There are tons of benefits to living minimally, here are just a few reasons to get you started
1. For a sigh of relief
Stress starts to melt away when you have less to worry about, when you leave what worries you behind you never take that deep breath of relief for granted again.
2. To get your priorities straightened out
If affording your rent tops your list of priorities you’re doing it wrong.
3. For room to think
Less means more brain capacity freed up for more important things.
4. Time to relax
If you can’t remember the last time you slept in, or the last time you had nothing to do you might be exerting to much energy into cleaning and maintenance. The only thing we really have to spend is our time.
5. To have energy for the big ideas!
With all that extra time and relaxation, suddenly you have the motivation to go for what you’re passionate about.
6. Space to forget
Forget about your unhappiness, your life “fillers” and your regrets. Those things don’t move you forward and only serve to keep you hung up on the unimportant details.
7. To save your hard earned money
What is it that you wish you could save for instead of spending it on your water bill? See my article on how much it costs me to live on a boat.
8. Working less
Don’t really have many things you need all those hours for except to pay the bills? Maybe you really want the time to have fun instead? Reducing your living expenses may just be exactly the thing for you!
9. To break out of your shell
When you don’t spend half your time at work and the other half at home, suddenly, you have to meet more people and do more things than just sit alone at home on the couch.
10. Appreciation of the outdoors
If you live in a 30′ by 6′ rectangle, you probably don’t want to hang out there all the time unless you want to have cabin fever! This is where your relationship with nature begins.
11. So people quit buying you stuff
Do you enjoy spending time with friends and family but hate birthdays and holidays like Christmas and Valentines day? That might be because you don’t have the materialistic bug, which is great for a minimalist lifestyle. Now you have the perfect excuse to tell people not to get you anything; you literally don’t have the room for it!
12 . For more time to play
Quit flaking on your friends and partners, have the time to go out and have fun instead of working extra hours to make rent or spending your entire Saturday organizing and cleaning.
13. Getting comfortable with yourself
When you stop filling your life and your space with endless distractions, you’re forced to spend more time with yourself, and more time on yourself.
14. Making more friends
Not enough happens to you when you’re stuck at home. You miss out on meeting all kinds of people, and miss out on connections you won’t make otherwise.
15. Less time spent with your TV
Cable, Netflix and movie binging is a great way to check out of life. How many hours per day do you spend in front of a screen? What about in a month or a year? What could you spend that time on instead?
16. For your health
Some of the major causes of death in our country, like heart attacks, cancer, stroke and diabetes type 2 are heavily impacted by a sedentary lifestyle. Want to live longer and healthier? Minimalism helps contribute to an active way of life.
17. To find yourself
18. To really see whats around you
Open your eyes, look around yourself and be a part of it all
19. Inspiring your sense of adventure
Putting yourself in a different environment makes you an explorer of the unknown, who knows maybe you’ll get a taste for it!
20. Confidence
Feel empowered about your decision making, your capability and your potential to do anything you put your mind to
21. For your family
Be more present and have more time and energy for your family instead of putting it towards stress and worry.
22. To try something new
23. Live without fear
Fear of what’s next or the what if’s are what hold you back from taking the leap for your dreams. When you have less physically you literally have less to lose.
24. Breaking away from the norm
25. To find your happiness
26. Putting yourself to the test
You’re stronger than you know, and it just takes a leap of faith to find out just how amazing and capable you really are.
27. To understand freedom
You are not restricted by the confines of the social norm, nor are you bound by the expectations of others, by the cost to live or the things you think you need.
28. Satisfy your curiosity
Nothing is permanent, if you’ve always wondered what it might be like to live with less why not give it a try? You can always go back to the way things were, if you never try anything new you’ll never learn, and things will stay the same.
29. Kill your materialistic and superficial habits
Find yourself hating all the unnecessary junk you buy and collect? Or feel that your status is intrinsically correlated to the things you own or don’t own? Minimalism is a great way to change those feelings and that way of thinking.
30. Be more than a human bill payer
Ever feel like your purpose in life is to pay bills or be a paycheck for someone else? The reason is having a high cost of living, and the only way to stop feeling that way is to live below your means in a way that is still abundant in the ways you care about.
31. Rediscover wild abandon
32. For getting over your writers block
33. To inspire others
I admit, it’s always a bit of an ego boost to tell people that I live on a boat and see their eyes bug out as they start asking me questions like “do you cook there?” and “how do you go to the bathroom?” Just by being different and a more unique version of yourself, you inspire and open up new worlds to those around you.
34. Become the person you always knew your were
Never feel like the life that you’re living isn’t really you. Sometimes when we just go along with what we think we’re supposed to do, we lose sight of what we really want to do.
35. To see clearly what you love
In a life devoid of things, you learn what it is you truly hold close to your heart
36. Gaining new wisdom
37. For finishing off your bucket list
Or to make one if you’ve never sat down to write out your dreams and aspirations!
38. To become closer to those you love
39. Living a life of luxury
Luxury doesn’t necessarily mean million dollar properties, a ten car garage full of hotrods or vacations that cost thousands. Luxury can be things you already have, and is as simple as living a life feeling that you have enough.
40. To travel!
Who would’ve thought? That having less makes it easier to leave everything behind to see and experience what you’ve always wanted.
41. Time to pick up that book you’ve been wanting to read
42. So you keep learning
Feeling stunted? Or like you lose a few braincells every time you have to go through your junk drawer to find a pair of scissors? (You just know you’ve bought like five pairs!) Might be a sign you’re ready for a change,
43. Discover skills you never knew you had
Ever try something brand new, like ceramics, scuba diving or gardening and feel that you were born to do it? When you get stuck in a sleep, eat, work cycle you don’t get to find those parts of yourself.
44. To feel more genuine
45. Letting go of what holds you back
Minimalism is realizing the joy within yourself, rather than seeing it in the things and circumstances around us. You can start practicing this mindset without lifting a finger, by internally letting go of what takes joy away from you, and by finding things within yourself that make you happy.
46. To smile and laugh like you used to
47. Getting over yourself
We are just a tiny spec, on a little ball floating in a big universe. The things that you think are important, are really just a fleeting moment that time will undoubtedly forget. It’s easy to let life pass by, day after day concerned with distractions. That’s what makes living in the moment, and doing the things that bring you joy precious.
48. For sobriety
This one isn’t as obvious as some others, but for those of us that struggle to stay clean, having lots of distractions and ways to numb ourselves to life is what makes it easy to never face the real problems. Consciously choosing to be awake and open to living a life with less of what hurts us is a major game changer.
49. Ditch wasteful habits
50. Stop feeling envious
Comparison is the thief of joy and mother of bitter envy. When you live a life of luxury within your means you stop comparing yourself to everyone around you.
51. A chance to start fresh
Nothing is worse than feeling trapped in your current circumstance. Sometimes what you really need is a chance to start again doing things a little differently.
52. To leave the rate race behind
53. To have control over your life
You are the master of your own universe. No landlord, university or boss should take that truth away from you. You have exactly as much control over your life as you take
54. Because you can
You’re doing something right the moment people start telling you that you can’t. Grit and passion will always accomplish more than passive compliance.
55. Because you want to
The biggest reason to do anything? Because deep down it’s something you really want for yourself. Remember you can always change your mind.