There are many positive reasons to join the minimalism movement. Not only does a decluttered home help you to feel more calm but it can also save you time – if everything is organised and each item has a place of its own, you’ll always be able to find the things you need quickly and it will take you much less time to tidy your home. And, as they say, time is money!
Also, the aesthetics of a tidier home can help you to enjoy living in it more; you might feel more likely to entertain guests if you don’t need to clear and clean the whole house before they arrive.
But that’s not all – there are monetary benefits of being minimalist. So, if you want to save money every day, it might be worth considering how a minimal home and lifestyle can help you achieve that goal. Here are some ways it can help:
1. Minimalist moving
It’s especially handy to be a minimalist if you’re moving home. Whether you often need to relocate for a job, or if you’re hoping to save money on your mortgage by moving to a cheaper area, having less stuff to move with you is always a bonus.
For a start, you won’t need to hire a large removal vehicle if you’ve got fewer items to move. Perhaps you could rent a small van or, if you’re temporarily moving for work, you might even fit all the belongings you need in the back of your car. That’ll save you money on one of the hidden costs of moving, so that’s a positive reason to be minimalist.
Also, you can downsize your home because you won’t need as much room for all your items. This means you’ll be able to reduce your rental costs or monthly mortgage repayments if you’re living in a smaller property. And, if you’ve sold a bigger house before downsizing, you might benefit from the house sale and have a bit of profit to put in the bank.
Plus, when you’re making the decision to move somewhere new, you won’t feel held back by the sheer volume of stuff you’ll need to deal with while packing, decluttering, cleaning, donating or taking to the tip. You can just decide to move knowing that you could be packed up and ready to go within a couple of days.
2. Low-clutter lifestyle
Minimalism can also help you to change your shopping habits. If you’ve just spent time decluttering your cupboards and clearing out your wardrobe, you might think twice about bringing more stuff back into your home.
And that might mean that, when you get the urge to shop or to treat yourself to something new, you’ll consider your purchases. Where will it fit in your home? Do you have the storage space for it? What other item would you be willing to let go in order to replace it with the new item?
These questions make it possible to shop more mindfully which, in turn, will help you to save money. Rather than buying first and thinking later, you’ll weigh up the positives and negatives of bringing the item into your home and might even decide that you don’t need it after all.
After all, if you’ve just decluttered your wardrobe, you’ll be more aware of what clothing you already have and will know that you don’t need a third pair of black trousers or another tan leather belt. So you can give the purchase a miss without feeling like you’re missing out – it would be surplus to requirements.
Not buying items will save you money – and it’s a good idea to actually save the money that you would have normally spent before becoming minimalist. That way, you can add the £20 for the item you didn’t buy into your savings account or rainy-day fund and see it grow – a tangible way to experience the benefits of a minimalist life.
3. Money-making minimalist
Another benefit of becoming minimalist is the opportunity to make some money from your belongings. If you’re going to be getting rid of the items you’ve decluttered anyway, perhaps you could sell them to someone else who needs them?
There are many secondhand marketplaces online for clothing, homewares and furniture. Plus, you could do some car boot sales or take valuable items to vintage dealers. Selling something can often make it easier to part with the item because you’re recouping some of the investment you made when you bought the item.
Again, once you’ve sold a possession, put that money straight into your savings account. You’ll be able to watch the amount grow as you declutter more, which is a great motivation. If you keep the money in a current account or as cash in your purse, it’ll just get eaten up with bills and daily purchases so you won’t feel as much of a benefit of minimalism compared to accumulating more and more savings whenever you sell something.
That said, if you don’t want to sell your belongings or if you have items left over after the car boot sale, rather than bringing them back into your home, you can donate them to a charity that might need your items for its users (a shelter or refuge perhaps) or the charity might be able to sell the pieces in their shops or online.
It’s less wasteful to donate items rather than binning them and you’ll be happier to declutter pieces knowing that someone who really needs them will be able to make use of your items. Plus, secondhand shopping is such a sustainable option that many more people are using charity shops now, so your item won’t end up in landfill after you’ve let it go.
I hope that these reasons will help you to consider clearing out your home and adopting a minimalist lifestyle in order to save money. Plus, once the decluttering is done, and you’re reaping the rewards in your savings account, you’ll be more likely to keep it up.
When you’ve got lovely clean spaces and all your items neatly stored, why would you want to refill your home with stuff until it’s bursting at the seams again? That would put you back at square one, and you’d have to start decluttering all over again in order to feel the benefits of a minimalist lifestyle
Let me know if you’ve adopted a minimalist lifestyle in the comments below. I’d love to hear how it has helped you to save money.
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