“Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.” Leo Babauta Life is made up of cycles. You may have begun your journey into the world of minimalism full of inspiration and clear focus on the essentials…but you’ve likely hit a couple bumps along the way. It’s

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver Yes, minimalist living is a long-term project. There’s no getting out of the fact that you’re going to need to regularly renew your commitment to living simply. Not because you’re not committed

“Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit experience and the last effort of genius.” George Sand Have you been on the minimalist lifestyle path for a while now? Do you need a little boost of inspiration or recentering on the essentials?

“Simplicity means to choose ways of living that touch the Earth more lightly and that reduce our ecological footprint.” Duane Elgin One of the great things about choosing a holistic minimalist lifestyle is that, even if you’re not trying specifically to reduce your ecological footprint, you will! Reducing consumption in

Minimalism and simple living are definitely gaining speed as valid lifestyle choices (which, as you know, makes a whole of sense on so many levels given the context of today’s world!). Nevertheless, there are still a lot of people who dismiss it as yet another passing trend. Of course there

“Simplicity involves unburdening your life, and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere with a high quality life, as defined uniquely by each individual.” Linda Breen Pierce. In making the leap to a holistic minimalist lifestyle you may have to deal with a bit of backlash from people in

“I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.” Chaim Potok Let’s get one thing straight. Silence and nature immersion are good for everyone! While some people claim to be more comfortable in bustling, busy,

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this

“Get yourself grounded and you can navigate even the stormiest roads in peace.” Steve Goodier Grounding.That elusive feeling of being centered and in balance, no matter what whirlwind of activity or chaos is swirling around you. How do you cultivate groundedness in a world that seems be constantly picking up

“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.”Leo Tolstoy Holistic minimalism mimics many principles we can find in the greater natural world. When you look at the way natural ecosystems organize themselves you can easily see how minimalism is

“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” Melody Beattie It may not be immediately obvious how gratitude and abundance connect to minimalism.

“A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.” Christopher K. Germer Guilt can be a very powerful emotion. When dealing with a major lifestyle change it’ very possible that if guilt is one of your go-to reactions,

“Scarcity mentality measures out life by the ounce; it always concludes that the needs outweigh the resources.” Erin M. Straza You’ve probably heard of the whole scarcity versus abundance mentality thing at this point. If not, the basic gist is that people who live in relative comfort are slowly clueing

“If there’s no inner peace, people can’t give it to you. The husband can’t give it to you. Your children can’t give it to you. You have to give it to you.” Linda Evans There’s ample research out there demonstrating that minimalism has mental health benefits worth exploring. In a

“When fun gets deep enough, it can heal the world.” the Oaqui So you’ve probably heard someone older than you at some point start off a sentence with “back in the day…” and follow it up with a nostalgic reminiscence of simpler, slower paced times. While life was definitely a

“The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.” Marie Kondo The above succinctly puts into words why you probably want to change your gift giving habits…among so many other things in your life! Author Fumio Sasaki says “minimalism

“Family traditions are more than arguments with the dead, more than collections of family letters you try to decipher. A tradition is also a channel of memory through which fierce and unrequited longings surge, longings that define and shape a whole life.” Michael Ignatieff More and more people are coming

“Our mind has evolved in such a way that new wants keep appearing in it relentlessly. But do not confuse them with needs. Needs are necessity, but wants are luxury.” Abhijit Naskar If you really want to learn about living with the essentials, try hanging out with your grandparents, or

“If we are ever going to see a paradigm shift, we have to be clear about how we want the present paradigm to shift. ” Gary L. Fancione There are any number of reasons why you may have decided to switch to a holistic minimalist lifestyle. The possible motivations for

“Our most valuable possessions are those which can be shared without lessening – those which, when shared, multiply. Our least valuable possessions, on the other hand, are those which, when divided, are diminished.” William H. Danforth Sharing is a very effective way of owning less. It allows us to enjoy

“Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.” Roy T. Bennett It’s tempting to

“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” Kurt Vonnegut The connection between holistic minimalism and decreased isolation may not be immediately obvious, but it’s nevertheless

“In our rich consumers’ civilization we spin cocoons around ourselves and get possessed by our possessions.” Max Lerner A lot of writings about minimalist travel focus solely on the packing aspect:what to pack, what not to pack, whether to pack at all…the articles on what bags to use and what

“He who would travel happily must travel light.” Antoine de St. Exupery If you’re not used to travelling with practically nothing it can be quite a huge shift to try and apply minimalist thinking to your luggage. A lot of us find security in our possessions and comfort in the

“And then there is the most dangerous risk of all — the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.” – Randy Komisar You’re not the only one who has at times let money get

“You don’t have to be rich to travel well.” Eugene Fodor Long-distance travel has become something many of us take for granted. “Vacation” has come to be synonymous in many people’s minds with “all-inclusive luxury resort in some warm country with nice beaches.” Unfortunately this type of travel has costs

“Plastic pollution is a massive and at the same time intensely personal environmental problem…we touch and see plastic every day of our lives. With every trip to the grocery store we can readily see our waste footprint grow. On the bright side, all of us can do something immediate and

“When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need.” Tao Te Ching There are many reasons you may be holding on to things more than you would like to. Objects are often imbued with sentimental value and can seem central to our memories. Or you may

It seems like in the last couple of years everyone and their uncle is suddenly planning on building themselves a tiny house. The movement is largely fueled by more and more people wanting to live in spaces that reflect their values, primarily, a desire to live in a more ecological,

“Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” Raymond Lindquist It can be a challenge to let go of things we’re used to having around, even for the seasoned minimalist. We get into the habit of doing things a certain way, using certain “tools” for certain tasks, and

“At its core, the issue of a clean environment is a matter of public health.” Gina McCarthy A lot of people tend to think of “going green” as an altruistic life choice. We sacrifice a whole lot of little comforts in order to “save the environment.” And let’s face it,

“A minimalist by intent, I live a beautiful life with fewer things—simple, yet full.” Laurie Buchanan, PhD At first it may not seem clear why learning about the multiple purpose of various household products is relevant to minimalism. Here’s the thing. When you use one thing for several purposes it

9 Paradigm Shifts To Make You a Better Holistic Minimalist And Reduce Waste! “You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.” Toni Morrison Underlying this whole idea of “paradigm shifting” is that of reframing our concept of what it means to be “free.” Due

“Clutter is the physical manifestation of unmade decisions fueled by procrastination” Christina Scalise There are any number of ways out there to approach decluttering your home. Blogs and books abound on the subject. You could literally spend years reading up on it and never make a final decision on how

“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” Fred Rogers Ever have an old piece of clothing that you still really love but which has just gotten too worm out to wear in its current state? Pieces with holes in them

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris The above quote by William Morris basically sums up the major guidelines of how to approach downsizing your possessions. Sounds simple, right? Yet for many of us getting rid of

“Buy less, choose well.” Vivienne Westwood Before we get into talking about specific tips for successful second-hand shopping, some of you may be asking yourselves “what’s so great about thrifting?” The simple answer is that thrift shopping is one of those things that answers to just about any possible motivation

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” Epictetus There are numerous reasons you may feel the occasional urge to splurge. In and of itself, treating yourself every now and then is not a fundamental flaw. The issue is when your spending leans towards compulsion and

Minimalism In The Age Of Consumerism: 6 Steps To Unlearning Overconsumption “The great obstacle is simply this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are dependant on what is wrong. But that is the addict’s excuse, and we know that it will not do.” Wendell Berry While more and

You may be asking yourself how goal-setting works into the whole scheme of a minimalist lifestyle. If minimalism is all about creating a happier, slower paced, less stressful mode of being that reflects your inherent values, how do you balance that with any kind of “productivity” or “achievement”? As with

“The unexamined life is not worth living” Socrates Another key phrase coined by Socrates is “to know thyself is beginning of wisdom.” While no one likes being pigeonholed, many of us crave clearer self-definition through the use of effective tools for analysis. This is because, somewhere deep down, you know

“The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.” Joshua Becker It’s all well and good to decide we want to transition to a minimalist lifestyle, but where to start? A lot of people are discouraged from the getgo simply because the

“People often ask me, “What’s so great about being a minimalist?” I usually answer with one word: freedom.” Francine Jay Does reducing clutter really increase your personal freedom? The simple answer is: Yes. However, in order to truly experience the freedom minimalism has to offer there are a few things

“We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties.” Anna C. Brackett First off, congratulations on choosing to transform your life through minimalism. By decluttering your life on every level you’re making space for increased happiness, a deeper sense of self and connection to the infinite new possibilities.