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After reading The Mimimalist Home, I realised that:
That’s all I want. Sounds like too much to ask? Do you know what you want? Maybe this book might help. Here are “some” of the highlights from the book.
Owning less creates an opportunity to live more.
Minimizing is actually optimizing - reducing the number of your possessions until you get to the best possible level for you and your family.
Minimalism isn’t just about living with less; it is about living meaningfully.
John Shedd said:
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
They want their home to take less time to care for and cost less money to maintain. They want less stress and distraction.
Never organize what you can discard.
An object is both a burden and a benefit at the same time. So you’re going to have to weigh both sides and make a beneft-versus-burden judgment call.
It was becoming easier to find things in my house.
you need only two towels - one in use and one in the laundry.
A nurse’s lament
“As I let go of my possessions,” Anya said, “I was much more inclined to share my time and finances with others. By spending less on possessions, I was able to decrease my hours at work. Once I stepped back from that environment, I was able to think, What type of nursing would I do if my hourly wage did not matter?”
From the time I was little, my dad always said, ‘Don’t pollute Grandmother Earth’ and ‘Waste not, want not,’ so a desire to hold on to things became my driving attitude.
every home tries to accommodate human gathering.
Does this align with my purposes? Is it so useful that I have to keep it, so beautiful that I can’t live without it, or so personally meaningful that it has to stay with me? In other words, Do I need this? Whenever the answer is no, get rid of an item, and do it gladly. The space you open up will be more worthwhile to you than whatever you’re removing.
A University of California study showed that moms, on average, spent nearly twice as much time with their kids in 2012 compared to moms in 1965 (104 minutes daily in 2012 versus 54 minutes daily in 1965). Meanwhile, the time that dads are spending with their kids has nearly quadrupled - an average of 59 minutes a day in 2012, compared to an average of 16 minutes in 1965.
hoarders have worse sleep than others,
quality sleep in an uncluttered environment recharges all of us to go out and face another day with courage and energy.
Put them where they belong before focusing on what’s left in the bedroom.
Leave nothing on the foors except for furniture
Clear Surfaces
the fewer clothes you keep, the more options you have for storing them in an uncluttered manner.
possible boundaries for kids’ bedrooms include one cardboard box for toys, one shelf of stuffed animals, or one craft project left out at any given time.
One underappreciated beneft of minimalism is the ability to walk confdently through your bedroom with the lights off.
one study revealed “women have fashion on the brain 91 times in a given day — that’s more than four times the amount that men think about sex.
Buy the type of clothing you like best. Spend your money on something you really love and need, not the current fashion trends in the magazines—especially if you don’t feel like yourself in them.
The pull toward conformity can be strong. The desire to fit in with popular culture is significant at times, as is the desire to impress others with our clothing. And no matter how old we get, the desire to run with the cool kids can remain.
“Care about what other people think, and you will always be their prisoner.”
Your home should be the antidote to stress. Not the cause of it. ~ Peter Walsh
Tim Chester said, “The focus of entertaining is impressing others; the focus of true hospitality is serving others.” Which focus does your dining room communicate?
When you’re spending less time taking care of a cluttered kitchen, you’ll have more time to make nutritious, delicious meals for your family and linger in conversation at the dinner table. When you’re not overwhelming your family and guests with a bunch of decorations and fancy table settings, they’ll be more comfortable at your meals.
rather than making the decisions to part with items one at a time when they became unnecessary, we had just stashed to The Ultimate Just-Because-I-Have-the-Space Area.
It’s been proved that having too many toys actually reduces the quality of children’s play. A study showed that toddlers with fewer toys focused better and played more creatively.
kids who don’t learn boundaries become adults who don’t set them.
Minimize your kids’ playtime possessions and you may fnd that they become less selfsh and less materialistic, cherish more and take better care of the toys they do have, and have more time for reading, writing, art, and imaginative play.
Don’t back away from the emotions. Work your way through them. This might be just the opportunity you need to process the past and position yourself better for the future.
Be remembered for the life you lived — not the things you bought.
Ask for consumables instead of durables and experiences instead of material goods. A fruit basket, a gift certifcate to a restaurant.
You’ve expressed your appreciation — you’re not obligated to hold on to the object forever. Nobody wants to burden you with a gift.
in a busy season of life with two kids and two jobs, and living in an area with limited public transportation, keeping two cars seems wisest.
Less house, more home
our final list of nonnegotiables consisted of three bedrooms, a dining room and family room sufficient for entertaining, pleasant outdoor surroundings, and high-quality craftsmanship in the home.
Maybe you and your spouse will rediscover each other when you’re actually spending time together instead of tag-teaming on chores.
Buy the house you need, not the house you can afford.
“My dream is to rent an apartment in walking distance of a train station that can take me to an airport, where I can reach anywhere in the world.”
We decided that we wanted a home with as little maintenance as possible, which for us meant no yard work, no shoveling, no home repair or renovations, and no mortgage.
We have many friends who are homeowners and enjoy gardening, yard work, and the pride of investing in their home. Sometimes I wish I found joy in those pursuits. But I don’t. And neither does Jeff. And finally admitting that and taking the steps to move toward a different life that is more authentic to who we are has been liberating.
The life we are building is focused on each other. On people.
Minimizing your home and not using its benefits to catalyze positive life change is like receiving a financial windfall and squandering it instead of investing it for the future.
