What is minimalism in its simplest term

What is minimalism? Look, if you search up “minimalism” on YouTube especially, you’ll find thumbnails and videos of people in completely empty bedrooms with an extreme approach to getting rid of practically everything in your life.

And whilst there’s nothing wrong with this approach, it’s too extreme for most people.

I wanted to breakdown the simplicity of minimalism, how to approach it in life and how to maintain a low-maintenance lifestyle

What is minimalism?

Minimalism is essentially getting sh*t that you don’t need. That simple. So many times, we accumulate a bunch of crap that turns into a pile of rubbish overtime, wasting our precious hard-earned money that ends up going to waste.

It’s not just the doing a one-time garage clean, but shifting your lifestyle and mindset where you question what you buy, and if you really need it. It doesn’t matter how many garage sales you do.

If you buy more stuff than you get rid of, then you’re not practicing minimalism, sh*t piles up in your house and bam you have to do a massive garage clean or move around with so much crap wondering why you bought those items in the first place.

How to practice minimalism?

There are 2 very simple ways to practice minimalism that overtime your house will be a lot less cluttered and you’ll save a tonne of money that you can put towards your investments.

Every week, get rid of 1 item that you don’t need

I’ve been doing this for the past couple of weeks, and I gotta say, it’s so good to see by room getting less cluttered by the week.

Every Friday, I’ll find literally one item I can get rid of. But instead of putting it up on Facebook Marketplace or driving to the Salvation army store every week, what I do instead is put the items in a pretty big bag, and schedule it once a month to drive to the salvation army store to then donate.

Personally, I can’t be bothered listing it up on FB marketplace as I can’t be bothered dealing with annoying buyers.

But you could do that as well.

If you think about it, if you got rid of 1 item every week for 1 year. That means you would’ve gotten rid of 52 items, which is quite a bit.

This approach is really good so that you don’t have to spend your entire weekend cleaning out your house, which is completely fine but it’s a lot of work, and there’s a higher chance you’ll end up procrastinating since it sounds overwhelming to spend hours cleaning out your house with junk that you don’t need.

Also, maintaining this habit means you’ll consistently check for things that you don’t need, and ensure that your house won’t be hoarded with crap.

How to get started:

1. Set an alarm every week for a specific day and time.
2. When that alarm rings, spend 2-5 minutes finding just ONE thing you can throw out
3. Put the item in a large bag.
4. Lastly, schedule when you’ll head out to your nearest Salvation Army or any other place you can donate your items to. It can be every week, fortnightly, monthly or even every 2 months.
5. Repeat

Since starting this in March 2025, here’s what I’ve gotten rid of:

• 2 electric pencil sharpeners
• 3 t-shirts
• A Family Fued board game I only touched once
• A bunch of unused document papers I clearly didn’t need (don’t worry, it wasn’t any important documents)

My general rule of thumb for if I should get rid of something is, if I haven’t used it in over 1 year, then it’s going straight to the Salvo. It’s that simple.

There’s nothing better than getting rid of stuff that you don’t need.

Always think twice before buying something

Especially when you’re making a big purchases like buying a TV, laptop, Google Smart Home device, a wallet, blender, etc, always think twice before buying an item.

I know recently I had thoughts on if I should buy a mini-walking pad so I can use it to watch TV in my bedroom. And whilst I truly do believe that I will use it every day, to determine if I truly need it or not, I ask myself this question: “Am I buying it because I saw someone using it on social media, or am I buying it because I truly need it (like really really need it)?“

Personally, if I’m being honest with myself, I wanted to buy that walking pad because I saw it on YouTube and a thought popped in my head where I was like “this looks like a great purchase, this would be an amazing to have.”

Let’s be honest though; I was getting my step counts in way before I even knew about that walking pad. And I don’t need it need it. I can find alternative ways to get my steps in whilst working from home or in the office such as going for a walk on my lunch break, going for 5 minute walk every 1-2 hours and when I’m watching TV, I can walk on the spot to get my steps in.

And now I realise “okay, I don’t need to buy a walking pad. The only reason I wanted to buy it in the first place was because I saw it on YouTube”.

Next time you think about buying something, think about it for 3 weeks, then come back and ask yourself if you really need it. Chances are, you probably don’t and you’ll save a lot of money and hassle in the process.

That actually brings me to my next point which is…

Reduce social media usage. Unsubscribe to tech & gadget review YouTube channels and websites

The more you hear about new tech gadgets, the higher chance it’ll increase unnecessary impulses to buy more gadgets and items.

Here’s what I would unsubscribe to:

• All promotional email newsletter about sales deals – trust me, it does you more harm them good.
• YouTube channels that review and test out new tech gadgets like Marquees Brownlee. Now, I know he does amazing tech reviews and although I haven’t watched his videos, I would say there’s a higher change you end up buying tech gadgets you don’t need, and if we’re being honest, we’re watching it purely for entertainment purposes.
• Unfollow celebrities and influencers – Now, this might seem controversial, but the reason I say this is because celebrities are often times promoting “consumerism” by showing off their so called “perfect” lifestyle with 9 sports cars parked in their 9 bedroom Beveley Hills mansion. This creates a void inside of us, constantly telling ourselves we don’t have enough when in reality, if you’re living in a first-world country like Australia, you’re living in the top 1% of standards.
• Quit social media altogether – Especially Instagram & TikTok. Very difficult to give up social media, but totally worth it. I’ll be writing an articles on how to give up social media to detox your mind, and fundamental strategies you’ve never heard of before.
• Lastly, unsubscribe from Amazon Prime ASAP. I know Amazon Prime has tonne of great benefits like Amazon Prime TV, free shipping and next day delivery. But this is their marketing strategy to suck you into their platform so that you keep making unnecessary purchases that you don’t need.

Summary

In summary, I believe minimalism comes down to a few things:

• Buying sh*t that you don’t need
• Unsubscribing from bullsh*t consumerism hype
• Developing the mindset that you have enough, and questioning purchases
• Heavily reduce social media usage. I would even suggest deleting social media altogether.

If I had to do just one thing, it would be to delete social media. I know this ain’t easy to do, but trust me, not using social media has so many benefits to your mental health long-term, and you’ll feel better about it.

The reason we don’t want to get off social media is because of FOMO. Feeling like we’re missing out on the latest trends, hype, news, etc.

But I don’t focus on any of that because it’s all bullsh*t. It distracts me from my goals and I’m way better off focusing on my own self-development, focusing on what I can control such as going for more walks, reading more books, increasing my income, etc.