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How many years in a row have I set big goals that I never followed through on? More than I care to admit. Until I realised that small changes make the biggest difference. 

As a mom of two, life used to feel overwhelming. Then, two years ago, I started decluttering and 50% of our things are completely gone. And that was when I realised, “Oh, all this time I was making life harder for myself by keeping all that clutter.”

Here are 10 minimalist habits I want to add to my life

Maybe you will benefit from a few of these too.

Keep reading below or watch the video:

1. The 90/10 rule

I used to be the kind of person that was a lot more all-or-nothing. I either declutter my entire garage or not even start. Until I read the book “Atomic Habits” which completely changed my perspective on this. 

I realised that making small changes actually makes a huge difference down the line. It’s not about applying everything perfectly. It’s just about doing it the majority of the time until it becomes a habit. 

What I try to do now is to apply these habits 90% of the time. I’ve started to embrace the fact that it’s okay to miss that 10% of the time. It doesn’t mean I’m failing or I’m falling off the bandwagon. It just means I’m human.  

It’s okay if 10% of the time I don’t feel like cleaning the kitchen in the evening. Maybe I’m too tired. Maybe I don’t feel like tidying the kids’ toys. It’s completely normal to have times when we can’t do those things or we don’t feel like it because we’re tired.  

I still like to keep a tidy home and keep on top of things, and I try to do that 90% of the time. But it’s just a good reminder for myself that it’s not all or nothing. We just try our best every day.  

2. Read the book before I buy the next

This is something I’m really trying very hard to do. I am the kind of person who would buy a load of books all at once and then have them sit on my shelves because it would take me ages to go through them.  

Nowadays, I try my best to get through the book—or the two or three books that I’ve got going on at the moment—before I go out and buy any new ones. 

This way, if the next book interests me, I feel motivated to finish the current book so I can get to that next one. 

It’s also one thing that I think will encourage me to read more and also keep that clutter at bay. I don’t want to just buy a load of books, keep them on shelves, and never get to reading them. That would be a very sad life for those books.

3. Preloved before new

I started incorporating this in the past couple of years. When I started decluttering and selling all of my stuff on Vinted or eBay, I realised that there’s a whole market of people selling the items they no longer need—things that sometimes are brand new, like unwanted gifts.

This is one habit that I do want to take with me going forward. Whenever I have a wishlist of things I want to buy, the first question that I ask myself is: Can I buy this preloved from somebody else? Can I search on Vinted or eBay first? Can I find a way to source it before buying it new from, for example, Amazon?

This is not possible 100% of the time, obviously, but I actually found a lot of items in great condition—a lot of baby items, a lot of clothes for myself, tech items. We can find them preloved and in great condition, perfectly usable, sold by people who just simply don’t have a use for them anymore.

And we’re not just saving money for ourselves, which is a big thing in itself. We’re also helping the environment. And it’s these small changes that actually help in the long run.

4. Pay attention to what it’s made of

I wanted to try to be more conscious when it comes to the items that I buy. I’ll be completely honest here—I used to buy items regardless of what they were made of. I never paid attention to “Is it 100% cotton?” “Is it completely synthetic?” or “Is it plastic Tupperware that’s not great for you?” I would just go with the flow and buy whatever was convenient. 

It’s when you reach a point where these decisions start to affect your life or your health that you realise, “Wait a minute, I should probably pay attention to what’s in all of these products that I’m using, both health-wise and for the environment as well.”

I’m not saying I’m going to be 100% perfect on this, but I’m trying. So when I shop for something, I look at what it’s made of. Then I check to see if I can find a better solution or option before buying that item.

5. Rethink before upgrading

I realised that I sometimes get bored, especially with something really mundane.

For example, a few months ago, I was looking at my laundry basket, and I thought, “Hm, maybe we should get a bigger one. Maybe we should get one that has separators for whites and colours.”

Then I put it on my wish list. A few weeks down the line, I realised, “Do I actually need to upgrade that laundry basket, or am I just bored?” And I decided, at least for now, not to upgrade that laundry basket. In honesty, the one we currently have works perfectly fine. I don’t have a true need for a new one.

I think that sometimes we get caught in this trap of constantly upgrading our things, especially because we see a lot of ads on social media. So it’s very easy to be tempted to get the next best thing. Oftentimes though, we already have something that works perfectly fine, that doesn’t need upgrading, and that we could probably save our money on.

6. Do a monthly or seasonal edit

This can be done when it comes to clothes, home decor, kitchen items—whatever it might be. 

Maybe when I pull out winter clothes, I will have a look through them and declutter anything I don’t need.

When we pull out Christmas decor, we can look through those, and see if there’s anything we’re not using this year. Maybe it’s a good sign we can let it go to somebody else.

This way, we’re breaking an overwhelming decluttering task into smaller bits that feel more manageable. And it’s just a little bit at a time, so it’s not going to take up a lot of time. It’s also not going to be a big mountain of things to go through.

7. Declutter my digital space

I feel like I managed to get my home into a pretty good clutter-free, organised state. Yet one area where I feel like I’m still lacking is decluttering my digital space.

I have started making progress with it, but just going through things for my business. Obviously, I have a lot of content—videos and pictures—for my YouTube, for my blog, and for my Instagram. I have so many of them on both my MacBook and my phone, so I’m trying my best to go through these things here and there. 

I am trying to organise things in folders and delete duplicate pictures, for example. Sometimes we take 20 pictures of the same thing—we can just pick one or two of our favourites and let go of the rest.

8. No-buy months

I did my first no-buy month a few months ago, and it was actually quite an eye-opening experience, as it did bring a few lessons for me on how influenced we can be to buy things that we don’t have an actual need for. So I want to do more of these.

Having a no-buy month is a good way to put a pause on all the shopping that sometimes we do mindlessly, and to reassess if we actually need those items. It’s also a good way to save some money.

So I do want to incorporate more no-buy months in the future. Have you ever done a no-buy month? Let me know in the comments below.

9. Unsubscribe

What I mean by this is not just YouTube channels—I mean go and unsubscribe from email newsletters from products or brands that I don’t really have a need to see in my inbox every single week.

I will only keep the ones that really bring value to me and that I really enjoy getting in my inbox. But do I need to see every single time they have a sale on their products? Probably not.

I also want to unfollow some Instagram accounts that I have found to be constantly influencing me and creating the desire to buy items. I feel like sometimes we need to take a step back and distance ourselves from that, so that’s one thing I’m trying to be more intentional about.

10. Be less busy

I think we often wear “busy” as a badge of honour. As a mom of two who’s also running a business, I tend to do that myself quite a lot.

But I want to be less busy and less overbooked. I also want to make sure I don’t try to stuff all of my kids’ time with tons of activities and after-school clubs. I’m not saying to cut them down completely, but I do want to be more mindful of the things that they do. I don’t want to feel the need to completely stuff their schedules to the point where they don’t have any downtime.

And in order to be less busy, I do think I need to learn to delegate a bit more. I need to learn to ask for help. I think that’s something I’m not great at, but that’s something I’m working on.

Incorporating these small habits can actually make such a big difference in the long run. Let me know in the comments below what habits you are incorporating in your life in 2025, I love hearing from you!