The Joy of Less, a Minimalist Living Guide (23 page)

Oftentimes, we’re too excited to try out a new beauty product to wait until we finish the old one. We buy it, bring it home, and give it a whirl. Of course, the label tells us we’ll have to use it for a few weeks (or months) before we see any results, so we incorporate it into our daily routine. Our old, half-finished cleanser, lotion, or cream is relegated to the back of our cabinet and quickly forgotten. Rinse, lather, and repeat, and we soon have a growing pile of rejects languishing in our bathrooms.

Avoid this problem by disposing of an old toiletry whenever you purchase a new one. Don’t feel obligated to hold on to its remnants, thinking you might go back and finish it someday; if you’re happy with the new one, there’s little chance that’ll happen. In all likelihood, it’ll probably go bad before you get to use it. Similarly, once you’ve started new ones, don’t let those almost-empty toothpaste tubes and conditioner bottles hang around; it’s unlikely you’ll develop the superhuman strength needed to squeeze out the last remaining molecules. Keep tabs on your cosmetics as well. If you bring home a new lipstick from the fall palette, or a new eyeshadow from the spring collection, say “adiós” to last season’s shades. A fresh selection is more fun than a cache of stale supplies!

Apply the same principle to small electronics, like electric toothbrushes, razors, hairdryers, straighteners, and curling irons. If you’ve acquired a “new and improved” version, send the “old and outdated” one on its way. Don’t be tempted to hold on to it as a spare. Remember, we trade a little bit of space for every item we own—and all those little spaces add up to big ones. These items can be awkward to store, and their failure isn’t catastrophic enough to devote valuable space to understudies.

Finally, use the One In-One Out rule on your towels. These things can multiply like nobody’s business! Why? Because when we buy new ones, we rarely ever throw the old ones away. They’re just so practical, we can’t bring ourselves to do it. Our fresh ones get the place of honor on the towel rack, the former get stowed away as backups, and our linen closets grow more stuffed with each passing year. Instead of perpetually accumulating them, declutter your oldest when you bring in the new; it’ll give you much more breathing room. If you can’t bear to let them go, at least reassign them to another part of the house; they may continue to serve you well cleaning up spills or wiping down tools.

To create a minimalist bathroom, we must do more than simply organize the contents—we must narrow them down. We want to be able to meet our needs with the least amount of products.

Therefore, it behooves us to reduce our needs—or, in other words, pare down our beauty and grooming routines. Specialty products can make our
toilette
complicated and time-consuming; suddenly we find ourselves involved in a five-step cleansing program, using three different anti-aging creams, or applying mud masks multiple times a week. We’re curling our hair, straightening it, moussing it, gelling it, teasing it, scrunching it, or spraying it into place. We’re concealing our flaws, highlighting our cheekbones, and lengthening our lashes. Whew! Getting ready in the morning can be a job unto itself!

Take a close look at your routine, and consider where you can cut back. I’m confident you’ll look just as gorgeous doing
half
what you do now. If you scaled down your skin care to a splash of soap and water, you could ditch the fancy cleansers and toners. If you decided to age gracefully, you could jettison the wrinkle creams. If you got a simple, wash-and-wear haircut, you could toss a plethora of hair products—and maybe even the hairdryer. Beauty doesn’t come from a bottle—it comes from within. Instead of stockpiling miracle goop, opt for natural beauty boosters like exercise, a healthy diet, plenty of water, and a good night’s sleep.

When revamping your routine, think low maintenance. That doesn’t mean you have to show up for work looking like you just rolled out of bed; simply, use the fewest products possible to create a well-groomed appearance. When it comes to makeup, keep it minimal: stick with neutral colors, and play up your best feature instead of painting all of them. Embrace the hair you were born with: if it’s curly don’t try to make it straight, if it’s straight don’t try to make it curly, and if you’re of a certain age, consider letting it go gray. A natural face and a simple hairdo can be much more attractive than full makeup and an elaborate coiffure.

To narrow things down further, choose multi-use products. Double duty favorites include shampoo and conditioner combos, tinted lip balms, hair and body washes, and moisturizers with a sunscreen. Some common household items are also beauty workhorses. Baking soda, for example, can be used for exfoliating, tooth brushing, hand cleansing, foot soaking, and hair care. Olive oil can be used as a facial moisturizer, makeup remover, hair conditioner, cuticle treatment, and lip balm. Petroleum jelly softens hands, feet, elbows, and knees, and can substitute for mascara. These three products alone can eliminate a cabinet full of lotions and potions!

Everyday maintenance in the bathroom is a piece of cake! In fact, it’s a great place to hone your minimalist powers, and gain the skills and confidence to take on the rest of the house.

You’ll make your job much easier if you’re a good gatekeeper. Don’t come back from the store with an armful of beauty products you bought on impulse; don’t accept the freebies from the salesperson in the cosmetics aisle; don’t request samples through the mail or on the Internet; and don’t bring home soaps, shampoos, and body lotions from hotels. If they’re not part of your regular routine, these items will do little more than clutter up your drawers. Wait until you have
need
of a particular product before you acquire a new one. We all like to give ourselves a treat once in awhile—but spacious cabinets and empty countertops can be just as luxurious as expensive bath salts.

Even as you’re guarding the gate, some wayward items will find their way in—especially if you share the bathroom with other household members. Each time you exit the room, take with you anything that doesn’t belong there: like your toddler’s sippy cup, your teenager’s sneakers, your spouse’s copy of
Popular Mechanics
, or the book you were reading in the tub. Make sure no one is using the floor as an impromptu laundry basket or temporary storage spot; if so, orchestrate a prompt pickup or return of the stray possessions. This simple habit will keep the clutter from getting out of hand, and set a great example for other members of the family.

Lastly, clear your surfaces before turning in for the night. Put all toiletries, tools, and tidbits back in their designated spots, and hang all towels on their rods or hooks. Give your countertops a quick wipe-down, to remove dirt and mildew and prevent it from forming. Make this a regular routine before falling into bed, and you’ll awake to a beautiful minimalist bathroom each morning!

Now that we’ve streamlined our living space, let’s take a look at our storage space—like the attic, basement, and garage. Oftentimes, this is where the clutter from the rest of the house ends up when we don’t know what to do with it. However, just because it’s out of sight, doesn’t mean it’s out of mind.

Storage space seems like the answer to our problems; how orderly our lives would be if we had a full basement, big attic, or two-car garage to stash all our stuff! Unfortunately, however, this “solution” often backfires: stuff expands to fill the available space, and before we know it, we have more stuff than ever to deal with.

My husband and I once lived quite comfortably in a studio apartment, with no storage space other than a utility closet. Then we moved into a three-bedroom house, with an attic, basement, and garage. Guess what happened? Our possessions increased exponentially! During our apartment years, whenever we tired of a piece of furniture, or sports and hobby equipment, we had to get rid of it—we simply had no place to store it. Once we moved into our house, however, these things wound up in the basement—“just in case” we needed them someday. Well, these “just in cases” piled up and piled up, creating an entirely new clutter problem. Frankly, I think it’s easier to live minimally when you
don’t
have any storage space!

To avoid clutter buildup, keep your storage space as streamlined as your living space. Just because you have a big garage, doesn’t mean you have to fill every square inch of it. Better to store your car in there (and protect your investment), than a bunch of things you don’t use. What’s more, these areas can serve as additional flex space: they’re ideal places to pursue messy hobbies, and can even be converted into family rooms or bedrooms. Don’t let useless junk prevent you from using them to their potential.

With storage spaces, you can Start Over in one of two ways: a little at a time, or the whole enchilada. If you’re feeling ambitious, do it BIG! Schedule an entire weekend for your decluttering, and empty the contents of the basement, attic, or garage (whatever you’ve chosen to work on) into your yard or driveway. It’s easy to overlook things when they’re lurking in dark corners; bring it all out into the light, and expose the clutter for what it is. Sometimes, simply moving an item out of the house helps you overcome the urge to keep it; suddenly it seems ridiculous to hang on to your old baseball cleats, or the broken bicycle you haven’t ridden in years.

For best results, get the whole family involved, and make a party of it! Play music, serve refreshments, and create a fun atmosphere, so it feels more like a game than a chore. A little healthy competition helps: task each member of the household with purging their own things, and declare the person with the least amount of remaining stuff the decluttering champion. For added incentive, make plans for how you’ll use the “new” space; your teenager will embrace the project with much more enthusiasm if it results in a home theater, or place for his band to practice.

Alternatively, if a major purge seems overwhelming, tackle it box by box. Such a large endeavor can be less intimidating when done a little at a time. To make progress, set a regular schedule: for example, sort through one box each day or each week. Move it out of the storage area, and into another part of the house to examine its contents; when you remove things from their usual context, you’re less likely to put them back. Proceeding slowly allows you to consider each item carefully, and gives you the time to digitize photos, documents, or other memorabilia before disposing of them.

And by all means, if you have a storage unit external to your property, get rid of it! It’s like renting a second house for your excess stuff—
stuff you don’t even like enough to live with
. Ponder the following questions: Can you list the contents of your storage unit from memory? If not, do you really
need
things you don’t even know you have? When did you last use these items? Is it worth paying good money to store things you rarely (if ever) use? How important can they be, if you don’t even want to keep them in your house? You may discover that in this situation, the best way to Start Over is to turn in the keys.

As you divide your stuff into Trash, Treasure, and Transfer piles, keep it simple and stick to the following rule: if you haven’t used an item in over a year, out it goes. This time period is sufficient to cover holiday decorations, like Easter baskets and Christmas ornaments; seasonal supplies like pool toys and snow shovels; and sports equipment that’s only used part of the year, like baseball bats and ice hockey skates. Accordingly, if you didn’t go skiing, use your camping gear, or put up those Halloween decorations last year (or in several years), it’s time to ask
why
you’re still storing these items.

You’ll probably find plenty of stuff for your Trash pile here, as these spaces are often repositories for broken items. Consider how likely you are to fix that old television or lawnmower if you’ve already replaced it with a new one (I’ll give you a hint: not very!). Likewise, question if that chair with the broken seat, or table with the broken leg, will ever enter your dining room again. If you were
really
going to fix these items, you would have done so by now; so why put extra pressure on yourself? Break free of the task by letting them go—it’ll take a load off your mind, and give you time to pursue other (more pleasurable) activities. That goes double if you’re dedicating precious space to a broken-down jalopy. A car is meant to get you from point A to point B; if the one in your garage is not doing the job (and is unlikely to in the near future), I think you know what to do with it.

Your Transfer pile will fill up quickly too, as storage spaces are catch-alls for abandoned projects and once-loved hobbies. We often feel guilty for giving up on activities, particularly after we’ve spent good money on supplies or training. We then placate (or torture?) ourselves by storing the equipment in our basement or garage, vowing we’ll “get back into it” someday. Bear in mind that you’re a free individual—you have no obligation to continue these pursuits. Donate the old table you never finished re-finishing, give your neighbor the fishing pole you haven’t touched in years, or sell the knitting machine you never learned to use. Give yourself permission to move on—it’s so liberating! When these items no longer weigh on you, you’ll have the energy and enthusiasm to pursue new passions.

Furthermore, don’t “furnish” these areas with rejects from your living space. Sometimes when we redecorate, we end up with furniture that no longer “fits”—but instead of setting it free, we stow it away in our garage or basement. If nobody’s sitting on it, dining on it, working on it, or sleeping on it, what’s the use of keeping it? Baby items in particular are often squirreled away indefinitely; but the only reason to keep those cribs, high chairs, and playpens is if you truly expect to have another child. Don’t store that fifteen-year-old bassinet because it reminds you of your teenager’s more charming years; it doesn’t have the power to turn back time. Give these items to someone who needs them; let them help out a struggling young family, rather than gather dust in your basement.