Living Minimalist

For many of us, our homes and offices are at maximum capacity. We cram our storage areas, cupboards, and drawers, and then try and find even more places to store all of our valuables and possessions. What happens if you eliminated everything that you really and truly didn’t need? What would your home or office look like then? What impact would it have on your life? Could you live your life like that?

Living a minimalist life is defined by the The Minimalist website as “a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favour of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom.” Essentially, it’s about living without the unnecessary and extra “things” and material possessions that clutter up so many of our lives and our spaces.

Becoming Minimalist is another blog site that documents the life of a family who made the decision to live this lifestyle. According to the blog site, the family has “found a better way to live centered on more important pursuits. It has been a journey of discovering the abundant life is actually found in owning less. And it still ranks as one the best decisions we’ve ever made.”

However, going minimalist can be a difficult transition, especially for those of us who are so accustomed to being surrounded by our possessions and the other “things” that we live with. Living completely minimalist might not be the right or wrong answer, but there is a lot of good tips and strategies that can be followed from this approach. Taking the time to go through everything in our home, and assess what is really necessary and what is not, can help eliminate all the unnecessary materials and clutter. This can also be considered before purchasing new furniture, clothes, gadgets, and more. Do you really need to replace this or buy more of that? You may find that the answer is “no” more times than you would think.

We really don’t need as much as we think we do, and can make do with a lot less than what most of us live with now. TWEET THAT!

Interested in trying to live a more minimalist life? Check out The Minimalist and Becoming Minimalist to learn more.

Goodbye winter, hello spring!

We can still expect snow in Calgary for the next couple of months, but there is no denying the higher temperatures and the fast approaching spring season. However, the change of a season means re-organizing your wardrobe and swapping out heavier coats and shoes for lighter items.

In Calgary, it’s difficult to determine what pieces to put into storage and what items to bring out, especially because our spring weather is always changing. Many of us have clothing that we can wear year-round, so Calm Order suggests that a good remedy for this situation is to pair-down our clothing and consider looking at capsule wardrobes.

For anyone not familiar with it, a capsule wardrobe is made up of basic pieces of clothing that are easy to mix and match. This means you can make many different outfits of fewer pieces of clothing, which makes transitioning from season to season easier, so you don’t need to worry about having specific clothes for specific seasons.

According to the Vivienne Files, a capsule wardrobe is typically comprised of a black turtleneck, a t-shirt (in gray, white, or black), a button down shirt (white or blue), a black cardigan, a denim shirt, a long-sleeved black shirt, khakis, jeans, and black pants. 

These items sound very neutral and plain, but to add your own creative style or make them more seasonal, they can be accented with colourful accessories that can be tailored for each season, like shoes, scarves, jewelry, and bags.

A capsule wardrobe is not only easier to manage and organize, it also takes up less space in your closet, and is very economical. For people living in Calgary, having a year-round wardrobe that can be mixed and matched for whatever weather we may be facing is the perfect solution. To learn more about capsule wardrobes, go here.