How to be an organized minimalist

There seems to be a lot of buzz lately on minimalism, becoming organized, decluttering, etc. I guess it has something to do with wanting to get away from the excess of celebrity culture and to embrace something simpler, cleaner and easier (not to mention lighter on the pocketbook).

So what’s the one golden rule in becoming an organized minimalist?

Stop organizing your stuff, and get rid of it.

My mom is a champion organizer.

She has racks, nay, cupboards full of dividers, boxes, bags, you name it… all in the name of organizing all the stuff she has.

She thinks the more organized she can become with her books and her things, the better she will feel and it kind of drives me mad.

Every summer, she embarks on this 2 week organizing binge, trying to re-categorize her 200 binders of clippings and notes, and sad to say, it never works out because it just gets re-organized into some corner and forgotten about.

Then she goes looking for that ONE binder that she constantly uses for inspiration and can’t find it.

Well it’s no wonder….

LOOK AT IT DIFFERENTLY

My mom really thinks the problem is that she is messy and is unable to manage her stuff in an organized manner, when in fact, the real problem I see is that..

There’s too much stuff.

..and the solution to too much stuff?

Get rid of it.

Simple, right?

You will never be an organized minimalist if you keep hoarding things, thinking that all you need is yet another perfect organizer to manage that clutter.

Just chuck it.

Toss it.

Dump it.

Get rid of it.

Whatever words you need to tell yourself, you need to just GET RID OF YOUR STUFF.

The less you have, the bigger your place will feel… and physically be.

You won’t need to become organized any more because there’ll be less of it to deal with.

SPACE IS FINITE

You simply cannot defeat the bare, plain fact that when you have too much stuff, you can only cram so much of it into the same limited space.

Either you get more space to deal with the problem…

…or you get rid of stuff to MAKE more space.

Space is finite. Things are finite.

Make the two work in harmony.

You can’t cram 500 items into a closet meant to fit only 100.

There are physical limits that even the most genius of closet designers cannot overcome.

STORAGE BOXES ARE JUST MORE WAYS TO HIDE YOUR CLUTTER

You aren’t more organized when you have storage boxes that are neatly labeled. You’re just a packrat with labeled storage boxes.

My brother has a whole basement of neatly labeled storage boxes filled with… JUNK .. for lack of a better word that he can’t seem to part with. Memories, mementos, things they MIGHT use again even though this will never happen.

It looks great at first glance. 2 whole walls, filled with neat little labeled boxes, all in a row….. but is that making him feel more organized? Or is it just visual clutter taking up space in your home?

Frankly, I think he could put those 2 walls to better use and hang pictures instead and chuck it all in the garbage.

The laws of organized minimalism is simple:

Nothing beats having actual, physical space from the lack of stuff.

No organizing tool will ever help you reach that and you will never de-clutter without having to toss out the clutter itself.