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Minimalism

10 Tips to Help You Get Your Family On Board With Decluttering

Posted on March 20, 2018

When I first started decluttering our home I knew I had stumbled onto something amazing. It was what I looked forward to when I came home from work each day. With each freshly decluttered drawer, shelf or cupboard I felt a sense of accomplishment and slightly less overwhelmed.

I started with my own belongings; my wardrobe, shoe collection, make up, toiletries and accessories. Soon enough I was ready to move onto other areas of the house. I knew it was something I saw the need for, but also knew that it was not going to be so easy to convince my husband.

I spoke to my husband about this new lifestyle I had came across, Minimalism and living a more intentional life. Luckily he didn’t baulk at the concept and was okay with me decluttering our home as long as I didn’t touch his items.

After a while, I approached him about his wardrobe and if he would be okay with getting rid of some of his excess shirts that had seen better days. To my surprise, he was mostly willing to let go of everything. We continued to tackle the ‘easy stuff’ until one day after months of my own decluttering, he asked me to help him go through his personal space.

Over the past three years, we managed to declutter over 70% of our unwanted possessions. That was made a whole lot easier thanks to my husband being on board with this journey. Of course he didn’t start off donating baskets of items and yelling out ‘Let’s be Minimalists’, (although that would be pretty hilarious). But over time and with lots of understanding and communication, he saw – as I had, the value being added to our lives by letting go of the excess so we could enjoy what was essential.

We could find our stuff, we could close our drawers without a struggle, we had space and empty cupboards – shock horror! And most life changing was probably the fact that now as we were bringing less into the house, we saved money.

It was trial and error over that period to learn how to help someone else acknowledge the benefits of letting go of unwanted items just as I had. Through my decluttering process and working with my husband over time, I learnt some valuable lessons along the way that might help you get your family on board with decluttering and you working as a team, rather than facing and uphill battle.

Here are 10 Tips to Help You Get Your Family On Board With Decluttering.

1. Lead by Example

When was the last time you ever made a change in your life because someone told you to? If someone told you to stop eating chocolate would you jump on board that day? Or, would you be more likely to jump on board if you saw a family member or friend decide to do a chocolate free challenge and join in after seeing that they’d lost weight from doing that challenge? Some times we need to watch form the side lines before we can be willing to jump into something new.

If you want to get your family on board with your decluttering journey, rather than telling them what they have to do, why not lead by example. Start working on your own cluttered spaces. Declutter your wardrobe, your shoe collection, your own toiletries or beauty products, hair accessories, your DVD collection. When you partner or children, (or room mates if you have them) see your progress and how great your spaces are looking they will be a lot more willing to start decluttering their own space, or at least be more on board with you decluttering communal spaces like living and dining areas.

2. Communicate with with them

In order to help get your family on board with decluttering ask yourself why you want to declutter your home? you need to know your why so you can help communicate that message with them. Are you feeling stressed trying to keep things clean with your kids toys everywhere? Can you not keep up with the laundry because there are endless clothes strewn around and in the laundry pile? Do you find it hard to focus on anything when you have clutter piling up around you? Talk to your family about yours needs and why you need to declutter your space. When they hear your struggles and reasons for letting go of things, they may be more willing to help you and get on board. It may even spark them to think of their own reasons to declutter and how the process could help them.

3. Set a common goal to work towards

In order to get your family on board with decluttering and encourage them to adopt a less cluttered space, find a communal why. Maybe it’s the fact that by selling your unwanted stuff you can make some money to go on a family vacation. Perhaps your children will be on board when they learn how donating their old toys can help other less fortunate children. How about a goal of downsizing your stuff so you can move into a smaller home which will enable you and your partner to work less hours, spend less time and money on house maintenance and have more time to spend doing things you enjoy together? When you both have a clear goal in mind it can make the process much more successful and help others see the benefits.

4. Clear the excess to make room for the essential

When you have too much stuff, we can forget what is really important to us. Have you ever gone through and decluttered your wardrobe and realised that you had misplaced an old favourite outfit and completely forgotten about it? Maybe your favourite lipstick was lost in a sea of 20 other ones or you forgot about your favourite books because you didn’t notice them on the shelf next to the 200 other books that you have.

When we clear the excess we can make room for the essential. We can curate a wardrobe we love, we can keep the books on display that we enjoy reading over and over again, we can display things around our home that bring us joy. When we have too much stuff we lose site of the stuff that adds value to us.

If your kids have too many toys they won’t have the time or attention to play with something fully. Maybe your spare room is filled with crap, rather then used as a room that is more useful such as a theatre room or studio. Or you have so many CDs or DVDs stacked on top and in front of one another that you can’t even see what you have and end up not using the ones that you do love as they are lost behind the excess. When the excess is gone, we can enjoy the things we truly love.

5. Be respectful of their zone

When on your decluttering journey be sensitive to your loved ones areas. You won’t be able to get your family on board with decluttering by attacking them and insisting they get rid of their stuff. Let them have their own designated space for what they find valuable. It may not be valuable to you but that doesn’t mean it is not to them.

Maybe their zone is the spare room they can set up as they wish, or a corner of the garage, or a desk in the house. Let this space be their sanctuary to keep what they please. Of course they will need to keep their stuff in the confines of the space, so once they fill their space they will need to remove something before they can bring anything new in. This will keep your partner or family happy, but also give you the ability to keep the spaces that you share less cluttered.

6. Help them

Sometimes your family may be on board with decluttering but don’t know where to start. Or aren’t quite sure of the benefits just yet. A great way to get them on board with decluttering is to offer them help them.

Be specific if possible to help your loved one recognise the need for your help. If you can see your child frustrated with their toys being everywhere that might be the time to offer to help them with them decluttering their toys so they have space to play. Or if you see your partner struggling to find their favourite shirt, that week might be a good time to discuss that issue. You could say something along the lines of ‘I noticed that you were struggling to find your shirt the other day in your wardrobe, would you like me to help you go through your cupboard and see if there is anything we can clear out to make space for the items you love?

Of course, if they decline, don’t force it on them. But hopefully you have planted a seed that they will consider and in time they might be more willing to come around and ask you for help when they are more open to to removing the excess.

Related Post: The True Cost of Our Stuff

7. Start small

Don’t expect your loved one to let go of their most treasured items from Day One. Start small and work your way up. Build their and your decluttering muscles gradually. Start with the stained and torn shirts. The damaged shoes, expired items and anything broken. Get rid of duplicate items around the home or anything that you both agree can go. Save the harder stuff for later when you are more experienced with decluttering and more knowledgeable on what does and doesn’t add value.

8. Make it fun

Decluttering doesn’t have to be boring and tedious, why not make a game out of it! Try The Minimalists Mins Game where you declutter one item on day one, two on day two, three on day three and so on. Or do a Packing Party. Another fun options is to make a simple challenge to see who can declutter the most items at the end of the week. Check out the Minimise With Me 31 Day Decluttering Challenge for one with daily challenges for you.

9. Make it a habit

Decluttering isn’t a once off event. Over time things can creep back into the home with Christmas, Birthdays, events, anniversaries and so on. It is something that needs to be reviewed as you go. Make decluttering a habit. You could do a seasonal declutter such as when Spring hits or bi-annually. Or simply leave a container in the bottom of your families closets so they can declutter items as they go, and empty their bins when they get full.

Make some new traditions such as donating unwanted toiletries and a bags to a local Charities Christmas or Winter Appeal. As you approach Christmas, ask your children to fill a bag or container with toys they want to donate to less fortunate children for Christmas. Let them know that they will need space for any new toys Santa is bringing and make a habit each Christmas for them to go through and select some toys they no longer play with to be donated.

10. Implement a one in one out rule

A good place to start is to try and stick to a one in out rule. Make a suggestions as new things come into the house. Is your partner getting a new laptop or electronic? Maybe they could sell the old on (Less clutter and money? Win!). This would also help offset the cost of the new one.

After a while this will become second nature and can help limit excess clutter entering the house, as only the things your family truly values will come into the home if they are going to have to let go of something else in order to bring it home with them.

What tips did you find helpful to get your family on board with decluttering? Were they on board from the start? Or got you on board? Or maybe it took some time but you eventually won them over? Share your experience in the comments below 🙂

[Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unplash.com]

Minimalism

My Minimalism Journey: How I Discovered the Benefits of a Life of Less

Posted on March 1, 2018

Minimise With me is One! Check out my minimalism journey and how I discovered the benefits of a life of less.

Today’s post My Minimalism Journey is an extra special one. It is in celebration of my blog Minimise With Me’s one year anniversary! *blows party horn* If you had told me two years ago that I would start my own blog in twelve months I would not.have.believed.you. But here I am and I couldn’t have had more fun! It’s been a huge year of growth for quiet, introverted me but I’m keen to keep pushing myself out of my comfort zones, find ways to share the things I have learnt with others and connect with other people on their journey to simplify.

I figured Minimise With Me’s one year anniversary would be a great time to share My Minimalism Journey, How I discovered the benefits of a life of less and how Minimalism has positively influenced my life. My Minimalism Journey kicked off about three years ago when I was in my late 20s. At least, that is when I first came across the term, Minimalism. I’d say that I’ve always had a tendency towards this lifestyle, even before I knew it existed. Finding it just made the pieces fit together 🙂

When I was young my parents didn’t raise us to be minimalists or the other side of the spectrum, materialists. We were fairly balanced. They didn’t shower us with gifts and toys but ensured we had what we needed, but nothing in excess. My brother and I looked after what we had and appreciated it, we knew what we had had to last and took pride in looking after our stuff. I watched as friends and cousins would get the latest awesome gadgets for Christmas; Game Boys, new electronic toys, the Nintendo 64 and all the best games and somewhat felt like we were missing out. We did of course eventually get a Sega Master System, PS One and even an N64 ourselves, but only long after their release.

By about the age of thirteen, a time when most teenagers have endless wants, I was a little different. I couldn’t think of anything to ask for as my birthday or Christmas rolled around, so I’d end up asking for money instead so I could pick out my own gifts rather than have something I didn’t like. I’d hit the shops with my mum or friends trying to find something to buy with my birthday cash. This usually ended up with me finding very little that I felt was worthy of my money and I would often just end up saving it until I could find something more worthwhile later on.

I was fourteen when my parents separated and I moved with my brother and mum to a nearby suburb. My mother did her best to provide our basic necessities as a single mother, but I realised quickly if I wanted anything; new clothes, bus money, a phone to go on school camps or out with my friends, I was going to have to find my own way of paying for it.

I set out to find myself a job as soon as I turned fifteen and landed my first job not long after as a Check Out Assistant at my local Coles. I was so excited to finally have some money of my own that I could spend as I pleased. I recall one of my first thoughts was about how I could buy a new pair of skate shoes each week if I wanted to and finally afford brand name clothing I was never able to ask for. Soon enough I was spending my time at shopping centres with friends after work, on my lunch breaks and weekends and progressively developed a hobby of shopping.

This was fine when I managed to work regular shifts, but became an issue when I didn’t. I remember some weeks I was only rostered on for 1 four hours shift that week and was worried about making my money last until the next pay period. After getting a phone call to do extra shifts that week, knowing my pay was much going to be higher than expected, I would go out and spend my savings buffer before I had even done my shift. One week I actually got caught out, my newly added shift was cancelled and I had already spent most of my bank balance.

It was the start of behaviour which eventually lead me on a path of wasteful spending and non-mindful consumption. Usually this impulsive spending was on clothes that I would never wear or didn’t need. My prior passion for saving and planning for the future took a back seat to buying the latest Target or Kmart bargains.

I got a second job when I was at Uni working three days as an Accounts Officer on top of my Coles job and was earning decent money for someone living at home with their parents, although I still had very little to show for it. As someone that used to be a keen saver this really bothered me. I couldn’t for the life of me even think about what I had spent all my money on other than a few possessions.

Luckily by my early twenties, and after getting my first full-time job as an Assistant Accountant, I had something new to motivate me to save; my very first home. At this point I had been dating my now husband, Doug, for a couple of years and we had talked about moving into our own house together. As soon as Doug finished university and got a full-time job, we both started saving for our first home. Within the space of 2 years we managed to save enough for a first home deposit.

We moved into our first home when I was 25 and began to accumulate the necessary items… well what we thought was necessary. In the year prior to moving out I’d started to buy things for when I moved out: towels, cutlery, plates sets, bedding, decorations and the like. Upon moving in we were also given house-warming gifts of more towels, utensils, bed linen and other items. Before we knew it, we’d filled every cupboard, drawer, shelf, container – everything. It’s truly amazing when you can move with two bedrooms of stuff to fill a four bedroom house in such a small space of time! But that is exactly what happened.

I was soon to have the worst years of my life. My Grandfather passed away after a long health battle and I lost my Grandmother nine months later. Whilst dealing with our grief we had the emotionally heart breaking task of going through their four bedroom home and sorting through their life’s possessions. There is nothing that can prepare you for the emotional experience of going through someone’s worldly possessions but soon enough, I along with my dad, brother and other family members found ourselves facing this difficult task.

My grandmother had a love of shopping from Avon catalogues and Pop, was an avid collector. Both being brought up in the 1930s meant that they kept everything. As I went through my nan’s cupboard and drawers, I found so many brand new things she had bought from Target or Avon that were still in their original packaging. So many handbags, dressing gowns, pyjamas, shoes, singlets and socks she’d never used. I imagine she had been saving it for a special occasion, which had never come. It made me sad to think of all the lovely things she’d bought but never felt the day was worthy enough to wear them. I went home vowing that day that every day would be special and I wouldn’t save everything for a day that may never come. I would use the expensive candles and fancy soaps, the nice towels and good stationery.

We had to sort through room after room of trinkets and belongings trying to decide which ones to keep or donate and which ones were the most meaningful or sentimental to our grandparents. I wished for a small note about what was important to them and why, to help us to know what was valuable and sentimental to them, but that was left for us to decode. It took us three weekends to sort through everything and my brother and dad spent even more time there than that. There were countless skips hired, filled and refilled. I knew after that experience I never wanted my stuff to weigh anyone else down or be a burden to them when I was gone.

Strangely, after this emotionally difficult experience, it was still not this event that made me stumble upon Minimalism although it certainly helped make everything come together when I did come across it.

Fast forward a couple more years and at 28 I was a newlywed, living in my humbly beautiful home with my husband. I had checked all my boxes; I was working as an Accountant, had recently completed my CPA, just had our perfect wedding, an amazing honeymoon travelling through Europe and were surrounded by great friends and family, but something still felt like it was missing and I couldn’t understand why.

I no longer had planning a wedding or studying year after year to distract me. With no new life achievements to tick off there was time to think. I found myself wondering what was next? I had hoped these achievements would lead me to fulfillment and happiness. But instead found that I was stressed, overwhelmed and felt like I wasn’t living up to my potential. Most importantly, I wasn’t sure what my passions were anymore.

One day I was in my bedroom getting some clothes and started struggling with an overcrowded drawer and somehow the stress of that seemingly unimportant situation got to me. I threw the drawers contents on the bed and started sorting through the pile. As I went through the stash of shorts I was amazed to see things I owned that I didn’t even know about. Some still with their tags attached. I discovered three pairs of black shorts that were more or less identical. I had two more in other colours. All five I had not worn more than once – if ever. I couldn’t believe I had all these random clothes cluttering up my drawers, causing me stress and why? Because they had cost me $20 two years ago? Because I was planning to wear them one day? It suddenly seemed so ridiculous!

After working through my drawer, I opened the next one and saw the same thing. Too much stuff. Another ridiculously overflowing drawer that had also been driving me crazy for years. I threw its contents on the bed and before I knew it I had two decluttered and spacious drawers. Something I hadn’t had since I could remember. I felt a little calmer and less stressed.

Not before long I’d moved onto the wardrobe to tackle my then fifty odd shoe collection Next I went through and decluttered my collection of 50 dresses (can you see a pattern here?) Fifty dresses for a girl that wears a dress a handful of times a year. I noticed a pattern with each drawer, shelf, cupboard. I had too much and couldn’t possibly wear what I had in a year, let alone have any idea what I even owned.

I was overcome with a need to clear the clutter and was soon going through all of our home. Clothes were just the starting point. I cleared our counters which had been the bane of my existence for so long. We could finally use them for their intended purpose – to cook. I cleared out our pantry so we could actually see what food we had and what we needed to buy rather than just guessing. Soon Doug was also on board the decluttering bandwagon and gradually threw out old clothes and shoes and eventually let me clear out his office of excess stuff. Not a drawer, shelf or cupboard was left untouched.

I was sick of having drawers filled to the brim and trying to shove them closed. Sick of going out on a Saturday night in a stress trying to pick an outfit that I liked and that fit and not in some last minute panic to do something as basic as get dressed! Over getting home from the supermarket and trying to cram more food into our packed pantry and fridge where nothing had a place.

I didn’t realise at the time, but all of these things were causing me stress and anxiety. It felt amazing to get rid of the excess in our home and make space for the essential. Each day that went by I began to feel less and less stressed. I didn’t know how one moment of frustration with a jam packed drawer could lead me down a path of self discovery but here we are.

I was keen learn more and started researching organising and decluttering tips. One day on my lunch break, on a Pinterest scrollathon I came across the term Minimalism. After falling down the rabbit hole I’d come across Josh and Ryan from the Minimalist’s Ted X Talk. That Ted Talk spoke volumes to me.

I realised how much my stuff had been weighing me down and how I needed to value experiences more and find what my values were. I’d been living my life following this path set by others and didn’t realise I could take another route. My minimalism journey had officially started.

I was drawn to the idea of curating a more intentional life. Not just in terms of having less stuff, or only having things I loved around me, but to value my time more. To learn to say no to things that I didn’t enjoy. Set new boundaries for relationships in my life that were negative or draining. To worry less about how I fit in with those around me and just do what makes me happy.

Looking back, I had been a bit of a Minimalist at heart this whole time.

I always appreciated heartfelt gifts over ones that cost a lot of money. Some of my favourites over the years were a towel friends had written favourite quotes from our Uni days on, a large jar my friend had hand-picked lollies I loved to fill it with (#lollyaddict), and when my husband and I bought each other the exact same block of chocolate for our anniversary.

For my 30th instead of blowing crazy amounts of money on a big party, I instead had a casual dinner with family and friends and requested for people to pay for their own meal in place of gifts I didn’t need and instead of paying for a big party, I put our money towards our first trip to New Zealand which are memories we could look back on forever.

I had watched other people in my family struggle with debt and the stress it caused and negative health impacts and as a result was very conscious of getting into debt. In the back of my mind, I always knew that I would rather have less stuff and my health, than to have more and the stress that comes with that. Things like bigger repayments, longer hours, anxiety and sleepless nights.

About a year before even discovering Minimalism I walked away from my second casual job at Coles that I had maintained for extra cash.

Instead of relaxing and preparing myself for the work week ahead I would be rushing off to work from 6-11pm most Sunday nights. At the time I justified the lost time with the extra money I was bringing home to add to our savings, and I did enjoy my job and the people I worked with – it wasn’t like I hated being there.

Although I only spent five hours at work, I spent and additional hour travelling there on top of getting ready for my shift. I also lost time to prepare for the week ahead or to chill out and watch a movie. Most Sundays I wouldn’t plan much because I knew at 5pm I had to rush off to get home in time for work so this small shift was impeding my weekend plans and mental thought process as I only had one day a week to switch off.

Eventually I realised that I valued my time more than the money and resigned.

Discovering minimalism made everything come together and I knew I was on the right path. I was so excited to see there was another way to live life and there were so many examples to learn from.

Josh and Ryan’s escape from the corporate world, Joshua Becker’s journey to simplifying so he had more time with his family, and Courtney Carver taking control of her stress in the face of illness to name a few favourites. Their stories instantly resonated with me.

I loved the idea of investing in personal growth, contribution, experiences and relationships over chasing more money and acquiring more stuff – where you could say no to more money, responsibilities and stress that often came at the expense of your time with loved ones or freedom.

Before Minimalism I’d buy something just because it was on sale and too cheap not to (what does that even mean?!). I bought things on impulse and thought about what I would use it for later. I had an overwhelming schedule that left no time for me and was slowly impeding m health.

Minimalism has helped me to reduce wasteful spending so I can use my money for things that bring me joy, such as travel. Simplifying helped me pare back my crowded schedule so there was more downtime and less stress. It reinforced how much debt can weigh you down and inspired me to find ways to reach freedom from debt sooner.

It taught me to look at the bigger picture in life. Not just how cheap something is, or how much it pays. I now consider if it is something I need, truly want, and if it aligns with my values.

Over the space of two years I had donated, cleared and sold over half of our belongings and I didn’t miss any of it.

In February of 2017, I decided it was now or never and decided to take my minimalism journey to a new level and started my blog Minimise With Me with a lot of support from my husband and friends. After seeing the benefits Minimalism brought to my life, I wanted to share those with others. For a long time I considered this idea, and it took a year of soul-searching to get the courage to acknowledge how much I wanted to help others. Not following my passion or need for growth and contribution was no longer an option.

I feel like discovering Minimalism and my minimalism journey has opened up my whole future to a new way of thinking. For the first time in a long time I have an insatiable desire to learn, grow and experience as much as I can. I want to encourage others to find their passion in life and the joy in each day and the benefits of less excess and more essential.

Minimalism

Minimalism at Thirty: What it Means to Me

Posted on January 30, 2018

Check out what minimalism at thirty looks like to me

About three years ago I found myself in a bit of a slump that I will call a “quarter-life crisis”. I was approaching my thirties and wasn’t sure what the future held for me. I found myself feeling empty, lost and dispassionate. I had approached my early to mid twenties full of life, with passion and goals I knocked out one by one. Having goals gave me something to strive for, something to grow towards and gave me purpose. But achieving each one seemed to leave me feeling more empty than fulfilled.

I had achieved what I had set out to do in my twenties; completed my Accounting degree and CPA, buying our first home at 25, had a wonderful wedding and travelled around the world and yet I wasn’t sure what was missing. I was surrounded by stuff, slowly but surely cluttering up our home, and found myself feeling more stressed and struggling to keep up with my insane schedule. I couldn’t see a way out and felt powerless to change my life.

One day as I was searching for some bottoms in my pants drawer I hit pure frustration. The struggle of fitting anything more into that drawer was just too much stress for me to handle. I grabbed everything out of that drawer and threw it on my bed. Somethings had to go, this drawer situation was just getting ridiculous. As I went through my pile I came across five pairs of shorts. Mind you I had not worn any of these more than once. I couldn’t believe that I even owned five pairs of these shorts or that I didn’t even know were there. I put the unwanted items in a pile and put my newly spacious drawer back into it’s row. I didn’t know at the time that that small moment would be the start of removing over half my possessions and lead me to the path of Minimalism.

Before I knew it I started decluttering the shirt drawer and the sock drawer and moved onto the closet finding more and more items with tags attached I had completely forgotten I had even bought! With each clothing item I pulled out and donated I found that I could breathe a little easier. I’d made space where there was no space before. I could now see what I had to wear at a glance. I wanted to know what other crap we had that I could declutter and soon moved onto the kitchen drawers, pantry, fridge, linen closet. Nothing went untouched.

Something had been sparked inside me and I found myself researching as much as I could about decluttering and organisation in any spare moment I had. I soon came across the term Minimalism. I spent the next two years decluttering over 60% of our possessions and learning as much about Minimalism as I could. I couldn’t read enough about it. I read about how Joshua and Ryan from The Minimalists decluttered their homes and completely changed their lifestyles of working 80 hour weeks and discovered Joshua Becker at Becoming Minimalist journey to a less cluttered life. Their stories made perfect sense to me. Less is more!

Inspired by No Side Bar’s article written by Jennifer Tritt Minimalism at fifty: What it means to me and upon celebrating my 31st birthday I thought now would be a good time to reflect on what Minimalism means to me at thirty as I head into a new and exciting decade of my life. Discovering minimalism a couple of years back has changed my life in so many ways and I am so glad to have stumbled upon this lifestyle now so I can make changes for the better earlier in my life. Minimalism can be a useful tool at any age, here is how it has affected my life in a positive way at thirty.

1. It means more space in my home
I moved out of home 6 years ago at the age of 25 and as the years went by, the clutter seemed to multiply. With each birthday and Christmas that passed, more and more stuff came into our home. Not to mention the trips to Kmart, Target and IKEA, always with the temptation to bring something home that I “needed“. Of course upon arriving home I would realise that I already owned three of the same striped shirts and that my new scented candle would not fit into my already overflowing candle drawer.

After discovering minimalism I pared back about 60% or more of our possessions. We now have space. This makes life easier whether it be space to prepare our meals with a clear bench, space on our dining room table to use it if we wish to eat meals at or work at, and not having to fight our closet or drawers to fit our clean clothes in. I can’t begin to imagine how much stuff we might have accumulated over the years and the anxiety that would have brought. I have never enjoyed space more and haven’t looked back.

2. It means being content with living in a smaller home
Our first home, which was to be our stepping stone into the home buying world was a 1300 square foot home with three bedrooms, a study and one bathroom. We figured it was big enough for us for now and within our budget and knew there was always the option to up size later on when we had the financial ability to do so.

After discovering minimalism the need to up size our home for a double garage, second bathroom and more master bedroom than we had, faded. Rather than wanting to go bigger, we made room for the essential and realised the benefits of a smaller home. I acknowledged that I didn’t need a second lounge room, more storage space or huge backyard to be happy. Minimalism at thirty has allowed me to be content in our smaller home.

3. It means becoming debt free faster
Since discovering minimalism the impact to our finances has been nothing short of amazing. After learning to appreciate what we have and limit buying things on impulse, we have reduced what we are spending. Rather than spending more, we made money – over two thousand dollars by selling unwanted knick knacks that were cluttering up our home and not adding value to us. This is money we have redirected to things or experiences that bring us value.

By being content with a smaller home we can resist the temptation to up size for something bigger and better. This will allow me to pay off my mortgage before I am 40 (or maybe sooner than that!) rather than at 55 or even later had I gone down the Jones trajectory and taken on a bigger mortgage.

By being more intentional with spending and planning ahead for purchases it means I can sleep easy knowing I am not trapped under mountains of consumer debt. My pay doesn’t go to regrettable purchases on my credit card that I can no longer remember. It can go to things I need or truly want and the things that are important to me like the roof over my head and food in the fridge.

Minimalism at thirty means I can avoid taking on unnecessary debt that would impede my future finances, happiness and opportunity to say yes to experiences and mean I can utilise my money more efficiently rather than by trying to keep up with an endless debt cycle.

4. It means I spend my money more thoughtfully and efficiently
When you know what truly adds value to your life and question each and every purchase you can save a lot of money. Thanks to minimalism I now make more educated purchasing decisions, sometimes holding off for a few months before making a decision to make sure I am spending my money in the most thoughtful and efficient way possible.

Rather than walking into a store with very little information, I ask family and friends or people in online communities for recommendations. I look up reviews, research the products available and features for what would be the most suitable for me as well as researching the price before buying any item over $100. I soon adopted this method across most of our spending as possible. We waste less as we shop with intention when we go to the grocery store and review annual bills to make sure we are getting value for money. This has really helped us save and reduce regretful, impulsive and excessive purchases.

5. It means knowing my values and putting myself first
Minimalism has shown me what my values are and how important it is to live by them. I am now much more selective with how I spend my time. I don’t dedicate large amounts of time to things I don’t enjoy or am not passionate about and spend time with friends who have similar values and who respect my choices, as I do theirs.

I used to be resentful on occasions when I had wasted my weekend doing things that other people enjoyed, or even times I thought I enjoyed them and then living with the consequences, such as staying out into the early hours and ending up sleeping away my Sunday mornings and still having to find time to clean, grocery shop and do what I wanted to with my weekend. Minimalism at thirty gave me more confidence to say yes to putting myself first even if sometimes that means disappointing others.

6. It means that I can plan to retire earlier
After discovering minimalism I discovered new lifestyles that didn’t revolve around working until you are 70 and revolving around working more to spend more. One blogger in particular is Mr Money Moustache who semi-retired with his wife at the age of 30 who is encouraging many ‘moustachians’ around the world to reach retirement age much earlier.

Through Minimalism I have reduced spending money on many areas in my life, which over time will allow me to save for the important things such as my retirement and to start thinking about that at 30, when I can take advantage of more compound interest benefits rather than an after thought as I approach the end of my working career.

7. It means I value experiences more
Now that I spend my money more efficiently and have eliminated most wasteful spending, I can spend my money guilt free on experiences that bring me joy and that I find value in. When I was younger I was a lot less willing to spend money on experiences. I didn’t place as high a value on them or travel as I did physical items. After all, why flutter your money away on a two week vacation when you could buy something for the house or some new outfits or buy something that you can keep for years, right?

Minimalism really helped me change my mindset on spending. I now see the value in experiences, not just stuff. Sure my new Dyson and Kindle are great and I find great value in them, but my honeymoon in Europe and road trip around Iceland and New Zealand have added so much joy to my life that no new TV or wardrobe ever could!

By buying less stuff and I now have the opportunity to have more experiences. I can now go out for a movie with my husband, a weekend away, or buy concert tickets and know that these things will truly add value to my life whilst creating wonderful memories with no clutter.

8. It means freeing up time and valuing my time more
A huge benefit of owning less is that I now spend less time maintaining my stuff. I have more manageable laundry, my smaller home is easier to clean and maintain, I have less stuff to organise and there is less paperwork coming into our house to take care of. All of these small changes have added up to time savings that I can dedicate to more important or fun activities.

The time savings goes further as I also reduced the time I used to spend shopping for nothing in particular. I now only shop from a list of items that I build that up over the space of a week or month and do my best to get in and out fast. And thanks to knowing when to say yes and no I’ve clawed back my weekends.

Minimalism gave me the mindfulness to walk away from the extra $100 I was earning each week at a second job so I could claim my Sundays back. I look back now and wonder how on Earth I use to rush off from where ever I was on a Sunday night to get to work, quickly shoving dinner down as fast as possible only to arrive at home wide awake at 12am with the thought of having to wake up for my full time job at 7am. Minimalism at thirty has shown me that money isn’t everything and that I am deserving of free time and time to unwind and that my decisions shouldn’t be purely based on money.

9. I live for each day, not just the weekend
Minimalism at thirty has given me the ability to enjoy every day and not just live for the weekends. I try and find happiness in everyday. I listen to an Audiobook on my commute, go for a walk occasionally at lunch and take notice of the birds or trees swaying in the breeze and feel the sun on my skin. Or catch up with a friend for a chat over a hot chocolate (I’m the 1% of the population that doesn’t drink coffee, great for the budget ;)).

When I find the time I write or play bass or sing or read a chapter of a book. Every day holds the potential for joy. Minimalism at thirty means I do my best to enjoy 365 days of the year and not write off the majority of them as a lost opportunity because they are work days. I may not be able to go and have a beach day or a picnic, but I can certainly find endless ways to make each day enjoyable.

10. I have learned the value of growth
Through the process of eliminating the focus on buying stuff and tying my happiness to physical possessions I was able to identify what was missing in my life; personal growth and contribution.

Discovering minimalism at thirty has encouraged me to grow. I now aim to learn something new each day or more often than not, it could be a new word in my vocabulary, a new budgeting or cleaning tip, or something musical related. Even if it’s just getting a little fitter each week or doing something to improve a relationship or your own mental health. It also gave me the courage to start my own blog and to contribute to helping others live a more intentional life. Knowledge and growth adds so much to our lives and shouldn’t be undervalued.

11. I put more value in my close relationships
Minimalism has highlighted to me the importance of relationships to my happiness. It has allowed me to invest in good relationships and reassess the less good ones. When I meet with friends or family I make more of an effort to be present, to keep my phone off the table, undistracted and paying attention to what they are saying.

I try and be more positive and supportive in anything my loved ones are passionate about and try and surround myself with people who also value this and encourage me to be the best person I can be. I’ve tried to make more time for the important people in my life, whether it regular date nights with my husband, just because family lunches and recently started a new tradition of gifting experience gifts to our nephews so we can take them out for a fun occasion.

12. I’m more mindful
Minimalism at thirty has showed me how to be more mindful. When I wake up of a morning and reach for my phone I pause and leave it on airplane mode a little longer. If someone or something is causing my stress I can recognise that sooner and take action or set new boundaries for that relationship. Instead of watching TV all day I write or go for a walk with my husband. When I see the sunset on my way home, I stand outside my home looking at it for a minute or so and soak it in rather then running into my house to start my list of errands. I’m loving being more mindful and hope to get better at it 🙂

How has minimalism benefited and changed your life? Please share your experience in the comments below 🙂

Minimalism

15 Intentional Ways to Simplify Your Life

Posted on January 11, 2018

Wanting more time and less stress? Check out these 15 Ways to Simplify Your Life in 2018!

Are you in need of some help to simplify your life?

Whether you’re starting a new year or not, now is always a great time to reassess our current lifestyle and make positive changes. One of the most common complaints from people is they don’t make enough time for themselves, or their families, or to just do things they want to do. We find ourselves filling up our free time with mindless Facebook scrolling, endless washing and cleaning, and doing things that we probably should have just said no to.

Make this year a year to remember, a year for you to work on how you can simplify your life. The start of saying no to things you don’t want to do and yes to things that you have wanted to do for too long. Take a step back and reassess what is important and what isn’t, what is adding unnecessary stress in our lives and what we want more and less of.

15 Ways to Simplify Your Life!

1. Declutter

There is no greater path to simplify your life than through decluttering. When we remove the excess we can focus more on the essential. By removing things that do not add value to our life we help to simplify our lives. By reducing the clutter in our homes we open ourselves up to numerous benefits. We reduce; the anxiety caused by too much stuff, the amount of time we waste cleaning and maintaining our stuff, and can soon notice the financial benefits when we are more intentional with our spending. Check out these 101 Things to Declutter in Your Home Right Now to get you started!

2. Learn to say no

Don’t fill in your weeknights and weekends and leave yourself no downtime or time to reset. It’s okay to say no to people and events and put your needs first. If there is an invite to something you are really not keen to go to for whatever reason; you can’t afford it, it doesn’t sound fun to you, you really feel like you can’t possibly cram one more thing into this week, it’s okay to RSVP no. Simplify your life by reserving your time for what truly brings you joy.

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!

3. Say yes to things you want to do

We can often get tied up doing the things we don’t want to do and the things we want to do end up falling by the wayside. Once we learn to prioritise our time better we have more time to do the things we really want to do like relax, exercise, watch a movie, learn a new instrument, read or whatever we like. By learning to say no more, we open up our calendar to say yes to more spontaneous things like a beach day when it’s perfect weather or hanging out with someone you just met.

4. Find joy in the small things

You don’t need to buy the latest iPhone or go on endless vacations to find joy. Don’t just live for big buys and get aways when there is joy to be found in everyday things. Make time to do things that adds joy every day and take the time to appreciate them.

It could be playing a game with your kids, watching an interesting documentary, having a hot chocolate and smelling a yummy candle on a relaxing night at home in front of the TV. When we learn to find joy in the little things we can simplify our lives and learn to appreciate the small things.

5. Remove and minimise toxic relationships

Toxic relationships add drama and stress to our everyday lives. They can consume us, take our focus off our goals and hold us back. Joshua Fields Milburn from The Minimalists in his blog titled ‘Fake‘ says ‘You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you’.

This really is the crux of our relationships, we can’t change people in our lives but we can change who we keep close to us. Sometimes we need to remove or minimise contact with people in our lives, even if only temporarily, who take away from our happiness or that are toxic and detrimental to our well-being.

When we remove people that take our energy and bring us down and hold us back, we can remove an unnecessary barrier to our unhappiness and lead lives of positivity and growth. Sometimes even a simple conversation about new boundaries and expectations can redirect a toxic relationship into a more healthy one. Or maybe you will just be more conscious to limit the time you spend around certain people in your life that take from you and give nothing back.

6. Read more

Who has ever said I wish I had less time to read? Reading is a rewarding way to destress, learn new things, unwind and get lost in a book. When we make time to read, we are making time to sit down, stop all other distractions and focus on one activity that will aid you to simplify your life. Another benefit of reading is to teach you new skills that will help you to simplify your life such as a book on habit building.

7. Spend less time on social media

A lot of time can be freed up by spending less time on social media and on our phones. You probably don’t even realise how much time you are losing aimlessly browsing your phone. Make a conscious decision to use social media less. Simplify your life by deleting apps off your phone for a small period of time, but if that is too scary to consider, try timing your use. Limit yourself to your tea break only or put your phone away at a particular time each night. When you have important things to do put your phone on flight mode or hide it in a drawer so it is out of sight, out of mind. At a minimum, leave your phone off the table when you are having dinner with your partner, family or friends and just be present.

8. Simplify your wardrobe

Simplify your life by reviewing your wardrobe and identifying what clothes you feel are truly you at this time. Be honest with yourself about what you will and won’t wear. Don’t be afraid to let go of items you no longer need, you can always replace them with more suitable and loved pieces. When we limit our overflowing wardrobes we reduce the stress we encounter with picking an outfit before running out the door. Make your mornings less stressful by adopting a capsule wardrobe and simplify your life.

To get started you can grab your free Capsule Wardrobe Planner here!

9. Eat less and be more mindful with food

With YouTube, TV, Netflix, Messenger Chats, and all the other distractions we can sometimes find ourselves unaware of how much we are eating.

Simplify your life by being more mindful of what food you are eating and how much you are eating. Take your time eating. Acknowledge whether you are full and stop eating if you are and try and take note of whether you are just eating out of boredom.

10. Reduce Stress

Simplify your life by identifying things that cause stress and aim to minimise or eliminate them.

Is your work a toxic environment? Consider changing jobs.

Is your housework overwhelming you? Consider hiring a cleaner to come out and take the load off you.

Is going out all weekend not allowing you the time to reset and unwind after the workweek? Limit your outings on the weekend to one or two so that you have time to catch up on things at home and to relax.

Pay attention to the signs.

Is your heart rate elevated? Is breathing difficult? Do you feel overwhelmed and like you can’t stop worrying about things? If the stress is starting to have a negative impact on your life, seek help and see a psychologist who can help you with making the necessary changes and give you coping mechanisms for dealing with stress.

11. Limit your exposure to advertising

There is nothing more meaningless than spending your time watching ad after ad. Find ways to limit this and simplify your life. Some ways to try and limit exposure to ads is

-Sign up for Spotify membership and listen to your favourite music without the ad interruptions (although some podcasts still advertise but you can still skip though).

-Reduce free-to-air TV that is packed with ads and stick to ad-free streaming services such as Netflix.

-Be more selective of magazines that you buy as a large portion of them are just advertising.

-Considering paying for the YT subscription service to skip the ads

12. Unsubscribe from unwanted email subscriptions

Having an overflowing inbox with unopened email after unopened email can be soul-destroying. Simplify your life by eliminating unnecessary subscriptions from your inbox. Unsubscribe from each email as they come in if you feel that they do not add value and are cluttering up your inbox.

Not only will this save you potential money when you are no longer bombarded with sale after sale notifications, but will save you valuable time opening excess emails and managing them in your inbox.

13. Automate your finances

Take the stress out of budgeting and managing your finances and simplify your life by automating your finances.

You’ll save yourself the work of doing the transfers manually each pay and get the joy of watching your savings account grow over time!

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.

What changes have you implemented to help you simplify your life? What do you want to do to simplify your life this year? Share your thoughts in the comments below 🙂

Minimalism

10 Minimalist Gift Ideas to Add Value to Your Life, Not Stuff!

Posted on November 28, 2017

With the gift-giving season fast approaching it’s the perfect time to rethink our normal gift-giving practices and adopt new ones. Gifts can help us to show how much we care for a loved one but they don’t have to be things in order to add value to their lives! Even with the best intentions, buying stuff can cause friends and family long-term clutter problems.

There is the guilt associated with receiving an unwanted gift that we have no use for. The worry of where to store or display another gift, that may have been extremely thoughtful but you know that space is severely lacking in your home. There is also the stress associated with buying a large amount of gifts with a limited budget. Not to mention the inner struggle of trying to guess what someone else might need or like when most people probably have everything that they need.

Sometimes the best gifts are not things at all and are just as valuable and useful to us. A donation of time to a family member in need, covering an expense that adds value to our lives or gifting an experience can provide a truly memorable gift that will be remembered long after that new set of tea towels you didn’t even need are forgotten.

If you are looking to simplify your life and holiday gift preparation consider giving a minimalist inspired gift. Here are 10 Minimalist Gift Ideas to add Value to your Life, Not Stuff for your loved one that will hopefully bring a smile to their faces and add value and joy, not more clutter to their lives.

1. A Gift Card for a consumable
Is there something they need or love? Consider a gift card for a consumable such as a subscription service they love. Examples are Audible, Kindle Unlimited, Netflix, Spotify etc. They can read or listen to their favourite book or have a month of movies and TV shows on you!

2. A movie gift box.
Let them enjoy a night in or out on you. Include a Netflix gift card or tickets to their local cinema, popcorn, drinks and snacks. Check out this movie gift box for some inspiration.

3. An experience gift.
Such as ticket to the zoo, aquarium or the observatory. Other options are tickets to a show, game, or to see their favourite band.

4. Offer your time or skills.
Does someone you love need a babysitter, help with doing jobs around the house, someone to teach them to cook? Or simply offer to take them someone special. Sometimes donated time can be the greatest and most helpful gift.

5. Get artsy or crafty.
Put your creative talents to good use. If you are a sewer, writer, singer, painter, photographer, give a personal creative gift to someone special.

6. DIY beauty products.
Unleash your inner beautician with some Pinterest recipes of beauty products for lip balm, bath bombs, facial or hair masks. Some great ones are Vanilla Brown Sugar Body Scrub and DIY Home Made Soap Jellies.

7. Give the gift of food!
Everyone loves dessert, you can’t go wrong with this one! Some ideas are an ice cream box with different ice cream toppings and sauces, a waffle box, home made-brownies or cookies.

8. Their favourite beverage.
Let’s not forget the drink lovers. Cater to your loved ones preference whether that be wine, beer, spirits, cocktails, tea, coffee or hot chocolate!

>>Heading off this Christmas season? Check out these 16 Easy Tips To Pack Minimally for Your Next Trip!

9. Contribute to their upcoming holiday.
If your friend or family member has plans to go on a holidays in the not to distant future consider giving them money towards their trip to help them saving up for it. Alternatively ask them if there is a tour or attraction they wanted to do on their trip that you could gift them.

10. The gift of no gift giving obligation
Sometimes the best gift of all is simply saying to your family or friends not to worry about a gift. Gifts involve, planning, shopping, wrapping, carting them around on the day not to mention the cost of buying them. Save your loved one the stress associated with hitting the shops, finding a parking spot and managing the chaotic crowds at this busy enough time of year and give them the gift of freedom. Freedom from any obligation to buy you a gift so they can invest their time and money in something more valuable to them. Agree to forgo gifts and just enjoy each others company!

What are your minimalist gift ideas? Have you made any new family traditions around gift giving? Do you and your friends say no to gifts or have you found more creative ways to give at Christmas and other special occasions. Please share your ideas to simplify in the comments below!

Organising

6 Laundry Hacks to Save You Time

Posted on July 3, 2017

As a full-time worker and blogger, with a busy social life you can imagine how much time I have left for chores like laundry. Not much. And frankly there are a million other things I would rather be doing with my time than washing! I have made it a goal of mine to get my weekly laundry done as quickly and efficiently as possible over the years. The less I spend washing, folding and the like the more time I have for more important things. And so over the years I have come up with some laundry hacks to get me in and out of the laundry as quick as possible.

Here are 6 Laundry Hacks to Save You Time that I have implemented in my household in order to simplify our weekly washing routine and claw back hours of our lives.

6 Laundry Hacks to Save You Time

Sort your laundry with separate hampers.

Purchasing a multiple compartment hamper on wheels has been the greatest $30 I have possible ever spent. I used to dread coming home on a Friday night to start my weekend off with a pile of laundry to sort and disliked lugging the heavy baskets across the house even more. I realised how silly it was to spend precious minutes sorting something when it would be so much easier to just sort our clothing from the get go.

I purchased a three compartment laundry hamper (I got mine from Kmart but as they no longer stock them check out this hamper for an idea. Anything similar will do. We use ours for two separate dark loads (we wear a lot of black :P) and the one in the middle is for whites. This is kept in our bathroom, keep yours where your family gets dressed most frequently.

As we only have two in our household the three compartments are plenty for us. If you have 3 or more in your household, having a hamper or twin compartment hamper for lights and darks in each bedroom can work just as well. Simply coach your family on what to put in what compartment of the hamper, add signs to the baskets if necessary, and soon enough you’ll have your whole family sorting their own laundry!

Wasting 15 or more minutes each weekend sorting through our clothes baskets is now a thing of the past. I simply grab one of the bags which is already sorted into darks, whites or towels, put its contents into the washing machine and return the empty bag to the hamper rack. If you don’t want to lug the hamper around you can just roll it to where ever you need. Seriously the best organisational tool in our home!

2. Downsize your wardrobe.

By having a large, overflowing wardrobe you can guarantee you will have a substantial amount of washing to do. This usually means you (or your family that doesn’t have to do the laundry) will end up wearing a significant number of clothes before you get around to your washing pile. Of course by then your laundry pile will most likely be a mountain high.

If you are not one to wash and fold regularly, that pile is going to get out of hand, fast! If you limit your wardrobe to a reasonable number of clothes, you can have a direct reduction in your laundry. Since implementing my own capsule wardrobe I have found it much easier to stay on top of washing. Check out How to build a Capsule Wardrobe: A Beginners Guide for ideas on how you can reduce your wardrobe. When you have less to wear you have less to wash and can go back to having more free time and less time spend in the laundry!

3. Think ahead with your washing to reduce the need for ironing

Have I mentioned I hate ironing and avoid it at all costs? Seriously – who has time for ironing? If I had to fit ironing into my schedule I would probably start binning a lot of clothes fast! Due to my lack of joy for this task I have found ways to work around it. My tricks are these:

Where possible avoid buying clothes that need ironing. I’ve been doing this for years and don’t miss my buttoned blouses that never seemed to get worn because I never seemed to have the time to iron them regularly. I am lucky that I work in an office with a smart casual clothing policy and we are free to wear more casual clothes like office polos. If your workplace is more strict, this won’t work for you but wherever possible, if you can get away with not wearing business shirts and the like this will cut your laundry time down.
Hang your clothes out on the line or a coat hanger as soon as the wash load or dryer is finished to help reduce any clothes from getting wrinkled whilst sitting there.
When you take your clothes off the line, ask yourself am I going to put these away right now or are they going to sit around for the next days or so until I can get to them? If you can’t do them straight away no biggie, this is my trick. I put all the socks and underwear in first along with PJs. Anything that can get wrinkled without it being a big deal. Then with the other clothing items like shirts and pants I loosely fold them so they lay in the basket neatly, rather than screwed up slowly getting to the point of needing ironing. The folding takes a second or two per item and saves you having to iron them.
If you are really stuck or in a rush to get something ironed, chucking your clothes in the dryer for 10 or so minutes can help remove any wrinkles in your clothes. Leaving your clothes in a bathroom with stream can also help remove wrinkles.

For those items that do need to be ironed at least you have managed to reduce the time you will need to spend ironing them and other items by carrying out the above. Hopefully this will help reduce the final pile!

>>You may also like 12 Simple Bedroom Organisation Tips for tips on how to Keep your bedroom tidy without much effort.

4. Identify your clean, dirty and re-wearable clothing.

Identify an area in your home for each family member to store worn but re-wearable clothing. Pants and jackets and other outerwear can be worn more than once if they are clean. Allocate a spare drawer to these items in each bedroom or a hook in the bathroom. Even laying them out on a chair can do the trick.

This will help reduce your laundry load as you will now know what you can wear again and reduce washing clothing that can be re-worn. This is particularly handy for kids that like to change their clothes multiple times a day and create excess washing for you. It’s an easy way to keep the clean, re-wearable clothing items from getting mixed in the hamper with the dirty items. Check out this amusing blog from Melanie Dale on Rules for Re-Wearing Clothes.

Don’t forget the towels! Whilst you are there request that they each hang up their towel after use to dry so they can reuse it. You don’t need to use a fresh towel every time you shower. This could help half the number of towels you are washing each week.

5. Ask for help and Delegate.

Get your family to help with washing with age appropriate chores. Kids from age 3 can do small tasks to help with laundry. Make sure everyone at least is putting their dirty clothes in the correct washing hamper compartment. On wash day they can carry their basket to the laundry as well as folding and putting away clothes. If your kids are tall enough or you’ve got an adjustable clothes line they can also help hang out clothes and take them off the line. Get your partner and kids to help out on a regular basis. If they don’t know how to do the laundry, or how they can help, take the time to explain the process to them. Give them a few weeks and soon enough you’ll have a lot more help and a lot less time trying to keep up with a households laundry needs on your own. So many parents wait until kids move out of home to teach them basic skills that should be esta

6. Do washing loads by person.

Consider washing a load for each person rather than mixing the washing all together only to have to work out when folding what socks and the like belong to whom. The less time spent sorting and matching the quicker you can get back to more important tasks. Washing one full load of one kids clothing means that they, if they are old enough, can then be responsible for folding or putting away their own items. To make this easier, use a laundry bag to keep socks together and help avoid the mysterious lost sock dilemma. If there is not enough for a full load for one family members washing, add two together and use the laundry bags to separate the socks and undies to avoid sorting confusion when it comes to folding them.

What laundry tips to you have to save time in your home? Please share your hacks in the comments below 🙂

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 🙂