Letting go is hard to do..

The Ultimate Guide To Realistic Minimalism (What You Need, What You Don’t, And How To Break The Cycle Of Wanting)

I read this article tonight and found that it offers excellent tips on how to get your journey started.

I have been immersing myself in other people lately – their thoughts, their lives, their manner of speaking, living, being…I feel like at the moment I am a sponge and I’m soaking up everything around me that I feel will help me along in my journey to minimalism, a happier life, a more meaningful existence.

The hardest tip for me I feel will be #2 – Books. Oh my gosh, books. Most of my belongings are makeup, clothing…and books.

What’s going to be the most difficult thing for you to cull?

The simple days

When I think about minimalism, I think back to when I was a teenager and only had pocket money to spend. I then think of when I was in my late teens and had a job, however it was very low-paying.

I think about how minimalistic my life was back then – I must have had a handful of clothes, a few pairs of shoes, a couple of favourite earrings, one bag, and as for makeup – it was mostly one black eyeliner and a dark lipgloss. I was absolutely content with this and wanted for nothing. I wore the same clothes week to week without even thinking about it. I was too busy making memories to care about my wardrobe.

I thrifted/visited op shops if I wanted a new item of clothing. If someone gave me a present in the form of clothing or shoes etc I ABSOLUTELY cherished it and wore it until it had holes. And if it had holes – I mended it by hand with my sewing machine. And I continued wearing it until it became threadbare and I had to sadly part with it.

I was happy, content, satisfied and I wonder what changed.

My focus this year is to get back to that. I would like to get all of my belongings down to a few key pieces that make me feel like a million bucks, even if they only cost me a few.

• What was the time that you started living to only get more, more, more?
• Can you remember back to the age you were when you only had a couple of items and you loved them to death?
• What changed?

I want to hear your stories. Let’s delve into this further – together.

The one where she goes on a mad culling spree

After spending the past few days trawling through YouTube videos and websites which talk about the amazing benefits of minimalism and having a smaller, less crazy wardrobe…I attempted it myself.

I managed to get so much done…

• I went through every piece of jewellery I own and placed it into two categories – keep or cull (or donate in this case). I also filmed this process and will be uploading it here within the week if you are interested.
• Pulled every item of clothing out of my wardrobe, placed it on the bed (which ended up looking like a scaled down model of Mount Everest…) and sorted it into groups – tops, bottoms, dresses, pjs and gym clothing.
• I then looked at each item and decided that if it didn’t make me feel good in any way, was too baggy or had any rips etc, it was going into either the bin or in the donation bags.
• Reorganised my jewellery into different holders and put them in a place that I can easily see when I am getting ready, as well as neatly folded my clothing and placed them into their respective nooks and crannies.

I ended up filling two massive garbage bags full of clothing to give away, as well as half of my jewellery collection. Next item to tackle will be shoes, then books and then left over detritus that everyone has lying around (you know what I’m talking about…bags, belts, paperwork…just STUFF EVERYWHERE).

To say I’m pretty chuffed with my efforts would be an understatement.

Let’s start at the beginning (it’s a very good place to start!)..

2016 is so close that I can feel it nipping at my heels. I am not the kind of person to do new year resolutions, as such…I prefer to set myself up with goals or challenges. Something to sink my teeth into and really focus on.

Firstly, a little about me:

• I work full time in a office environment. It’s monotonous and I can do it with my eyes shut, but it pays the bills – and for this I am truly thankful.
• I am a professional makeup artist (qualified since 2008), however I rarely work in this field as I am not as passionate about it as I once was. That’s not to say that I won’t be passionate about it in the future…just not right now.
• I am currently in training to become a professional nail technician. I love working with acrylic and especially glitter. Nails allow me to combine creativity, science and shiny things!

With of these things considered, I have created my goals for the new year.

• No spend/buy 2016 – this is for clothing, makeup, perfume, hair stuff and body stuff. I have enough products to sink a battleship and it is choking me! I’ll go into more detail about this one in a later post.
• Have memories not things – spend more time doing the things I love with the people I love. Create special moments and give myself something good to look back on in the future.
• Live a minimalist lifestyle – similar to the no spend goal but it encompasses more of my life than just my “pretty” things. Own less, consume less, leave less of a footprint behind me.
• Finish studying, create my business and learn/improve my skills – self explanatory really 🙂