5 Minimalist Habits to Make Space for *JOY* in 2025 (even if you're not a minimalist!)

This is the year to make space for joy. Even if you're not a minimalist, these five minimalist habits will radically simplify and bring more space for joy in your life. They did it for me, and I really do believe we can do it for you, too. If you're new here, I'm Jess, and I make videos on minimalism, intentional holistic motherhood and slow living. The first minimalist habit to start in 2025, even if you're not a minimalist, for a more simple, joyful life is to implement the one in one out rule. That means every time you bring something in your house, you let something leave. It is so accessible, so simple. Every time you go buy a pack of dish towels because yours are getting really ratty. Make sure that you get rid of those old dish towels. When you buy a new sweater, pick out something in your closet that you can donate that's no longer serving you. It doesn't actually even have to be related. You bring in the sweater and you can get rid of an old cooking pan and make sure that you are constantly staying on top of inventory and prevents clutter creep, which leads me to my next minimalist habit. Have a bag or donation box around at all times. I personally have a bag upstairs that is really easily accessible and then a box right in my garage because it's right out of our kitchen downstairs. And periodically I declutter as I go. A lot of people struggle with clutter creep or letting things get so visually overwhelming because you think you have to have this set time to do it. Decluttering, you know, project or you're upstairs, you're going through a closet. You're like, I don't want this. I don't donate it. But then you don't have a bag and you just kind of wait and it kind of hangs there. Trust me, I've done all of it and it sounds ridiculous. But I know you understand what I'm talking about. Having something accessible that is right there so you can say, I can do this right now, put it in a bag, put it in a box when you're cooking and you notice that there's a cooking utensil. You don't use that much. Put that thing in the box as you go. You are kind of creating a constant, effortless decluttering routine. Then once it gets full, put it in your car. And when you're out running errands, drop at the donation center. Number three, start implementing a wants versus needs list. So much of the clutter that leads to us feeling overwhelmed and like our home is not a peaceful place isn't just about the fact that we don't like to declutter. If you're anything like me, you probably love to declutter. You get so happy about it. You get so happy getting rid of things. I'm going to count that as a success. But for years, I struggled to rein in my spending habits, so I was constantly bringing things in my home, forming a habit before the spending that brings intention and awareness to it is so helpful for preventing massive amounts of inventory from coming in. A simple wants versus need list can be done on your phone anywhere. Lots of people do this in many different ways. And you essentially write down every time you have the impulse to get something and you put it into categories, either a want or what you would define as a need. It makes you pause and brings intention before you make the purchase and bring that inventory into your home. That doesn't mean that you don't buy those things. It doesn't mean that when our dish towel started to smell really bad and rip, I didn't write down, hey, we do need new dish towels. But the point is, is that I write it down. It helps you to release that impulse so that you don't impulsively shop and can instead be a lot more methodical and thoughtful about it. So you can actually sit on it and say, is this really a need that we need right now? Or there have been many times where I've written things down and thought, you know what, this is actually not a need. This might be a want. And it's OK to have wants. But does this want serve myself and my family right now? And will this bring more peace in my home or more chaos? Because it's something else I have to manage. It has been so helpful just getting the impulse out and writing it down for someone that is an impulsive shopper like me. And maybe you, if you find that you you have a constant inventory coming in problem. Number four, trade scrolling for high quality leisure. The idea of high quality leisure was introduced to me in Cal Newport's book, Digital Minimalism. And I would be remiss if a habit about technology was not on our list because I am so passionate about digital minimalism. So much of us live our lives online. And if our online world is cluttered, which for most it is, it will lead your brain to feeling constantly overstimulated, distracted and really difficult to be present wherever you are. The biggest contributor to a frazzled, distracted kind of chaotic life is often the amount of time we're spending on our phones, usually social media. And its effects are really twofold. One is that the time we're spending on our phone and those apps are making us feel overwhelmed. You're taking in 100 pieces of information and less than, you know, 10 minutes. You're scrolling. You're seeing a million pictures of things that make your life, your body, the relationship feel inadequate. It is creating chaos in that way. But also the time spent on that phone or that app is also taking away from the time that could be spent doing something else. So when you're on your phone for 45 minutes and you look up and you're like, where did the time go? Those 45 minutes are time taken away from things that, as Cal Newport says, we could choose to spend on activities that are meaningful and satisfying rather than low quality digital consumption. This could mean reading, connection time with loved ones, painting, baking, hiking, working out, cultivating play in your life. That was actually the biggest gift that I found when I got rid of my social media apps. It wasn't just that I wasn't on the apps. It was that I felt like I had so much time to do things that I would have thought I didn't have time to do before. Number five, keep a capsule wardrobe or a uniform. I've chatted about my 10 item wardrobe before. I have multiple videos on it. You do not have to be that extreme. I went from a cluttered over a thousand piece wardrobe to a streamlined 10 item wardrobe for cold weather and for warm weather. What I found was that I used to have a lot more decision fatigue. I used to say things like I have nothing to wear. I don't feel good in my clothes. I would wear the same few sweat sweats anyway. Now, with significantly less clothes, I wear them more. I like what I have. I find I feel better about myself. I am a fan of selecting a core capsule wardrobe that allows you to feel good in your body, minimize the decision fatigue of getting dressed and to let go of the excess and to eliminate any of the shame and insecurity around getting dressed. Getting dressed should not be a shameful or insecure process. Personally, I have found that implementing this, paring down my wardrobe to a capsule wardrobe or building out some uniforms for yourself, it has allowed me, especially as a mom, to wear the clothes I have and for it not to be a shameful experience getting dressed. You do not need all of those clothes of your future fantasy self or of sizes that you don't fit anymore, making you feel ashamed, making you feel guilty or insecure or like you haven't arrived yet. We don't need to carry that mental burden. That is a heavy burden to bear. And getting dressed should not be a shameful or insecure process. I will link my 10 item wardrobe videos below on how to build your own capsule wardrobe if you're interested. But the point is to select already that which brings you joy, helps you to live your life and to use only that. And just see what happens. I promise this is one of those things that is shocking for people. That's it. Five minimalist habits to start in 2025 to super simplify your life and make space for more joy. I will see you in the next video. Happy New Year.