7 Ways To Maintain A Minimalist Home

Explore 7 effective tips to maintain a minimalist home, ensuring a clutter-free, serene, and organized living space.

Is your home cluttered and full of rubbish? Are their stacks of paper, food boxes, and personal trinkets displayed haphazardly on shelves and tables? If so, then your house definitely needs to undergo some major cleaning up. In fact, you may need a little more than just a little touch-up—you’d probably need to go all-in on a more minimalistic lifestyle.

Minimalism isn’t just about keeping a clean home. It’s a lifestyle and a practical decoration choice. Instead of highlighting a vast array of items for display in your hallways and rooms, this movement is all about stripping back to the bare essentials. A clean and spacious aesthetic is the name of the game here. Less is more! The principle of minimalism sounds nice on paper, but don’t underestimate it, it can be notoriously difficult to execute. This is especially true if you enjoy shopping and hoarding items once in a while. If you’re having trouble maintaining a nice, minimalist home, you’ve come to the right place. This article will provide you with some tips to help you design living spaces with a sleek and minimalistic touch.

Let’s explore the four corners of this movement to help you maintain a minimalist home more effectively.

1. Initiate Mission: Declutter

Assuming you’re living in a home and not moving into one, you probably already have some furniture and personal items situated around your rooms. You probably feel disturbed by the general uncleanliness of these spaces. The solution? Simple, it’s to do the backbreaking work and declutter your space yourself.

To remove the feeling of overwhelm, you can consider enlisting the aid of professional cleaners from services like Absolute Domestics to carry out the cleaning work. They have both the tools and the expertise to properly dispose of rubbish so you can just sit back and relax. Alternatively, you can consider hitting up some friends and family to help you dispose of your stuff appropriately. Just be sure to secure cardboard boxes or trash bags labelled to keep, sell, donate, and trash so that you can organise your cleaning process. It can take hours—if not days—to fully complete the decluttering process, so don’t be discouraged if your progress is slow. You can break down the process into manageable steps by cleaning one room at a time and slowly getting rid of the excess stuff. When you’re done removing the clutter, you can focus your mind on designing your space into something more minimalistic and aesthetically pleasing. So be sure that your house is as close to being as clutter-free as possible.

2. Follow the One in, One out Rule

Maintaining a minimalist home isn’t a one-time cleaning activity, it’s a continuous process. As such, it’s important to apply behaviours that reinforce the habit of maintaining your home’s sanitation. One habit that can help lead to a clean home is the one-in, one-out rule. In this rule, participants throw away one belonging of equal size and value in favour of a new one that they have recently acquired. 

For instance, if you want to add a new book to your bookshelf, you can go ahead and do so (minimalism isn’t all about depriving you of your wants!). You just have to donate, sell, or give away another one of your books to make room for it. This habit keeps you from accumulating too many items, allowing the space of your home to be naturally maximised. In turn, this can help you simultaneously maintain the beauty of your home and prevent you from hoarding needless clutter.

3. Don’t Consume, Engage

Minimalism is all about living simply and purposefully. If you want your home to reflect that, then eliminate all instances of materialism and excessive consumerism. If you frequently collect things like perfumes, clothes, sneakers, or vinyl, then it may be time to exert that energy elsewhere. The same goes for consuming content from social media and television. 

Curb this hoarding and collecting mentality in the root and instead engage in hobbies that are more beneficial to your well-being.  Hobbies that help you cultivate and engage with the world deeply and sustainably are a good start—think of gardening, hiking, fishing, and trail running. Social hobbies like board games and hanging out with friends are good too.

Engaging in these hobbies isn’t only good for you and your mental health, you can also gain greater control of your life and engage more deeply with the world and its intricacies through them. Time and energy spent on active and engaging hobbies divert you from falling into a consumerist pit, so do try to realign your mind to this route. The state of your house will naturally follow where your energy lies, so be mindful of how you spend your free time.

4. Use Smart Storage Solutions

Storing your stuff effectively is an essential part of keeping a clean and minimalist house. The right storage can give you and your guests the impression of a clean and clutter-less house. That said, you probably wouldn’t want to have rows of cabinets and drawers to hold all your items. Instead, you’d probably appreciate some variety in your furniture range, so consider investing in multi-functional furniture like ottomans or beds with compartment drawers underneath.

Furthermore, you can consider using vertical height to your advantage. Consider building a shelf (or hiring an expert to do it for you) and displaying items there. You can also use baskets to serve as both an aesthetic piece in your overall room layout and a practical storage container. If you have a bunch of items you’d like to keep around, then you can consider storing them in a dedicated storage area—like underneath the stairs or in a spare room. This way, you can make the rest of your house look minimalist and inviting while still keeping some of your precious items around.

5. Stick to a Single Colour Palette

Aesthetics are vital in maintaining a minimalist house. It creates a sense of harmony, organisation, and serenity, which can make you feel calm. And a big part of aesthetics is your paint job.

If your budget and time permits, consider giving your rooms a re-paint. Neutral tones like white, greys, and beiges are excellent for complementing natural wood furniture, which are staples in minimalist designs. You wouldn’t want to overwhelm the senses, so sticking with a one-tone or two-tone-dominant design can work well in improving the home’s overall aesthetic. Be sure to keep it consistent in each room for the best effect.

6. Trim Your Wardrobe

Make no mistake, the perfectly minimalist home is one that also extends to your wardrobe. If you have dozens of the same clothing types in your closet that aren’t in use, then consider removing them from your house. A good rule of thumb is to toss out pieces of clothing that you haven’t used in the past year. While variety in clothing is important to help you look your best, trimming your wardrobe to just a few stylish fits can help your mind feel more clutter-free. 

Moreover, decluttering your wardrobe also allows you to become more conscious of your clothing purchasing decisions, which promotes sustainability in the long run.  When you have a stricter clothing selection process, you’ll tend to prioritise good-quality fits while shopping. So minimalists will definitely not skip out on being stylish anytime soon!

7. Prioritise Freedom of Movement

A minimalist home doesn’t just stop at just ownership of the essential pieces of furniture. It’s also about proper, strategic placement of these items to avoid overcrowding your room and inhibiting movement.

As such, be sure to arrange furniture properly. Create a good sense of flow in each room around your house. Make it so that objects don’t obstruct movement or entail a tight squeeze.

For frequently visited areas like hallways and entryways, be sure to keep your area clear of obstacles at all times. For areas like the living room and dining room, be sure that the tables and chairs are spaced appropriately and have enough space for people to comfortably partake in activities.

By promoting a more spacious layout, you can make moving around the house a smoother and a more positive experience for you, your family, and your guests.

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