Minimalism tips

When I started with the journey, I was worried that others might think our home looked weird. But I realized that no one cared about what our home looked like. A possible solution is to remember that at the end of the day, you are the one living your life. The only opinion that matters is the people living in the home. That’s it. If you are really worried, have a conversation with your family and friend that visit often. Explain that you are trying something new. I have done that with my family and they were very receptive to the changes that we have made in our home. Who knows, you might have some other friends and family that want to join you on this journey. Wouldn’t that be fun!

The third mistake I made was not changing my buying habits. I learned that I am an impulse shopper. If I saw something I wanted in the store, I would buy it. Often it was something small and insignificant, like a cute new decor piece or a nice smelling candle. Nothing too expensive. And nothing I needed. But I realized that even though our home was feeling more minimalist, I still had a way to go. Then I had a realization. I was bringing more items but not decluttering other items out. So even though I was diligent with decluttering, I was still having too many items. A solution is to become aware of your buying habits. For a month, keep track of all of the purchases you made. Once the month is over, highlight any of the purchases that were impulse purchases. This exercise might surprise you a little. It sure surprised me! Once I was aware of my buying habits I was about to fix my problem; 7 Free ways to Reduce Impulse Buying. If you have been on a journey to simplify your home, pay close attention to your buying habits. Aside from decluttering, this one area that will drastically improve your home for the better.

On social media, I would see people doing these massive decluttering sessions. I thought I had to do the same. But guess what folks, I have a busy life and I bet you do too. I didn’t have the time to spend hours decluttering. The solution was to regularly declutter in 5-15 minutes chunks. I used nap times to my advantage. Every nap time I would declutter a small area in our home. Find a few times throughout your day or week to declutter small areas of your home. Try adding decluttering to your weekly cleaning routine. Start small and I guarantee you will see a difference quickly.

When you’re designing a webpage, landing page, or any other web property, your above-the-fold content, or the content directly visible on the first page without scrolling or any other action should be the hub of minimalism. How much you interest audiences with this content decides whether they scroll down or navigate further. In this section, place only the topmost impactful and high-level content with a great amount of negative space. You can increase the content density further into the navigation.

When we say composition, we don’t just mean placement. We are referring to the alignments, layout, and user flow that results from your composition. Remember the rule of thirds from design school? This is why they taught it to you. You don’t need to stick to one rule, though. You can also try alternatives. But remember that your composition has to make some technical sense. Be particular about strong grid alignments, and keeping the design clean and decluttered. This will ease navigation and guarantee a satisfying visual journey.

Ever wondered why Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Karl Lagerfeld, and other popular icons wore the same clothes everyday? Asked why he always wore the same grey T-shirt to work, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg replied, “I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community,”. Like energy, Willpower is a finite resource. These highly influential people figured that they should focus their energy and decision-making juice to the more important stuff. Things like deciding what to wear uses up these precious resources that could be put to more essential use.