Introduction
Life is complicated. A fact that we're all acutely aware of. With all of life's various moving parts it can be very overwhelming to keep up with it all. A lot of the time it leads people to think things like "Why can't life be simpler?" Life's complexity can never truly be removed and perhaps that's the beauty of it. However, there are certainly many aspects of it that can be simplified in order to take up less space in your mind and thus allow you to focus on the things that matter more. How you set up your living space is certainly one of those things and in the following guide I will be detailing the ways in which I apply minimalism to my living situation to allow me to reduce stressful clutter in my life.
Primarily, the goal of minimalism is to prioritize what is essential and eliminate what is not in order to preserve resources. Most of the time these resources go beyond just saving space, whether it be money, time, effort, etc. Money is a main component for me personally so in this guide I'll also tell you how to cut some of your expenses if the budget's tight. Mobility is another main reason. As a result of my current living, I can exist somewhat nomadically and make moving less of a hastle due to the fact that all of my belongings fit in a sedan car. Now before I begin to go into the details of my living situation I want to make it very clear that you do NOT have to go to the same extent that I do to apply minimalism in your life. You can simply take the things that make sense for you and apply them. Remember that the whole point of this is to make your life easier, not less comfortable.
Location
One of the major components to consider in minimalist living is location. A lot of the time where you live and what you live in can be used to reduce the number of factors in your living space. In general if you're a minimalist you'll likely be renting a place and more often than not that place will be an apartment. If you're striving to live minimally, I would not recommend getting a house as you will have to pour tons of resources into maintaining it. Yard work, house work, contracting, etc. Not to mention if you are getting a house you are probably taking out some kind of loan or mortgage on it which I am firmly against for reasons I'll get into later in the guide. Having pets is also a huge investment as well, but cats and fish generally don't require alot of maintenance.
One massive way to simplify things is to get a furnished apartment so that you don't have to worry about buying or transporting furniture. This is probably single-handedly the most effective way of incorporating minimalism into your living space if you're able to do it. That being said furnished apartments are generally more expensive than regular apartments and are not always available.
Alternatively, you could also decide to rent a room in someone's house. Often they come with the convenience of living in a house without the stress of being the one managing it. You'll still be responsible for doing chores but you won't have to worry about calling the plumber or anything like that. In addition you may also be able to rent a place without having to sign a long-term lease for it. In big cities it's fairly common that you'll come across apartments or houses that do month-to-month rent which means that you can leave at any time and I greatly prefer this over signing a lease because it allows you to stay flexible with your living situation. Circling back to the point about renting a room, the downside to this however is that you obviously won't have the house to yourself and you'll also have to abide by the rules set by the person you're renting from, which trust me coming from personal experience, it can be alot to handle so keep that in mind.
There are other factors besides furniture that go into deciding a place to live. One of these is size, which likely pertains the most to your choice. To save on money I typically get something on the smaller end because I don't have alot of things so I don't need that much space. Usually this means getting a studio, which is an apartment with no bedroom, but a one bedroom would work as well. Having a smaller apartment can also save you money on your energy bill and you won't have to spend as much time cleaning it either. If the size is a problem for you, you can also place mirrors around the apartment to make it appear bigger, or get a unit that has more walls to separate areas. If you're able to, I'd also recommend getting an efficiency unit, which is a unit specifically designed for minimalists. Though I would make sure that it at least has a kitchenette and closet before renting, unless you're able to comfortably live without those things.
For floors, I generally find it more comfortable to live in a place with carpeted floors but hardwood floors or tiled floors make it easier in the event that you spill something as it will be easier to clean up. You might also prefer to have a stand-up shower as well to make cleaning easier for you. As far as elevation goes I'd recommend requesting a unit on the bottom floor if possible for reasons I'll get into later.
In regards to heating and cooling you can save money if you live in a hot place that doesn't get alot of snow as well. That way you don't have to pay for heating. If you do live in a colder area, there's not really much you can do to save on heat that I know of apart from dropping the thermostat a couple of degrees (not so much that you freeze) or getting a kerosene heater and bundling up, which I don't recommend. The most you can do is save money in other areas so that you have more money to spend on the heat/electric bill.
Such as cooling. For cooling I generally don't like using AC. I usually only use AC if the apartment I rent out already has it. Generally I prefer just using a fan so that I'm instantly cooled off when I put it right next to me and so it's not as loud. But I do know that a lot of people really prefer having AC so I will say that if you're in a smaller unit you can save on alot of power with the energy bill if you use a normal ac unit as opposed to having centralized air. What I did when I was living in one of my former apartments is to move my bed out into the living room along with my TV since it was so hot in the bedroom because the AC unit was in the living room. It didn't matter really because I rarely had guests over so I just used the other room as storage. Essentially what I'm getting at is that you don't need centralized air if you're going to be spending most of your time in one room and you can probably save even more money by just buying 2 cheap box fans and placing them wherever you need them in the house. You can usually get a cheap fan for like 20 dollars at the store.
As for location, there are two key factors that will go into deciding where you should live. Those two factors being where you work and if there's a grocery store nearby. Ideally living close to a downtown area is what will enable you to have both but I understand that living downtown is very expensive so I would recommend living just outside of a downtown area unless you prefer living in a more remote location. This will make it easier if you don't have a car or if you own a car it will allow you to drive it alot less which is the ideal situation for minimalism.
Furniture
Furniture was touched on earlier in the guide but we will go further into depth about it here. As for what you'll be sleeping on there are a couple of different options you can take. Generally figuring out what I'm going to sleep on is the most stressful item for me because it's a huge inconvenience when it comes to transportation and makes it harder for me to move out of my apartment at the snap of a finger. Plus I like to be on something comfortable if I can.
The first option is to just get a regular mattress and simply throw it on the floor, college bachelor-style. If you want it elevated you can just get a boxspring or you could even get a bunch of milk crates to set it on. You could also get a bedframe but I generally don't like them because I'm too lazy to assemble and disassemble it, assuming that I even build it correctly. That being said you can still find bedframes on Amazon that only require a few steps to set up. And if you don't like using a beframe you can also prop up the boxspring using the forementioned milk crates or you can get a couple of cinderblocks to put it on, but I would not recommend this as you might accidentally cut yourself on the blocks.
The second option is that you can get an air mattress. This is definitely the ideal choice for the ultimate minimalist seeing how it deflates, making it easy to store. That being said, as someone who's slept on an air mattress before, it's incredibly uncomfortable so I would not recommend it. It constantly deflates, the stitching on the sections always comes lose making an awkward hump and the support isn't all that great but if you can work around all of those things you could get by with it. Maybe throw a memory foam topper on it.
The third option which I like the most is to get a futon mattress. They're cheaper and more flexible than normal mattresses which is useful for turning it into a couch or a spare bed for guests. It also makes transportation extremely convenient because you can fold it and throw it in the back seat or in the trunk. The only downside is that they don't provide as much support for sleeping and most of them aren't very thick so it won't be high off of the ground if you don't have a bedframe. To alleviate this however you can either get a simple boxspring or if you're like me and you want something that's easy to transport you can simply get another futon and stack them on top of each other to increase support and elevation.
The fourth option is that you could always sleep on the floor. For most people this isn't much of an option but I do know some people who don't mind it. I hear it's good for your back. If you're doing this you can make it more comfortable by getting a sleeping bag with a bunch of thick blankets and pillows stacked on top of each other. Getting a sleeping bag is also a good thing to pair with the other sleeping options because you can save on having to buy a whole bunch of blankets. It's also not as bad sleeping on the floor if you have soft carpet.
Clothes can be another tricky area for minimalism. Because I live in a hot climate, my wardrobe really only consists of gym shorts and t-shirts which are easy to store and don't take up alot of space. I also don't like to have an enormous chest of drawers and a huge clothes basket either because the latter is annoying to carry places and the former is really fucking annoying to move.
There are a couple of ways I alleviate this. Instead of getting a chest of drawers what you could do is get a set of plastic ones. Usually you can find them at Walmart in the room essentials section. These are good if you don't have alot of clothes and they're very easy to transport. That's what I did for a while. I used the same one I had from college for 8 years before eventually throwing it out due to wear and tear.
Something that I like to do is simply get a bunch of hangers and just hang up all of my clothes in my closet or clothes rack since hangers can easily be stored. Or if you want you could always simply fold your clothes and place them on either your windowsill or at the top shelf of your closet. Another thing you can do is get a 4 or 5 storage cubes and place your folded clothes in there. Storage cubes are really convenient because you can fold them up when you aren't using them.
As for your dirty clothes, as it was said before I don't like to use a basket because it's annoying to carry around, so I use one or two laundry nets instead. You can get them really cheap at the store for like three dollars and they make carrying and moving your clothes around easy and what's extra useful is that it doesn't take up space when you're not using it; you can fit it right in your pocket.
For tables and chairs I normally don't worry to much about them because I pretty much do everything on my bed but if I do use them I typically use either a small foldable cards table that I can set my drinks and food on along with a foldable chair or small wooden stool which helps with having something to set my things on.
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For storage I use a couple of different totes. I have one big tote that I use to hold all of my books in that also doubles as a TV stand. And then I have a 2nd tote that I keep in the trunk of my car to hold all of my random crap. It also might be a good idea to have a spare milk crate as well for additional storage or you can use the forementioned storage cubes that fold into each other.
Devices
I have 4 main devices that I use primarily however if you want you can cut it down to 2, your computer and your phone. First let's discuss the computer. Since I don't work from home or anything like that I usually don't need much from my computer other than something to type on and surf the internet so I went with a small Samsung Chromebook from 2019. There's not many features on it aside from the essentials but as it was said before I don't need it for anything other than to surf the web and type notes on so I'm more than happy to use it since it's cheap. I basically just see it as a big phone. Back in 2019 it was rather expensive but as of now you can get a Samsung Chromebook for less than a 100 dollars on Amazon and I'm sure there are tons of other computers on there that you can get for cheap. The trick to not getting a faulty laptop is to get one that's labeled as refurbished, which basically means that the device has been restored to working condition, so even if you get an old model of laptop, you can still get one that's fully functional, and many old laptops will suit your needs, especially if you want to adopt minimalism.
The second device that I use is my gaming console. I'm a bit behind on console generations so I only use a PS4 instead of a PS5. Primarily because there are still tons of games that I need to play on it before I get a console of the next generation. Though if you're an avid gamer I'd recommend getting a gaming PC as you have access to more games and features. If you want you can even get a mini PC instead of a full one if you want something on the smaller end. Or you could get a Steam Deck which is a portable device that allows you to access PC games via Steam.
Anyway, my game console is my main hub of entertainment, as I can not only play games on it but I can also watch the DVD's that I still collect using it's disc player if I want to. On the subject of discs, what I like to do in order to save space is to throw out the box for the DVD and place the discs in a huge CD binder. You can buy a big one that can hold up to 200+ discs for about 5-10 dollars. I can also use my console to watch movies from the cloud that I've purchased on various streaming sites such as Amazon, PS Store, YouTube etc, making it a very useful source for all of my needs.
As for what I display my console on, I use a projector which is absolutely a game changer for minimalists. For one, transporting it isn't a problem because it fits right into your backpack. You don't need a TV stand for it either since you can point it in any direction or if you have a stack of books you can place it on that. You can make the screen as large as you want and you can use an HDMI cord to plug it into any device you like making it extremely useful.
The last item is my phone. I don't use my phone that often other than for calling, texting and the occasional google search so I decided not to go all out and buy a super sophisticated phone with alot of features on it because I just don't see the point if I only need talk, text, and internet data. I got my current phone at a grocery store for 30 dollars and have managed to make it last for 3 years. Your local Walmart or Sam's Club will likely have similar options for you as well or even a gas station.
You can also save alot of money on the particular service that you decide to get. I typically go with a prepaid service because I'm not locked into a contract and because it's alot cheaper than the big companies and just like with the phone itself, I don't need a fancy service with all of these features that I'm never going to use. I use SimpleMobile and I only pay 25 dollars a month for unlimited talk, text, and slow data along with 3 gigs of fast data that you can pay to refill or get a plan with more fast data. That's the one I use but there are tons of prepaid services you can use if you're on a budget. BoostMobile, Cricket, Straight Talk, Metro PCS, Mint Mobile, etc.
In addition I've also decided to turn my phone into a brick essentially. As I said before I don't need alot out of my phone so I've decided to go through the phone and uninstall all of the apps that I don't need off it and clear out all of the extra widgets that I don't need. I've done the same with my computer. The reason being that when I open my phone I don't like seeing a bunch of useless apps that I'm never going to indulge in like Candy Crush. Even just by seeing it and having to scroll past it and getting the notifications associated with it is going to absorb mental resources, mental resources that can be better spent elsewhere, even if it's only for a brief second. Remember that the point of minimalism is to prioritize your life by filtering out all of the things that use up unnecessary space in your life so that you can better allocate mental resources and having decluttered devices will greatly assist with this.
The most important aspect I want to highlight with the phone is something that can save you a ton of money if you decide to go the minimalist route. That being USB tethering. USB tethering is another huge game changer to minimalists. If you're unfamiliar with it, USB tethering is a feature that most smartphones have today that will allow you to share your phone's WiFi with your device using your USB cable. Going back to what was said earlier about buying cheap phone services, it may be worth it to simply buy an unlimited plan from any mobile service and then just use the tether on your laptop to fulfill your internet needs without needing to get a separate internet service. You can then hook up your laptop to your projector or TV to put it on a bigger screen.
Now this strategy is going to be difficult to implore if you like to play online games or live stream. If you wanted to make that work, you could also use the hotspot function that is on your phone as well, which is basically like tethering but without the cord. However, most hotspot data is limited and in that case it may be worth it to just buy separate internet, but if your laptop or computer is the only real device that you need then you can spend a little bit more on an unlimited data plan instead of spending a bunch on a wifi router that you only need for one device. In addition you also don't have to worry about being locked into an internet contract if you do this.
Finances
As a minimalist I am firmly opposed to the concept of debt. I don't like the idea of owing things to people, businesses, etc. It's simply one of my principles. Because of this I will never take out a loan, mortgage, credit card, whatever and unless you have to and I recommend you do the same if you want to adopt minimalism.
The reason being that I don't see the point in taking out a loan or using a credit card to get more money if you have to pay it back anyway, with interest. Remember we want to declutter our lives in order to focus on what's really important and debt is something that will occupy space in your mind as you worry about how you're going to pay it off every month. That being said, I acknowledge that there are highly valid reasons to take a loan/credit card and sometimes you are in the position where you have to do it and I'm not here to tell anyone not to do it. But hopefully the perspective that I've shared can serve as food for thought.
As for how I manage my finances I use 2 separate debit cards that each use a different bank. The first one is the main card that has most of my money and another card that serves as a secondary back-up card. Generally what I do unless I'm going somewhere important is to put a small amount of money into the secondary card and use that card whenever I'm out at a bar/casino or something and I leave my main card at home so that nothing happens to it while I'm out getting wild or doing whatever. That way if something bad happens, say I lose the card or get mugged, or I get drunk and spend a whole week's worth of groceries on jagerbombs, it's not that much of a loss because I didn't put that much money on the secondary card. You can also get a savings account with one of your banks and put the bulk of your money in there so that you can only spend so much money before needing to transfer it. You also get the benefit of making a little bit of income each month off of the interest.
Exercise
As for working out you can also minimize this as well. Going to the gym is a great activity but it can also be a bit of a hassle between getting there in the first place and also spending money on the monthly subscription. If you still want to go to the gym go ahead and do it, I'm not here to tell you not to, but I will share with you a minimalist workout routine that doesn't require the gym or any equipment.
I discovered this routine years ago from a youtube channel called Brix Fitness and it details 4 exercises that you can do easily that will hit all of your core areas. There's also a workout from an anime called One Punch Man which is very minimalist but I would highly recommend not doing it as that particular workout can lead to muscle imbalances and to be honest it's not that great of a workout to begin with. Besides, this one is better anyway.
The routine consists of pushups, squats, hand planks, and bent over row. For the pushups I've always liked doing them against the wall to make it easier and to increase overall volume and for the bent over row you can use a milk jug filled with water to allow you to do a pulling motion. Alternatively, you can also do the "superman exercise" which is when you lay flat on your stomach and raise both your legs and your arms at the same time. This will allow you to strengthen your back. For cardio you can also do what I like to call the "air bicycle" which is when you lay flat on your back, lift your legs and then create a circle motion with them to simulate riding a bike.
Alternatively, you can do any home workout that you want but keep in mind that if your workout includes jumping it may cause problems for your neighbors cause you might shake the floor which is why I highlighted earlier that you might want to try and get an apartment on the ground floor so that you can perform more types of exercises without needing to go to the gym.
Groceries and Household items
As far as cleaning products go, I mostly just use dish detergent. It works when I'm cleaning counters, obviously for washing the dishes, it's still useful for the bathtub, I've even used it as a toilet cleaner and it's worked out fine. Some dish soaps also have labels on them stating that they can be used as hand soap as well. However, don't use dish detergent if you're cleaning glass substances, use a separate product for that.
As for cooking ware and dishes, I don't typically own alot of them because I don't cook that often and they take up alot of space and also if I have less dishes, it forces me to wash them and not let them pile up. To remedy this when I go grocery shopping I typically get things that don't require much more than a bowl/plate and some cutlery. When I go to the store I typically make sure to get 3-4 different raw vegetables and 3-4 different raw fruits and then a number of premade dishes that are filled with carbs and protein that serve as my main courses. Specifically for the vegetables I usually get the ones that come in a ziplock bag that are already cut and prewashed. I base this off of the premise that you need a fruit, vegetable, and protein for each meal over the course of a week. Usually I try to get a large variety of them so I don't get sick of eating the same thing every time.
Vehicles
Lastly, for transportation, I usually drive small compact cars. Getting a truck, van, SUV, etc would be the most ideal choice of vehicle because you'll be able to take all of your stuff with you without needing a moving truck or something. That being said, having a smaller vehicle can be less stressful to manage on a daily basis. The reason being that small cars use up less gas and thus can save you money. Small cars are also much easier to drive due to their size and handling which can be a major source of relief if you're like me and sometimes get anxiety on the road. Although I will say that an advantage of driving a bigger vehicle is that generally people know to give you more space while you're on the road.
I also buy used vehicles in order to save money. If you do this however, be careful not to get scammed. One way that you can do this is by making sure the vehicle is Certified Used, which means that the vehicle had to undergo various checks to ensure that it's fully functional.
I also like to buy a car outright instead of doing a payment plan, because like I said before I don't like making monthly payments on things. If you decide to buy a car outright you can also use this to your advantage to save money. Cash talks at the dealerships since most people prefer to finance and so you can use this as a bargaining chip. Chances are when you arrive at the dealership you'll have already looked at their online catalog and have picked out the car you like. When you arrive tell them that you're not entirely sure which vehicle you want and that you'd like to start browsing their selection even though you already know which car you want. When you arrive at the car that you want, show visible interest in it and then ask them about the price of it (if they've already shown you the price, ask to reconfirm what the price is) After they tell you what the price show a slight level of uncertainty to it and then move on to the next car. After your done browsing ask them how much it would cost to finance that car. After they tell you a number, continue to show a bit of uncertainty as if you can't afford it. Then propose to them a smaller amount and ask if its okay to pay that much if you do it in cash. That's usually what I do when buying a new car but keep in mind I'm NO expert in sales tactics and what not, so you by no means have to use my strategy.
Conclusion
That about sums it up for the guide, I hope it's been helpful to you and I hope that you found something in here that you can apply to your own life.