My Reasons for Becoming a Practical Minimalist

Welcome back and thank you for taking the time to read my last post Can a Minimalist Lifestyle Also Be Practical?. In this blog I will list and discuss my main reasons for living a more minimalistic, yet practical, lifestyle.

Less Stress – Research indicates that an adult makes 35,000 “remotely” conscious decisions every day! These are the ones we make without even realizing it. They may include what clothes to wear, what to have for breakfast, or what to watch on TV. Each one of these remote decisions may have numerous options to choose from.For example, while getting dressed in the morning we may have to choose between jeans or slacks. Then we must decide which jeans or slacks (out of how ever many we own). From that decision we need to decide on sneakers or shoes, and which sneakers or shoes. And imagine if we own 20 different pairs of shoes, ugh! You get the picture. What once appeared to be a simple decision has turned into a stressful and time consuming one. But look at the bright side, only 34,999 more to go! My main reason for adopting a practical minimalist lifestyle is to reduce the number of these “remotely” conscious decisions I have to make every day and ultimately lower the stress in my life to as little as possible. There are several ways I will attempt to do this which I will post here in the near future.

Less Financial Pressure - The main premise behind minimalism is "living with less"... less stress, less decisions, less responsibility, and less stuff. There are several reasons why eliminating stuff, and not buying more stuff, can improve and simplify our life, financially. (1) The obvious one is simply not spending money on stuff that we don't need (I could write an entire blog on this statement and will revisit this subject in the upcoming weeks). (2) Another reason owning less is beneficial is because we have less to maintain. For example, if we own two cars, we spend twice as much on fuel, insurance, maintenance, etc. (for the record, I own two cars 😡) The same premise can be applied to appliances, electronics, tools and our "toys". (3) One final reason minimalism eases financial stress is because it simplifies budgeting. For example, owning "one" credit card is much easier than juggling 10 cards and having one bank account is easier to manage than two or three.

So reducing financial stress is another big reason I've decided to adopt a minimalist lifestyle. This one will be particularly hard for me because I like to spend money! And although I've come a long way, I still need to get better at managing my money.

A Healthier ME; Both Mind and Body - I'll finish up with my final reason for living a more

minimalist lifestyle and that is to be a 'healthier me". Living a simpler and less cluttered life will allow me to physically and mentally healthier. As we all know, stress can be deadly! It leads to high blood pressure, lack of sleep, and anxiety. Eliminating stress the best we can means eliminating those dangers. It means more time to exercise, more time to prepare healthy meals and more time to focus on yourself.

I hope you enjoyed this blog and thank you for joining me on this journey. I would love to hear your comments so please post them below and don't forget to follow "The Practical Minimalist".

Can a Minimalist Lifestyle Also Be Practical?

When I picture the tradition minimalist, I see someone sitting in a sparsely furnished room watching their 19-inch black-and-white television (without cable of course!). They're eating their dinner from the single plate they own and are wearing the same outfit for the third day in a row. Of course, this is an extreme, and likely, ignorant view of minimalism and minimalist. There are many people that are practical minimalists. They live "normal" and practical lives, albeit with much less "stuff". It is this approach and these people I wish to explore, study, and eventually emulate.

The main idea behind minimalism is living with less. As you can tell by my exaggerated and ignorant view of a traditional minimalist, I assume that only means living with less materialistic items like clothes, electronics, "toys", dishes, etc. As I've found out through reading and research, minimalism is much more than that. A minimalist lifestyle also includes eliminating or reducing intangible things like stress, debt, bad habits, addictions, and the list goes on and on. So from a personal standpoint, in addition to removing the material clutter in my life, my goal is to minimize the intangible clutter in my life. It is my belief and understanding that this will help me to obtain my ultimate goal; a stress-free and fulfilling lifestyle.

I certainly do not claim to be an expert in minimalism. I have simply created this platform as a motivational tool for myself and others as a way to share experiences and ideas. I look forward to your comments whether you agree, disagree or are indifferent. Thank you for reading my blog!