17 Things I Quit to Simplify My Life (minimalism)

In a world that can feel so frantic and rushed, especially as a mom who's trying to juggle schedules with two kids and a content creation business, I've learned that sometimes I simply need to say no. There are some small things I quit along the past few years that have freed up so much time and energy for me and have simplified my life a lot. See if any of these might be helpful for you too. Leaving decisions for later. I've learned that clutter is actually a lot of delayed decisions. The reason why we tend to accumulate so many things and why it can feel so hard to get on top of it is because we tend to keep putting things off. I found for myself, especially when I'm so busy, I tend to let some things go on the side to delay decisions, put things for later. But the problem with that mindset for me is that things will keep piling on and it will simply get harder and harder to get on top of it. And so the best thing we can do straight away is to just try to make those decisions. And for me, it was really important to realize that all of those decisions, especially when it came to clutter, were not that major and that I had this tendency to overthink a lot of them when in reality they didn't matter that much. And I realized throughout the years that I was leaving a lot of these unmade decisions or delayed decisions when it came to a lot of areas of my life. For example, I would leave unanswered emails because I thought I just had to craft this perfect answer in my head. I was constantly overthinking everything I wrote until I decided of the perfect way that I could phrase that email. I would leave stuff lying around my home on surfaces until I could find the perfect spot for it. I would leave the cluttering for later until I had figured out exactly where I'm going to take it and made the decision about each item in that category or in that area. And I realized it's much more productive to try to make those decisions a bit faster and to not let them linger for so long because then it just gets overwhelming and it's just not very helpful in my life. Buying or keeping fabrics that I hate. And this actually took a long time for me to realize what I actually love to wear and what I like having in my wardrobe, what kind of fabrics I like. And it was through decluttering my wardrobe and being more intentional about what I brought in that really helped me figure this out. I also created a little digital wardrobe and this all helped me learn what kind of fabrics I love. And this is when it comes to, you know, wearing them, how they feel, but also when it comes to their care, like how easy they are to care of. If I have the time and energy to take care of those items, if they require any sort of special care and also how easy they are to iron or if they need any ironing. And I've learned for myself that I tend to gravitate towards items that, for one, don't tend to wrinkle very easily. So I really like cotton, viscose. And when it came to linen, for example, I much prefer a linen and viscose blend or a linen and cotton or something like that that makes it less prone to having wrinkles. And I also just like comfortable fabrics, a better quality cotton that's, you know, a little bit more sturdy, not very see-through and all of those things. And nowadays when I go shopping or when I need to buy an item, I will think really carefully about the fabric that it's made of, where in the past I didn't pay attention to that at all. I would buy things because they were on sale, because they were cheap and all of those reasons. But now I really try to be intentional. You know, I might like this item in the shop or when I see it on a website, but is this item going to last? Is this item going to just look good on me? Is it easy to care for? Am I going to enjoy wearing it? So I really try to ask myself all of these questions because it helps me save a lot of money on items that I might not actually enjoy wearing down the line. And speaking of fabrics, I also quit pretty much all ironing. There are a few things I will iron, like my son's school uniform or if I have like a special shirt that I really want to make it look nice, anything like that, yes, I might iron. But it's not part of my daily routine. It's not something I do constantly. It's just as needed. I don't know if this is a millennial thing, but yeah, I just don't really enjoy ironing and I don't find the need to do ironing for every piece of clothing that I own. Like for example, this t-shirt has not been ironed. It has been washed. I put it on a hanger when it's wet. I will kind of slightly stretch the material just to get any creases out and then it dries pretty much straight. I don't really feel the need to iron this. So yeah, that's just my personal preference, I guess. But it saves so much time. I also quit using fabric softeners. For the longest time, I used fabric conditioner on my clothes. And then I realized as I was reading about it that actually you're not supposed to use it on a lot of clothes. Like you're not supposed to use it on towels, on jeans, on leggings, on a lot of items. And I was using it on all of them. So I thought, OK, maybe I'll stop using it for those items. But it felt like such a headache to be constantly thinking, OK, which items are in the wash? Am I using it for this load? So I thought, OK, I'll just stop using it and see what happens. And this was a couple of years ago, maybe. And I don't miss my fabric softener. I find that it doesn't really make that much of a difference. I will use some scent things if I feel like my clothes need it. But I've stopped using that and it's just kind of simplified my laundry routine a little bit more. Perfume is something I quit wearing, I think, around the time where I first had my babies because I just didn't want my baby to be on me and kind of, you know, having all those perfumes around. And, you know, that was a long time ago. I'm now onto my second baby and she's actually a toddler now, but I just haven't gotten back to wearing perfumes. I will obviously wear deodorant and stuff like that, but not a perfume on a daily basis. And I don't know, maybe in the future I will, but that's just something I quit using. And it's actually simplified my life and my budget as well. I've also quit buying new books for the most part. There might be a few books here and there, if something that's new coming up from some of my favorite authors, but I will try my best to first go on Vinted or a second hand place to buy my books because you can find so many of them. For one, it's so much cheaper. And also I feel like it's better to buy pre-loved as much as we can. The one thing I struggle with when it comes to books is to not buy more books before I read the previous ones. That's something I'm working on. I think I mentioned at the beginning of the year that I'm trying to work this habit into my life, but it's hard. I feel like I constantly want to buy new books and there's so many I want to read, but yeah, still working on that habit. Taking unnecessary meetings is something I really try not to do. As my business has grown on here as a content creator, I find that there are a lot more Zoom meetings and, you know, calls like this that I could attend. And yes, I will attend some of them. Some of them I find really helpful, but there are some that I can tell they are kind of more like filler meetings, if you know what I mean. If you've been on one of those, you know what I mean, where it's not really necessary. It's not really that helpful. And so as a previous people pleaser, it was very hard for me to say no to all of those. But I have learned that I really need to protect my time because it is very limited. So I have learned that I can actually say no. I can say, you know, is it necessary for me to be on this meeting? I can ask in a polite way. I don't need to be rude. But I have found that there are actually a lot of meetings that I didn't really need to be in and that could be just an email. And that has simplified my life and saved me a lot of time. Keeping up with trends. This is something I used to do so much. It would be like every season change, I would feel like I needed to stay on top of it. You know, there's a new color coming in in the fall or there's this trend going on and I just wanted to hop on it quickly. But I've learned that actually, especially when it comes to my wardrobe, for example, I much prefer those classic timeless pieces, just simple pieces that I tend to wear a lot that go with everything. And that's why my wardrobe is filled with those basics and neutrals, because that's what I love. And it's really stopped me feeling like I constantly needed to compare myself to all of the things I see on social media and just feeling like I constantly need to keep up with that. I also quit keeping up with the news. And I don't mean this to say that I'm ignorant and I don't know what's going on in the world, because I have found that even though I don't actively go out looking for news, like I don't go on news websites, I don't watch the news on TV, big news articles tend to just come to you anyway. Like you will just see them in your feed. You will see them everywhere online. I try my best not to watch those a lot because I find that actually they fuel a lot of anxiety in me. And a lot of the news articles that we see around the world, they trigger that response. And it's also things that we can't really control. Maybe yes, I can donate, I can do things that are within my control, but there are also a lot of things that I cannot do anything about. And so seeing that on a daily basis can really affect our mental health, sometimes without even realizing. And so no, I'm not oblivious to everything that goes on and I try to do my part, but I also try to protect my own mental health and energy so that I can be a present mom to my kids. And yeah, I guess it's just kind of a hard balance to find there. But I find that, you know, watching and reading news daily is not really helpful to any of us. My husband and I have actually quit buying gifts for each other for those big events. And what I mean is not that we never buy gifts for each other, we do, and we often do throughout the year or when we have an idea for one another, we will surprise each other, like he will bring me flowers, things like that. But, you know, when Christmas comes around or a birthday or any big event like that, and you feel like you have to buy them something or they have to buy you something. And sometimes, you know, they can't guess what's on our minds, they can't guess exactly what we need in that moment. And also, I find that having that pressure to buy a gift quickly means that we're more likely to buy things that, you know, are unnecessary, that we're going to regret buying later, that we're not going to use maybe, and, you know, we end up decluttering or selling later on. We still buy gifts for the kids and things like that, but for us as grown-ups, I also find that when I want something, for example, when I have something on my wish list, I'm much more likely to go out and buy it myself because, you know, as an adult, you just do that, don't you? So that's just something we did to kind of take the pressure off ourselves. And when we do have a good idea, we will buy each other gifts and, you know, surprise each other in a nice way, but not having that pressure of, you know, finding the perfect gift at this particular time. And I find that that's simplified things a lot for us. I've also quit shopping sales. I used to love going bargain hunting, you know, when the seasons change and they have this big sale going on. I thought that was the perfect time to go and buy all of these items of clothing. And then I realized, actually, I don't need so many items of clothing on a regular basis every time the season changes. And also, shopping sales is much more likely to lead to me impulse buying some items that later I'll regret and I won't actually end up wearing that much. So the only reason I would buy sales is if that item was already on my wish list and I've been wanting to get it and now it's on sale, then yes, I might purchase that item. But if it's something I literally just saw and, you know, it's 30% off and I need to buy it now because otherwise I'm going to miss out. I have found that that pressure is actually not something that leads to a good decision on my part. I've also quit complicating meal planning. I used to feel like every week I need to sit down with my phone and find, you know, some really good recipes to try that week and constantly find new things to try to keep things interesting. But actually, I found that my family really prefer eating not necessarily the same meal every day, but like having a rotation of the same meals that we love to eat. And that took a lot of pressure off me to constantly find these new recipes. So I have this spreadsheet. Of course, I do, a bit nerdy, but I love spreadsheets. And I have this one in Notion where I keep a list of the recipes that I love to make on a regular basis. And so every week I will sit down and just pick five of those dinner recipes. And that's pretty much how I do meal planning. And it's so easy. And actually, I got a comment, I think last week from someone saying, why don't you just make a few weekly plans and then reuse those plans over and over again? And I hope that was brilliant. And I realized that's what they do at my daughter's nursery, for example. They have like a spring menu, a summer menu. They probably have like a few weeks of menus and they just rotate through them. And I think I'm going to try to set that up for myself because that will probably save me even more time. So thank you for that. I've also unsubscribed to a lot of email newsletters. I still get the ones from my favorite creators and just people I want to keep up with because I love reading those. And anything else that's just promotional, that's just from shops, I have completely unsubscribed from because I find that, you know, having those sales come into your inbox all the time can lead to a lot of unnecessary purchases. And it can clog up my email inbox, which can feel really stressful. It can feel like I'm constantly needing to answer emails when I don't. It's just promo emails. And I'm someone who likes an inbox zero. Let me know what your inbox looks like right now. Is it inbox zero or is it inbox kind of full? I've also quit doing browse shopping. What I mean by this is I used to go in the shops with nothing in particular in mind to buy. I would just browse, like just go around and look and let the shop inspire me on what to buy. And I found that that's actually not a very useful way to shop for myself because I tend to buy a lot of things that are impulse things, things that maybe I realized later on that don't go with a lot of the things in my wardrobe. And then that leads to me feeling the need to go out and buy another item to go with my new item I bought, which is called the Diderot effect I learned. And so nowadays when I go shopping, it's usually with a list or with a particular item in mind rather than just, you know, browsing the aisles and see what inspires me. Negative self-talk is something I also quit doing. And this was not easy because I find that in my early 20s, I think I was very harsh on myself a lot of the time. And it took a while for this to become a habit and something that I actually do on a consistent basis. But I try to have this positive self-talk in my mind. I always try to think, okay, if my best friend came to me and she would tell me these things she's going through, how would I respond to her? And probably it would be in a much nicer way than I used to talk to myself. So that's what I try to do now. You know, if I feel like I've had a rubbish day, I didn't get much done, instead of putting myself down and, you know, calling myself lazy for not achieving all of these things or being productive, I will try to give myself ways. And remember that rest is also productive, that sometimes our bodies and our minds just need that. It's not easy. It's not easy to do, especially when you first get started trying to change this habit. But I find that it has, you know, made my life so much better in so many ways. So my goal now is for my mind to be a nice place to be in. I've also quit getting eyelash extensions. I got these few times a while ago. And at first I thought they were really cool. But then I realized actually the upkeep of them is, for one, quite expensive. Like it really adds up. You have to go quite frequently to have them look good. And also it takes so long. Like it was I think about one or two hours I would have to sit there to get my eyelashes filled every few weeks. And it's just a lot of time that I didn't want to spend anymore. And I realized that now that I gave my eyelashes a break, they actually look so much better naturally than they used to. So I don't feel the need for those anymore. And I've also quit getting my nails done. Now, I actually never really used to get them consistently done anyway, but I find that having a little routine that I do at the weekend, like on a Sunday, I'll do my nails and it doesn't take very long at all. I own two nail polishes that I use kind of on rotation. I got asked what they are. These are both Essie nail polishes. I've got one that's a pure white. This is called Blanc. And then a very pale pink, which is Ballet Slippers. And I used to have so many more nail polishes, but I realized these are the two colors that I tend to gravitate towards a lot. And so why was I keeping and buying all these nail polishes when I just use these on rotation? So I just keep these now. Those are the only two I own. That's simplified things a lot. It's simplified the decision making of what color to pick and just makes things easier. So I quit getting my nails done, but I still get my hair done. That's the one thing I really enjoy and I've kept in my routine. Let me know what are some things you have quit to simplify your life. I would love to hear from you and I hope you're having a lovely day.