10 Minimalist Lifestyle Tips and Enjoying Life More

I believe that there are hidden costs in not using these minimalist lifestyle tips and tricks. Managing what is coming in and out of your life will lead to a more purposeful, less stressful, happier existence.

If you want to live a happier life with less anxiety, stress, and fear, allowing the essentials to occupy your time is a significant first step.

There are a finite number of hours in the day; why waste any of them? Be mindful and purposeful of what and who you allow into your space.

Along with the things you spend your time managing, minimalists find a balance between keeping too many and too few things.

Minimalist Lifestyle tips will focus on caring for fewer relationships because five friends are a better family and less time-consuming than 500 acquaintances.

In my opinion, a minimalist lives with most things that are necessary. Everything in a minimalist lifestyle has a purpose and adds value.

There will be minimal excess, redundancy, or clutter. A Minimalist is more concerned with enjoying life and not accumulating possessions excessively. These are my 10 Tips For Living A Minimalist Lifestyle.

1. Pay attention to what makes you anxious

We can learn to block many negative feelings in the hustle and bustle of the self-imposed hectic lifestyle.

Blocking negative feelings does nothing to reduce the adverse physical effects they can cause. Fear, stress, and anxiety can wreak havoc on the mind, body, and relationships.

What is causing you to feel tense, procrastinate, and impatient? Can you reduce or eliminate those kinds of situations?

By taking care of these things as soon as they arise, you can massively reduce your fear, stress, and anxiety. Also, tackling what causes these feelings first instead of procrastinating and ignoring them will help eliminate those feelings.

This principle is discussed in the book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.

2. Cultivate where you constantly spend your time & money.

Are you spending daily money on that expensive cup of coffee or eating lunch out? Are you wasting time at useless meetings and on worthless conference calls?

Stop it! The minimalist lifestyle approach can help here. Attend only the ones that you can contribute to and avoid the rest. No one will miss you, and you can get one or two crucial details from one of your co-workers.

Do you need that second car or a car at all? Can you walk, take the train, bike, or bus to work? Do you have excellent public transportation where you live?

Can you use it to get around? Maybe buying an older car and eliminating the stress of monthly payments on a new car is an option for the few times you may need one during the week.

Having a second car can be nice, but the time and money spent on storing and managing it can be better spent. Don’t shop for clothes and other items you don’t need.

Try spending a whole year buying nothing. That’s right—nothing! You already have everything you need and enough clothing to last a few years.

If something you think you need breaks, try borrowing it from someone to see if you truly need to purchase it or if you can avoid buying it.

Trust me, you will survive and regain a lot of time. You will not waste time going shopping, window shopping, or mentally preparing to shop.

Growing a new appreciation for the things you do have will lead you to realize that you may have some things that perform a redundant purpose. This is another benefit of following minimalist lifestyle tips.

You will even find that you have things that perform dual purposes. Ask yourself, “Is there a way I can sidestep or eliminate these expenses/commitments?” There are ten ways to curb financial anxiety when you’re stressed about money.

3. Have a preference for Minimalist Lifestyle items that are versatile

A Minimalist would prefer three items that perform ten tasks than ten items that perform 10. When I was de-cluttering my kitchen, I realized I had a few items that performed a redundant task.

Eliminating those items contributed significantly to my kitchen’s new clutter-free counters and crisp, clean, Minimalist look.

Clothing gives you the most incredible opportunity to save, multitask, and be versatile. In my post  Simplify Your Life With a Minimalist Uniform Wardrobe, I devised a simple shirt and pants combination that I could wear daily like a uniform.

It made life easier for me in many ways. Shopping for clothing was simpler because my uniform consisted of a blue or gray top and black pants. That is all I had to look for when shopping.

If I found a quality combo that fit well, I could buy multiple pairs and be done clothing shopping for the year. I am sure that is what Steve Jobs did as he wore a black turtleneck and blue jeans as his uniform.

It saved me time and money. It also reduced decision fatigue, as I did not have to waste time deciding on multiple styles and clothing colors.

You can try the Capsule Wardrobe method if you are more fashion-conscious or need more corporate attire.

This is where you purchase several tops and bottoms that work well together. You then mix and match them to give the appearance of a much larger fashionable wardrobe.

4. Declutter, declutter, and declutter some more

This is one of the most essential minimalist lifestyle tips.

Minimalists believe that less is more. The less useless junk you don’t need, the less time you will spend acquiring the money to purchase that stuff and less time spent storing and managing it.

Less junk leads to more time for good friends and family. De-cluttering can take many forms.

9 Decluttering Secrets From Professional Organizers can be a guide for many. Others respond to challenges and get organized with the 30-day Declutter Challenge, which may work for them.

Whatever works for you is fine. Give it all a try. Anything that does not add value to your life or make you happy.

If it does not invoke a positive emotion or you would not immediately replace it if lost, it should probably be sold, donated, or discarded. Get rid of EVERYTHING that does not serve you well.

5. Give unused things away to people who need them more than you

This is one of my favorite minimalist lifestyle tips. After de-cluttering and looking at the piles of unused junk you have accumulated over the years, selling it may not be the best option. Think about giving it away or donating it to those in need.

That stuff may not add value or invoke positive emotion for you, but it may add value to others.

Giving your useless junk away or donating it may help you avoid the time spent holding a garage sale or putting it up on eBay or Craig’s List for little profit.

Spending that time saved time for enjoying family and friends. Now, for those of you whose junk is worth some serious cash, by all means, sell it.

Sell it all and spend even more time creating memories with family and friends. Now, you don’t have to clean or move that stuff around as you clean. Just enjoy your newfound clutter-free extra space.

6. Boil your job down to a few simple objectives

What are your profession’s actual responsibilities? You can reduce your workload by half when you align your efforts with things that will lead to results.

Try to be honest with yourself and identify things you do during the day that could be classified as busy work. Busy work is a task that you continually do that yields little results.

This should be avoided. As I try to Live The Freedom Lifestyle every day, I have found that some tasks I once performed yield little results, and I have learned to avoid them.

Some social media tasks I developed stopped yielding results, but I spent hours a day doing them. I just did them because I always did them, which was a tremendous waste of time.

Remember, one of the Minimalist goals is to spend as much time doing the things they love.

Spending time doing useless tasks runs counter to that. In Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, he creates a culture devoted to getting things done and maximizing time spent.

I am sure there are things you can ditch in your workday that will save you time without negatively affecting productivity. These are things that will give you more free time to do more.

These may include meetings, reports, or processes done solely because they were ALWAYS done. Change that.

7. Get comfortable saying “NO” and “I don’t care”

This is one of the minimalist lifestyle tips that feeds the soul. You don’t need to waste brainpower to have an opinion on everything, and you don’t need to “optimize” everything in your life.

Relax. A minimalist lifestyle should add value to your life and not be a burden. Don’t get into the weeds of planning every second of your professional and private life according to Minimalist principles.

Minimalist lifestyle principles are different for everyone, and self-improvement takes time. Enjoy it. If you miss something, it’s okay. You will get it next time.

Saying “NO” is ok. “No.” Is A Complete Sentence: How to Use & Stick to It is a goal. If you don’t feel something is a “Hell Yes, ” it should be a NO.

Don’t stress over it. Think about it, and if things change, you can change your response to yes. It’s better to err on the side of “NO” than to lock yourself in a “YES” and be obligated to that poor choice for extended periods.

This should be a trained response. You should be able to calculate and make that decision in seconds. The minimalist lifestyle advantage is that the “NO” response should be stress-free, and you should be able to move on to the next task without thinking about it. NEXT.

8. Eliminate toxic relationships

I always believed that 10% of your relationships (professional, personal, romantic, etc) yield 90% of your unwanted drama. Identify this 10 % and avoid them. You may be unable to do this with all of them, but any progress would be helpful.

With the fast-paced lives many of us lead and our advanced communication technology, dealing with even the people you like can be time-consuming and stressful. Why not consciously avoid the people you don’t care for that much whenever possible?

I am not saying to be a dude or tell the world you don’t care to be in someone’s company. Consciously limit your time with toxic people when you can. Be polite at all times and do not engage with them.

Less is more, and Minimalists work to spend quality time with friends and family rather than working to acquire stuff. Learn to make less space for negative people for more happiness.

9. Be frugal until you’re free

I believe there is a big difference between the minimalist lifestyle and being frugal. Minimalism is a philosophy, and frugality is a series of acts, but they can work hand in hand with Minimalism. Saving time and money is a core Minimalist principle, and being frugal is a path.

If you are not a Minimalist, being frugal daily over time can yield similar results. You will spend less and acquire less stuff you save. Less stuff to manage with fewer hours of work to purchase that stuff should also lead to less stress and more time.

As I explained in my post “Living Simple: Being Frugal Until You Are Free,” being frugal can effectively counter minimalism.

You can also have frugal consumerism, such as shopping daily, catching sales, using coupons, believing they are thrifty, and saving money.

I sincerely believe that even if you don’t choose to become a Minimalist, being frugal over time can be freeing.

Being frugal should, in most cases, relieve you from the stress of managing massive debt. Not having to work two jobs and beg for overtime to keep up with enormous debt will increase the time you can spend with family and friends.

Football Player Marshawn Lynch being frugal until you are free was the result. Newly Retired Marshawn Lynch Hasn’t Spent Any of the $50 Million He’s Made in His NFL Career.

Learn to prepare to become a Minimalist mentally. It more than meets the eye 😉