Creating Simple Home | Embracing Minimal and Calm Home.

Kitchen table, beeswax candle and simple little pitcher with some dry flowers from my mom's garden.

This humble table is one of the places where my husband, my little one and I often gather. This table is not our table. We live in a small, rented apartment where most of the furniture is not ours but came as a part of this apartment. But at the same time, this table is also our table. We love that table. We decorated it simply, with small white pitcher filled with some dried flowers and rosemary from my mother's garden. Every night we light a candle in this white ceramic candle holder (which is our favorite autumn and winter essential for creating cozy moments). There are three chairs around the table, quite enough for our small family. If necessary, we bring a bench from the balcony as an accessory for seating. Next to that white kitchen table is an old white cabinet full of our ceramic mugs we bought and found and collected over years, with plates, bowls and glasses. On top shelf is a wicker basket that I bought four years ago. Whenever I see that basket in that beautiful, old cabinet, I remember how much I love this space, which is also a rented space, but a space we made ours in some sense. Here are corners filled with our plants, shelves with our books, floor with scattered toys, reading table with warm lamp and wooden boxes with craft materials. It became a space filled with us, with our memories, hobbies, wishes and reflections. Here we laugh, talk, gather, cry, confess and argue. When I embraced imperfections, when I recognized beauty of simplicity in my home, when I removed all the clutter and saw the beauty of mundane, simple, purposeful things I started to finally see what making a home really means. It doesn't mean buying stuff, tracking some interior design trends, comparing your home to homes of other people of constantly wishing something different, something new. It means getting to know yourself and the beauty of freedom that intentional, calm, minimal and simple home.

Our home is a little rough around the edges; there are chipped places on our white walls, some spots with stains, wooden floor is very old and it creaks when we walk on it, there are cups and plates in that old white kitchen cabinet, there are traces of time on our working table, i.e. lack of paint in several places. But I can finally say that I see the beauty in it all. And I love that I endured and didn't replace any of it with something new. This small home easily becomes a cozy, comfort place, where we are surrounded by things that have a story, with reused furniture and handmade pieces. And I truly believe that with living, and with home, simple is best. For me, choosing minimalism isn't about following some minimalistic interior trends or living with just few essentials. It is about achieving a sense of peace and calm. When I filled my home with some tiny decor pieces or when I bought a few new ornaments every Christmas I struggled with maintaining control over my space and time to be honest. But with removing all the things I didn't liked, loved or used, all the clutter, it allowed me to embrace experiences, to be fully present in creating memories and living life more sustainably, more mindfully and to seek simplicity in all life areas.

Over these last few years I truly embraced minimal lifestyle, and I know I will always try to maintain it. I this world filled with always something new, something better, something more beautiful, more practical, more useful it's hard to not wish for some things and some changes in your home and life. But, now I know what kind of life I truly love and want to live. I know what kind of home I want to create over and over. So with that path of mine I have a few habits to keep my home minimal, calm and cozy.

DECLUTTERING HOME. With this habit I started this simple home and life. So I declutter my home whenever I feel overwhelmed with things. I ask myself what we have brought into our space lately. I notice excess things most often when I clean the apartment, especially when I do some seasonal cleaning. If I notice that we really have things we don't use and that just take up space and take up my time, those things will leave our home. That way, I keep the space easier to clean, maintain and use. At the same time, I make it more pleasant, filled with more peace and transience. Decluttering means looking at all those things and making some decisions about what you want and should keep. Then, defining ways of eliminating the rest of the stuff. Look at everything you have and ask yourself when was the last time you used it. Get rid of duplicates. You will breathe easier, trust me. Look at all those sentimental thing you kept and leave just the ones you really love, your really find joy in and find peace with removing all the other stuff. Things don't hold memories, we do. And many things served it's purpose and are no more useful. It is ok to part with those too.

Simple, neutral and calm bedroom. And minimal nightstand space for creating more peace.

KEEPING MY BEDROOM SIMPLE. I want all of the rooms in my home to be simple, comfortable and easy to clean. But I always felt that bedroom is one space that needs peace and calm the most. It is a place for relaxation and sleep. Whenever I have more than one book, glasses of water, chargers or mobile phones on top of my nightstand I feel messy and not calm enough to have a good night sleep. So I keep it as tidy and minimal as possible. I have almost no decorations in that space. One big painting I painted myself above our bed and a simple, small, white ceramic vase with some dried flowers on my nightstand.

A wreath I made from my wedding bouquet and some wildflowers.

BEING MINDFUL WITH DECORATING. I always believed in decorating home with art and decorations and pieces you truly love. With things that carry memories and your work and your inspirations. But, I also believe in being content, grateful and living in the present. So, it doesn't mean bringing all the sentimental things in your home, or keeping it just for the sake of not throwing it or passing it on. It means being really mindful and choosing only what brings you peace, calm, love and joy. So that is exactly what we’re doing. And with decorating, I really learned that the most important part is being slow and fight the urge to make some quick decisions. I have some stuff from last year around my home, some things from seven years ago and some things I just found. I love our gallery wall in the living room. It is filled with our black and white photography, from our wedding and with our families and our little one too. There is tiny, white, wooden boat from our honeymoon, from our favorite island in our beautiful sea. There is white, stone cross I found this summer on our seaside vacation. There is wooden print tray (I have for forever) filled with river and sea shells and pebbles and sea glass. There is a wreath I made from roses of my wedding bouquet and some wildflowers I brought summers ago from my childhood home. I love choosing things with my heart, but also with simplicity in mind.

I love finding little and simple solutions for storing items like these.

CLEAN AND ORGANIZED WORKSPACE. AND STATIONERY ITEMS TOO. We have this old working table in our apartment. My husband often works from home so it is well used. We decided to keep it as simple as possible. So we bought and Ikea lamp, black and simple, and that is all on our desk, except for the laptop of course. Table has one drawer and one shelf. The drawer contains only basic necessities such as a memory sticks, a couple of pens, chargers, and our car and apartment keys. Since we have a cabinet with three shelves next to the table, we decided that top shelf will be our place for containing some working and everyday living essentials. We placed one big box filled with glasses, chargers and other larger items. Next to the box is my tiny stationery/crafting corner. There are origami paper boxes with some wooden beads, metal clips, erasers, sharpener, glue, staples and similar things. There are also four rolls of toilet paper that I put together and now it keeps my wooden rulers, sewing and cutting scissors, pencils and pens. There are also some notebooks and some scraps of paper I plan to reuse, held together with a metal clip.

My beloved, years old chunky knit sweater.

CREATING MINIMALISTIC WARDROBE. I love clothes. There was a time I even loved it too much. Bought to many pieces and felt miserable with all of it. Now I have minimal closet, filled with comfortable pieces, with pieces I feel good and beautiful in, with pieces I will use for years and love them as long as I can. Having a minimal closet made my mornings easier, it helped me appreciate and wear all the pieces I currently own. It also made laundry time easier. The same minimalism goes on in my husband's and my little one's wardrobe too. I love that we decided to keep it as simple as we can with our little one since he was a baby. Now I have just enough clothing pieces for him, and all the clothes he grows out of I store for our second one, one day.

LESS TECHNOLOGY. Sometimes technology feels like clutter too. Considering the amount of information we are gathering within just a few minutes of being in front of our screens is overwhelming. Because I really want to be more present in my marriage, in my motherhood, in my life and taking care of myself too, I decided to make room for what really matters. And that is not spending time in front of TV or scrolling on Instagram for hours or comparing my home and my life to others all the time. We have a TV but we don't watch it until the night hits. We don't do cartoons yet and I watch one or two episode of some TV show we love with my husband on evenings when we don't fall asleep with our little one. I am grateful for all the benefits of technology, it’s a huge part of our lives today and our work too. But we can overuse it and it can really harm us sometimes. I tend to keep my mobile phone out of our bedroom too. So when I go to sleep, it is charging in other room. That way I will not grab it first thing in the morning or scroll for hours before my sleep.

MAKING A WISHLIST AND ASKING QUESTIONS BEFORE BUYING. Sometimes we will follow a rule of ‘one in one out’ when considering a new purchase. But we are not strict about it. And we don't use it often. Both me and my husband decided three years ago to write our wishlists at the beginning of each new year. That way we are creating some space and time between thinking about purchasing something and really purchasing it. We ask ourselves is that something that we will use and love for a long time? Will it be purposeful and can it be repurposed one day? Do we really need it or really want it? From time to time, usually with every new season we will revisit our lists and remove all the items we decided not to buy or we don't want them anymore.

We tend to keep picture books and favorite toys in baskets on the living room floor.

MINIMALISM WITH TOYS. I always wanted for my child to feel as comfortable and peaceful as I felt in my childhood home. We didn't have many toys but we played, really played with all we had. Sometimes we even borrowed toys from our best friends and then even exchanged toys for some time. We were happy and we were content. That is what I want for my little one. Why? Because, now, when I look at my childhood and minimal toys we had then I see that a child really doesn't need more. Children need conversations, explorations, nature observations and time together with their family. They need toys they really love and use often. So, when I was pregnant with our son, my husband and I decided on minimalism with his clothes and toys too. We told our families and our friends what we really wanted and needed for him, and that way we avoided much clutter. Of course, with him becoming older grandparents have desire to buy him all kinds of toys, but we kept our promise to ourselves, so we divided toys we don't want in our home, between grandparents. Some of the toys he didn't even play with we gifted away. I really believe that children thrive in spaces that are simple and minimal. They have less choice, more space, more time to play deeply and use their imagination. And spend more time in nature, simply playing with nature.

Glass bulbs I found years ago and filled them with some wildflowers from my childhood meadows.

PREPARING FOR SEASONS. I love this habit of mine. I always loved preparing my room and now my home for upcoming season. Autumn is my favorite. And autumnal home feel magical to me. But it is not just about pulling chunky knits and blankets out of our closets, or about lighting beeswax candles or making cozy time with tea and books. It is also about preparing space, decluttering and making home comfortable for yet another season of life. I usually do seasonal cleaning, I declutter my pantry, my kitchen, our clothes, toys and books even. After that I will fill up my pantry with items I feel are essentials for certain season, I will focus on seasonal foods, I will even prepare some recipes I would like to focus on in my kitchen. I will forage and gather herbs and flowers, make some canvas bags for some scented closet fresheners. Things like those. That way we are entering new season with calm, minimal and refreshed space.

CREATING ROUTINES. Creating and maintaining simple home comes with some routines. Routines I recognized over years as essential for me. I do seasonal cleaning to prepare our home for every new season. I do decluttering whenever I feel overwhelmed with things swirling in our home. Before leaving our apartment for a week or so I will always clean it and prepare it for coming back home. When we come back I will do a quick tidying up, dusting and vacuuming. Before going to bed I will try and pick up scattered toys, return things to their original place and clean my kitchen. Through the week I have divided home tasks in days and I try to stick to it. For example, Mondays are for rotating toys and some mundane home tasks, Fridays are for cleaning out our fridge and doing grocery shopping, Saturdays are for doing laundry, changing our bedding and cleaning whole apartment. Sundays are for rest and family time.

Our beloved gallery wall.

EVERY ITEM HAS A HOME. When I removed all our little trinkets and small decorations I felt instant freedom. I hated dusting all those surfaces and moving and putting back all those items. We didn't have much even then, but now, we barely have decor pieces. There are few plants, vases with some dried flowers and that's it. When I felt that freedom I decided it's time to bring home only those items that we have a certain place, a home. That way I organized my home even better and I avoided bringing decorations and some unnecessary items in our apartment because I knew they had no purpose and no home. And now when I'm cleaning I simply pick up some displaced items and put them in their place.

It’s a common misconception that simple life and simple home are equivalent to a restrictive lifestyle. But creating and seeking simplicity in my life and in my home, taught me that it is actually the other way around. I realized I needed simplicity in home the most. So, keeping my home minimal and emotionally healthy is something I will always choose. I will always leave some spaces empty, I will decorate with neutral tones and with pieces that have meaning and a purpose. Our homes are often filled with things we don't really use or need or even love. We seek happiness in buying things, and today buying things is so easy, with just one click. And that way we accumulate clutter, we keep too much and buy too much. And in all that we often become lost and grasp for air. Simple decision to cut all the clutter out of my life and my home led me to creating practices and habits that now help me lead one slow, more peaceful and more fulfilling life. I love being creative and finding solutions in my home, so minimalism led me to being even more creative, to find ways of reusing things and adapting them to our home. I love living this life where everything I own has its meaning and its purpose, where by consuming less and purchasing more mindful I can carve time for things that really matter the most. For adventures, for family memories, for nourishing myself, for creativity, for my beloved meadow walks, for creating my gratitude ritual, for sipping that morning cup of tea on my cold balcony, for living with more of all that.

Little suggestions:

• Find some simplicity in these words about autumn time and practising simple things in life.

• Read more about creating simple home with some small space storage and organizing solutions.

• Five steps to creating minimal home.

• More words about our small home.

• Some steps for creating simple wardrobe.

• More stories on my Substack page, Notes from Meadow.