easy minimalist habits to OWN LESS STUFF 📦

I discovered minimalism as a new mom with too much on my plate. I remember hearing that the average American home contains roughly 300,000 material items, and the irony was that no one has enough time in their life to manage that much stuff. I realized that all the excessive shopping, decorating, storing, and organizing was creating a life of anxiety, comparison, distraction, tension, and debt. When I really thought about it, what I really wanted more of was more mental capacity to enjoy motherhood, more energy to play and be outside or rest and high-quality sleep, more money in my savings account, more conversations where I was really engaged and excited instead of exhausted or traveling with my kids or ideas, more of my weird sense of humor, more balance, groundedness, and authenticity. "Our excessive possessions," as Joshua Becker writes, "all right, let's go, are taking us away from the things that matter most to us." The payoff of minimizing for me is not just a cleaner house; it's a less stressful, more meaningful life.

Today, I want to share with you five easy minimalist habits to own less stuff that have changed my life. So, number one is in my bullet journal, and it is a wants and needs list. If you are at all into bullet journaling, then you'll know, like, if you just get on Pinterest and look at, like, things you can bullet journal about or like topics for your bullet journal, there are so many fun ones that you can start. And so, I don't know if it was my husband or like someone else that was like, "We should do a wants and needs list." And this was just like something that I did not expect to change my life. But as I was shifting out of that, like, "I want it, I buy it," like, as soon as I think of it, put it in my Amazon cart, or actually, at that time, it was just like, "Go to Target and buy it." A very simple way where I could just still act on that impulse because something about, like, not doing something with it was very unsettling to me. So, still being able to act on it, put it in my journal in the form of a list, and then just like, wait on it. Usually, I forget about it. And now, um, kind of like we're just talking about how like we still do this. We'll put things in our wants and needs list, and then, like, it's funny how even like three days later, it's just like, um, for example, I'd like to put up curtains in our house. And so, I don't know, my wants to needs list, and it does feel like a need because our house gets very hot and sun shines through these windows, and we don't run our AC. Curtains feel like a very, like, easy, economical thing to do. I put it on my wants and needs list, and I even said, like, "We're going to Ikea tomorrow. Like, this is something we need to solve." And then all of a sudden, the next day, I wasn't quite as hot, and the sun kind of shifted, and it wasn't like streaming into the windows quite as much, and it went from being like a need to like a want. There's nothing wrong with it, and I think we will eventually put curtains up, but there are other things on this list too, like clothing items that I saw that were just really cute, and I don't want to forget about them, but I don't need to buy them right now. It's just a simple thing to like, flex that muscle of, I don't know, if it's discipline or just being able to wait on it. When you have an impulse to buy something, instead, you just like, have this power to walk away and separate yourself from that need and like, just spending the money because it's certainly a lot more work to go back and return it and to have it in your home and have to declutter it.

Another thing you could call this is just purchasing slowly. It does not mean not purchasing ever. I talk a lot about quality over quantity and investing in yourself by purchasing things that add value beyond just cheapness. For me, swapping out my toxic self-care products for more hormone-supportive, natural ones has been a tiny shift that has had huge health implications for me. Camber is a small husband and wife-owned business on the Pacific Northwest that pours and mixes their own natural deodorants by hand. Their secret ingredient in their formula is activated charcoal, which allows your lymph and underarm to detox naturally all day. I guess I've talked about how much I love Camber so much that I just thought my parents actually bought Camber deodorant as well, and what I hear is is that it's the first natural deodorant they've tried that actually works. My mom gets dressed up for work, so she wears nice blouses and nice dresses, and her biggest complaint about the natural deodorants that she's tried is that they'll stain her blouses or they don't actually keep her from sweating, and that Camber isn't like that. Even my dad likes it. He says his favorite scent is Cedar and Pine. I really like the Citrus scent; it just smells like California to me. I like that it goes on clear, but most of all, that it allows the body to flush the lymph system naturally all day. Camber is so confident that you're gonna like their deodorant that they're even offering a 30-day money-back guarantee. I will leave the link to the 15% off discount code in the description box. Thanks again to Camber for supporting my channel. Be sure to use the code Madison Gray at checkout, or again, check the link in the description for 15% off your order.

Okay, so these next three are like the doozies, and the first of them is communicating openly with family. I feel like since embracing minimalism, communicating openly now is just like a habit. And the more that I communicate openly about, like, things, for example, with the kids that they would really love, you know, an interest or a hobby, a favorite restaurant, or like something specific that they saw at a store and like, really liked. I have no shame anymore with like telling my family specific things that I know I'm not gonna declutter, at least for a while. Never say never, but yeah, things that aren't just like plastic toys that you know I know always get decluttered. I think my family now, and even my friends, understand that and are like, just so respectful. And I think the more we can openly communicate that to our friends and family, like, the more enjoyable these experiences can be because I know there can be a lot of shame with getting rid of things that people have given you, which I want to talk about real quick too. So, when the day comes, whether that's a birthday or a holiday or whatever, I now just have this attitude of like, "I've done my best, and I'm just gonna enjoy this no matter what Grandma gives them or what is or isn't something I'm gonna declutter later." I just intentionally choose to not even think about that on the day. The giving and the receiving, like, this gift-giving experience is meant to be savored and enjoyed and not just thought about on, like, a practical, technical level. This thing that I thought was going to be such a big deal and I'm gonna feel so much guilt about getting rid of toys or things that I was given that I didn't really like, ended up being such a not big deal at all. I think the value of the gift is in that experience, and that is what's truly special. I think we miss that when we just start thinking about the practicality and like all the things we have to do later with it.

And this is a huge one that really, seriously changed my life, and that is letting go of the guilt for imperfect purchases. So, example of this for me in my own life was I bought an Instant Pot. I put it on my wants and needs list, and I'm telling you what, I used the thing. I tried so many times. For me, nothing ever turned out the way I wanted to. I was just frustrated every time. And then at some point, I just went back to making my beans on the stove or my broth on the stove or my potatoes, you know, in the oven. And I was like, "You know, maybe for me, the Instant Pot was not life-changing. Maybe it was an imperfect purchase. Can that be okay?" And I just said that to my husband, like, "This is so silly." Yes, it can be okay. I don't want to have the stress of trying to be a perfect person or only receive perfect gifts. Life is gonna happen, and things are gonna come into your home that are gonna eventually be decluttered for whatever reason. Sometimes things serve a purpose, and then the purpose is over. Your life changes. You're in a different season. Your kids are not little anymore, and then it's time to let that thing serve someone else.

Another minimalist habit that I feel is like, kind of controversial, is focusing on quality over quantity. So, now that I've been minimalist for about six years or so, I used to buy a lot of things that were cheap. Like, whatever was cheapest, that's what I thought was the most valuable. And over the course of time, my perception has changed. Just because it's cheap, just because it's the most frugal, or I could save the most money buying that thing, that food item, that shopping at that discount store, it doesn't necessarily make for good value, or value at all, in the long run. And so, I've changed my perception from focusing on quantity to focusing on quality. And I think a perfect example of this is my 10-item wardrobe. I've made lots of videos now about 10-item wardrobing, but in case you've never heard me talk about it, it's kind of embracing this idea of just owning your favorite, your top 10 favorite, high-quality clothing items, dressing yourself well every day in them. And I feel like from that, my experience with that, it started out just as an experiment of like, "Okay, we'll see how this goes," to me feeling like this is something I can apply to, like, my household items too. Yeah, I like purchasing things that are fair trade. I like purchasing things that aren't covered in pesticides, that are organic, and I'm actually okay paying a little bit more. I like purchasing and voting with my dollars that way. It's something that I personally really value. Something about it is just like very satisfying to me. For me, it's a habit that I just have, didn't know I would enjoy, but really enjoy opting for quality over quantity.

This last one might just be like the most life-changing one of them all, and that is a change in my perception about my things. And this is, this is how I describe it: rather than thinking about decluttering and all the things that, like, I want to get rid of, just like emptying out my life to the point where there's nothing left, that is just not my definition of minimalism. To me, like, the process of becoming minimalist was more about thinking about what I wanted to make room for in my life. I talk about this a lot in my course because I've heard lots of people say about minimalism that, like, they declutter and they're just like, kind of in this cycle with decluttering that's almost like, kind of gets them, like, this addictive high of like, it feels really good to just like declutter stuff, but then they just keep buying stuff, and then they keep decluttering stuff, and they're just in this vicious cycle. To me, something that really changed my life was instead to think, as you're decluttering and as you enter every room, like, "What do I really want? What am I? What, like, what is missing in this space that I want to make more room for that I would enjoy more of? Like, what do you want more of?" versus like, all just looking at all the things you don't need and feeling really overwhelmed by all the stuff you need to get rid of. This is super powerful. So, I'm gonna say it in a different way that, like, if that didn't make sense, hopefully, this will. I think when you can separate, like, you can look at a room and separate all the things that you get a lot of use from, that you really love, and that add a lot of value to your life, separate those ones out. All you have to do now is look at the things that are left, get rid of them. You don't have to declutter; it's more about just like separating the excess from the stuff that's adding value. I find that this is a way of decluttering. It's a habit of decluttering for me that really sticks. And it's been a long process. Like, I wouldn't say that I just like turned into this person that is a conscious consumer, or that I like, I would even really call myself that because I still consume things, and I'm sure there's people that consume less than me. I just want to live a more relaxed and enjoyable and like meaningful life and show up as me, like, more authentically, and not compare myself to other people or feel like I have to own things to like fit in with other people. I do think on some level, like, I was, I was participating in that somehow, and it is so empowering to let that go and to know that, like, even though your home might not be perfect, that you can walk into your home and know that it's you. Like, this is a space that adds value to your life, and that you can do that without buying more. For me, it's a habit that really shifted my mindset towards, like, seeing the abundance of my life all the time. None of these habits for me were difficult to embrace. They were very small changes. The idea of like the slight edge. Like, to get a very different result a year from now, you know, a day from now, you would have to make big changes. But if you're going to get a dramatically different result with your life from last year to next year, all you would have to do is, like, change the angle a slight bit, and your trajectory is going to end up somewhere very different than it is right now.

There you go. Those are my five minimalist habits that have really changed my life. I really hope you enjoyed this video, and I'd love to hear from you in the comments about minimalism or slow living. If you're new around here, I'd love to have you subscribe, and I'll see you in my next video. Thank you.