Believe it or not, there is a difference between simple living and minimalism. A minimalist is someone who chooses to live with the bare necessities. When I think of simple living, I think of someone trying to live a low key life.
Simplifying your life is about living with less so you can focus on the things that really bring you happiness in life.
I’m by no means a minimalist (don’t let my husband tell you differently, or my 4-year-old, she’s on to me) but I do enjoy living a simple life.
Over the years I’ve learned a lot about living a simpler life. Simplifying our lives has not only improved our finances but it has made us a happier and closer family.
Simple living isn’t about having the least amount of clothing or being able to survive on only the essentials. Simple living is about having the perfect amount of stuff in your life so you can live comfortably.
I want you to learn how easy it is to live a simple life. These tips are going to show you how to live low key so you can start enjoying your life more!
Benefits Of Simple Living
More Time To Do What You Love
What’s the one thing you will never get more of in your lifetime…… TIME! Living with less creates more time, time to do things you love with the ones you love. If you had more time what would you do with it?
Play with your kids more
Enjoy your favorite hobbies
Brew your favorite beer
Travel more
Whatever it is that you enjoy, you’re going to be able to do it more often when you start living a simple life.
When you begin simplifying your life, you’ll notice that you will spend less on things that don’t add value to your life.
I hate watching people waste money on things that they think will add value to their life when it won’t. I know we all do this from time to time, even me.
Some days I feel like consumerism might eat us alive.
One of the biggest changes we’ve made as a family in the last few years is budgeting. Simple living has helped us save more than six figures in just 5 years!
By budgeting, being aware of our spending and living within our means we have been able to spend more time together as a family and do the things we love!
We All Want Less Work
Simple living is all about being content with what you already have. Do you really need the biggest and best of everything to be happy?
No, you don’t!
We recently bought our first house which is still really exciting. We chose to buy a smaller house for many reasons, one of them being I didn’t want to spend my entire evening cleaning. My kids can literally destroy any house in under 3 minutes.
But guess what, that messy house doesn’t bother me anymore… Due to living in a smaller house I can clean the whole thing in just 10 minutes!
Less work gives me more time to enjoy the small things, the things that matter, my family.
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Less Is More
Admit it, you have clothes in your closet that you haven’t worn in over a year.
Why are they still hanging in there?
You have a storage room full of stuff, half of it you probably don’t use.. EVER!
She takes you through the step-by-step process of decluttering and simplifying your home. This book walks you through the whole house, room-by-room, to help you get rid of unnecessary items. If you haven’t read it you should!
Other books I highly recommend reading:
Steps To Living A Low Key Life
So, are you ready to take the plunge? Are you ready to gain more time to do the things you really enjoy in life?
Are you ready to spend less time overwhelmed by all of the unimportant stuff in your life? Here are several ways most of us need to simplify in order to start living low key.
1. Change Your Mindset
It’s time to detach yourself from the norms of society. If you want to live a simple life, then it’s time to figure out what’s important to you. I can promise you it’s not the 12 purses hanging in your closet or the 25 pairs of jeans sitting on your shelf.
If a storm blew through and took your home from you, what would matter the most to you? I bet it’s somewhere along the lines of the safety of your family and animals.
Nothing else would matter.
Would you think of that master closet full of jeans when you probably only wear 4 of them? No, you wouldn’t because the extra 21 pairs don’t add value to your life.
Once you change your mindset and think about the example above, you come to realize that materialistic things aren’t what matter most in life. What matters most are the friends and family around you and how you spend your time with them.
Here are a few other ways to simplify your life:
Evaluate your use of time
Learn to say no
Have a “donate” bag and put something in it each day
Limit the amount of social media you use
Budget
Cut cable
2. Purge
Don’t go crazy and start throwing everything in sight away quite yet.
Once you’ve changed your mindset and you’re ready to start decluttering, it’s time to purge. That’s right, start getting rid of stuff you don’t use or want.
What space in your home stresses you out the most? Let’s tackle that space first. A good place to start is your storage or toy room. These are areas that acquire a lot of stuff quickly.
Purge PARTTYYYY
Grab your nearest basket
Pick up everything that doesn’t have a place
Dump everything in the middle of the floor
Start 3 separate piles (keep, donate, and items you don’t want or no longer need)
Once you’re finished, put your “keep” items back into their designated spot
Bag up your “donate” items and bring them to the nearest donation center
Donate or sell your other gently used items you no longer want
Toss old or broken items
Continue this process for each room in your house
Remember, if you haven’t used something in a year chances are you aren’t going to use it again.
So get rid of it!
It can be hard to separate from certain possessions but it will feel great once it’s gone.
If your lucky, you can even make a little money off selling your stuff too.
It will be hard to simplify your life if everyone around you is doing the complete opposite.
Encourage your family to jump on the bandwagon too, especially your significant other.
We’re really big on spending money on experiences instead of things.
This technique has really eliminated clutter in our house, which has made me one happy momma! The best part about this is you can get all of your family onboard, relatives included.
With less clutter, you’ll live more of a simplistic life.
Decluttering with Kids
Declutter with kids is hard!!
Can I just tell you that my 4-year-old has a shoebox that she calls, her “don’t throw away box.”
Yes, sadly I’ve been caught red-handed tossing things of hers garbage.
How does my kid always happen to use the garbage right after I throw something of hers away?
Decluttering with kids, you have to outsmart them.. It doesn’t matter the age or the clutter.
One piece of advice, always go through their room and toys when they are gone.
If you don’t, every item you pull out of their toy box becomes some new shiny toy they need to keep even if they haven’t played with it in months!
They will insist on keeping it and every other toy in the box.
Good luck!
There are many different ways to begin simplifying your life. Hopefully, this has given you some ideas on how to begin living a low key life.
Do you live simply? What simple living habits have you transitioned into your life?[disclosure]
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Cassie is the founder of Living Low Key, a website devoted to finding financial freedom. A minimalist who believes in living on less and saving the rest. After paying off over $30,000 in debt, she has since helped thousands create budgets and pay off their debts. She is also passionate about helping others find their perfect side hustle, so they can quit their day jobs and live life on their terms.
I do not take out items that I will keep. What a waste of time and energy. I only remove items that I am purging. I very quickly purged a closet, and many drawers by removing the obvious items that needed to go into the donation bag or box or the trash. If I felt ambiguous about an item, I left it in its place to be looked at later, when I felt like purging again. Removing everything can overwhelm people. That is one of the ways I disagree with Marie kondo.
I love this post and I love your blog! My husband and I have a similar philosophy! We believe in working smarter not harder. It’s important to live simply and to be content with what you already have.
The Pipps
Hi Katie, Thanks for checking out our post and our Blog! We find that we would rather spend time together as a family collecting memories instead of collecting stuff. Our saying is make the life you live the life you love!
We have regular “purge parties” at my house! I try to live simply, but it is definitely hard sometimes!
The Pipps
I try and do regular purge parties once a month but around the holidays it’s so hard. My kids always seem to acquire way to much stuff this time of year.
Great post. I especially liked the purge idea. I throw out old clothes every few months but somehow manage to keep finding old stuff to throw away. Mindset is also super-important. Love the tips!
The Pipps
I’m glad you liked the post!! Every so often it’s good to clear out old stuff in your house that you’re not using. We try to keep the clutter in our home to a minimum.
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I do not take out items that I will keep. What a waste of time and energy. I only remove items that I am purging. I very quickly purged a closet, and many drawers by removing the obvious items that needed to go into the donation bag or box or the trash. If I felt ambiguous about an item, I left it in its place to be looked at later, when I felt like purging again. Removing everything can overwhelm people. That is one of the ways I disagree with Marie kondo.
Loving your tips for a simple life
Thank you Sally!
This really melted my heart, the info is so important and I can’t add more.
Thanks Joyce! I’m glad you loved our post.
I love this post and I love your blog! My husband and I have a similar philosophy! We believe in working smarter not harder. It’s important to live simply and to be content with what you already have.
Hi Katie, Thanks for checking out our post and our Blog! We find that we would rather spend time together as a family collecting memories instead of collecting stuff. Our saying is make the life you live the life you love!
We have regular “purge parties” at my house! I try to live simply, but it is definitely hard sometimes!
I try and do regular purge parties once a month but around the holidays it’s so hard. My kids always seem to acquire way to much stuff this time of year.
I love This! We already do most of this but you have some great reminders for the new year
Thanks Lauren! The new year is always the best time to start fresh and set new goals. Good Luck!
This is great! I always want to dive into minimalism but this approach to simple living is a lot more doable! Thank you!
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it! I’ve always wanted to dive into minimalism as well. My dream house is a tiny house on wheels, lol.
Great post. I especially liked the purge idea. I throw out old clothes every few months but somehow manage to keep finding old stuff to throw away. Mindset is also super-important. Love the tips!
I’m glad you liked the post!! Every so often it’s good to clear out old stuff in your house that you’re not using. We try to keep the clutter in our home to a minimum.