A few months ago I wrote about Hey Mama and interviewed the founders Katya Libin and Amri Kibbler just before they launched an online community for creative and entrepreneurial mothers. In the intervening months, they’ve launched a successful site HeyMama.co and garnered quite a following on social media. Each week they post new content covering interviews with successful entrepreneurial moms, styling and brand spotlights, tips for aspiring bloggers and social media influencers, and all sorts of fun lifestyle posts from a range of contributors. Their site is pretty slick and doesn’t have that earthy vibe (that I give off!!), so I was a little surprised when they asked me to contribute a post about minimalism.
After sharing my first draft, Katya and Amri wrote back saying they liked it, but pushed me to speak more about my own experience with minimalism and raising children. Again, I was surprised. I didn’t think that was the box they wanted me to fit into. After another draft or two, the piece sounded a lot more like me (and what I thought was a lot less like Hey Mama). And yet, they loved it. It took me a day or two to realize that Katya and Amri really, honestly do celebrate difference, and want to represent a range of mothers and paths to success through Hey Mama. So, I guess my post does sound like me and like Hey Mama, because Hey Mama isn’t just one voice, it’s many. I encourage you to visit their site and to say hi over on their Instagram account. They have open minds and lots of ideas to share.
For my piece, which you can find here, I share 11 Ways to Get the Most out of Life with Minimal Living. I had a longer list than 11… because you know I can go on and on about minimalism (I’m not very minimal when it comes to that!), so I thought I’d share what didn’t make the cut and you can visit Hey Mama to read the rest.
So, here are some of my tips for getting started with minimalism, by first focusing on minimizing the stuff in your living space (in my Hey Mama post you’ll hear more about how to bring your kids on board with minimalism):
- Accumulation happens because we keep things around, but also because we keep adding to our stash of stuff. To get closer to that relaxing minimal space, you need to minimize the amount of new things you bring into your home, and purge any unused, unnecessary, duplicate items from your home. Do you have 5 wooden mixing spoons? You can safely get rid of 3 of them, probably 4. Do you have high school notes? You definitely don’t need them!
- Don’t window shop or browse. Limit your chances of impulse buying things by only shopping when you know what you need ahead of time and stick to that list. Better yet, wait a few days or a week to buy something, you might discover you don’t need it that badly or at all.
- When purging your home of excess stuff, break up the work. Divide your living space into zones, so you can focus on one at a time, and feel a sense of accomplishment when it’s done. It will motivate you to keep going. A zone might be your pantry, an entire room or just a drawer, depending on how much time you have to put into it. It’s great to start with your bedroom or the room you spend the most time in, because the positive feedback of having this room done will encourage you to keep going.
- Build on the positive feelings of purging stuff from your home to motivate you to keep eliminating stuff. Once you start purging things, it becomes somewhat addictive, the positive feedback of having less to tidy and more space to enjoy will provide ample motivation to keep going. You will also likely notice a change in your housemates sense of calm; my children have thrived on having less stuff in the house and playing outdoors without toys.
- Talk to others who have minimized their living space. You will hear from everyone that you talk to that they have only had positive experiences with eliminating stuff from their life. They have never regretted donating or giving something away. The fear of regret is what often holds people back, but the reality is, we don’t miss our stuff.
After visiting Hey Mama, please come back and let me know what your favourite tip was. And why not leave a comment on Hey Mama too!? xo
If you are interested you can view my Hey Mama profile here.
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I love the idea of breaking the work up when downsizing your stuff. I have been on a mission to declutter my life materially and electronically.
From a material perspective, I’ve started a twice yearly spring (and fall) cleaning exercise where I get rid of things I haven’ used since the last spring cleaning.
From an electronic perspective, having notes scattered about just adds stress to life. I decided to use an app to help with electronic decluttering: http://www.weretiredearly.com/Blog/2015/10/01/password-manager-app-amemoryjog-review/
Best of luck, great article!
I think the “high school notes” part is funny for two reasons. I came across a box of mine in my old room at my parent’s house recently and had a really good laugh (at a time when I needed a really good laugh). Since I am trying to minimize my stuff, I decided that I should get rid of them. I was then called away and didn’t get to finish the job of cleaning out that closet. A few days later, my family was emptying out my grandmother’s house (she recently passed away) and we came across a box of her old letters from friends and boyfriends. It was fascinating for us to read the correspondence and to get to know a bit more about our grandmother in her younger years. We even learned some family history and saw our grandparent’s fall in love as teenagers. Had she thrown them away, we never would have had this gift after her death. So, now I haven’t said goodbye to my own notes and I am feeling conflicted about it. Any thoughts?
Dear Angie, thanks for reading the blog. About the high school notes, well what I meant was class notes, like lecture notes, not notes between friends. Although, I did throw those out — I’m a little ruthless. I do have one box containing some sentimental cards and letters, that I think of as the best ones, that I have kept for my children. I wouldn’t keep nearly all of it. When there is too much there is risk that nothing is appreciated, whereas with less we can give our attention to something. So I would say keep some, but there are probably many that are redundant or don’t tell much of a story. Good luck and go slowly with minimizing. xo