In recent years, minimalism has gained tremendous popularity as people seek to simplify their lives and reduce clutter. However, the common misconception that minimalism requires getting rid of most of your possessions can be an intimidating prospect for most. However, this article reminds you that you can embrace a minimalist lifestyle without discarding your belongings. With just a few mindful choices and the help of professional storage solutions, you can transform your cluttered space into a mindful sanctuary.  

The Benefits of Balanced Minimalism

Embracing a minimalistic lifestyle is great both for your home and for your well-being. As many know, decluttering has been proven to improve your mental well-being making it the ideal wellness home improvement tool. However, understanding how to do it properly is the real key to success. Choosing a balanced minimalist lifestyle will help to create a calming neutral environment, whilst preserving meaningful items to avoid the dreaded guilt and regret of throwing away items that bring you joy. Therefore, understanding the simple ways to achieve this balance can help transform how you view your living space entirely. 

Start with a Mindset Shift

Before you start throwing out all of your most precious items, the first step toward mindful minimalism is about reimagining what it is to live minimally. Start by taking a walk around your home and thinking about what items really add value to your life. Often, we convince ourselves that we must have the latest of everything, only for the product to sit on the shelf for the foreseeable future gathering dust. Consider what belongings in your home bring you joy and matter most, these are the items that you should cherish. This mental shift will help guide your decisions as you move forward.

The Art of Thoughtful Organization

Organization is the key to a minimalistic space, so before taking away start by adding to your space. Investing in organizers and drawer dividers will help you to create intentional space within your home while placing belongings away. Display stacks are perfect for organizing desk spaces and vanities, whilst floating shelves are a great way to create extra storage space without cluttering. These small tweaks to your space will instantly help to create a more minimalistic environment without having to get rid of anything. 

Pro tip: Create categories for your belongings with labels to help keep up with the organization. This way when you are looking for items or need to put things away, it’ll be clear what goes where. 

Strategic Storage Solutions

Another way of preserving your prized possessions without cluttering your space is by placing them into secure storage. People often think of storage as a temporary solution to moving house or renovating but when used strategically, storage can help transform your living arrangements long term. Instead of donating or throwing away belongings that may not serve a purpose but still have a place in your heart, placing them in storage will ensure their preservation whilst still decluttering your home. Storage can also be used to hold out-of-season clothing and items such as holiday decorations, which can then be updated on rotation as the seasons change. This will free up plenty of storage space within the home, making room to put away other essentials into neat cupboards and drawers. 

When choosing a storage facility it’s important to pick somewhere that is local to you, to avoid travelling across states to access your belongings. You also want to make sure that they are a  trustworthy storage company with a wide range of insurance options, to protect your valuables in the event of an accident. With that being said, keeping your items tucked away in storage is the perfect balance between creating a minimalist lifestyle but also keeping the items you cherish most. 

The One-In-One-Out Rule

Once your items are organized and you’re living your minimalist dreams, it’s important to keep it that way. Rather than dramatic purging every few months, adopt a sustainable approach to acquiring new items. When you bring something new into your space, consider moving something else to storage or donating it. This prevents accumulation while allowing flexibility in your lifestyle which is crucial for maintaining a sustainable approach. 

The Six-Month Review

To help maintain a positive mindset and prevent excess accumulation, every six months, review items in your living space and storage. Just as you have this first time, take a look over all your belongings that you have (working room by room) and ask yourself the following questions: 

• What have you used?
• What still brings you joy?
• What could be donated?
• What should be moved between storage and living space?

This regular review helps maintain balance without requiring dramatic changes that can be time-consuming.

Embracing Slow Minimalism

It’s important to remember that minimalism is a journey, not a destination. Whilst your initial organization can be done in the space of a day, it will take some time and trial and error to find what kind of minimalism works for you. Take the time to learn what works best for you and adjust your approach accordingly, this will help to upkeep your minimal lifestyle. Additionally, do not rush when it comes to choosing a storage facility or deciding which items to remove from your home. By taking the time to carefully consider each step, you will ensure that you have made the right choice, which will prevent you from taking steps backwards. 

Moving Forward

The key to successful minimalist living isn’t about owning as little as possible – it’s about being intentional with what you keep in your life. By utilising storage thoughtfully and making mindful decisions about your possessions, you can create a peaceful, uncluttered living space while maintaining access to items that enrich your life in different seasons. So, take it slow, be thoughtful, and create a version of minimalism that truly works for you.

Architecture is an industry that is usually predicated on trends. What works for a previous year may soon be considered as old or passé for the next one. The trends are usually based on people’s preferences which are dictated by the environment and the developments of various situation all over the world.

Here are some of the trends that we are seeing for this year:

Buildings to continue going GREEN:

The world has now become much more environmentally conscious. Every country has seemed to intensify their efforts to protect the environment. This effort has even spread to the way that people build their homes and offices.

For this year, we can expect that more and more architects would try to incorporate a green design. This means that they would begin using eco-friendly materials for their buildings as well as make provisions for installing systems that could help conserve waste and make efficient use of natural resources.

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Because of this we can expect more and more architectural projects to start utilizing things such as solar panels for energy, and filtration systems for storms. We could also see designs that are more compatible with natural ventilation as well as environmental light.

Some would even go to the distance of working around the natural environment instead of the traditional bulldoze everything and build on top.

Minimalist design:

Another trend that we can foresee for the year would be the rise of minimalist designs. Previously, the trend was for people to have glamorous and grandiose designs for their buildings, everything seemed to signify large and in your face aesthetics. However, people seem to be opting more towards minimized designs this year.

We can expect to have smaller scale homes with interior designs that are more focused on very little embellishments, natural finishes, and clean lines.

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Maximizing space constraints

Related to the minimalist design, an architectural trend nowadays would be to have multi-purpose spaces instead of a 1 room 1 purpose construction. We can now see guest rooms doubling as play areas or music rooms depending on the need or the situation.

This would be further enhanced by furniture that would do double duties such as couches that can convert to beds, coffee tables that can expand to become a dining table, or beds that would have storage options.

Automated systems:

Lastly, we feel that architectural design would now begin to feature more automated systems. The trend of lowered costs for automation and increased technical capability can lead to systems such as temperature, lighting, electronics, and even security, to become controllable via an application on a mobile phone or tablet. There are even some technologies which would automate adjustments based on the habits of the users.

Of course, it would be good to note that these are just trends when it comes to a building’s architecture and interior design. The actual outputs would still be dependent on the vision of the architects who would be designing the projects as well as the clients who would be actually utilizing what they have built.

Stella Harper is an architect who plans to have a burgeoning career in designing luxury homes. She mentions that she idolizes the architectural works of Steven Heyer, and uses his works as an inspiration when it’s time to come up with her own designs for her numerous clients.