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How To Live Simply with Minimalist Home Design

We all want a simple life, particularly at home. It definitely seems as though modern society encourages us to move beyond simplicity in any way that we can. Countless gadgets and products are thrown at us all the time, making us believe we always need new things to feel fulfilled. In reality, a simple life is very achievable and can make you feel more fulfilled than you’d expected. 

For me, it starts with your home. If you learn to live simply at home, then it’s easy to have a simple life. What do we mean when we talk about simple living? It’s mainly about doing things that aren’t overly complicated and having a life that’s free from excess. You generate as little waste as possible, your home isn’t cluttered with loads of things, and you feel a great sense of freedom. 

One way to achieve this is by implementing a minimalist home design. If you’re unsure what this is or how to do it, today’s article will help open your eyes. We’ll explain how to create a minimalist home, along with what it means and why it can help you live a simple life. 

What is minimalism?

Minimalism at home is all about keeping your home as spacious and simplistic as possible. Instead of a house that’s full of junk and stuff, you’ve got something that feels more open and free. At the same time, it still feels like a home. It still has an excellent design and feels very homely. That’s the key to minimalism; you take a less is more approach without compromising the comfort of your home. Otherwise, you stray too far to the other side and create a house that feels completely bare and devoid of emotion. 

How do you create a minimalist home?

With the above in mind, how do you make a home feel minimalist? It’s not as simple as throwing everything out; you need to retain a sense of homeliness while making your house feel less hectic. In this section, you’ll see some key tips that help you understand what you should do to implement minimalism in your house:

Start with the color scheme

To begin, you need to change your home to a more minimalist color scheme. Bright and bold colors just don’t cut it and can make your house feel a bit too alive. Instead, you need to follow one of the oldest trends in real estate and implement a neutral color palette. Use lots of whites and grays to great effect in your home, and it will instantly feel more minimalist. The idea is that you keep the colors simple rather than having too much going on. 

Declutter

Secondly, you need to go through a thorough decluttering process. This is one of the hallmarks of minimalism, as you should get rid of things that aren’t essential. Do you really need 101 different kitchen appliances? When was the last time you genuinely used that blender or that slow cooker? Why do you have countless ornaments in your living room? They take up space, create a sense of clutter and overcrowdedness, and add very little to the overall design!

Minimalist space
Image by Stuart Bailey from Pixabay

Granted, this will be one of the hardest things you do in your bid to live a simple life. It is tough looking at stuff and getting rid of it, but it has to be done. Go around your home with the simple question in your mind: do we need this? If you find things that aren’t essential and won’t get used regularly, get rid of them. Ironically, the pandemic should help you make this decision. The chances are you spent the best part of a year inside your house. So, if you haven’t used something in that time, it shows you have hardly any need for it. Declutter your home to open up more space and make it feel more minimalist and neat.

Create open spaces

Open spaces are critical to minimalism as they create a sense of simplicity. An open space, by definition, is free from clutter and feels nice and spacious. This is what you are trying to create when you live like a minimalist. It’s all about looking at your rooms and maximizing the space you’ve been given. Yes, this starts with decluttering, but it also includes things like moving furniture around, using the walls to hang shelves high up, etc. 

Ideally, an open-plan living style will work well here. If you can knock down some walls to open your home up, it’s much easier to generate that simple minimalist style. Of course, if this isn’t possible, your next best bet is to play around with the layout and remove elements from your rooms if they’re not essential. 

Make functionality a priority

Minimalism isn’t just about getting rid of things and creating an open home. No, one of the fundamental aspects of this design practice is to focus on functionality. The idea is that everything in your home has a function of some sort. This means that it’s there for a reason and doesn’t just sit there for style points. 

A fantastic example of this is a footstool in your living room. If it’s just a footstool, you don’t get a huge amount of functionality out of it. However, if it’s a stool with storage inside, you suddenly have something far more useful. One item of furniture now does its job and another one. Suddenly, it becomes a much better item to have in your home as it can free up more space thanks to the internal storage and still be highly functional. When selecting furniture for your house, make functionality a priority. 

Encourage natural light

Minimalist homes are big on natural light. You need to try your best to let as much of it into your home as possible, bringing out the best in your neutral tones. This could mean installing new windows to get more light in, or it could simply mean you switch up your curtains to something lighter. 

Either way, bringing natural light into your home helps illuminate it and create a better sense of spaciousness. This sounds weird, but when combined with neutral tones and a more open living style, the light bounces off things and makes your house feel bigger. 

natural light
Image by Pexels from Pixabay

How does minimalist home decor help you live a simple life?

You’ve seen how to create a minimalist home, but how does this help you live a simple life? For one, it encourages you to live with less and avoid buying products just for the sake of it. You’ll have an emptier home, yet it still feels like a home and isn’t devoid of all feelings. 

There will be less clutter and less waste, and it helps you be a bit more conscious of your impact on the planet. A lot of minimalist choices are eco-friendly, helping you create a greener home at the same time. Not only that, but you almost get into a different frame of mind when you have a minimalist home. You start to appreciate that you don’t need a lot in life to feel happy – all you require is a nice home and a loving family. 

Of course, there are many other ways to adopt a simple living style in your house. Today’s post will hopefully help you see the benefits of minimalism and how you can design your home to be a bit simpler than before. It’s a great first step on the journey towards a simple life. 

Featured Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels