This is a guest post from Miguel at The Simple Paradise

Living in simplicity: Are you overloaded with stress and feeling like your life is cluttered and overcomplicated?

Are you looking for a way of life that can reduce your anxiety and improve your happiness?

If so, then you’re just like me! 

Back in 2018, when moving into a new apartment during my college years, I realized I had so much extra junk in my room, and it was a pain packing everything into my car and going up and down the steps from the second floor.

I had heard about minimalism and simple living around this time but didn’t really take it seriously. 

But after this experience and how long it took to move out with junk I didn’t even use, I realized my life and possessions were way over cluttered even at that age. 

I first started to downsize my wardrobe, and I am continuing to declutter different aspects of my life.

I love simple living, and it really makes my life easier!  

In this post, I want to show you how simplicity can improve your life and the various benefits of this lifestyle!

Living in Simplicity Makes Your Life Easier!

What is Simple Living?

Simple living is all about reducing unnecessary clutter and simplifying different areas in your life in order to bring about more contentment and fulfillment. 

Simple living can look different for everyone, and there’s no right or wrong way to go about it!

Simple living can help you prioritize what’s most important to you and bring more happiness into your life.   

So, the goal of simple living is to create a simple, happy life where clutter doesn’t hold you back from achieving your goals and feeling fulfilled. 

How Can Simple Living Make Your Life Easier?

Simple living has tons of benefits!

One of the awesome benefits of simple living is the fact that it can make your life so much easier!

Simple living has made my life so much easier in many different areas. I’m not worried about an overflowing closet and am able to save more money due to only spending on what I need and enjoy!

Here are some other ways that living in simplicity can make your life easier:

• Make tasks less stressful
• Complete chores faster
• No more time spent looking for things
• Give you more time to spend with those you love

These are a few of the ways that simple living can make your life easier, but in this post, we’ll go over many other ways that living in simplicity can make your life smoother. 

Living in Simplicity: 13 Ways Simple Living Makes Your Life Easier

1. Gives You More Time

One of my favorite benefits of simple living is the fact that it gives you so much more time back!

This is because decluttering your life of things you don’t need and living with the essentials allows you to spend less time caring for your clutter.

For example, when your space is neat and minimal, you no longer need to spend hours cleaning and tidying up. Of course, you still need to do these tasks, but they will take significantly less time.

Creating a minimalist wardrobe is another way that simple living can give you more time and thus make your life easier.

This is because simplifying your wardrobe makes getting ready in the morning lightning fast!

When you create something like a capsule wardrobe, all of the items in your wardrobe mix and match, thus reducing the amount of time you need to think about different outfit combinations for work, family events, going out with friends, etc.

2. Reduces Your Stress & Anxiety

In this crazy world, we live in stress, and anxiety runs rampant!

Anything that can reduce our stress and bring more peace into our lives is worth a shot.

This is why I love simple living so much and one of the main reasons I recommend it to others!

Reducing your stress levels improves your life and allows you to find more contentment and enjoyment. 

Simple living doesn’t mean you need to become an extreme minimalist and get rid of everything to reduce stress. But decluttering junk in your living space and creating a peaceful home environment can certainly reduce added stress from messy clutter! 

This will help reduce headaches and anxiety from overwhelming feelings that come from too much clutter in your home.

If you are currently overwhelmed – here are some actions you can take right now to reduce that.

3. Allows You to Enjoy What Matters

We would all love to spend more time doing what we want, whatever this may be!

Whether it is spending more time with family or pursuing your passions, this time is essential to our happiness.

Simple living helps you remove any distractions or barriers preventing you from making time for the things that matter in your life!

Take some time in thought to reflect on what truly matters in your life…

Here are some answers you may come to find:

• Family
• Loved ones
• Friends
• Faith
• Time alone
• Pursuing your passions
• Music or art
• Reading
• Exercise

Make sure to declutter the things that prevent you from enjoying these things, and create a game plan to do so!

4. Rarely Lose Your Essentials

Another great reason to embrace living in simplicity is the fact that you’ll be able to keep track of your essentials. 

We all know how annoying it is to lose our everyday essentials. But with simple living, it’s easier to keep track of them.

These daily essentials include: 

• Keys
• Wallet
• Phone
• Cards
• Rings

I recommend creating designated spaces for these items in your living space. 

This may already be something that you do now, but when creating a simple home, you create a neat living environment where there’s less clutter and, thus, chances for things to go missing.

My favorite way to organize my essentials is to keep my keys, wallet, gum, and other daily items in a tin or bowl in my room. 

This way, I always know where they should be and always place them there once I get home.

It’s simple but keeps me from misplacing anything important and reduces any related frustrations. 

5. Getting Dressed in The Morning is a Snap

Getting dressed in the morning is just so much faster when you create a minimalist wardrobe!

In the morning, decision fatigue can set in big time! 

Trust me, I’ve been there…

One way to eliminate this is to declutter your closet and create a simple capsule wardrobe where all your clothing pieces mix and match. 

This way, no matter what you select to wear in the morning, you will have various outfit combinations that will work.

This may seem subtle, but once you realize how little you think about getting dressed and how quickly you’re able to get ready in the morning, you’ll notice how this aspect of simple living has made your life easier.

6. It Gives Freedom to Pursue Your Passions

Living in simplicity frees you from constraints, and by giving you more time, you thus have more time to devote to your goals and passions!

Instead of spending time cleaning and decluttering constantly, you can spend time working on things that give you joy:

• Painting/drawing
• Reading
• Writing
• Music
• Singing
• Dance
• Content creation

7. Faster Packing For Trips/Vacation

Packing is one of those tasks that many of us dread, especially if it’s a long trip or vacation.

Packing is generally challenging because deciding what we need/want to bring on our trip takes time.

Then, it takes additional time to start packing everything into your suitcase and ensuring everything fits.

However, when you simplify your life and your wardrobe, packing becomes so much easier!

Tips to Pack Faster: 

• Use minimalist carry-on luggage
• Use packing cubes
• Create a travel capsule wardrobe

Instead of dreading packing and taking forever to ultimately overpack, packing becomes way easier and much, much faster when you follow these tips!

8. Gives Peace of Mind

Nowadays, we are so busy and rarely take time to sit and reflect.

Clutter and too many tasks on your schedule take away from this personal time and hurt your ability to gain a real sense of calm.

However, simplicity will create room for relaxation and peace of mind!

Not only in a physical sense but in your mental space as well. Our minds get overwhelmed by clutter and prefer structure and order.

We have less to clean and less to worry about when our space is neat and orderly, and this orderly space then gives you more feelings of peace.

9. Less Cleaning

When your living space is orderly and decorated reasonably (it doesn’t need to be extremely minimalist), you won’t need to spend hours cleaning or putting things into place.

Of course, you’ll need to clean regularly; however, your cleaning will be greatly reduced when you keep your living space simple.

There won’t be many things out of place or clutter on the countertops. 

10. Helps You Embrace Intentionality

Intentionality is about living with a plan and making intentional decisions with your life. 

These intentional decisions can bring you closer to what you really want from life or goals you’d like to achieve.

Instead of life passing by, you make conscious decisions to make a difference in your life. 

Taking steps toward simple living helps you to embrace intentionality because it causes a mindset shift. 

This mindset shift toward intentionality is what allows you to determine not only what’s important in your life but also what time and effort should be devoted to what you deem to be essential to your life. 

11. Helps You Embrace Acceptance

Living simply helps you embrace acceptance in many different areas of your life.

Acceptance is a vital trait when it comes to happiness and contentment. If you can be content and at peace with what is, then you are more equipped to handle adversity and challenges you may face in life. 

This is powerful because your happiness is everything, and this is what we all strive for in life, one way or another.

But how can simple living allow you to embrace acceptance?

Simple living trains you to practice acceptance of what you have and who you love.

Ultimately to be content with less and prioritize what we enjoy and what gives our life meaning and value. 

When you are content and embrace acceptance, you won’t be prone to impulses and seeking happiness in more possessions or things.

Essentially, you’ll be able to manage your “wants” much better.

With this comes an ability to handle the blows that life throws at you because you are already content and don’t need anything physical to make you “happy.” 

12. Helps You Embrace Letting Go

Like acceptance, learning to let go is an excellent trait that simple living can help you develop. 

Letting go may not seem like the best quality to have at first, but when you understand more of what this means, you’ll see why this can make your life easier!

Letting go can help you in many facets of your life: emotionally, mentally, and physically.

Whether it’s letting go of physical things that you don’t need anymore or letting go of past mistakes or hurt you may be feeling, letting go is essential for healing and moving on.

Letting go is a form of acceptance and can give you real peace of mind and much more contentment compared to worrying all the time and holding on to physical and metaphorical baggage.

Final Thoughts on Living in Simplicity: 13 Ways Simple Living Makes Your Life Easier

Hopefully, this post gave you some insight into how living in simplicity can make your life easier!

I hope this has inspired you to try simple living or minimalism and help you move towards a happier and more fulfilled life!

Have a great day, and good luck on your simple living journey!

About Me: My name is Miguel, and I’m a simple living and budget spreadsheet advocate! I have a degree in communications from Penn State and enjoy writing. I’ve been decluttering my life since 2018 and love everything related to simple living. I aim to help you learn how to live a simple life, become intentional with your spending, and manage your money right!