your complimentary 15-min Q&A call to discuss how I can help you.
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!
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.
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).
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.
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!
Ever since I can remember I have felt ‘Allergic to Debt’.
As a young girl I noticed many conversations around me about people being in debt and the hardships that situation caused. I saw the strain debt put on families around me, including my own. Both my parents worked Full-Time from as early as I can remember. Five days a week, year after year, to keep up with their bills and debt repayments. However, the debt never seemed to go away, it just grew.
When I was sixteen, I started to save up for my first car. I did everything I thought was right. I worked whilst I was at school and soon enough had $5,000 saved. I paid for my own car and the repairs to get it back on the road. Then the rest of my savings went to the car registration and insurance as I couldn’t rely on my parents to help me out.
For the first six month, things were great. I was excited to finally have the freedom to drive myself to school, my exams and to see friends whenever I wanted. But I had bought a car that was 26 years old and barely 9 months after buying it, it broke down and was going to cost way more than the car was worth to fix it. I had spent all my savings on buying the car and paying for the insurance etc, so I now had nothing saved and was looking at a useless hunk of scrap metal.
For six months I car pooled with family and friends as I tried to save up as much cash as I could to get another car, but living between my Mum and my Dad’s and trying to get to TAFE and work with no car was becoming a huge chore, so I gave in and took out my first car loan for $3000 to buy another car.
Almost immediately that weekly debt repayment on my car loan started to bother me. I hated seeing that money come out of my bank account each week, taking my paycheck away from me. I was only working as a casual at the time as a Checkout Assistant at Coles, so when I got to the school holidays and I was rostered on for no shifts, anxiety hit me. I had a loan to pay and a job with hours that weren’t guaranteed.
Not long after, I decided it was time to get rid of that car loan as fast as possible. I wanted it and the stress around having a loan gone. Plus I wanted to keep my paycheck. It took me nine months of working extra shifts and paying extra on my car loan but I was finally debt-free and it felt amazing! Unfortunately, this debt-freeness didn’t last long because I was about to graduate from University with another debt to go with it.
I graduated University with $11,000 in Student Loans at just 20 years old. That may not sound like much nowadays but it was still a large number to someone who was just starting out in life. Especially when I was already trying to pay for my other expenses like board, my mobile phone, petrol and everything else.
Very quickly I realised that I still hated the idea of being in debt. For me, it just had this feeling of heaviness that I wasn’t liking one bit. I’d been here before, so I knew what to do and worked as many shifts as I was able to get between my now two jobs so I could pay out that loan again as fast as I could. I was very lucky to score an Accounting job soon after my graduation and within a year of starting my full-time job, I was able to pay off my Student Loans in full. I was again completely debt-free and so relieved!
I would love to say I never took on any consumer debt again from this point in my life but that isn’t true.
By my mid-20s I took on another car loan with the intention of paying it off in 12 months (which I did :)) and also took on $42,000 of Student Loans when I married my husband a couple of years later.
It would take us 6 years to pay off that $42,000 in Student Loans. Thankfully it was the last of our consumer debt. When we paid off those Student Loans in 2017 I knew that was the last time I ever wanted to take on another debt payment in my life (excluding my mortgage payment – but that was next to go!).
I’ve always had a bad feeling when I was in debt – that I was trapped and bound by someone else’s terms. There was no freedom. I was stuck paying those loans off regardless of what financial difficulties I might face and with a big goal to buy my first home in the not too distant future. I was now keen to stay out of debt for good.
Fast forward a few years and I am now in my early 30s (or is it mid now?? Shh!) and well aware of my ‘Allergy to Debt‘. Now that I am well into adulting, I can clarify why being in debt is not great in the long run and hopefully with the below list of reasons why I am allergic to debt, I can inspire you to do what you can to become debt-free (and stay that way) as well.
Debt may not be a ‘big deal’ but it certainly makes making ends meet a lot harder, particularly in hard times like when facing job loss, starting a family or losing an income.
Here’s 9 Reasons Why I’m Allergic to Debt and refuse to borrow money ever again (at least outside of a mortgage)! This list has grown over the years as I learn more and more about the reasons how debt holds us back financially.
9 Reasons Why I’m Allergic to Debt
1.Being in Debt Robs You of Your Financial Future
First and foremost, having debt repayments robs you of your financial future. The most important thing with investing to build wealth is to start early. That means that you ideally want to start investing for your retirement when you are in your 20s or 30s. By age 40-50 you have lost a lot of the time you need to grow your wealth with Compound Interest. It’s never really too late to start investing, but sooner is certainly better than later.
Look at this example. The first Graph shows a 30 year old who invests $50,000 for 35 years, at 7% p.a. return with no additional amounts invested after that initial $50,000. When this person is 65 they will have $600,000 in their retirement account.
In this next example, that same person didn’t start investing into their retirement at age 30 as they were tied down with debt. Instead they waited until they were 45 to invest their $50,000 so they only had 20 years to grow their investment. This person would retire at age 65 with only $200,000 – one third of the retirement of the person who put the same amount away, but 15 years earlier.
What would you rather $50k growing into $600k or $50k growing into $200k? When you put your car loan into this context that $50k loan for that fancy new car looks a lot more expensive!! Was it really such a good deal?
When it comes to investing in your future, time is money so the less money you have tied up in debt the better and more comfortable your lifestyle will be in retirement.
2. Being in Debt Allows You to Live Beyond Your Means aka ‘Fake Rich’
There are people all around us living beyond their means with the help of credit as Chris Hogan says ‘Fake Rich‘. You see the new college graduates with $60,000 salaries rocking up to work with their new $50,000 car, or young families buying $1 million properties leaving themselves in debt up to their eyeballs. You ask yourself how did they afford that? More often than not the answer is with Debt. Sure some of them genuinely can afford what they have, but not everyone.
With social media, where people are constantly sharing all the things they have bought; the nice home, the best makeup brands, the latest runners or technology gadgets it can be easy to feel left out with your average rented home and runabout car on your average salary. Soon enough we all want to keep up with the Kardashian’s and the temptation to take on debt in order to fit in with our peers is real.
The problem is, most of these people are living beyond their means and could never afford these things if they had to pay for them with their actual paycheck. It might seem like a dream come true to be able to have things that you can’t afford, but that dream can quickly turn into a nightmare.
The average minimum Credit Card repayment is only around 2% of the balance so just imagine the world of trouble people who keep charging purchases on their Credit Card are going to have when they no longer can afford the monthly repayment. Usually, by the time it catches up with people if they lose their job, or are facing an illness the financial hole they have dug themselves is too big to get out of.
I’m allergic to debt because I want to know that I can afford my lifestyle and am living within my means. I prefer to know that if anything happens to my health, my job etc, I don’t have debt repayments to maintain at a time when I need to focus on other things like my health or family.
3. Debt is Expensive
We’ve all been in this scenario. We are out shopping and see something we really want on sale. It’s such a bargain that we’d be crazy not to buy it. But we easily forget, most Credit Cards charge exorbitant interest rates, some over 20%. So that bargain top you bought isn’t such a bargain now when you take into account the huge Interest charges on that purchase if you don’t intend to pay off your credit card in full when the bill arrives.
A similar, but much more expensive scenario appears when you are shopping for a new car. If you finance a new car loan at the average interest rate of 6% on a $30,000 car over 7 years you are going to pay out the car cost plus another $6814 in interest to the financial provider over that 7 year period. That’s more than one-fifth of the value of the car!
4. Being in Debt Makes You Feel Claustrophobic
It may feel good buying that new fancy car and driving it around and showing it off to your friends and family. The first few payments might not bother you too much, it might even feel worth it when you are cruising in your car. But most car loans are now 5 or 7 years. That’s a potential 84 monthly car payments! Did you catch that? 84 month repayments! Yikes! By Payment 12 I can guarantee that debt is going to get old.
I am so ‘allergic to debt’ I go a step further to protect my paycheck, and avoid signing up for lock-in contracts so my mobile phone, TV subscriptions and gym membership are all cancel-at-anytime arrangements. A 12 month contract is long enough to plan for let alone years when it comes to a larger purchase such as a car.
5. Being Debt Free Gives You More Opportunities to Enjoy Life
When I paid off the last of my student loans it freed up a whole lot of cash for me to spend how I want. And that feeling is something I hope you all will feel one day when you are consumer debt-free. When you don’t have any more payments there are so many more opportunities that arise.
You can use your new spare cash to travel, save for your kid’s education, cut hours back a work, retire early, leave a job you hate or pick up a new expensive hobby completely guilt-free!
When you are debt-free your money is finally yours to spend how you wish on the things that add value to your life. By being allergic to debt I have been able to travel to many places in the world, pay off all my consumer debt, and dream build about my future.
6. Debt Adds Stress to Relationships
One of the biggest causes of fights between couples is money. It can be challenging to get a spender and a saver on the same page when it comes to money. Even if you are on the same page, always worrying about money can cause huge amounts of stress for you and your partner.
It doesn’t have to be this way. With each debt we paid off, we felt a sense of freedom and it felt amazing to be working towards a common goal together and our financial future. I am allergic to debt because I am not keen to ever add the complexity and stress that having debt can have on a relationship or even my own happiness ever again. It’s the #debtfreelife for this millenial.
7. Debt Makes Rainy Days Much Harder
Being in the middle of a pandemic is one of the biggest financial red flags we have seen to date. Many people have lost their job or had to take reduced hours at work. This has caused huge financial stress for many of us. Having debt might be manageable when times are good, but it can be the straw that breaks the camels back when they aren’t.
If you are facing an injury, illness or any other emergency like having to care for a loved one, having debt can make the choices you need to make much harder.
One thing I always try to accept is that rainy days happen. The less you have your money tied up in debt repayments the better it will be for you when you are trying to face those challenge without an extra layer of difficulty that debt brings. The less debt you owe, the more peace of mind you will have when life throws you lemons.
8. I Learned From Others Mistakes With Debt
I knew that I didn’t want a large amount of debt in my life from an early age. It took me a decade or two to unpack all the lessons I learned over the years from others. These have allowed me to learn valuable lessons from others without necessarily having to make the same mistakes (although of course, I too have made many financial mistakes to date!). When I was fourteen, my Grandfather retired, aged 73. He was barely one year into retirement when he died suddenly of a heart attack. This is a memory that has stuck with me my whole life, now 20 years later. My pop worked hard his whole life and didn’t get to enjoy his retirement and spend time with his wife, children or grandchildren. I knew at 14 that I didn’t want that to happen to me. I wanted to be able to retire much younger than my Grandfather was able to so I could enjoy my retirement longer than my Pop had the chance to.
I have seen family and friends working 6 or 7 days a week to make ends meet to pay for large homes and new cars. So much so that they didn’t even have the time to enjoy their beautiful home or have much time to spend with their family. After watching others work so hard, year on year, to afford those nice things, I decided early on that having those things weren’t as important to me as my physical and mental health. I wanted time to be able to see friends, family and my husband and to have time for me. I wanted to be able to sleep soundly at night and not have to worry about a massive mortgage or car that I couldn’t afford. And it didn’t’ make sense to me to work sixty hours plus a week to pay for a home I didn’t have the time to enjoy.
For a long time these lessons impacted my thoughts around money and shaped my values and how I felt allergic to debt.
9. The Minimalist Lifestyle Made Me More Content With Less
When I discovered the Minimalist Lifestyle a few years back, this cemented my feelings about my allergy to debt even more. I realised that I could be just as happy with less. I was happy in my modest home with my regular wardrobe and affordable car. Taking on Debt to pay for things I didn’t really need or want in exchange for my physical and mental health, as well as my most valuable resource – my time – wasn’t something that I was willing to do. The price really was too high.
Well there you have it Minimisers, the reasons why I am allergic to debt. I would love to know if you can relate to any of the above at all?
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 made you realise that you were allergic to debt and motivated you to pay down your debt? Please let me know in the comments! 🙂
I’ve always been a bit frugal, trying to limit waste and unnecessary spending where I could, and had a desire to get more organised – don’t we all! After living out of home for five years, I realised we’d developed some bad habits.
We were tossing massive amounts of spoiled food each week. Most of it was fresh food we’d bought with good intentions but just hadn’t gotten around to eating. Finding stuff in the pantry was a difficult process with random cans thrown in sporadically and no real organisation system. We’d go shopping listless and come home with five cans of corn only to realise we already had eight in the pantry (true story! ‘;)).
We were constantly leaving things to the last minute. Often realising we’d forgotten to buy a birthday present, we’d rush around hoping we could find something the day of the party in sheer craziness. Cleaning was an ordeal having to try and vacuum around whatever clothes and furniture items we had on the floor.
I was sick of the disorganisation and having unnecessary stress in our lives. After being overwhelmed by clutter, and the anxiety and stress it caused me I set out to change my home environment. I wanted to have a more calming space – I didn’t want to see mess everywhere and trip over things.
Once starting the decluttering process of my home I realised there was an added benefit to having an organised space. It was aiding our budgeting and helping us to save more money. And we will never be perfect when it comes to organisation, but trying to be a little more organised goes a long way.
Here is How an Organised Space Can Save You Money and how it has benefited us.
1. Save on groceries and buying duplicates
Since organising our home we can now see what we have at a glance. In the pantry, all cans are lined up, long-life milk, snacks are in one place which makes creating our shopping list that much easier. Our fridge is no longer filled to capacity as we only buy what we will need for the week ahead. This means we can reduce the food we are wasting each week and save on our grocery bill. Having an organised space allows us to avoid bringing home multiples of an item we already have, whether that be groceries or things we’ve misplaced and had to rebuy.
2. Reduce your clothing budget
Organising your wardrobe is a huge game-changer in terms of spending. Before I discovered the amazement of being organised, I used to have my wardrobe and drawers overflowing with clothes. Each wash day I’d shove a new pile in, on top of the stuff that had just become accustomed to staying at the bottom of the drawer. I remember the first time I decided to declutter my wardrobe, I found three pairs of black shorts. I’m not sure how many pairs of black shorts anyone needs, but the fact that I had three that I had not only not worn in years, but didn’t even know I had them was quite eye-opening to me.
From that moment I realised how important it is to keep what you have organised and to regularly assess what you have so you know what items you own.
In the past I would just buy new clothes, chuck them in a drawer or in my wardrobe with the intention of wearing them and often completely forgot I had ever bought them. I’d never really taken stock of what clothing I owned. Now when I go shopping I know at least 99% of my wardrobe off the top of my head. I know what shoes I have to mix and match with outfits and can better select what I am bringing into my wardrobe.
3. You’re more content living in a smaller home
Since organising our home the feeling of claustrophobia has diminished. I no longer feel like our house is too small and that we need more space. I’m rarely tempted to look at larger homes to buy. Even if it springs to mind when I see a nice photo of a home, I remember how much I love cleaning a smaller home and how I would never want the additional hours of work to pay for one and lost hours keeping up with the maintenance that comes with a bigger home. After decluttering all areas of our home we’ve actually managed to free up some storage space and are in no rush to fill them back up.
4. Planning ahead is easier and you can avoid impulse purchases
About two years ago I started using a diary to get more organised. After about a year I switched to a Bullet Journal and was instantly impressed by the simplicity it brought to my life. By being more organised and writing in my bullet journal I am able to save money in numerous ways. Whether it be planning ahead for dinner so I can avoid buying take-out that night. Making a note to buy a gift for someone a month ahead instead of running around the day before in a rush and blowing the gift budget. Or making a note to compare prices on a new purchase in order to get the best price and save money.
5. You’ll become more intentional with purchases
Now that we have decluttered our home we are very keen to keep it from getting out of hand again. This impacts my day-to-day activities and spending. I no longer walk into shops aimlessly to pass time or find some kind of satisfaction from buying something new.
Before I buy anything now, it has to hold up to a range of requirements. I will ask myself questions such as do I really need this? Do I have a place for it? Is it something I will be willing to dust from now until when I get rid of it? Most of the time the answer is no and I walk away from it.
When you start making more conscious decisions with what you are purchasing on a daily basis you develop new habits and soon enough the desire to buy lessens and your desire for a calm, organised space keeps you from reverting back to old habits.
6. Save money not having to replace lost items
Have you ever gone to look for something and not been able to locate it? I am pretty sure we have all been here. You think to yourself, maybe I never had it or gave it away? You go out to replace the items. Sometimes the original turns up and you feel a little silly but even after turning the house upside down at the time you couldn’t find it! This is another way an organised space can save you money. By having organisational systems in place you can avoid losing things in your home and replacing them. Even more importantly this wastes another important resource, your time. Imagine all the more important things you could be doing with the time wasted looking for lost items.
7. You can sell your unwanted stuff online
Another way an organised space can save you money is as you organise you will truly realise how much excess you have in your home. After a while we begin to grow used to seeing our stuff and don’t realise how much of it there is.
Have you ever walked into someone’s house and felt claustrophobic from all the stuff?! You’ve probably not even noticed your house might be heading in the same direction. It’s not until you start questioning what you do and don’t use that you realise you could live without some of the stuff cluttering up your home.
The great thing about decluttering is that your unwanted items can be useful to other people and that can help you claw back some of the money spent on excess items you have in your home. You will never get all of your money back, and sometimes you won’t get any of it, but it is possible to sell your clutter and add to your savings account.
It is truly amazing how much you can get for old electronics, gaming consoles, clothes, camera gear, books or whatever other junk you might have in your ‘to-go’ pile. If you’re reluctant to give something away because you spent a lot of money on it, sometimes knowing that you can get a little bit back from it by selling it makes the letting go process a little easier.
Alternatively, if you don’t need the money or don’t have the time, donate unwanted items to a local charity. Think of all the times you’ve found something you love in an op-shop for a few dollars because someone was generous enough to donate it. Pay it forward!
8. Being organised saves you time and stress
When you plan ahead and get organised you can save one of your most precious resources – time! Imagine all the things you could do with your spare time if it wasn’t spent doing mountains of laundry each week! No looking for lost items or spending half an hour clearing out food in your fridge that has gone bad. As they say, time is money and an organised space can save you both! When you no longer have to live with the consequences of an unorganised space, you’ll have more time to spend on more enjoyable things.
How have you found an organised space has saved you money? Comment below with your experience!
Everyone has to start their own Minimalism Journey somewhere. Everything you do in life is completely unique to your own experiences and circumstances and your minimalism journey is no different. Mine started with a cluttered drawer and realising how must frustration that one little stuffed drawer had on my stress levels. I had been feeling overwhelmed and anxious for some time in my home after filling it with many, many things over the first 6 years that I lived there. After realising I didn’t need all the excess I had accumulated in my home, I began to research how to declutter my home and where to start. This was when I came across the term ‘Minimalism’ and started my journey to declutter over half of mine and my husband’s belonging.
If you have never come across Minimalism before, Minimalism is a tool that you can use to create a more intentional life to reflect your own values. And it can help you in more ways than just decluttering your stuff. For me it changed the way I see my finances, it helped me to prioritise the things that were important to me and to walk away from the things that weren’t. It helped me to define my values and live a life that is truer to me, and one where I don’t feel the need to be stuck in a consumerism trap of trying to look fake rich.
If you feel the need to declutter your home, minimise and simplify, this blog is going to help you get started on your own minimalism journey so you can start living a more intentional life.
A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO MINIMALIST LIFESTYLE: HOW LESS IS MORE
1. Start Small When it comes to the Minimalist Lifestyle you don’t have to let go of your Nan’s favourite ring she left you in her will or your most treasured shoe collection. The best place and easiest place to start is with the things that don’t add value to your life. This will help you over time to assess what does and doesn’t add value to your life and get to know what is just taking away from your home and your happiness.
Start off letting go of the things that you shouldn’t hold onto; throw out rubbish and receipts you don’t need, recycle notes you have lying around you no longer need for reference. Donate, sell or toss the clothes that don’t bring you joy, the ones that no longer fit, aren’t your style or that are damaged beyond repair. Let go of your uncomfortable or worn shoes, any need to go in the bin. If you’ve got heels that you can’t walk in and therefore you never wear them; let them go too. Recycle, donate or sell your old phones and any older model electronics you no longer use.
This initial introduction to minimalism doesn’t need to be hard or scary. It’s not about letting go of things you are going to regret later, but acknowledging what does get to take up valuable space in your home (and mind!).
2. Minimise in ‘Rounds’. I found when minimising my things, the more and more I did it, the easier it got and the more I was willing to let go. It’s kind of a ‘minimised effect’, when you start decluttering your stuff you have a lower tier of stuff – if you will – of less desirable stuff. But with each minimising session you will have a new low level of what is less desirable to you to keep. And gradually it gets easier and easier to let things go.
Once letting go of the stuff you no longer want that was broken, holey, too small etc this next review will be more about taking note of what you have. Maybe you will notice you have 10 pairs of jeans and can let some of those go. Or you will notice you have clothes you no longer feel good in, or that are no longer suitable for your lifestyle. These are the ones you can work towards letting go of now that you have built your decluttering muscle up a bit.
Of course if you prefer to jump in the deep end with you can do this in one huge decluttering sesh and pull off the bandaid quick; grab all your clothes and shoes and declutter them in one session, declutter all your bathroom supplies in one sitting and so on. But if you want to ease into the minimalist lifestyle, or have limited time to dedicate to decluttering, this is another approach.
3. Start assessing where you can apply minimalism in your life outside of your stuff
When you first start decluttering you might focus on the physical clutter, the stuff you can see: clothes, linen and books. But as you progress through your minimalism journey, it’s important to look at other areas in your life that could help you to live a more intentional life.
You might want to declutter your digital space by, Unsubscribing from emails, deleting “friends”, unfollowing or unliking accounts to be more selective with what is in your news feed. Or you might again rip off the bandaid and just delete your distracting apps altogether.
You might want to declutter your schedule to leave space for downtime and eliminate hobbies that no longer bring you joy or take up new ones that do.
Adopting meal planningcan assist you to be more intentional with your grocery shopping to help you buy food more intentionally andreduce food waste.
Or you could start reassessing what you do and don’t spend money on and reassessing your budget.
When taking on a minimalist lifestyle, don’t just stop at the stuff. Use your newfound minimalism principles to guide you through all areas of your life.
4. Change your habits to reflect a Minimalist Lifestyle Minimising the excess in your home is only the beginning of your minimalism journey. There are still entrenched behaviors to review and adjust in order to continue living a minimalist lifestyle. Here are some things you can do to change your shopaholic ways and buy with more intention:
Shop less often. Rather than hitting the shopping every break or day off you get, only go shopping once a week or if you can, try and stretch it out to once a month. It might not be something you achieve straight away but could be a long-term goal.
Find new hobbies. With your newfound time gained back from not hitting the shops as regularly and not having to maintain so much excess stuff in your home, you can open up yourself to adopting new hobbies such as joining a gym, hiking or taking a dance class. What’s that one thing you have always wanted to do but never had the financial resources or time to do it? Minimalism is the tool that is going to help you get there!
Only shop with a list. How many times in the past have you bought something only to realise when you got home you already had a similar shirt or the same shade of nail polish? I know I have done this too many times to count. But that was the old me. Now I am much more aware of what I do and don’t own so I can make more intentional purchases. Eliminate buying duplicated items and things you don’t need by planning ahead and maintaining a Wish List of items so you can shop with more intention. I keep my Wish List in my Trello App which is free to use, or you can use your favourite organising app. Just note things you want on the list and resist buying it for a specified period of time. Ideally a minimum of 24 hours, but if you can stretch it out to a month so you give yourself time to really assess if you truly need that item.
Implement shopping bans, you can do ano spend monthwhere you commit to not buying anything for a month or you do individual bans such as; not buying any makeup until you have used up what you currently have, or not buying a new pair of shoes unless you actually need to replace a pair that you have. These alone are a great tool to help curb spending and put a barrier between you and any impulse shopping habits.
Focus on Quality over Quantity. Instead of focusing on buying as many items as possible at the cheapest price, focus on buying more quality items that you can keep for the long term. As you do this, you will find that your clothes and other household items will last longer, saving you time and money down the track replacing them.
5. Minimalist Lifestyle Rules of Thumb
Sometimes having some rules of thumb can help guide you and give you some perspective on where to start with your minimalism journey. Here are some that I have found the most helpful to help me live a more minimalist lifestyle.
101 Things to Declutter Right now – if you love a good decluttering checklist, you can download your free 101 Things to Declutter RightNow Checklistto get you started with your decluttering journey
Just In Case 20/20 Rule – The Minimalists have a very helpful rule that has helped me to declutter things I was unsure about letting go. The rule is that if an item is something you don’t think you will need but you are holding onto ‘just in case‘, if the item costs less than $20 and you can replace it within 20 minutes then you should let that item go. I know it seems crazy, you might think – what if I need it again, but the honest scenario is that you probably will never need it again. And if you did it probably will only be that 1 in 1000 items you have declutter that you need to replace and at $20 I think that is worth your sanity and having the home you want!
Would I buy this again? – One of the most helpful rules I have asked myself that helped me declutter things I was unsure about was this question: Would I buy this item again? And more than 99% of the time the answer is always no! If you wouldn’t buy something again, it helps you to realise that you don’t really need the item and that you can let it go. If it is under $20 it might even meet the 20/20 rule which gives you two reasons to let it go! 🙂
One In One Out – This rule is great to keep your clutter at bay over the long term. Each time you plan on bringing something home, plan ahead that you need to let one similar item go when you bring that item home. I.e. if you buy a new phone you should let go of the old one. If you buy a new pair of jeans, consider donating an older pair. It’s also a great tool to help you make more intentional buying decisions when you know that if you bring something home you will need to let go of something else in order to do so. That impulse buy might have some real consequences when you get home and need to get rid of something you love.
Experiences > Things – something most Millenials know well is that experiences are better than things. I came from a family that didn’t travel or attend many experiences like the theatre, concerts or anything like that. As an adult I have come to love all these experiences and will more often than not choose to spend my money on seeing a musical, going to a concert or paying for an experience over buying something that will just collect dust in my home or go unworn. At 33 I can honestly say I don’t really need more stuff so asking for experiences helps when it comes to minimalist gift ideas.
Minimise WithMe Decluttering Course– If you want more support on your journal to minimalism and where to start check out my Declutter With Me Course, a room-by-room guide to help you declutter all spaces in your home and keep it decluttered! In this course I will give you tips on how to minimise each area of your home and how to keep it that way.
Well there you have it newbie minimisers! I hope this post has been helpful to you on your minimalism journey and will help you make long-term intentional decisions that make your life more simplified and happy!
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.
This week’s comment question: How did you discover the minimalist lifestyle? Please let me know in the comments below! 🙂
