on it. Especially in meditation and yoga you have the opportunity to become an observer of your thoughts and thereby change them. You will soon find that the negative thoughts you have lead to negative feelings. Even if many of our thoughts are formed unconsciously and subconsciously, we can recognize certain patterns through regular observation and, for example, work with affirmations to change these unconscious patterns. Minimalism is all about getting rid of inefficient, unnecessary and excessively negative thoughts that block you and inhibit your personal growth, and replacing them with positive, friendly and loving thoughts. Regular practice is of elementary importance! Of course, you should be aware of where your journey is going: Which areas would you like to optimize and where would you like to experience more luck? This determines the focus of your future minimalist lifestyle.
The minimalist gift giving
Minimalist giving is not about giving as little as possible, but rather about giving as valuable a gift as possible. However, this does not mean the material value, but the ideal value. An example: It is your brother's birthday and he would certainly be happy about a new Porsche. But honest, nicely meant words are also a wonderful gift. And instead of a book, a time spent together in a beautiful place can create something much more valuable: Common, loving memories. Gifts are about showing mutual recognition and love. This is also possible without large material purchases, which in themselves are meaningless. So before you give your next gift, think carefully about what you would be happy about and how you can express your feelings as authentically as possible.
Earn Money by Clearing Out
Of course the mucked out things must be accommodated somewhere after a large clearing out action. In the best case, this is not in the basement or in the attic, where they then continue to accumulate dust undisturbed. Instead it offers to sell the sorted out items. Thanks to appropriate Internet portals this is now quite easy to manage: Take a photo of the item, post it on the sales portal, set the price and wait for an offer. But many items can also be sold at flea markets or a garage sale. Every Euro earned is a success! Anything you don't get sold will sooner or later be given away or thrown away - your earnings in these two cases are zero euros. So make it easy for yourself and don't be too dogged when it comes to pricing, after all you want to live easier than before, don't you?
Donate superfluous items
Even if you personally don't need 45 towels, but maybe only 5, this doesn't mean that the other 40 have to go to the garbage. Especially non-profit organizations are happy about all donations. Look around you for this: What charities could use something I own more than enough of? Ask these associations and be happy if your objects that are useless for you are a welcome gift for other people and animals. Food can be well used for blackboards, clothes in old clothes collections and furniture, technical equipment and the like in the social department store. You'll find a good place for everything you want to give away for free. Giving from the free heart is an incredibly beautiful feeling and you will certainly not regret it!
Reduce media consumption
Restricting media consumption today sounds like an unsolvable task. After all, almost all communication takes place via smartphones and the like. We have an important message for you: The e-mail or the SMS are waiting for you, if necessary even several days! Would you really miss all the unchecked images in Instagram? No! No! No! At best, you'd miss the habit. To limit your media consumption for more quality time with yourself or your loved ones, you should start by finding out when you are distracted by media. Is it the night before sleep, is it on the train to work? You are probably not bothered by the use of the media itself (or is it?!), but rather by the way it is used. So instead of reading posts that don't concern you on Facebook or looking at women's exchanges, you could take exciting books in digital or printed form as a distraction. Set a daily time limit for your media consumption - how about 30 minutes? If you get bored outside these 30 minutes, this is the perfect opportunity to get really creative!
The 30 days shopping rule
Changing shopping habits is not always easy. Especially because we are firmly convinced that we really need all these things. The next time you have a special offer or advertising that makes you think you really need a particular product, you put it on your 30-day list. In these 30 days you have enough time to think about whether you really need this item. After an average of three days it becomes clear: "I definitely don't need this item to be happy." In this way many impulse purchases can be averted and you will quickly develop a new connection to really important purchases. If the purchase is really important, in 99% of the cases you will not be made aware of it by an advertisement, but will encounter this necessity in everyday life. This rule will feel strange at first, after all you are acting against your habits. After about 30 days you will get used to this method and after a few months you probably won't need this 30 day rule anymore, because you don't do impulsive buying anymore.
Sorting the objects ... Red, Yellow, Green
There are many different ways to declutter. A proven technique is the sorting of objects according to different categories. Colours can be used very well for this. Red stands for "can definitely go away", yellow means "can maybe go away" and everything that ends up in the green category "may stay". With this method you take one room after the other, empty it completely and then start sorting out or categorizing it. From the potted plant to the last sock, you pick up all the items in your hand and decide which categories they belong in. All items in the Green category can be returned after cleaning up the cleared room. You will notice that one or the other piece of furniture has also had its day - get rid of it! If possible, the items in the red category should be disposed of on the same day, so that they do not sneak back in and still find a dusty place. All properties in the yellow category are allowed to stay for 30 days in a place such as the cellar or attic. After this time you can consciously go through these items again and decide whether they belong to the green or red category. Most items will be in the red category after 30 days!
Emotional and rational decision-making
When clearing out, you should proceed intuitively and decide from your gut whether you want to keep an item or not. A rational decision aid is whether you have used the item in the last 30 days or whether it is used once or twice a year (camping, diving, etc.). An emotional decision-making aid is whether one associates this object with beautiful memories of situations or dear people and thus contributes this object to daily happiness. All items that can be found in these two categories may remain natural. With all other items you can draw a courageous line and give them away, sell them or throw them away, depending on their condition.
Clearing out helper
Depending on the size of the apartment/house and the accumulated possessions, it can make sense to bring one or more helpers into the boat to clear out the trash. With a little good music and a few tasty cuts, clearing out can also be a lot of fun! However, you should choose your clearing out helpers well, because if you have chosen people with a passion for collecting, your project will be much more difficult. Who in your circle of friends and family has the ability to support your decisions, who stands behind your project and can be a good support for your clearing out action? It's not always the best friend!
Plan Clearing out
Planning a decluttering operation is very helpful. Especially when it's the first decluttering. Then knowing exactly how to carry out such a clearing out action effectively saves a lot of time and nerves. If you have a whole day or a whole weekend, you may be able to clean out your entire apartment on those days. This is of course less suitable for families with young children, as the family rhythm must of course continue so that there is no medium-sized chaos. You can also take one room a day. This takes a little more time, but you can clear it out without any time pressure. Start with the least used room and work your way up to the most used room. Experience