A Guide to Creating a Minimalist Home

I wouldn’t say my home is completely minimalist, but it’s certainly not cluttered, and most people I know would say it’s pretty minimalist.

Recently a visitor saw my kitchen and said, “I’ve never seen a kitchen that was so neat and clutter-free!” Get rid of it.

For example, my kitchen/dining area has a few essentials on the floor: a dining table (cleared of clutter), chairs, a few bar stools, a high chair, and a step stool for the kids. On the counter, there’s only a toaster, coffee maker, and microwave.

Does this type of minimalist home lack personality, fun, and a sense of life? You might think so, but when I look around and see a home that isn’t cluttered, I feel a strange sense of satisfaction or fulfillment. It’s calm, it’s freeing, and it’s just beautiful.

Benefits of a Minimalist Home I could talk about this for a while, but here are some of the main benefits:

Less Stress: Clutter is a form of visual distraction, and everything in our field of vision attracts at least a little of our attention. Less clutter means less visual stress. A minimalist home has a calming effect.

It is more attractive. Think of photos of crowded homes or photos of minimalist homes. Most of us find places that have very little except nice furniture, nice artwork, and nice decorations. Making your home more minimalist can make it more attractive. Cleaning becomes easier. It’s hard to sweep or vacuum around a lot of items or around a lot of furniture. The more stuff you have, the more you have to keep it clean at all times and the more complicated it becomes to clean around your stuff. Think about how much easier it is to clean an empty room compared to a room with 50 items in it. Of course, this is an extreme example and we don’t recommend emptying a room, but it’s meant to illustrate the difference. This is what a minimalist home looks like, but of course this depends on your preferences and how extreme minimalist you want to be. I am a minimalist, but not extreme. However, some characteristics of a minimalist home are:

Minimal furniture. A minimalist room only has a few essential pieces of furniture. For example, a living room might only have a sofa, another chair or sofa, a coffee table, a minimalist entertainment stand (not a huge one with lots of shelves), a TV, and a few lamps. Even less is possible (a couch, a chair, a coffee table, etc.). A bedroom might have a simple bed (or just a mattress), a dresser, and maybe a nightstand or bookshelf.

Clean surfaces. In a minimalist home, there are no flat surfaces except for one or two decorations (see next point). There are no lots of knick-knacks, no piles of books, papers, or other items. Accent decor. A completely empty house can actually be a bit boring. So instead of having anything on your coffee table, you can have a simple vase with a few flowers, for example. Or maybe just a family photo on an empty desk. You can have a nice piece of art on the bare walls (I use my dad’s artwork as he’s a great artist). Quality over quantity. Instead of having a lot of stuff in their home, minimalists choose only a few really good things that they love and use often. For example, a really nice table is better than five pieces of pressboard furniture.

Example. The photo at the top of this post is a beautiful example of a minimalist home (it’s not my home, but I hope it is). Let’s take a look at more photos of this beautiful house. Traditional Japanese houses are another great example of minimalism, as is this beautiful double page spread.

How to create a minimalist home There is actually no set procedure for making your home minimalist, other than changing your philosophy and striving for the ideals in the previous section. However, there are some tips I would like to share with anyone who is trying to pursue minimalism.

From room to room. Unless you are moving to a new home, it is difficult to simplify your entire home at once. Focus on one room and make it your haven. Use this as an opportunity to simplify the next room and the one after that. Then do the same outside!

Start with the furniture. The most important thing in any room is the furniture, so when simplifying a room, you should always start with the furniture. The less furniture you have, the better (obviously). Think about what furniture you can do without sacrificing comfort and homeliness. Choose a few simple, uncluttered pieces of furniture (e.g., a minimalist coffee table) in monochromatic, muted colors.

Just what you need. As you look at the furniture and other things in the room, ask yourself if it’s really a necessity. If you can live without it, remove it. Strip the room down to just what you need. You can always add a few more items later.

Clean the floors. Floors should be completely clean except for the furniture. Don’t clutter the floors or stack or store things on the floor. Once you’ve pared down the furniture to just what you need, clear the floors of everything else. Donate, throw it away, or put it somewhere out of sight.