Transcription
I tried Dutch minimalism for a month, and it completely changed how I think about tidiness, space, money, and what actually makes a home cozy. Hey, I'm Robyn. I'm a retired ER nurse helping women over 40 take control of their homes and energy, and I've been doing this for a while.
Why Dutch minimalism? Now, when most people think of minimalism, they're picturing stark white walls and empty rooms. But the Dutch, first of all, I think they're the OG minimalist. They do it right, and they have figured out something brilliant: how to live with less while still making their homes incredibly cozy and functional.
The Dutch have this concept called, and I hope I pronounce this right, *gezellig*. [snorts] It's like the Danish *hygge*. It's social and warm, and it is basically the feeling of being wrapped in a cozy blanket while having the best conversation of your life, and I bet tea is involved.
Now, Dutch minimalism, it blends this coziness with incredible functionality. They prioritize quality over quantity, choosing durable, beautiful items made from natural materials like wood, cork, and stone, and I bet they're not breaking the bank to buy stuff like that. They're not being like, "I want to be all fancy." They just want quality. It's like curating a collection of your absolute favorite things instead of keeping everything you've ever owned, like a lot of us do.
But here's what I love most. It is not about aesthetics, it's about function. They keep what they need, they store things efficiently, they're smart with their finances, and they don't overfill their spaces. You know that feeling when you walk into a space and you immediately feel calm? That is what Dutch homes achieve. Not through emptiness, but through intentionality and tidiness.
So, I love this philosophy because it perfectly matches what I like to call "minimalist light" on this channel, and I have a lot of interests and lots of hobbies. I love to cook. I love gardening. I want my spaces to be cozy, not sterile, but I don't want extra stuff around. The Dutch have proved that you can have both.
Now, I have to throw this part in there. I have a friend who struggles with geography. She knows who she is. This is the Netherlands, or Holland, and people from there are called Dutch, and it is the tulip capital of the world.
Now, let's talk about how the Dutch make small spaces work brilliantly. And trust me, some of these ideas are pretty cool. So, first, their storage solutions are genius. These cool people live in old buildings in big cities like Amsterdam or Rotterdam, and they're dealing with tight spaces. Like many of you watching right now are living in apartments or other small spaces. They use every inch efficiently. I think it really is like a cultural thing. They will have stuff under beds, up high in closets, built-in wardrobes that fit perfectly into awkward corners.
Now, once I was watching a show, I don't know, I think it was like somebody moving abroad or whatever, but you could see like this Dutch person who had these really cool shelves under their stairs, perfectly organized with exactly what was needed in there. It was stunning. They have turned storage into an art form. And I am pretty sure they could organize a sock drawer that would make Marie Kondo weep with joy.
Here's what's fascinating, though. They have mandatory building regulations requiring every home to have accessible bicycle storage, which makes sense since they are the bike capital of the world. Now, imagine if we required every home to have this sort of like special storage for the things that we use daily. The essentials, not just the stuff that we're keeping just in case. And these aren't tiny closets either. They're proper rooms with direct access to the street so you can grab your bike and you don't have to like carry it up all the stairs. I think that's pretty cool.
The bike culture itself is a minimalist genius as well. With 1.3 bikes per person, they have cargo bikes for families, biking to work, bikes for groceries. So, I unfortunately, I would love that. I would love it. But, I live in a hilly, spread-out area that rains a lot. And this just would probably take a lot of my time. But, I, I love the idea. The principle is brilliant.
Back in the home, though, they use custom-made measure storage solutions, which I think makes so much sense. And also, I think that it would really limit what a person keeps. If you're like, "Okay, so like this is custom." Like I said, those stairs under it, it was it was perfect. It was beautiful. It was brilliant. And I think that you would just be so much more careful. Instead of just buying random organizers that don't quite fit, their storage fits perfectly in their unique spaces.
They've also eliminated the junk drawer by making every drawer have a specific, well-planned purpose, which, you know how I always say, "A space for everything and everything in its space." I love it. It's like the difference between wearing clothes off the rack versus having everything tailored. Same function, completely different result. It's like haute couture storage. Although, I am definitely an off-the-rack kind of girl, but I still think it's pretty cool.
Here is where Dutch minimalism gets interesting. Their financial habits are as intentional as their home design. Now, before you're like, "Whoa, what the heck does this have to do with anything?" Trust me, it has a lot to do with everything, and it really helped me when I started practicing this.
The Dutch have this highest savings rate in the European Union with an average buffer of 152,000 euros. My savings account, it used to be like a revolving door. Money went in, money went out. Sometimes they waved at each other when they were passing. They practice going Dutch, which you may have heard before, religiously. Splitting bills precisely, even for amounts under 2 euros. They use payment apps to make sure everything is fair.
Now, at first, this might seem petty, but if you think about it, when you're intentional about every single expense, you're never surprised by your spending, which I used to be. The perfectionist, science-y girl in me loves breaking things down right down the middle. And here is something that surprised Canadian me. Credit cards are rare in the Netherlands. They prefer debit cards, and they have no cultural emphasis on credit scores or debt, which is pretty neat, because I'm pretty sure North America is like the exact opposite. They've basically eliminated the "buy now, regret later" mentality that keeps the rest of us up at night.
So, when they're going to get ready to buy something online, they're taking it straight from their bank account to buy it, a lot of the times. Plus, their practical saving includes biking instead of driving, which again, I wish I could do. Home cooking instead of eating out, and buying quality over quantity. It's like they figured out that the best way to have money is to not spend it on things that don't matter.
They even give their kids minimal pocket money. Is it 50 cents? What's half a euro? 0.5 euro per kid per week, um, compared to the 2 euro average. Dutch kids are learning financial minimalism before they can even spell "impulse purchase," which, of course, my kids are like, "Can you please e-transfer me some money?" Because cash is just so last decade.
But here is what I like the most. Dutch households are actively making their homes more sustainable. They're not just saving money, they're being intentional about their impact for the future generations and with their purchases.
Now, here is where Dutch minimalism gets a really beautiful, and the *gezellig* factor I mentioned before. They create coziness through warm, diffuse lighting, yellow-toned bulbs, candles, lamps that create a soft glow. And you know how everything looks better by candlelight? They have made that their default setting. And just think about how good your skin could look by candlelight. And unless you're holding it under your face, and then you look creepy, but that's okay.
Plus, plants are everywhere. Flower boxes, indoor greenery, bringing nature inside. They also use cozy textures and natural light strategically. So, large, uncovered windows, they maximize light during their long, dreary months. And living where I do, with four to six months of darkness, I completely understand wanting every bit of natural light possible. So, I am very happy to maximize light, and I loved it.
But here is the key. They are incredibly intentional about their personal touches. A few meaningful items, not collections of random stuff. Just a few things that make you feel good. And instead of a multitude of decorative pillows fighting for space, they have three perfect ones that actually serve a purpose. It's like the difference between a cluttered coffee table and one with a beautiful book, a candle, maybe a plant. Same surface, completely different energy.
And here's the thing. Is for a lot of us, we're used to getting home and being greeted by piles, boxes, clutter, mess. And it's hard to keep it clean. But I believe that our homes should be tidy and organized. That when we get home after a crazy day, your home is like medicine to you. It's not just like stressing you out or making you feel worse.
So, I decided to try a version of Dutch minimalism for a month, because I've already actually been doing most of it for years. It perfectly matches me. But something new was the financial part. I limited us to one Amazon box per month. Now, this was initially harder than giving up caffeine, and I'm not even a coffee addict. I am addicted to tea, though, which I will never give up. So, don't even ask.
But before buying anything, like, first of all, I did use the cart as a place to put things. But before buying anything, I would be like, "Do I need this? Where am I keeping it? Am I just buying this because it's on sale?" And that last question was a game-changer because it turns out that buying a lot of things just because they're a good deal, hello Prime Days, was not because I actually needed them. So, it was very impactful for us to limit ourselves to one box per month. And we started this just after Christmas when we had been having like sometimes like several coming a day, and I was like, "This is so not good." Like financially, it's not good, and also like I think like environmentally, it's not good just to have things like always trucked places with extra boxes. Like, what? So, for us, I think we saved so much money. I use the YNAB, You Need a Budget, app for our finances, and I found that it was really helpful to just be like, our home purchases were way, way down.
Another thing that I have already loved is storage efficiency. Everything has a specific home. I love that approach because instead of just putting like things together, just shoving them wherever, we are actually giving every item a specific address. And it's like the difference between telling somebody, "I live in this neighborhood," versus giving them your exact address. It, I will continue to do this. And this exercise was a great way for me to sort of like firm this up and beef it up and just like revisit things.
Another one that I really like is quality over quantity. Now, for a while there, I got tempted by like the Sheins and the Temus, and well, not Temu, because you guys know I did a video about that. But in in like the vast whatever, I think like Amazon honestly has a lot of stuff where I'll be like, "I kind of would like that piece of clothing, but I don't think the quality is good, and I don't think it's good." So, I would ask myself, "Would I buy this at double the price?" Because if the answer was no, I do not buy it. This has eliminated about 80% of my impulse purchases, probably more. And 100% of my regret purchases.
And the coziness factor, I focused on intentional touches. A few plants, candles for evening lighting, and keeping surfaces clear except for items that actually bring me joy. I want to like look around and just be like, "Yep, I like this. I like this."
So, what are the results, though? I've, I've been implementing things, but what are the results after a month? So, financially, this has helped us stay on track with our home purchases and even food purchases each month. We're not depriving ourselves, we're just being very intentional about what we actually want. Having stuff sitting in the cart on Amazon is great. So often, I'm just deleting it or moving it out of the cart. The one box per month rule, it makes us very careful about when we're buying. We don't click "buy now," which is great. Also, a lot of the stuff I told you I've been doing for a couple of years, so I have like sort of like that like longer-term study kind of retrospect, which is good.
So, space-wise, our home feels more spacious. It turns out the secret to a bigger house is not moving, it's just having less stuff and giving everything a proper home. So, if you're living in like a tiny little apartment, you could probably decompress it a little bit and be pretty happy about it. Everything has a space, so tidying up takes minutes instead of hours.
Also, one of the biggest changes was shifting from "I need this" to "Do I need this?" It's amazing how much mental energy you save when you're not constantly managing stuff you don't actually care about. I started seeing our home as a support system instead of a storage unit. My house went from being a place where my stuff lived to being a place where we lived, and there is a little bit of stuff there, the stuff that we use.
Also, my energy levels. This is huge. You know on this channel I talk about lifestyle. I say food, water, and shelter. Your home is your shelter. My home supporting me, I now have more energy because I am not constantly organizing and thinking about stuff. I can take care of myself. I can take care of my family. I can focus on eating well and exercise. Who knew that owning less could make you feel like you had more, everything that actually mattered?
I feel like that this Dutch minimalism really perfectly aligns with minimalist light, and it has taught me that it's not about having less, it's about being intentional with what you have so your home actually supports your life instead of complicating it. So you just naturally will have less because you're not keeping anything extra around. The best part is that you have more joy.
Now, another culture system that I explored was the Japanese culture. They made cleaning an art form that is an exact science. So this video here, it's rich with amazing ideas for cleanliness and minimalism. Check that out here to change your cleaning game. I hope something great happens for you today. Please like, subscribe. You can give us a hype. Stay tidy and mighty. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time. Bye.