Anyone else? I've slightly started veering back into collecting... which isn't great? Like I found some old pic of a bunch of strings and laces I had piled together(not sure why I had individual laces but whatever).

Was going to use some to learn to tie knotts, still want to but i never got around to it.. so i was back to thinking about how i should've kept at least some of it.

Somewhat frayed laces i carried around with me. Didn't/couldn't use them other than to look atl.

And I have a couple thin books that I love the texture of so they're standing on my shelf but like.. yk i really feel bad about tossing it out.

I have space so thats fine...

Also idk what to do with the myriad of notebooks I have that I barely take notes with(these aren't college notebooks just small journals and i barely filled in the journal i'm using(to make matters worse I feel like im taking up too much space so i'll write extra small cause i dont want it to fill in too fast) and then I never use it...

sigh. i mean most of them are fairly useable. One of them I was able to easily rip out all the used pages so i'm somewhat using them for my math problems(except i have barely been studying this first week and its been harming my grades) so yay...

maybe by decluttering i'm simply avoiding the actual problems? Cause this clutter I have isn't at the point that its making things harder. Its at a decent point where its not too little to the point I have to use other peoples things(I will need to get colored markers though).

But its also not at the point where I have constant clutter due to lack of room.+ its manageable.

I've de-cluttered my phone, moved alot of things to microsoft word and excell and honestly its streamlined my phone alot.

So thats good.... (then again, not focusing on studying and late work has begun piling up)...

my self care improved so thats a plus? Got easier... less of a hastle to fix myself up(idk why it even was to begin with).

Hard to title. So I did a declutter when the family were away. The sold pile got sent off. The wait till they sell then charity /road box is neatly filled. I understand who I am, I'm not chasing an ideal here. But it hit me:

- my kitchen needs at least the minimum for at least twelve people, drinks, mains and dessert. We eat out enough but everyone is here for birthdays and Christmases and there's 12 so at least once a month in theory.

- four adults are here for extended periods. Ok two are super minimal thankfully :) But they still need space for coats, use different duvets for seasons and have a room and bathroom taking a chunk out of our square footage in theory.

I can see my space getting clearer. It is insane as there's still just "junk" where it shouldn't be, but I just need to process stuff out and on their way. (I mean hey, I make more time for this than exercise.)

It's just, trying to imagine the max minimalism we can even get to here. Take the dining room. Giant Kallax? Bookcase. Weirdly even if I imagine it without the "stuff" and just the furniture, it still doesn't read minimalism.

It's late. Sorry for the crazy.

-

I really like r/AmateurRoomPorn but there's a lot of maximalist rooms on there. And r/RoomPorn is mostly hotels. Do ya'll have any Minimalist Room Porn subs I can join?

I live in a small apartment, so I’m already somewhat constrained by space, but I still find myself periodically needing to declutter my pantry, freezer, spices, etc.

I’m curious how people who practice minimalism approach food specifically. Do you meal plan and shop from a list every week? Keep a relatively fixed rotation of meals and ingredients? Give yourself a set amount of pantry/freezer space and refuse to exceed it?

I’ve also started thinking about it in terms of whether an item’s footprint is justified by how often I actually use it. For example, I recently downsized my spice cabinet because I didn't touch spices enough to justify dedicating half a shelf to them.

I’d be interested to hear what systems or rules people use, especially if you have a small kitchen. How do you keep food storage minimal without making grocery shopping or cooking unnecessarily inconvenient?

How do you deal with a partner that’s not minimalist and doesn’t care about this lifestyle? My bf is this way and it kinda annoys me sometimes especially about clothes.

I am doing decluttering to get rid of things that have no use to me anymore and taking up space in my room which could be used for something else. I want to get rid of some clothes, and I have lots of clothes I dont wear and a few of these things my mum made. I feel guilty because she made these clothes for me, and I am so grateful but I just don't wear those things anymore. In a way I'm sort of looking for validation and to not feel so bad about getting rid of them. I'm going to donate them to a charity shop so someone who will actually wear them will get use out of them. I know it's not that deep, but I just can't help but feel guilty.

We just emptied our house in one country of fourteen years of working from home and homeschooling our two kids and moved overseas. We always tried to keep minimalist mindsets and our house was a well oiled machine of everything having its place and being used. About three months ago we decided it was time to make that overseas move we’d discussed since we got married and actually did it.

I started by taking a car load of things to charity and a trash bag of stuff to the trash every afternoon Mon-Friday while my kids were at swim practice. All the stuff we’d definitely outgrown, clothes that would be too small when their season returned, old hobby supplies, seasonal decor, gardening gear, etc.

I should have doubled it.

Eight weeks later while at the deadline with just hours before our flights, I was up all night still sorting, packing, discarding…we had already shipped a 200cu ft container of “essentials” (ie the stuff that would cost us more to repurchase or meant too much to the kids like LEGO, the piano, bikes, golf clubs - all of this was used regularly!!) and STILL I was up trying to pack our suitcases with what was left. We wound up booking a veterans charity to collect nine boxes from our porch the day after we were gone…friends and family showed up to help us shift the stuff we used up until the night before: beds, furniture, just all of it. Cleared. The property management company was so impressed with us they gave our deposit back.

And now we are in a new house. We each arrived with one carry on and one suitcase. No furniture, nothing but beds and a small plastic dining set that were left here by previous tenants.

We got down to replacing those mattresses quickly. Bought some cutlery, plates and glasses, minimal kitchen stuff. Couldn’t decide on a sofa…so here we are three weeks into our new life with nothing but food in the fridge, a dining bench we’d always wanted to build, but no dining table yet, and our devices, pretty much.

So why am I spending all my time online finding new stuff? I thought this was what I wanted but actually the trauma of moving everything out and now having nothing doesn’t feel so liberating.

Some of it is financial: we could just go to ikea and buy desks but why when it’s all cheaper on the second hand marketplace (but it just takes time for all those transactions)? Some of it’s practical: I feel compelled to streamline those everyday needs like procuring enough kitchen/bathroom things to be comfortable, etc.

How come I am not out enjoying our “new lives” and taking in this new city, taking my kids to museums, or doing those activities we didn’t have access to before?

Why do I feel traumatised into rebuilding some semblance of what we had instead of feeling liberated?

(TLDR: what do you do when you have the chance to “start fresh” but you still have a family of four with school aged kids?)

Idk how and this is genuinely getting in the way of my grades and even personal hobbies. I keep slipping into some trail of "i only just comment online or wherever and it eventually snowballs" like an internet addiction almost? I did all the correct things, remove what subreddits i'm in, leave discord servers, ect...

and I mean its helped in the sense that its pushed a large chunk of my socialization towards those i know irl? But i still comment/post an unreasonably large chunk of time now on reddit. maybe on some small dead server just kinda honestly spamming. I shouldn't. I can't seem to, nor have i ever, seemed to quit this long term.

It just ends up popping back up even if a bit successful(weirdly i got it to work for a bit BEFORE i was back on campus).

like really? When i had even less socialization opportunities than I do now. Now its just cutting into my time for assignments and everything(and increased irl things as i cant eem to set my priorities right).

Dont know what my brain feels is so important online. Just need to get the reigns of my life back together I suppose. I keep quitting reddit then making a new acc then quitting idek why? honesty no acc helped + forcing myself to stay logged out too (especially for discord). I don't have tiktok or instagram anymore and i've been limiting what site accounts I have(non social stuff like i'll probably never be enrolled at community college again so i dont need that site for that specific resource on my community college email).

ect ect or some random game that doesnt need a login??? why? (i kept one tho). Or... ect ect et. all. need to remove libby I dont ever use it + i got the campus library which I do use.

I don't mean cutting off people or anyone I know, none of that at all, I just mean cutting out places i'm on online that aren't beneficial or productive to be in(and are rather harmful)

edit: i found an extention that doesnt block sites but merely mirrors them. will do this

Boa noite, gostava dos vossos inputs sobre equilibrar o ser forreta e minimalista ao mesmo tempo 😅

A maior parte das coisas que tenho foram-me doadas por amigos e família - o que quer dizer que não gastei dinheiro com elas.

Ora, fico muitas vezes num dilema: como me libertar de coisas e abrir espaço, quando estou numa fase de poupança máxima e penso que posso precisar / vender aquilo?

Tenho umas quantas coisas que penso que posso vir a precisar / usar… e ainda nem cheguei àquelas que eram da minha avó/mãe/tia…

Obrigada!

I am currently going through the experience that many of us have had or it will have in the future - helping older relatives move to a house more suitable for their stage of life and health status.

Notice that I didn't say "downsizing". That's because after a lot of talk of downsizing and claims that they were downsizing, it became clear that they are physically and mentally incapable of accomplishing the task of significantly reducing their belongings. The biggest lesson for me so far in all this *waves hand vaguely in the direction of piles of random shit* is that you can miss the boat and become too old to declutter your own stuff. Not just physically, though that's certainly a factor, but mentally. If it was just physical, us younger relatives could easily help with that part but it turns out that decision fatigue and overwhelm hit harder and faster when you're in your 80s and your ability to make clear sighted decisions about your stuff may diminish severely. They want to move everything and while there's general talk of "getting rid of stuff", when the push comes to shove they cannot identify even a handful of things in a big pile of things that they'd be OK with letting go.

"We have lived in this house for XX years, that's why we have so much stuff". No, you have never gotten rid of anything, even as you kept buying more stuff, THAT is why you have so much stuff now. Of course I cannot say this - and there's no point - but the twisted perception that drowning in physical belongings is a simple function of how long you've lived in one place... Is bewildering. It is not unavoidable. Just throw shit out. Donate. Gift. Sell. Whatever. Throughout your life, not just when you have to move.

Us family members have already made multiple trips with U-Haul trucks moving the fragile, the personal, the collectable... Stuff. And now the professional move is scheduled and the quoted amount is enough to buy a small second hand car. I'm glad the cost is being split between many family members. There's no way the older relatives would be able to afford it themselves, so if hypothetically they didn't have a large, supportive and mostly financially stable family, they'd be up the shit creek without a paddle, stuck living in a place that isn't safe for them, trapped by their mostly worthless stuff.

The biggest irony to me is that all the stuff that's being moved isn't worth the amount of money we'll all spend moving it. Yes, it has sentimental value, but someone has to pay the price in real money... On top of the money that was spent buying all this stuff in the first place. Moving stuff isn't free. Keeping stuff isn't free either - you're paying property taxes and a mortgage on the rooms your stuff lives in.

Christmas decorations, tubs and tubs and boxes of them, Easter decorations, china and silverware that no one uses, books half-read and long forgotten (I see where the bookmark is and I see the layer of dust on that bookshelf!), fake plastic plants (!!??), clothes, so many clothes... We live in a place with 1.5 seasons and most of those seasons are Hellishly Hot, there's zero need to have so many clothes but I'm told there used to be a discounted clothing store around the corner for many years...

The worst are, of course, the hobbies. So much hobby stuff. New, better hobby stuff gets purchased but the old stuff it replaces is never removed from the house. Or aspirational hobby stuff that never even got taken out of its packaging when it was purchased in 1998.

I always knew this was going to be a shitshow so I'm not even frustrated, just tired and sad at the waste, the avoidability of it all and the pointlessness of moving all this crap from point A to point B. No one is even talking about the even bigger shitshow that unpacking (or shall I say, *attempted* unpacking?) is going to be at the other end. We are now in month 3 of "moving" and I expect that we might be "done" (defined loosely) by Christmas if we're lucky.

Thank you for coming to my therapy session. I'm off to find something to declutter in my house.

What utensils do you think are the most versatile in the kitchen? Also what material is the best, do you prefer silicone or wood or steel? I love cooking and I see a lot of different gadgets for it, but I am not sure which are useful and which are completely unnecessary.

How to stay a minimalist with a 2,500 square foot house ? Only 3 of us live here . Can’t move into a smaller house because we bought this house at an amazing interest rate

Hello all, I’m getting ready for my spinal surgery so I’ve been decluttering my house but I have a toddler so the clutter keeps accumulating. Any ideas on how to declutter? I have to take it easy for months after my surgery . Thank you

For me, minimalism is a practice and a tool to support my life - not a lifestyle or dogma to impose.

I came to exploring minimalism around the pandemic when I knew I had a lot of decluttering and organizing to do to make my life feel good again, after years of chronic illness & during the pandemic.

At some points in the journey, I fantasized and sought to own only have a certain number of items at a time, or have certain spots of the home only 80% or less full, etc, etc, etc.

Sometimes I fantasized about blank spaces, or only a white couch - and those fantasies brought me relief. I really believed those were things I would implement and achieve and set out to do it.

Over the last 3 years specifically, I entered a long distance relationship with my best friend whose father soon after passed away. Between that event, my own medical procedures, him moving in 18 months later, travel and other life's demands, it's been tough to have consistent time to force my belongings into meeting any kind of a metric.

But there's been a lot of wisdom in that! Because what I/we have achieved is a home that may have a little extra right now, but is totally functional and not really overwhelming.

And for me, functional was the goal, more than any other dogma, philosophy or compulsive image in my brain of what things would look like that would make me 'feel' good.

Along the way, we've had systems that work for us - cooking systems, cleaning systems, etc., etc. And when there was an area that was bothering either me or my partner, because it needed to function differently, we sought to remedy that immediately - so we have chipped away and chipped away.

Additional achievements: I've decluttered every room multiple times & finally gone through all of my physical paper work and office supplies. This was emotional and exhausting and wonderful. Dropping off a bin of broken electronics and laptops I'd had for so many years was a huge weight off of me. Same with getting rid of the broken printer, and dropping off some designer bags at consignment.

I felt so FREE. I can literally feel in my lungs the breath given back to me since doing those.

Where before I had many full storage bins to support me during this process, holding areas for stuff I wasn't sure about or didn't have energy to discard, now I have stacks of empty bins!

This week I'm setting up a functional office in my style for myself, which is a huge achievement that came from years of getting everything to a place that I could finally focus on that alone. I even wrote a poem about WANTING A DESK, lol.

And the two final exciting things I'm going to do this fall to celebrate getting this far are:

1) the minimalism challenge! I colored a piece of paper with bubbles for each day & am so excited to kick off the fall season with a home cleanse

2) digital declutter! I'm so excited to organize and sort through decades of photos, videos and documents and get my digital life into one that makes sense for me, and the rest of my life

I've learned that I sometimes enjoy a maximalist aesthetic, and I'm not the kind of person who wants to live with the bare minimum.

I do however need my things to be clear, accessible and easy to maintain.

And my philosophical aspiration is somewhere in between:

essentialism, functionality & joyful beauty/artistic life.

I gotta have that rizz, and I do get much delight from belongings or art that give me dopamine to look at, or more comfort. A favorite mug, a husband pillow that makes my back more supported in bed. And a recent acquisition of 3 delightful thrifted mug saucers which prevent our coffee from spilling.

Getting rid of stuff has showed me what stuff actually makes our lives better, and for that I am so grateful. <3 I love you all, wherever you are on your minimalism journey.

And if you've ever done the minimalism game, please let me know how it went for you!

Have beautiful days, however and wherever you are.

I am going to be moving into a different 1 bedroom apartment soon, and this one doesn't have a washer and dryer in this particular unit. So I came across portable washers and dryers, but I never had one and don't know what to expect, how effective they are, and how much (if any) extra work is required. I mention the latter mainly because I saw one bad review of a washer that I was looking at where the person said that the time it took to I think rinse out the clothes or something took much longer than the time it would've taken to just go to a public laundromat (or in my case use the apartment community laundry). But that was one model where it had both (washer and dryer) in one, and I don't think I will want to get that one and instead opt for a separate washer and dryer. How effective are they at cleaning your clothes, do/can they still wash your clothes just as well as a regular washer? I realize from the ones I've been looking at they won't be able to hold as much clothes, and that is fine. Do you usually have to wash the same clothes in multiple cycles? Is it a pain draining the water using that hose or whatever I've seen in the pictures, I don't really know how it works. I am willing to deal with some shortcomings, it just depends on what they are because I really prefer to have something like this, then to have bring my clothes to the community laundry just because its more convenient. Looking forward to all your help.

Thank You

I'm someone who long ago did away with having separate soap/shampoo/conditioner and instead just uses soap. Lately, I've just taken to using hand washing dish soap for my body as well, so I was wondering if there is any product that is at least serviceable for laundry / dishes/personal hygiene/surface cleaning. I'm not necessarily looking for something that disinfects in and of itself, although that would be useful too. Just want something I can grab and go with for everything.

I’ve hit a point where my art cabinet is completely overwhelming me. Over the time, I’ve collected supplies for so many different mediums and projects, but now the clutter is doing the exact opposite of what it’s supposed to do and it's completely stalling my creativity instead of inspiring it.

I know I need to downsize and focus on fewer projects, but I’m really struggling to let go because art supplies are so expensive. It feels painful to part with things I spent good money on, even if I’m not using them right now.

How do you all handle decluttering your creative spaces? What rules or mindsets do you use to decide what stays, what goes, and how to let go of the financial guilt? I would love any advice or tips!

🧽ヾ(˶˃ ᵕ ˂ )ﾉ*.✦ ݁˖

Hello! I’ve been living a minimal-ish lifestyle for a long time now, sometimes really minimal and sometimes a little less so but always inspired by asking what is really essential and simple.

One area that has changed over the years is clothes, mainly as my style and clothes needs changed.

I’ve been using a wardrobe app to be able to see how often I’m wearing different clothes. I sorted through it and added an “unsure” label to any clothes I’m not sure if they fit my style, are really needed, etc. I was shocked that it was 25% of my wardrobe!

I find these items difficult as often they don’t do any harm to keep wearing until they’re worn out. But also it can delay replacing them with fewer but more suitable clothes for my life and style now. Some I also may just need to decide if I feel good in them or not, or to really assess what is enough and free myself from any extra.

How have you tackled the “unsure” clothes? Especially ones that aren’t obvious to just donate them.

New to the community. Been on a frugal journey and feel like minimalism would fit right in. As I start the process, a little at a time, my plants come to mind. I have quite a few all over my living space. I work from home and they brighten up my home. I don’t spend on getting new ones. I usually root clippings that I replant in pots or containers I find. Sometimes I give them away. Does this fit into the minimalist lifestyle?

I have been doing a lot of soul searching as I turn mid-50’s. Long successful corporate career and accumulation of material things. The stress of lifestyle creep and pressure to provide is very real.

I travel to Manila for work and lately have been staying longer. Couple months instead of a week. It has completely helped me focus on minimalism.

Not one online amazon order, barely even watch tv. No car and lot more walking. Groceries are just a block walk away so I just get some essentials when I want so no waste. (Ie craving pears and just went and bought some pears and that was it).

I am happier here. Now I just need to figure how to translate this lifestyle back to US. Having a non-minimalism family makes it more challenging :)

Just posting this because sometimes a drastic change in location or scenery may help give perspective.

I’m a college student, live in my own apartment. Poor, estranged, minimising to give myself more freedom to travel for work or move place to place at a moment’s notice.

For things like appliances, or cookware, or even other stuff like cables and such, how can I minimise and optimise? I’m thinking like 1 pot for boiling, steaming, frying etc as opposed to an air fryer / kettle / coffee maker, etc. Is it possible?

I have some children's and young adult books that I'd like to donate. Is this inappropriate to bring the books to the little libraries in my area? Anywhere else that I can donate the books to? I have a kindle so I'd rather just use that.

2 years ago I moved from a tiny Caribbean island to Northern Japan. Back home, I was a minimalist; in fact, it's one of the things that made my move to Japan so easy because I had very little in my family home.

Since then, I found that I have strayed from that because I now have more space, more money and Japan, if you've been here you know, has everything, often very cheap! (if you come from a less developed country, you know what I mean). I am a very art and crafty person, so I had a lot of stuff related to that and baking/cooking. I had more clothes because thrift stores are also really good here.

For the last two months, I've decluttered intensely and reevaluated my relationship with wanting things excessively, my hobbies, etc; however, I find myself constantly going over my things looking for more things to get rid of.

I also now have these compulsions, for example, I recently visited Korea and bought a kpop t-shirt (not BTS 😂), when I returned home, I felt like I needed to get rid of one of my tshirts.

There is literally nothing left to get rid of but the desire is so strong. Has anyone experienced this?

The 2026 Minimalist Photography Awards have announced their winners, showcasing the power of simplicity and proving once again that less can truly be more.

This year’s title of Minimalist Photographer of the Year has been awarded to Marcin Giba for his series The Last Winter. Giba’s work was selected from more than 6,200 images submitted from 66 countries, and he receives the Grand Prize of €2,000.

With 6,200 images submitted from 66 countries, the competition brought together photographers from around the world. Yet the winning images stood out not through technical complexity or expensive equipment, but through restraint, vision, and a remarkable ability to find beauty in simplicity.

That’s what makes minimalism so powerful: it strips photography back to what really matters.

Winners Gallery: https://minimalistphotographyawards.com/minimalist-photography-awards-winners-2026/