You’ve likely heard of minimalism as a lifestyle. If not, here’s your chance to learn. Minimalism is about simplifying and decluttering to focus on what’s important, leading to a life with fewer worries.

Minimalism: A Personal Journey

Remember, minimalism isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s worth exploring and experimenting in various areas to find what best fits your lifestyle.

Our Approach to Minimalism

To be clear, we’re not strict Minimalists, but we do practice some of its principles.

We’ll share our perspectives in two sections, highlighting how, as a married couple, we differently apply minimalism based on our individual needs and preferences in our daily lives.

Daniel’s Experience with Minimalism

Working with video and photography (and now fully into this Blog) to keep ideas flowing can be overwhelming. Specially when there are multiple distractions in someones head. When I learned about Minimalism, I knew I couldn’t apply it in my life as a whole, but some of the aspects were nice so I gave it a try. The results were awesome.

I have learned about Minimalism a long time ago but never took the time to explore it. Some of the sources were from Matt D’Avella, The Minimalists, Oliur (to name a few)

Here are some of the things that I have changed into a more minimalistic way. These are in no particular order:

-Few same model (but different colour) t shirts, socks, underwear, sweat pants.

-Got rid of lots of gadgets, unnecessary items, cables, bags and things i didn’t even know i had.

-Detached myself from paper photos and tangible memories (rather keep them in my head)

-Reducing the number of perfumes because who needs 200+ perfumes unless you want to brag about them? (If you are into collecting perfumes, this one is major)

We have to disclaim that we still have a lot of them because we do reviews, visual/commercial work and also run an online store so we have to keep them for promotional purposes but when it comes to what we use, we only have a handful of them to cover our needs.

-Skin care routine/ Men’s grooming

With minimalism, not everyone has the same intentions or purposes, these are only the ones that work for me but if you want to try some of these points, please feel free and see what and if works for you.

Marusa’s Journey into Minimalism

What minimalism represent to me is that i can identify what is really needed in my life and removing the unnecessary. Less is more. 

Minimalism is actually slowly present in all the aspects of my life. I met this term years ago, but never payed too much attention to it. Until last year, 2022. That was a year when few unpleasant things happened in my life and the time when i realised that a change was needed. I felt that there are way too many things surrounding me.

Material and mental wise. Things such as cluttered stuff at home, too much extra work, bad food habits, clothes that i don’t wear, unnecessary money spends, unhealthy relations…etc.

So at some point i started to be focused on how to change this and simplify my life.

I remembered that long time ago, my husband Daniel showed me a YouTuber named Matt D’Avella and his minimal lifestyle videos. Since then i started to dig into more youtube videos and blogs on the web regarding this topic and found some really good content and stories about people and minimalism.

Inspiration and Influences

• Malama life
• A to Zen life
• Joshua Becker
• Matt D’Avella
• The Minimalists

Practical Steps to Minimalism

Once I embraced minimalism, I began decluttering. I cleared and reorganized an entire room, gradually tackling each item and closet. I also donated many unworn clothes.

Simplifying my clothing choices eased my stress. I chose one style of underwear and socks in various colors, simplifying my mornings. I’m now expanding my capsule wardrobe to suit different seasons, appreciating that many pieces are versatile year-round.

I removed unused personal and cosmetic items, creating more space. I used a 90-day rule: if I hadn’t used something in that time, I let it go.

Decluttering perfumes was challenging. Despite loving my collection, I realized they mostly just took up space, so I began to part with them.

Embracing Financial Minimalism

One of the important aspects of minimalism is also the financial minimalism. This doesn’t mean that you can not buy nothing but encourages you to buy just what you need instead.

To understand more about this topic, i listened to Dave Ramsey’s podcast and his “7 Baby steps method of being financially independent”, this helped me a lot to understand all this. 

Mental Clarity and Minimalism

The hardest thing of all is to get rid of the mental clutter. Not to engage with people who brings negative energy and ultimately to learn how to set your own healthy borders.

Conclusion: The Impact of Minimalism

Looking into my own mind i started to find answers about my own behaviour and feelings. I am the one responsible for how i feel and how i respond.

Being able to be more aware and looking for meaningful gestures and things in my life. Focus on good things and being thankful for the things that nowadays many other people don’t have in their life. A good health, food & water, a place called home and people that loves me… I find that this mentality shift was the biggest progress in my minimalism journey.