It’s 2017, a new year, a fresh start, new you, get fit, be your best … blah blah blah. As the years go on I feel like society is getting more and more obsessed with the need to make resolutions and be busy all the time. I find it all very overwhelming to listen to. This year I’m blocking it all out and focusing on one thing, minimalism. Less is more. Learning to just chill. Take more time to just exist, go for more walks, be in the moment, put down the phone, log off instagram, facebook, twitter and spend more time with people, face to face without a screen.
For the past year, I’ve been reading a lot of about minimalism, simplifying life, not only with objects in your home but with the way you live. I have slowly been decluttering our home, selling and giving away stuff we just don’t use or no longer inspires us. It all started when I discovered the minimalists on youtube and I realised what I needed to do. I have always been good at removing clutter from my home, but I needed to take it to the next level.
One of the main reasons I’m doing this is because anxiety has been playing a role in my life within the last 2 or so years and I guess I am hoping to find clarity and calmness by removing excess in my life. Some ways to do this are to reduce waste by owning less clothing, this is easy for me, I’m one of those people that areas practically the same thing everyday, basic black dresses are my go to. Creating less garbage by shopping less is a big one, just by bringing less stuff into your home you’ll naturally declutter your space over a long period of time. We’re already doing pretty good in our home, composting, recycling, buying less, but I know there’s more we can do and I plan to discover how in 2017. I’m curious, are you following the minimalist trend? What are you currently doing to reduce your footprint on the planet, let me know in the comments.
Here’s my list of 5 things you can do right now to get into minimalism:
1. Use your phone less
2. Be satisfied with less
3. Remove one item from your home every week
4. Buy less, buy local, buy quality
5. Enjoy experiences rather than objects
We live in a 1000 sqft apartment and I consider that pretty large since we live in the city, but we don’t have storage and the apartment is open plan, so you really have to think about every item you bring home, otherwise clutter quickly takes over. I’m not sure how people live in tiny homes, yes I know, you don’t really need a lot of stuff to live comfortably, but I just couldn’t do it full time. If it had lots of outdoor space, then maybe it could be possible. A dream of mine has been to build a very modern tiny cabin somewhere on the west coast where we could vacation to in the Summer and rent out when we’re not using it. I’d never live there full time, there’s no way I could live in 300 sqft with Andrew, we tried it for 3 months when we were doing renovations to our current apartment, it’s not something I want to remember haha.
The idea of vacationing at a modern minimalist tiny cabin sounds so peaceful. Of course, this is just a dream, but I’ve been gathering a Pinterest board of all the tiny homes that inspire me and I thought I’d share a few here.
One of my favourite tiny modern homes is this 300 sqft home by Mizuishi Architect Atelier located in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo above) The home was designed to take advantage of every bit of space on an awkwardly shaped lot. It’s compact and clever enough to house a family. See more photos over here.
(source: Muji tiny home via fastcodesign)
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