You Don’t have to Be Bogged Down with “Stuff”
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So just what is a minimalist lifestyle? Why is this so much more than an approach to décor? What does it really mean? “Get everything you want, by discovering you already have it.” Essentially, a minimalist lifestyle simply means reducing the clutter, scaling back your possessions and aiming to say and do more with less. It means appreciating a few things instead of having a huge amount of clutter that you don’t really need or want.
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We often see minimalism as an approach to UI design for devices from companies like Apple and on an increasing number of websites. Here, the all-important maxim to follow is ‘communicate, don’t decorate’. That means that unless something is serving an actual purpose, it doesn’t belong in the design. A website doesn’t need a patterned background, it doesn’t need unnecessary menus and it doesn’t flourishes filling up every bit of white space.
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Every single element should serve a purpose, whether that is to guide the viewers’ eyes in a certain direction, to communicate some key information, or to facilitate an important interaction. If a button doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t need to be there!
Applying Minimal Design to Your Home
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This same ethos can then be applied to décor. Of course, you don’t need to communicate anything as such when it comes to your home’s decoration but you can accomplish something similar when looking at items of furniture etc.
Minimalist items of furniture are items that are utilitarian in as much as they don’t have lines or decoration that doesn’t need to be there.
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That means that they will be made up of straight lines and they won’t feature things like swirly handles, or unnecessarily elaborate feet.Everything serves a purpose.With that serving as the basis for your décor, you can then continue with that basic concept by adding just a few items that you need while staying away from the temptation to add extra decoration that will serve no real purpose (of course we’ll be covering how to do all this in later articles).
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In UI and design, this minimalist concept has come to the fore because it allows for better interactions. By having fewer distracting elements, this approach is able to more effectively direct users to the right points on the screen and encourage the right interactions. It also allows a website design to more effectively scale to different screen sizes when users change devices and it creates more ‘space’ which makes the experience more calming and enjoyable. But while your home is not a UI, all these same concepts apply just the same. When you start removing unnecessary decorations and clutter, you start to make interacting with your home much simpler.
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When there are fewer items on your desk, you’ll find that you can find what you want that much more quickly and easily.Likewise, when there is less clutter generally in your interior design, you’ll have less clutter in your visual field. This will make your space that much more calming and relaxing and also make it much easier to keep clean and tidy.And that in turn means you’re now spending less time cleaning and less time digging around for things.
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Your home will be clean and attractive more often and you’ll have more time and energy to do the things that you enjoy doing and actually use your space! Just like a UI, your home serves a function. That function is to support the lifestyle that you want to live. So, if an item in your home is not serving that role, then the simple solution is to remove it! And then you can breathe more easily.
Minimalism as a Reaction to Materialism
More and more people are starting to realize the benefits of actually having less clutter and fewer items and this is resulting in a situation where they are happier with just a few beautiful objects rather than feeling the need to go out and buy everything they see advertised on TV. And what does that lead to as a result? Greater satisfaction and happiness with fewer items!
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This makes a massive difference because it means that you’re now going to be happier and spend less time thinking about the things that you don’t have.And you’ll have more money to spend on those select few items and on the things that really make you happy. This is the perfect antidote to our modern, materialistic culture and it is also the very same ethos that has been preached by numerous philosophies and spiritual practices for centuries. Happiness doesn’t come from what you own, it comes from what you do with what you own.
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You can be the richest person in the world but be incredibly stressed and unhappy. Why? Because you have created a lifestyle that still pushes the limits of your budget. You’ve been accustomed to a certain quality of life that costs a lot of money and involves a lot of hard work. Maintaining this lifestyle takes a lot of effort and yet you are still always thinking about the things that you don’t have and the things you want.
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You don’t stop to take a moment and just enjoy the things you have and objects of incredible value and beauty end up being lost in all the noise and losing their value to you. Minimalism is about getting the very most out of what you have and this applies to your personal life. Taking a gratitude attitude means waking up and feeling so lucky that you’re with your partner. It means being overjoyed with your children and with your health and with your freedom.
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It means not looking next door and wishing that you had the neighbor’s widescreen TV. It means not wasting money on junk and it means being present. And of course, minimalism means that your happiness isn’t tied up in physical possessions. It means that you can get enjoyment out your own mind and your own body, rather than letting that small scratch on your car ruin your day. Life is there to be enjoyed and there is so much out there to be enjoyed right now.
If all you can think about is how much you want the latest toy or gadget though, then you’re not going to have time to stop and enjoy those things. You have to work harder, stay in the office later and take out loans.But what you don’t realize is that you already have everything you need. It’s time to relax and enjoy it!Many thinkers agree that this is the secret to happiness.
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To be able to truly appreciate things and let go of unnecessary stress, distracting desires and that gnawing sense of dissatisfaction. Of course, in a capitalist world, where every company under the sun is constantly showing off its wares, this can be incredibly difficult. Fortunately, you have this book to hand which is going to help you get everything you want by discovering that you already have it.
