#minimalism tips

- Letting go of unnecessary items.

- Removal of distractions

- a way to get your time back

-freedom

By: Claudia Manganiello

I began my journey for a more “minimalist” closet by looking at other guides online, but I found them all TOO extreme. I didn’t want to get rid of clothes I like and use, and certainly did not want to end up needing to buy more.

So I kept:

-all I need for each season

-my absolute favorite clothes

-enough to rotate for special occasions

-MOST IMPORTANTLY, enough so that I don’t have to do laundry too often.

I got rid of:

-all clothes with holes

-any that I haven’t used in a year

-any I don’t like/don’t fit me or my style anymore

-anything I’m holding onto just because they’re memories.

This was hard. I went through my clothes two or three times, getting rid of more each time. It was hard because some part of me felt like I was throwing away money. But I realized I just had to think of it as I got my money’s worth and someone else would find it much more useful now.

By the end, I got so tired of having so much stuff that I think it’s going to take alot for me to buy something new. I felt a weight lifted when I filled up 6 LARGE trash bags of clothes to donate!! I feel like I got rid of as much as I could but I hope in the future I can slim down even more.

This is everything I own now:

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I love the concepts behind minimalism -- when it comes to everything but school supplies. When stationery is involved, I go to the store and just 

But this semester, I am making a concentrated effort to streamline my school supplies! And here are some tips and steps I have taken to implement this goal.

Take inventory of the school supplies you have, and then declutter. How many extra highlighters do you have? How many spare notebooks? How many pens do you keep in your bag that have been limping along on their last vestiges of ink for awhile now? Whatever you don’t need, get rid of. Some things (like dried out sharpies) need to be thrown away. Other things can be donated. 

Look at your methods of studying and ask yourself what you frequently use. When I consider the way I take notes in class and the way I study, I can think of four staples that I absolutely need: paper, pens (in black, blue, and red), highlighters, and stick notes. Last semester I took a lot more than this to school with me, but now that I’m trying to streamline, I realize I can fit 3/4 of those items in my purse and the paper I can carry in a binder. No backpack necessary.

Keep what you want. Carry what you need. Now, I am one of those people that finds immense satisfaction in school and office supplies. I still have a lot of page flags, pens, markers, etc. that I use in my studying, but my point is to only carry to class what you need. This makes it so much easier, and instead of trying to use the correct colored pen for each type of information in the lecture, you can focus more on what’s being said.

Relegate everything to pouches. Pouches make it easy to always keep the necessities with you. For example: a pencil pouch/case. I can stick my pens, highlighters, and sticky notes in it and then throw it in my purse or backpack as needed. Another handy pouch to take is a cosmetic bag. 

My semester starts on Monday, eek! I will try to post as regularly as possible, but I may miss one of my usual masterposts depending on my homework load. I hope everyone has amazing back-to-school experiences!

Monday

Review the organization system you have in place, and what you could do to improve it

Have a brain dump, get everything down

Tuesday

Unsubscribe to all junk emails, text messages

Back up your phone

Clear out your laptop

Wednesday

Clear out your work space

Sort out paperwork

Thursday

Sort through your finances, pay bills

Make a budget that includes yearly goals, monthly goals, and ways for you to cut back

Friday

Pick one area of your space and give it a face lift

Saturday

Set three goals for the year and three actions to achieve each one

Set three goals for the month and three actions to achieve each one

Sunday

Chore day! Get ish done

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