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I used to think minimalism was about owning as little as possible. But over the last couple of years, I’ve realised it’s so much more than that. 

For me, minimalism is about creating space for clarity, for intention, and for what really matters to me. 

If you’re in need of some help to declutter, minimise your home, and achieve a calmer space, then this article is for you. 

I’m also really excited about this article because I’ve been working on it with my friend Becky from Minimal Ease. She is a fellow minimalist YouTuber, and her channel is really inspiring to me. I’ve picked up a lot of tips from her. Right now, she’s working on a video on minimalist habits that I think you’ll find really helpful. In it, I’m also sharing one of my favourite minimalist habits I’ve learned from her. 

Before I go into the 7 habits, I want to say that any of the minimalist or decluttering habits or rules that I mention here are not hard and fast rules. It’s not something you have to do very strictly. 

The reason we call them methods or rules is just to give them a name that’s easy to remember. This way, when you go about our day and you want to do something to help our space feel better or us feel calmer, you can have these little rules that pop into the back of our minds, and you can go and tackle them without thinking too hard about them.

Keep reading below or watch the video:

These are the 7 minimalist habits that changed my life

1. The 10/10 rule

This one simply means grabbing a bag or a box or whatever you have on hand, setting a 10-minute timer, and going around the home, picking 10 things to get rid of. 

It can be rubbish, it can be things you want to declutter or sell. Just pick those 10 items and make it a point to actually take them out of your home. Make sure you actually declutter them and not just take the box and stuff it back in a different wardrobe. 

For me, whenever I find that I need a little impulse — not a massive declutter, just a little bit of something to help my space feel better — this is something I like to incorporate in my days.

2. “Cute” doesn’t mean I need to own it

This habit is one that actually took a long time for it to sink in. And I still find myself struggling with it sometimes. But it’s something I try to remind myself all the time when shopping or adding things to my wish list. 

We see so many cute things on a daily basis. Whenever I open up my Instagram and I’m scrolling, I see so many things there that I find lovely. I like the idea of them or how they look on the person wearing them.

Seeing these items sometimes over and over again, as we are oftentimes served the same ad multiple times, starts to create a desire in us. That’s what marketing does. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, as long as I would actually use that item and it would bring real value to my life or would enhance my wardrobe.

But I used to buy a lot of items that were cute, without having a place, event, or occasion in mind to wear them. Sometimes, it wasn’t even something that fit my lifestyle as a mom of two. So buying things just because they were cute was a total waste of money for me. 

Nowadays, when I’m in the shops or browsing online, that’s what I try to remind myself. Yes, it’s cute, and I love what it looks like. But maybe I can first put it on a wish list. This way, I’m giving myself some time to see if I really want it.

Also, I can have a look at what’s already in my wardrobe. Because sometimes I already have things that are very similar. Or sometimes that item might be cute, but it doesn’t go with any of the things in my wardrobe. This means I would have to buy other items to go with the “cute” one, and things can just spiral from there. 

So the idea that “cute” doesn’t mean I need to own it is one thing I really try to keep in mind.

3. The sock rule

This might sound silly, but it’s so simple. And it’s something I wish I had done a long, long time ago, for myself and especially for my kids.

The sock rule means simply having the same socks, the same colour, the same fit. So when I have to buy new socks for my kids or myself, I try to buy a pack of them, be that a five-pack or ten-pack sock, all the same colour and length. 

We do lose socks, and then we don’t have a matching pair. But if they’re all the same, we will always have a matching pair.

Also, it makes laundry just a bit easier because I don’t have to constantly look for pairs for each sock. I can pick all my daughter’s socks since they’re all the same, and put them in her drawer. 

My socks are all really simple white ones, and I have two extra pairs of sports socks on the side. So when I go to my wardrobe and I open the basket full of socks, they are all the same colour.

This sock rule is just one of those things that doesn’t sound like a big deal. But it does make things a little bit smoother in the day.

4. No credit, only debit

We personally chose to stop using credit cards a few years ago.

Of course, as long as you have that credit card payment and you pay it off every month and you stay on top of it, then you won’t have any interest accumulating. But it can be really easy to forget about that bill and go into an overdraft. 

Plus, a credit card makes it too easy to spend money we don’t have and to overspend on things we don’t really need. If the money is available — even though it’s not actually ours, since it’s just credit — it can be very tempting to use it. It is even more tempting when struggling with impulse buying like I used to, and I still sometimes do. Credit cards make it all too easy to spend money we don’t have and end up in a situation that’s less than ideal.

Also, we don’t buy things in instalments. The only exception we have to this is the mortgage for our house.

Merchants have made it really easy to buy anything in instalments these days, from clothes to kitchen gadgets and appliances. And there might be a time and place for that, but we choose to save money and have savings. This way, in case something needs repairing or replacing, we can just pay the whole sum and not have to deal with instalments or credit cards. 

This is something that has simplified our life and finances. It has also helped us save more money because we’re not spending recklessly on a lot of things we don’t really need. 

5. The 4-corner rule

This is something I have been doing for the longest time, and it helps me so much to stay focused. 

We can get distracted so easily — by kids, by things around our home, by our phones. But this 4-corner rule really helps to keep the focus on one area at a time. 

The way I use the four corner rule is this: let’s say I want to declutter and tidy my living room. Then I would enter the room and start from one corner. I’d finish that corner and then move on to the next. And I would just move around the room from corner to corner until I’m back at the door.

So I will usually start by tidying my kids’ toys, which are next to the Billy bookcase. Then I will move on to the sofa and straighten that out. I’ll then straighten the coffee table, and move on to the dining area. I will straighten up the table and everything that’s there, and then I will move on to the TV unit. And then I’m back at the door. 

Doing this kind of rotation around the room really helps me stay more focused and be more productive in less amount of time.

6. The 5–5–5 rule

When I’m really overthinking something, whether that’s impulse buying or decluttering an item, and I keep going back and forth, this rule really helps me out.

There are moments when I can’t make a decision. For example, thinking if I should let go of a jumper, “Am I gonna miss it? Should I declutter it? Am I gonna regret it if I give it away?”

And the 5-5-5 rule comes in really handy, as it’s just about simply asking myself: will this decision matter in 5 minutes, 5 days, or 5 years? In the jumper example, 5 days later, I didn’t care about it. Maybe I didn’t even remember it anymore, and certainly not 5 years down the line.

Unless you’re talking about sentimental items, this rule can be really helpful to put things into perspective when you’re having a hard time making a decision or when you’re struggling with items.

7. The Tetris theory

This is something I picked up from my friend Becky whom I mentioned. Her channel is Minimal Ease, and that’s where she talks a lot more in depth about this theory. 

The Tetris theory was originally mentioned in the book Think Again by Adam Grant, an American author specialised in psychology. He noticed how playing games like Tetris can change our perspective and impact the way our brain perceives patterns.

Games like Tetris can help us with critical thinking and in making the decisions that we have to make. And this comes in handy when we’re decluttering. 

Just like in a game, we can break big decluttering sessions into small, manageable steps, practising and finding patterns in our homes to organise things better, improve the flow, and make everything more functional.

For example, you might create a system in your entryway to keep shoes and coats and other things you need to put away when you come in. And the more you do this, the more you will notice these patterns in your home, and the more you will realise what’s actually functional for you and what works better for you and your family. 

Another example I liked from Becky is how there are empty spaces sometimes in Tetris, and it can feel like we have to fill them right away. But those empty spaces can actually help us progress faster down the line. So Becky mentions that, if we apply a similar mindset to our home, embracing negative spaces can really help us in the long run. I highly encourage you to check out Becky’s channel — it’s really, really helpful.

I do hope you enjoyed this article. Let me know what minimalist habits you have tried in the comments below, I love hearing from you!