7 Minimalist Habits that I've Learned from Living in a Small House (2025)

7 Minimalist Habits that I've Learned from Living in a Small House (1)

Growing up, I was living with my family of 5 in a small house for over 10 years. How small? It was a 400 square foot tiny apartment. Today, I’d like to share 7 minimalist habits that I’ve learned from my mom when we were living in a tiny home. Having these minimalist habits can make life so much easier and efficient. Your house will always stay clean and neat.

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7 Minimalist Habits You Need to Adopt For a Minimalist Home

Purge Regularly

If you’re a hoarder, the first thing you need to do is to purge all the unnecessary stuff. If you really want to have a minimalist lifestyle that can focus your time and money on what matters, then you just only have to keep what you need, use and love.

Keeping a ton of unnecessary things does not only occupy your space but also uses a lot of time to clean and take care of them. Make yourself a habit to purge regularly and keep everything organized.

Simple Functional Furniture

Simplicity is always the interior design of a minimalist home. We want to sit down comfortably to relax after a long day at work. Use fewer pieces of furniture to make a room more spacious.

When you have a smaller house, furniture needs to be functional as well. Just like ottomans, they provide the extra seats and footstool, add style to the home and provide storage that you can put the toys, throw blankets, games, etc.

Furniture can be multi-functional. A dining table is not only for eating. I still remember the days I was doing homework with my siblings at the dinner table. After we’ve done our homework, we immediately put things away back to the backpack. Clean up the table and get ready for dinner. It’s just an everyday habit, you do it and your house will always keep clean and tidy. Especially if you have a smaller house, a pile of paper on the table will clutter your space.

Minimize Kitchen Gadgets and Condiments

Learning to pare down your belongings to the essentials is important. Though many kitchen gadgets and appliances look fancy, they can easily take up a lot of space. How many times do they overflow your kitchen drawers and cupboards? Keeping a ton of them and not using them just eat up all the space you have and clutter the countertops.

You really don’t need a ton of kitchen gadgets and appliances. Ask yourself how frequently do you use them and get rid of the duplicates. For example, you don’t need to have 3 can openers or 10 cookie sheets, right?

Declutter your kitchen by taking everything out and getting rid of the unnecessary and duplicate items. Same thing as condiments. I usually keep less than 10 condiments in my kitchen and I use them regularly. I never buy condiment that just only serves one single-use purpose.

7 Minimalist Habits that I've Learned from Living in a Small House (2)

Clean as You Go

Nobody wants to clean up the entire house in a day. Having a daily cleaning schedule can maintain the cleanliness of the home. It’s just simple as 15 minutes of daily clean-up can make a huge difference.

I’ve learned the clean as you go approach from my mom. Thinking back to when I was a kid living with my family of 5 in a 400 square foot tiny apartment, our home never gets dirty or untidy.

While you’re done with your meal and putting the dishes in the sink, don’t let them pile up. Hand wash them or put them in the dishwasher.

Clean up any spills immediately before they become a big mess. Give your sink a quick wipe each night after using it.

Take things out, remember to put them away. All these habits help to save your time and keep home clean and tidy at all times.

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Do One Load of Laundry Every Day

I hate to see the mountain of clothes in the hamper. I do one load of laundry every night. Though laundry takes hours from start to finish, it really doesn’t bother me.

It’s much easier to fold and put away one load of laundry each day. If you don’t have enough dirty clothes to wash, that’s fine, wash them the next day. It’s a cleaning habit to help you save time, not spending an entire day doing the washing, drying and folding the entire week’s clothes.

I usually throw a load in the washer before I take shower. After the shower, I transfer them to the dryer. I take about ten minutes to fold and put them away the next morning.

I think it’s the most efficient way for me to tackle the pile of laundry. I would rather spend a little time each day doing the laundry than doing 5 to 6 loads of laundry once a week. This laundry routine helps me save a lot of time and keep my home clean and organized.

Related Minimalist Laundry:

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Buy Only What You Need

It’s very important to limit what you bring into the home especially when you have a small space. Stop buying things that you don’t need. Buying more unnecessary things and not using them means you’ve to make space to store them. You’ve to spend more time to do clean up and organizing.

Make it a habit to buy only what you need. When you buy one thing, remember to purge one.

Accumulating things get cluttered easily. To keep your house clear of clutter, having less stuff is the most effective way to go.

7 Minimalist Habits that I've Learned from Living in a Small House (3)

Organize Seasonal Clothing

I’ve lived with my family in a small apartment with small dressers for more than 10 years. I know how hard to keep things in their place if you’re not well-organized.

Clean out everything from the closets when the season change. Purge the unwanted items before reorganizing your closet. Rotate your fall/winter clothes with your spring/summer clothes. This ritual helps to easily access your clothes and keep your closets organized.

Put the off-season clothes in airtight containers and store them under the bed, hard-to-reach places of your closet or in the basement. These make you free up room in your small closet.

Experience Over Material Things

Learning how to utilize every square inch in tiny spaces is challenging especially when you’ve kids. Kids love toys and toys can be occupied in every space in your house. A practical storage solution and a habit of minimizing toys are essential to keep toys under control.

Minimizing the number of toys and decluttering them regularly. Fewer toys are good enough for them to play with.

Try to give your kids experiences instead of toys. For example, bring them to a library, park, swimming class, etc.

Kids expect toys when the holidays come. Buy memberships or annual passes according to their interests. For us, making time together to have a trip is always the happiest and best memory ever.

Do you have any minimalist habits helping you to make your life easier? Share in the comment and I’d love to know.

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