How a Minimalist Life Saves You Money (And How to Get Started)

I’ve wrote before about how cleaning your house can save you money. Over the weekend I had another similar experience.

You see, I used to stay on top of my kids’ toy clutter. You know, the presents grandma and grandpa insist on giving them every other week, the cheap kids meal toys, and the random things we seem to always be brining into our house. At least every month I would go through my kids’ room and bring out a trash bag full of junk toys.

Then I slacked off.

So over the weekend my girls and I decided to go through all of their toys again – being very intentional with what we decided to keep. We ended up hauling out six trash bags full of pure junk and two more trash bags full of “sell” toys. It was that bad.

We got down to only a few toys that the girls actually played with. We went from an overflowing toy box to a toy box that’s only a quarter of the way full.

Then the usual happened. The girls actually started playing with their toys again. By only having the stuff they truly loved they could make a decision of what to play with. When they had the overflowing toy box, toys would be scattered among the house and never played with for more than a few minutes.

Having less and only keeping the quality allows you to appreciate what you have. It also helps you to keep a clearer mind and eliminate unnecessary stress. (Not to mention cleaning your house is a whole lot easier!)

The toy cleaning inspired me to apply these concepts all throughout my life. Here are the steps I’m taking to have a more minimalistic life.

Regularly Decluttering

I’ve come to recognize that if I want to keep this type of lifestyle then I need to be ruthless about decluttering.

Letting things go for months has proven to be a very ineffective system. To stay on top of things I’m going to add decluttering to my normal cleaning routine. When I’m going around the house dusting, sweeping, and mopping I’ll also be tossing!

This includes things like clothing, shoes, toys, and paper clutter.

Any quality items that we don’t use will be put in a sell or donate pile.

Politely Asking Grandparents to Stop Buying So Much Stuff

I don’t want my kids to think that Grandma and Grandpa’s love comes with material items. I want them to get excited just to see their grandparents without the follow up question “what’d you bring me?”

I understand that my Mom especially loves to buy thing for my kids but I’ve politely asked her to keep the gifts to a minimum.

This will also help us keep the clutter at bay.

Creating Systems

I already have systems in place for things like bill payments and filing, coupons, and other paper clutter. But I need to stay on top of them more regularly.

Instead of letting paper clutter pile up it needs to be immediately dealt with.

Going for Quality

I can be admittedly cheap. This is something I’ve been working on for a while now. I feel like I’ve finally gotten to the point where I’m okay with spending more money for a higher quality product.

When I fail to do this I usually spend so much more money replacing these products (and bringing too much junk into the house) than I would have buying quality the first time around.

Conclusion

Having a minimalist life is a great way to save money. You’re more aware of what you have and therefore don’t run to the store to buy doubles, you want to keep the clutter minimized and are more conscious of what you’re buying, and you free up a lot of mental energy.

Do you live a minimalist life? Does it help you save money?