B&N Nook First Gen, Rii 518BT mini keyboard for page turning at night (a definitely non-minimalist nod to my insomnia) and easier annotations on the Kobo, library cards, Kobo Libra, three physical books.

Not pictured - a copy of Of Mice and Men/Cannery Row (an incoming gift from someone), another local library card (waiting on replacement), case for the Nook, case for the Rii, small notebook for making notes about books that I borrow.

This is where my minimalism journey began. I became interested in witchcraft and thought this shelf in my office closet would be a perfect altar. Before my purge it was packed with stuff - after I got rid of the majority of that I just kept going with the rest of my apartment.

When the altar is not in use, the closet also holds my rolled up floor mat, vacuum cleaner, and a small rolling cart (has things like my candles, tarot deck, small supply of the same herbs I have in the little jars, and some non-witchy stuff: important documents, “junk drawer” (scissors, tape measure, screwdriver, etc.) and some sentimental items.

The last photo is an embroidery I made in school. The guest critic said the piece was too “woo woo” so it seemed fitting for this space 😂.

If you have questions about witchcraft or anything you see, let me know! There are a lot of misconceptions out there. I don’t hex people or talk to Satan, lol. Mostly it’s a fun hobby that can sometimes feel spiritual, and can help me feel certain ways through magical thinking and the placebo effect.

Before becoming a minimalist, the office was just my office because I work from home. During the declutter, I got rid of multiple pieces of furniture in there, which made space for my husband to have a desk too! He doesn’t WFH, but he uses it fairly frequently.

The post photo is his desk. The photo in the comments in my desk. The top is

Yep, there are more books. But 700 fewer than before than before the declutter. In my defense, purchasing books (for a bookstore) is my actual job! 😄

This is all my jewelry. The only piece I wear every day is my wedding band. If I’m going out anywhere, I generally add the bracelet on the right & either the necklace second from left or the one on the far right (dependent on the neckline of the dress I’m wearing).

The necklace and bracelet on the far left are the jewelry I wore on my wedding day. I love them, but for some reason it feels wrong to wear them on any day besides our anniversary, lol.

I generally only wear the engagement ring if we’re going somewhere fancy, though lately I’ve taken to wearing it more frequently because it seems to make my husband happy 😄

Laying these out made me realize I really never wear the necklace second from right. Maybe I’ll discard it if I don’t use it within the next year.

And that’s way more info than I’m sure anyone wanted!

This part of the room used to have two additional armchairs, an additional side table, a larger couch, more throw pillows, and almost floor to ceiling bookshelves stuffed with books and knickknacks along that whole back wall. It felt cramped, and the bookshelves started feeling oppressive. Now the room feels spacious and peaceful. I love it, and I don’t regret getting rid of a single thing.

I’m sure many minimalists don’t, but here are our five. We used to have many more, but these were the only ones that were special enough for us to keep. One lives on my husband’s desk, two live on my desk, and two live on the shelf above the kitchen sink.

Reposting the pics that have the least amount of changes to them. Hoping to have updated pics in the next few weeks.

Coat closet - only changes are that small emergency tote is now empty because everything is just in the Bug Out/Emergency Backpack on the higher shelf.

First aid - no changes.

I Feel Like Crap bag - no changes, but I'm looking into a larger bag that fits the hot water bottle, heated eye mask, and reusable tissues with the rest of the things.

EDC - I no longer have the Filofax mini. I finally got tired of trying to make it work, being a southpaw.

Bedroom pics - the IKEA spice racks that we were using for nightstands have been removed and we're waiting to finish painting in there to decide on whether to put them back up. Items are in the closet with our other items for now. The smaller tabletop fan has been given away, and so have the individual twin sized duvets. Our linens are now just one king sized flat sheet, four buckwheat hull pillows and their cases, a cotton year-round blanket from Faribault, an electric blanket and a wool blanket for the colder temps, and a magical "cooling" blanket for hot temps. A shikibuton and folding slats are coming in the summertime. For now, we have the wool and cotton firm mattress on slats still.

Other changes - lots less going on with my floor desk/studio situation. The one bookshelf on my wall has less on it from that project, too. The bathroom mirror has a little less eye care going on.

Had to grab some pics for a hardwood restoration company of the floor and that ugly tile that the previous owner threw down rather than fix the worst of the animal stained spots on the floor. :/ Here's the rest of the room.

Pic 1 - That IKEA lamp is one of my sons' and should be out of there this week. That gateleg table is the biggest piece of furniture in the house. It's also from IKEA and has six drawers that house my art supplies. I use this table to paint at and also for packing/shipping stuff. I don't remember where I got the stool from. Probably a secondhand shop. The blinds are also from IKEA. They're hung by nails - no big installation required. Nothing super fancy.

Pic 2 - My son's chair. Everyone who came in/out from that door was using it this winter to put on/take off boots. It's leaving the room this week, too. That's an air purifier on the wall to the left. Cats, pollen, wildfire smoke - I like to breathe. And the famous brass mirror, lol. That's from Fog Linen.

Pic 3 - Fan. Hunter. Nice. I like a breeze and the windows in that room don't open. No ceiling light/fan in there, either. Comically large plug adapter thing. I need to have the electrician come back out and just upgrade the rest of these outlets.

Pic 4 - The wall across from the window. The plug adapter for moving the fan closer to my work area when I want to.

Every single cat in this house tried to get some camera time. I'm honestly pretty proud at getting the shots that I did without them hogging the frame. Anyway, there it all is. No couch, no TV. Just some open space and sunshine. And all these cats.

REALLY looking forward to getting these floors refinished. Previous owner had at least one dog. :/ Anyway. The room has that table and stool back there, and I use the space to paint when there’s good light, sometimes do yoga, and sometimes sit in that window with a cat and watch the world go by. That’s it.

We replaced the air filter and shelf with proper nightstands. Got rid of the floor lamp in favor of a small rechargeable lantern I already had. A plant that was on the windowsill fell off and broke (that’s one way to minimize 😂). Biggest changes are in the photo in the comments though. First I got rid of the massive floor mirror because it made that wall look cramped (and I was kinda sick of looking at myself all the time). Then I ended up getting rid of the dresser too because I discarded enough clothing that it all fits in my closet now. The chair doesn’t really serve much purpose - occasionally a load of clean laundry will end up there. But it’s a nice chair, and we decided not to get rid of it just for the sake of getting rid of it. I made the quilt and macrame piece during lockdown.

Well, hello to all of our new members! Always pretty cool to see new people pop by and I hope this space is encouraging, or validating - whichever you need!

I live with my husband, three adult sons, a daughter-in-law, and a non-minimalist amount of cats. I try to share pics of my own home (or at least the parts of it that I use) but I'm terrible with both photos and videos. I thought I'd share some links to other homes that look most like mine and that I've enjoyed looking at. Hopefully some of these are new to you!

Simple Minimalist Room Tour - Bea Minimalista - YouTube

Onochan001 - IG

Nao Minimalist - IG

Fuminco Minimal - IG

Extreme Minimalist in Canada - IG

All of these links worked last I checked some months ago. Many more links I had were dead links. It's always like this, it seems. At some point, there isn't much more to say or show online and the account goes *POOF*. Still. If you have any links to home/room tours that you find inspirational or that resemble your own home and want to share, please do!

My husband and I stayed in this beautifully empty and small apartment while in Stockholm. Everything in it was either white or that light wood color. Around the corner from this bed nook (no room on either side for a side table - it felt so cozy) was just a small sofa, a kitchen table with two chairs, a small closet, a few storage cabinets, kitchenette, and bathroom. (Wish I had taken a picture of that side of the apartment!)

This was not meant to be just a hotel room - there were people actually living in the other apartments (we think someone had just bought a few of the apartments and was renting them to tourists). It was delightful to come back to every evening. Really made me think about how little you’d be able to own if you lived in this space. Especially if you wanted to keep it feeling open and empty like this.

The poster print badly needs to be reframed, I know. The original frame broke and I found this IKEA(?) frame at a local thrift shop to put it in until I can find a good place to do the job.

The sunlight on this cabinet looks really pretty right now. And I don’t think it has been shown in any of my other posts.

Inside it: my husband’s Raspberry Pi and some of his other gadgets, my Nintendo Switch, an electronics repair kit, an extension cord, and dog food.

I’ve never been much of a makeup girlie, mainly because the few times I’ve tried, I always felt like it was obvious to everyone that I had no idea what I was doing 😂 So on the days I leave the house I just go with mascara, stick eyeshadow, and a tinted lip balm. With skincare I use the eye cream, neck serum, and chapstick every day. No facial moisturizer or foundation mainly because my skin is extremely sensitive and gets angry easily.

I own 57 pieces of clothes and 11 shoes + underwear

If I buy one piece, two have to go.

Someone asked if the chair and light were gone from my last post yet. Yep. Some other things are gone now, too.

Lamp - gone. Son was going to put this with a few things he's storing in the basement but decided against it at the end so it was given away.

Table and rolling stool - gone. This was being considered before and I just made the decision to go ahead and part with it. It's being used by one of the kids now.

Blinds - still there. We did add back in some thin LED light strip things across the top of the windows. They plug in under the window.

Son's chair - gone. Back into their small storage area in the basement for either next winter or when they move out.

Mirror by the door - still there.

Air purifier - still there, but on that opposite wall now.

Both stupid plug adapter things - gone. No use for them and no one else in the house needed them - given away.

Fan - gone. Motor died, not fixable.

It's just a cat tree, the mirror by the door, and the air purifier in there now. The litter boxes were being lined up in the room to be changed and cleaned when I snapped the picture but they go off to their different spots afterwards. No one really uses the room anymore so it's just a spot where the cats can watch the outside and play. No plans to change that.

Do you have empty cabinets and drawers in your kitchen? I have a bunch and they annoy me - especially since the upper cabinets make my countertops so dark. I'm trying to convince my husband that it would be a good idea to rip out the top cabinets but we got some negative feedback about the kitchen in our last house that didn't have upper cabinets. Buyers said the kitchen was lovely and liked all the light and space but then said it wouldn't have enough storage for all of their stuff. :/ We plan on selling this place within the next few years so he's hesitant. I actually looked forward to my kids all moving in and putting their stuff in cabinets and drawers so I was less irritated by the wasted space. Anyone ever do a renovation in their kitchen to reflect how little storage space they really needed?

Okay, I think now y’all have seen literally our entire apartment except the bathroom 😂

The toaster is a new acquisition. I got rid of mine in a move about 6 years ago, before I was a minimalist. I just wasn’t eating bread at the time. But bread is delicious and I finally came to my senses a few months ago, lol. So I’ve been thinking about getting a toaster since then - the desire did not decrease or go away, so I went for it. Found one with a very minimalist look, I think.

Other countertop items: we leave the kettle out because we use it daily in the winter, and the other appliance is my husband’s fancy coffee grinder. I’ll probably get rid of the cookbooks on the shelves eventually. I haven’t used them in quite awhile - I prefer making super simple meals that don’t need a recipe or a ton of ingredients.

Folks, I’d absolutely love to see pics of your spaces! 🙂 If you have more stuff than other people who have posted, just remember that minimalism is not a competition. It’s a mindset, and it looks different for everyone!

So we did end up putting back up one of those IKEA spice rack shelf things - it's just too convenient as a spot for a current read or my ereaders, in this case. It also easily fits our alarm clocks, a book light, and my lip balm.

Feels like spring is right around the corner! When I opened my windows this morning to get fresh air (I'm not the only one who does this, right? 15 - 30 mins every day, no matter the weather?), it really felt much warmer. I'll be happy to get that little humidifier put back up in the linen closet.

The closet is a mess right now. My husband's doing something with the shelf on his side so some of his stuff is sitting in/on my little set of drawers there. BUT! When he's finished, I may be in a spot to get rid of those drawers!

Very excited to get to work on this room. Getting the floors refinished and the walls painted will be huge. It's looking like the old 90's ceiling fan is going to need replaced and I can't say that I'm super unhappy about swapping it for something a little more aesthetically pleasing.

This is the extent of our decorating this year. The tree and the small stockings. We’re sticking to just a couple presents each - things we tell each other we’ve been wanting, so we don’t end up with gifts we don’t really need and feel guilty about eventually getting rid of. Do you decorate at all for the holidays? Or exchange gifts with your partner? Would love to see pics of other people’s minimal decorations!

This is in my main living area. It's not a huge space but I'm the only person living here. I'm not thrilled with my setup right now. Any suggestions?