1. A Clutter-free Life
What is clutter? The Oxford dictionary defines clutter as "a collection of things lying about in an untidy state". According to the LA Times, the average American household has 300,000 items in it today. Apparently, American homes have nearly tripled in size for the last 50 years, and still, 1 out of 10 Americans still rent an offsite storage. Most of the time, people think the answer to happiness is having more when in fact, we should really be trying to look in the opposite direction. In the book Tools of Titans, Tim Ferriss wrote "What if I can only subtract to solve problems?" Minimalism enables you to identify the things that really matter and get rid of those that don't have any significance. It constantly gives you this awareness of only keeping things that have value. You'd be surprised to find out there are 8 out of 10 things that you don't really need and only kept them thinking they would give you more happiness, when in fact, all it did was fill up your home giving you more clutter and less space. Reducing clutter is the first step to finally having order and more space in life.
2. A Stress-free Life
The main culprit for stress is clutter. Whether it be clutter in physical form, digital form, or financial form, a lack of clarity in anything can be identified as clutter. With lesser clutter, there is lesser stress. If your normal default is constantly adding more to your life day by day, whether it be more physical stuff, more subscriptions from the internet, more credit cards to pay for holidays, you'd end up overwhelmed and stressed having all these things on your plate. Once again, we all think the answer to happiness is having more when it clearly is the opposite. Less means more clarity and fewer worries. Lesser stimuli to perceive also means there are less to process for our brains, therefore reducing stress. Lesser clutter means a clearer mind and a calmer body.
3. More Time
Living a minimalist lifestyle gives you more time. Why? With lesser clutter, there are lesser things to tidy and organize. People spend hours chasing the next best possession whether they are physically in a shopping center or browsing online. We have failed to realize that time is our most valuable resource and that it is non-renewable. Imagine all the time wasted in browsing and buying things you don't really need, which will only sit in a corner in your house and wouldn't even be noticed for years. Having a minimalist mindset allows you to only look for and buy things that are essential and useful in your home. By having lesser stuff, it is easier to clean and tidy, saving you more time to spend for yourself or for your family.
4. More Money
Spending less on useless things enables you to save more money. Saving more money means more buffer from financial disasters. Money spent on those 8 out of 10 things that don't really matter, could go to an emergency fund or investments instead. You can also use that money to build and grow a business that will generate a passive income for you, giving you the option to quit your active income source, which is your typical 9 - 5 job. This will give you more freedom and time in the long run. Minimalism also gives you that sense of frugality when it comes to personal finance because you are only spending on what's essential and useful.
5. More Productivity
Everyday, there are plenty of distractions in our way that stop us from achieving our goals in life. Whether it be cleaning, unpaid bills, demands from work, social media, and other infinity loops such as YouTube and internet browsing in general, they all can be identified as clutter and distractions and will prevent us from accomplishing the things that matter in our day to day lives. By having less clutter, we can focus on accomplishing tasks that have more significance in our lives. In the book The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch, it states "80% of the results come from 20% of the causes, a few things are important, most are not". This means in our productivity, we should constantly look for the 20% of work that gives us the 80% results that we need, rather than the other way around. By having a minimalist approach to our own productivity, we can achieve more by doing the few things that have a bigger impact rather than wasting time and energy in doing the repetitive things that don't really move us forward.
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