pithy insights from the best books on simplicity and clutter-free living [2/3]

As we simplify our lives, we will be able to finally let go of the burdens of obligations and complications. We will empower ourselves to dodge the traps of competition and comparisons.
Through a minimalist life, we will be able to get rid of our bad habits, stress and all the self-sabotaging behaviors that rob us of our energy that we can put to better use.
Contrary to what most of us think, it is possible to live a rich life with less stuff.
The main purpose of voluntary simplicity can be summed up in these words: Using the simplest and fewest things to create the maximum effect possible.
The secret of our wellness lies in living a simple and disciplined life.
It’s not wrong to say that when we get rid of clutter and invest in experiential living, we get on the course to living a happier and more intentional life.
The mountains of junk and non-essentials that pile up in our homes keep us anchored, rob our mental peace, and keep us away from experiencing happiness.
An effective remedy against rampant materialism is valuing real-life experiences over the junk and superfluous stuff that prevails our garages, closets, basements, and other territories of our homes.
A great approach for minimalist parents is not to deprive kids of toys and personal collections, but instead put some rules in place and build healthy limitations.
The key is not to minimize joy but to own less.
Since children model their parents’ behaviors, as we let go of clutter and tidy up, it gives them the opportunity to act and behave consciously building a strong foundation for the lives ahead of them.
If we want to create a better future for our kids, we need to behave and act responsibly, and make sure that we raise them in a simplified and uncluttered space.
Swedish death cleaning or döstädning is a relatively new decluttering trend that is mainly geared towards getting rid of things so that other people won’t have to deal with them when a person is gone.
The idea behind death cleaning is to let go of unnecessary things as we age. A motto that we can use during this process is: “If you don’t love it, lose it. If you don’t use it, lose it.”
It doesn’t matter what age or stage of life you’re presently in, don’t hold yourself back from decluttering.
Choose destinations for the things that you want to let go of. Some ways to declutter are giving away unwanted gifts, passing things down to your children, letting your friends take any excess furniture items or donating to charity.
Death cleaning is a marathon, not a sprint.
Our digital life is causing us a plethora of a distressing concerns — addiction, decrease in overall happiness, limited restricted autonomy, enhancement of hollow desires and pleasures that exploit our human instincts and drives, and distraction from high value activities.
We need a philosophy deeply rooted in our values as we use our current technologies that helps us ascertain what tools should we use and the best way to use them, and most importantly empowers us to confidently let go of everything else.
We need to take the path of digital minimalism and only focus our technological time on a handful of curated and optimized activities that strongly align with our core values and our goals.
Overall, digital minimalism is much more than a set of rules, it’s about living an intentional and whole life that comprises of big wins in our current age of seductive devices and technologies.
A key problem that affects most of us is that we live in homes that retailers and mass marketers want us to live in, instead of living in homes that resonate with us, the ones that our mind, heart and soul pine for.
A minimalist home is not defined by the size of the house or how many pieces of furniture you have.
Our home needs to be a safe haven for us that we love to be in, not a place that makes us feel overwhelmed or even depressed with annoying clutter and superfluous stuff lying around us.
As we create a minimalist home for ourselves that we desire and a better personal space that we truly deserve, we start enjoying the time that we spend in our homes and fall in love with it again.
Simplicity is not about creating a newer version of ourselves, it’s about discovering ourselves again.
As we declutter and tidy up, it creates a ripple effect that influences other aspects of our life as well.