Minimalism For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Minimalism starts with values: decide what truly matters, and then let that guide every choice you make, from your physical space to your bank account to your digital media habits. This cheat sheet gives you tips to help identify your priorities, make decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of, keep your space clutter-free, and spend your money intentionally.

Prioritizing what you value

Minimalism may conjure up negative thoughts if you buy into the stereotype that it means giving up nearly everything you own and never making a purchase again. That sounds miserable, and misery isn’t what you’re going for if you want to be a minimalist for the long haul. Don’t feel you need to relinquish every item you own regardless of the happiness some bring you; use these tips to help decide what to keep as well as how to plan for expenses in your budget:

• Figure out what you value. If you want to see what’s important to you, just look at your bank account or credit card statement. These transactions tell a story of where your money is going.  
• Reflect on your spending and categorize your purchases into 5–10 areas. Think about whether that area represents what really matters to you or is simply where you’ve spent money. You’re starting to get a feel for your priorities.
• Assign each of your expenses a high or low value. This makes it more obvious where your priorities lie. Once you figure out what’s most important to you, you can factor this into decisions about what you keep as well as how much you’ll budget for various expenses — the goal is to feel intentional, not deprived.
• Remember that not all purchases were created equal — you’ll value some things more than others. Value-based minimalism means aligning what you own and how you spend your money with what enriches your life.
• Remember the importance of enjoying being a minimalist. Give yourself permission to create the memories you want, not stress about owning as few possessions as possible. Being intentional about retaining certain things (such as dishware for eight if you host family or friends to frequent dinners, or a cookbook collection sprinkled with notes you’ve jotted through the years) can bring you more happiness than just cutting everything out.
• Measure with your own stick. Use your own measuring stick so you don’t compare your standards with those of others. Don’t get caught up in how minimalist others are living, how many possessions others discarded when they pared back, and how others spend their money once they established their minimalist budgets.  

Making quick work of a closet or room purge

You may not know how to get rid of what you don’t need. If that’s the case, simply ask the five W-A-S-T-E^TM questions that follow, and you’re well on your way to keeping or tossing your stuff:

• Worthwhile: Do you truly like the dress or shirt in question? When was the last time you used those coasters? Is that file actually important to your job? Does the email string contain any information you need to know? If the item isn’t worthwhile, toss it out now; if it is, move on to the next four questions.
• ‍Again: Will you really use this thing again, or is it just going to sit in a cupboard or take up space on your hard drive or in your cloud account? This question could also be rephrased as, “Use it or lose it.” If you don’t foresee needing something in the next year or you haven’t used it in the last one, clear it out. Maybe your waffle iron was used weekly for a while but hasn’t been touched in months, because you broke up with the partner you cooked them for or got tired of cleaning out the grooves. It was once worthwhile, but now, goodbye!
• Somewhere else: Ask yourself: Can I easily find this item somewhere else? If you have to make waffles for a special brunch, can you borrow a maker from a neighbor? Can you find details from an email in a set of shared minutes? Can you hit the Internet, the library, or the local discount store if the need for this item or info should arise in the future? If so, you don’t need to save it.  
• Toss: Many things have ways of slipping and sliding by the first three questions, so here’s the acid test: Will anything happen if you toss it? If not, go ahead, unless it must be legally retained.  
  You may go on a sentimental journey with this question. Maybe something passed the first three questions because it had sentimental value, but the world wouldn’t stop turning if it were tossed. This question is the toughest to judge because it can’t be measured by anyone but you.  
• Entire: Do you need the entire thing? The whole set of eight cheese knives? All four drafts of that presentation deck? Every monthly statement for the past ten years? The complete jewelry set, when you only wear the necklace or the earrings? If not, keep what you need and toss the excess.

Breaking things down into components can help with any save-toss decision but especially when sentimental attachment is involved. Perhaps you inherited a painting from your grandmother that clashes hopelessly with your décor, but you don’t want to forget it. Take a photograph of it, add it to a digital photo album, and give the painting to someone who’ll enjoy it. This trick works with all sorts of things, from collections you no longer want to display to every gift you ever received that’s not quite you but represents an important memory or moment. A picture says a thousand words!

Using containers as clutter busters  

A major contributor to clutter is a basic law of physics: Matter is inert. The way to unclutter a space is to make matter mobile, and the Three Ds can help. What are the Three Ds? Three containers — boxes, baskets, or big sturdy bags — that you use anytime you tackle a space to distribute, donate, or dump the stuff you find there. Here’s how the Three Ds can ease the flow of things in your home and get (and keep) your space clutter-free.  

Distribute box  

Have you ever noticed how things tend to end up around your home where they don’t belong? To repatriate items with their proper spaces, take a container and dub it “Distribute.” When you find a cereal bowl in the bedroom, don’t immediately rush downstairs to take it to the kitchen, and then return to the bedroom to collect the dirty clothes and run them down to the laundry room, followed by a stop in the front hall to grab the sunscreen you had out for yesterday’s tennis game and return it to the upstairs linen closet, and so on and so on until you’re utterly exhausted. Five minutes of simple cleanup can wipe you out for the day unless you centralize operations with a distribute box.  

Any time you need to leave a room to put something away, don’t. Put it in the distribute box instead, and then carry it along to the next stop, just like riders on the bus waiting to exit until they reach home.

Donate box  

When decluttering, you’ll find many items that don’t align with your minimalist values. When that’s the case, consider donating. Anything useable but no longer useful to you goes in the donate box, which sits there waiting to go to your sibling, neighbor, or your favorite charity for a tax write-off.  

For instance, if you have three sizes of clothes in your closet, you obviously aren’t wearing two of them, so donate the items that no longer fit. The same goes for appliances, equipment, electronics, dishes, furniture — you name it. Letting things move on to people who can use them makes the world a better place, and your donate box can help.  

Dump box, bag, or can  

When paring back possessions on your road to minimalism, you’ll encounter items that nobody wants or needs. You can designate a box, trash can, or big garbage bag for things you choose to dump as you declutter. The trick is to keep it close at hand as you work and put anything you want to discard directly into the bin.  

Don’t forget to recycle when you can. Garage sales, consignment stores, social media buy/sell/trade groups, and charities are great ways to recycle.  

You can organize your giveaways by establishing a donation center in the basement or another storage area where you collect things until you have enough to warrant a pickup or a trip to a drop-off center. Toss everything else in the trash — you may feel like you’re wasting stuff, but if you can’t donate or recycle it, it needs to be gone from your home. You’ll feel more peaceful once the stuff is gone from your space.

A halfway house: A container for the undecided  

Some items are difficult to part with right away — you may have sentimental connections that make an immediate “goodbye” difficult to decide.

Let time heal the pain of parting by putting the items you can’t quite say adios to but know you need to into a box. Mark it with “Halfway House” and the date. If a year rolls by (or even six months, if you can manage it) and you haven’t gone into the box for something you wanted, then give it away, unopened.  

“Unopened” is important. If you open the box, you’re likely to pull something out and return it to your home. So don’t. If you really want something from the box during the cooling off period, go get it. Then close it up and proceed to give the remaining contents away if you don’t pull them out within 6-12 months.  

How to spend like a minimalist

Adopting leaner spending habits can sometimes be an adjustment, and you can make it more fun by turning it into a game with creative savings strategies. Here are some to try when you’re getting started or when you need to save more than usual: