The minimalist movement originated in New York music and art scene during the late 1960s. The simplistic art form was a response to the avant-garde trend of abstract expressionism in the 1950s. It was an attempt to strip away any extra-visual association to reveal the core of the artwork.
A wide variety of minimalism
Today, minimalism is associated with many things, from UI and software design to architecture and lifestyle, including the growing tiny house movement. The reasons to follow the minimalist mantra vary. Companies like the clarity of a product designed with a minimalist display or a website that is easier to navigate; some people reject increasing commercialism in society or want to follow a simplified lifestyle and reduce the clutter that they have built-up over the years.
Simply put, a minimalist lifestyle is about owningfewer possessions. It reduces the clutter from consumerism that causes distractions and diverts focus. The benefits of running a minimalist household are that it promotes a more calming home, is quicker to clean, and makes finding what you need when you need it more manageable.
How do you transform from clutter to calm? Your objectives are for only keeping the essentials, keeping floors, walls, and surfaces clear, and keeping what you need to be stored out of sight. Make sure you have a place for everything so that it’s easy to find.
Although a room’s aesthetics are a matter of taste, busy wallpaper or curtain designs, patterned carpets, or several pieces of art on the same wall add to a cluttered, frantic look. Stripping away any decoration or family knickknacks may be too drastic and impersonal; a guiding principle may be to look for quality over quantity.
Getting Down to Basics
When planning a minimalist layout for each room, empty the contents and think of your daily routine. That will help you identify what you use regularly and what you don’t need. The most prominent objects in a room are often pieces of furniture. The fewer pieces, the better, so work out what is essential without sacrificing comfort: in the lounge, what is the minimum seating you require? Fit them around a coffee table and add a lamp for reading. To keep surfaces clear, books, papers, chargers, and anything else that may usually be left out needs storage.
Room for Improvement
The same applies to the bathroom, especially in a family house or shared apartment where everyone has separate supplies of toiletries. Some items are shared, so finding a large bathroom vanity for sale will solve the problem created by the clutter of towels, the toilet plunger, bath mats, spare toilet roll, and medical supplies.
The kitchen is a haven for clutter and messy surfaces. Kitchen gadgets are designed to make cooking easier for those who don’t like to cook and enable better quality for those who do. Along with the stockpile of electrical equipment is the variety of supposedly essential kitchen implements for various dishes that have been cooked for generations with necessary cooking utensils. A frying pan, saucepan, oven dish, sharp knife, tin opener, cutting board, a mixing bowl, measuring cups, serving spoon, whisk and spatula should be enough to cater for most meal preparation.
Taking a minimalist approach to running your house doesn’t have to be a lifelong commitment to meager living. However, the practical solutions generated from the evolving combination of de-cluttering, downsizing, and smart house technology continue to provide benefits for everyone.
