Minimalism Tips for Beginners: How to Have a Huge Clear Out

Minimalism and culture

My mother has a Spanish and European background. My father is Pakistani. In all of these cultures, especially the Spanish and Pakistani cultures, color is the way to express yourself. At weddings and gatherings, women and men like to wear colorful clothing.

As you can see, a lot of my clothing is colorful. I’ve kept a lot of these things because that is who I am to the core. I like to express myself through clothing. I’ve been able to do that as a minimalist. 

When people look at me, they don’t think I’m a typical minimalist, wearing “minimalist” colors, like beige and white. Don’t think on your minimalist journey, you have to get rid of your stuff and buy new stuff that makes you look “minimalist.” I think that is so wasteful, and honestly, not everyone likes those colors. 

I like to fill my life with color and wear colors that represent who I am. Whenever my dad came back from Pakistan or I visited as a kid, I was showered with gifts. Culturally, gifts are a way to express, “I love you. You are welcome.” So, it was hard, culturally, for me to downsize.

A lot of women have multiple outfits in multiple colors. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. We need to always ask ourselves, “How was it made? Was it done in fair conditions? Were the workers paid fair wages? Was the environment harmed?”

Minimalism is freedom

Theminimalist.com (I love this website) has “all things minimalism” – hence the name. I really love this quote from the website.

They say, “Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom: freedom from fear, freedom from worry, freedom from overwhelm, freedom from guilt, freedom from depression, freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we have built our lives around. Real freedom.”

Sign me up for that — right? That sounds amazing! We want all those things. We want to rid ourselves of fear and the uncomfortable emotion associated with stuff.

We define ourselves with style and stuff. I don’t think stuff is the devil. I think, in the society we live in, consumerism has become the focal point. We are constantly told to buy things from advertisements.

There’s greenwashing, where we are told something is green, when it isn't. It's a PR technique. We live in this fast-paced culture and we go out and buy things to fill our emptiness with stuff. But, when we really look at our needs, and what means a lot to us, I find we can fill our lives with more purpose and meaning.

Minimalism boosts creativity and uniqueness

Looking at all my clothing, I think clothing was the hardest part of my life to declutter. I was a gymnast for most of my life, and I haven’t really grown since seventh grade. My height hasn’t changed, and pretty much my body hasn’t changed either than normal puberty changes either. I’ve kept a lot of the clothes that I wore back then because I’ve kept the same style. 

I don’t really love shopping, so I didn’t really go out and buy new things. All my clothing came from gifts or shopping at thrift stores. I like the feeling of knowing that no one else could have this thing I bought and that it was unique.

The hardest part for me was decluttering my clothing, looking in my closet, and really assessing what I needed from there. For me, this has helped me claim my time and reach a higher level of creativity. 

I don’t want to go out and buy something new. Now, I always ask myself first if I can make it myself or use materials in nature. For example, instead of buying a plastic jewelry holder, I asked what would fit me and who I am.

I went outside and found a tree branch. Then, I hung up this gorgeous tree branch. There it was — zero-waste minimalism! Bringing nature into my space, allowed me to feel at home and content.

Minimalism and health 

Minimalism has allowed me to focus on my health. As a zero-waste vegan, I don’t go out and buy things like Sour Patch Kids, Doritos, or even Cheerios, or things like that that are packaged, processed, and contain high-fructose corn syrup and other additives that aren’t good for our bodies.

By incorporating this into my lifestyle, I’ve never felt better in my life, healthwise. I was sick as a kid, and eating this way has healed me. Food is medicine. 

This lifestyle is about downsizing, decluttering, simplifying, and filling your life with things that mean something to you. It’s not just stuff, it’s people, places, pets, significant others, food, and all of that. When I say lifestyle — I mean an all-encompassing lifestyle.

My clothing

This is an organized pile of all the clothes I own right now. The only thing that is not shown is a few of my hats and my wetsuit for surfing. 

I’m so excited to have been able to reduce my clothes to this much, but this much still feels like a lot, and I would love to get to a point where I can fit all of them into that basket right there. But I’m not there yet. I firmly believe in baby steps.

Minimalism tips for beginners

I challenge you to take a look at your things, and ask yourself, What serves you? What means something to you? Do you really need ten pairs of the same color of jeans?”

Let us know in the comments what things in your life make you feel free and content, and what you can declutter.