Have you ever gotten through opening presents during the holidays with your family and wondered, “Now where the heck am I going to put all of this?”
Or gone to put away your laundry, which you HATE to do, and then you realize that there is just SO MUCH to put away.
What if your laundry was always kept up with, and your dishes were regularly done, without you having to hire extra help at home to make it happen?
Minimalism can totally help you with that.
You may think that your life is so chaotic and busy as it is, and so you don’t have the bandwidth to make minimalism happen for you.
That minimalism is some far-away concept you’d love to embody in a magic world, but there’s no way that YOU could make it happen for your life.
I have amazing news for you.
I have decided to put together this simple guide of the top twenty minimalist hacks for your home for you busy entrepreneurs. They are the same methods we’ve adopted as a family of seven, which allow us to have more brain power available as we build our brands to multi-six and seven figures with my husband, AND spend a majority of our time just hanging out with our kids and relaxing.
AND BONUS: You do not need to know how to fold a fitted sheet perfectly, have nifty expensive storage designs, or get overwhelmed when it comes to adopting a minimalist lifestyle.
In fact, like minimalism, the most effective minimalist methods are very simple and free.
Just start small with these simple tips.
- Just like you set time aside for doctor’s appointments, client meetings, and kid activities, put a time in your calendar for your weekly de-cluttering. Just 20 minutes. That’s it. You’ll see that soon enough, you get into it, and it feels so good that you just keep going. Simply committing to a short period of time won’t make it feel overwhelming to start. Now go put it on your phone calendar with reminders just like you prioritize everything else. 🙂
- Again, start small. Tell yourself coming up first on your scheduled declutters are your bathroom drawers. Then, once those are decluttered, you’ll do your hallway closets. See? Just bit by bit.
- Surround yourself with fellow positive minimalist aspirers. We recently did a simple daily challenge in my female entrepreneur community, and so many of the women in there ROCKED IT, and felt it was totally doable. They felt it was the definite kick in the butt to get themselves on the route to declutter. Join us in there now for more minimalist challenges and trainings for free.
- How many times have you watched house hunters and the key thing people are looking for is tons of storage space? Choose home design that encourages minimalism. This will help to keep you on track with your minimalist lifestyle. For example, we purposely left closet doors off our coat and pantry closet so we don’t get tempted to shove things in there out of sight.
Note the sticky note with one of the Italian vocab words we’re learning in homeschooling 🙂 - Color-coded towels, and just enough sheets for one change of sheets per bed will help you keep your laundry down, and your linen closet mostly organized and empty. Note that I myself nor my kids and husbands are Olympian folders. See? You don’t have to be perfect to be minimalistic. Having color-coded towels and sheets will hold your kids accountable for whose towel is whose, and therefore they can’t just use a towel and put it in the hamper time and time again. They are responsible for their own color-coded towel, and you’ll know exactly who left it on the bathroom floor then. 😉 Speaking of the bathroom, notice our sink vanities don’t have much storage space. Because the linen closet has so much empty room, we utilize that for a better view of replacement toothbrush stashes, etc., and in this case, also extra stacks of health and cleanliness products that are headed to a drive for homeless community members in our city.
- Color-coded plates and cups. We each have our own color-coded plate, cup, mug, and bowl. This holds us accountable for who didn’t do their dish, or who left their dishes out after dinner. AND keeps from dishes piling up if everyone just has a designated set. We have an extra set up and out of reach that belonged to my grandparents and was a wedding present to them that we use when guests come over.
- Having decor that means something. Every item on my shelf brings me joy. It is either a family heirloom, a book written by someone super special, like my dad, or has a really deep symbolism or a practical daily use. I love to receive plants as presents because they make me happy. 🙂 And most of the pieces in my home are family heirlooms. Like the white table in my office that lived with my dad’s family in France when he was small, then in our homes in Italy when I was small, then in my home, and now is in my office. I also have a frame with my great grandfather’s university diploma. This is also an energetic way I love to stay connected to my ancestors. My great grandfather co-wrote the Italian constitution, and was an instrumental politician. My great-uncle co-founded an international organization that is still millions strong and focuses on the present moment and loving others first. Choosing pieces that have meaning and also support your vision and mission will be daily reminders to keep going.
- This is more of an energetic one, but having an alarm clock and clock separate from your phone to avoid brain clutter. How many times do you go to check the time or set your alarm clock and you get distracted by your notifications? Or how many times does your phone alarm go off and the first thing you do is try to tackle e-mails and messages that came through overnight? BRAIN CLUTTER! Having a separate device for time, alarms, and searching things and playing music allows you to unplug more effectively when it is time to relax or give yourself a moment before you jump into life.
- Giving presents from the heart that are consumable. Our home, like your home to you, is super special to us. It was a home that we totally manifested and went for, even though we didn’t know HOW we were going to make it happen and totally stretched ourselves to do it. Which is even more of a reason why we love our Holly bushes that were there when we bought it, and use it to make wreaths and mistletoes as presents, and apparently also a side hustle for my kids!
- Clearing out your toy room before Christmas. Every Christmas we totally clear out our toy room before Christmas. We also clear it out before 3 of our 5 kids have their birthdays in December. We love the energy behind presents and how good it feels to give and receive. This pic here is prior to us passing along the kitchen we received for Christmas last year, since it very well loved at this point. We either turn in our toys for store credits at consignment stores, or we pass it on to someone in need, or we schedule a pickup from a local nonprofit. PS my kiddos actually love to play the keep or give away game with their stuff.
- Creating a color coded wardrobe. I have a limited wardrobe that allows me to conserve my energy when it comes to what to wear, or looking for that one thing I love. I just have a small selection of clothes that I love. My closet serves as a closet–a place where I keep all my health, beauty, and hygiene products, and my office. A majority of what’s on that vision board has now come true!
- Choosing home decor that is functional. This large world map was a present from my mom. We use it for Geography in homeschooling (which is what is occurring in this pic), and for manifesting with our kiddos. We put little yellow dots according to where we want to go next together in the world. It ignites so many conversations! Fun fact: being minimalistic can be a challenge when you have a large, loud family like mine, so we also buy wall decor and rugs to absorb sound so our loud antics don’t carry and echo as much from room to room 🙂
- Not forcing yourself to eat food or keep food because you don’t want to waste it. The food is wasted if it isn’t enjoyed by you. You forcing yourself to keep food in the fridge or eating it when you’re not crazy about it isn’t feeding a third world country. At the same time, waiting until your fridge is empty and cupboard is empty before you grocery shop will help you keep from having too much in the fridge and forgetting about food that then is past its prime, and will make it less daunting to clean. Whether my own fridge is clean at this time in this photo, is up for another discussion.
- Repurposing old clothes into rags and napkins for your kids. How many times do you feel guilty getting rid of a T-shirt even though it has some stains, so you keep washing it and washing it and keeping it and keeping it? We repurpose holed up legging and stained up clothes with no return into rags and napkins. This also puts us into the energy of feeling like we deserve nice things and that we don’t have to keep old things just to make use of them! And it’s environmental – BONUS!
- Choosing consumable holiday decor that you don’t have to store year-round. A majority of our Holiday decorations are live greens that we get to enjoy during their prime, and don’t have to climb into the attic to get. In fact, we don’t even use our attic at all! What we have in terms of special seasonal decorations, we can fit on a shelf in our garage.
- Not feeling like you have to find a meaningful new home for your items. Many of us don’t want to just simply give away our items and want to find a meaningful next home for them. This isn’t necessary in order for items to not go to waste. They have lived their life, they have served their energy, and that in itself is not a waste.
- Being cautious about not being too hung up on not wanting to waste money, and therefore wasting your energy and space. I once spent a really generous amount of money on a system and program for my family that was an incredible investment. After a month of trying extremely hard to make it work, I simply let it go. Even though I had spent tons of money on it, I knew that if I got stuck in the energy of trying to make it work, I was blocking myself from being open to something better for my family, which in turn, is a much bigger waste. As soon as a let it go, the same amount of money magically came into my world in a totally unexpected way. That is what I call the Divine Economy!
- Sometimes the hardest, best thing to do, is to do nothing at all. Finding more strength and courage to resist the urge to get involved when it’s just a distraction, and/or maybe someone else would even be a better fit to get involved, is key when trying to maintain a minimalist mindset.
- May the wisest person be quiet first and walk away first. I say this often to my kids as they’re getting deep into a discussion for the sake of proving to the other that they are wrong or right or the other. I remind them that often the smartest thing to say is nothing at all, agree to disagree, and walk away. How many times do you get into a discussion or argument or situation or “he said, she said” because you are spending so much energy trying to convince someone that just isn’t going to get it that what you have to say is valid and on point? Don’t clutter up your energy with that! I know it’s challenging. I feel you!
- Believing in the Divine Economy. This is huge, and I mentioned it in a point above. Often we hold on to things or items on our schedule or jobs or clients or whatever, because we don’t want to waste the money already invested in them, or we feel that if we let them go, we won’t find a replacement or something even better or even MORE in goodness. The truth is, no one thing or one person defines the key to your success or wealth or happiness. Often letting things or people go is the best thing you can do for you and your family.
See? Easy simple steps to get you started.
And there’s a belief in myself and my clients as we totally see this happening in our lives. As you declutter your physical world, you’re simultaneously unlocking amazing things that are just waiting to come into your world for you.
And if you’d like even more regular knowledge on how you can live a minimalist mindset lifestyle as an entrepreneur, so you can reserve your energy for attracting SO MUCH GOOD STUFF that is just waiting to come into your world, follow me on Instagram, join my FB group, or connect with me on Linkedin.