Take care of your stuff

• Tidier closet: you won’t have to dig through items you don’t wear
• Increased confidence: if all your clothes are your best, you feel good no matter what you put on
• More time and money: being satisfied with your wardrobe means shopping less so you can use your time and cash on more important things
• Positive environmental impact: by investing in long-wear clothing, instead of fast fashion, you help prevent waste.

Capsule wardrobes are a subsection of minimalist wardrobes that limit how many items of clothing you buy each season. Most capsule wardrobes have 30 items or less.

Minimalist wardrobes are more flexible. There is no set number of items as long as you wear all of them – and they bring you joy. 

It’s essential to feel confident and comfortable in the clothing you wear. Ditch the seasonal trends and style labels, discover your style and create unique looks you love.

An authentic and timeless wardrobe should reflect your personality and make you feel most like yourself. Ask yourself what your clothing conveys and what fabrics, colors, patterns and fits are you most comfortable wearing.

Quality apparel has a higher price than fast fashion clothing because they use sustainable, lasting fabrics and pay workers fair benefits and wages. Despite the initial cost, over time, you might save money and time as you won’t have to replace clothes too often.

To lessen the financial impact you can shop secondhand (thrift stores also have quality clothing), start small, shop deals and save for the expensive items, such as a winter coat or high-end denim, months in advance.

• Turn each the hangers in your closet so the hooks are pointing towards you (wrong way round).
• When you wear something, put it back with the hook the normal way.
• Donate anything in a hanger still facing the wrong way after six months.

Simply asking yourself if the item in question fits right now will help you find out what to get. If the answer is no, toss it.

Get a cheaper living situation: Live in a smaller house that needs less stuff to fill it or get a roommate.

The personal finance rule of thumb is to spend no more than one-third of your income on rent. 

If you can read, you can cook. If you can read and cook, you can use meal planning and prep to save time, money, and improve your health.

Base your menu for the week on two things: what you already have in the house and what is on sale at your supermarket.

Following rules and blueprints won’t help you cultivate a strong sense of style, because that’s deeply personal. Even if you like many of the same colors, materials, or cuts as someone else, how you combine, choose and style your looks is a reflection of your unique taste and the influences that you have picked up. 

Once you become more selective about what you keep in your closet, you'll attach a bigger value to each individual piece and will probably no longer be satisfied with cheap, badly manufactured stuff.

You'll want clothes that feel good on your skin, and comfortable, sturdy and durable.

... that no longer inspire you. Just because something made you happy in the past doesn’t mean you have to keep it forever.

Your life has moved on—maybe it’s time for the decoration to do the same. Keeping just the items that mean the most to you will help them to shine.

There are certain places in our homes we tend to leave items out for convenience. By leaving these things out, we think we’re saving time and simplifying our lives. That’s the convenience fallacy. 

W might save a couple of seconds, but the other 99.9 percent of the time, those items just sit there creating a visual distraction. 

According to research, we get a dopamine surge from buying stuff that causes us to want more and more.

Delayed gratification when the order arrives a few days later also makes is more physiologically rewarding than shopping in stores.

Some online shops have made it especially easy to shop with a one-click buying process. Most major retailers offer free shipping, and only one in ten consumers return stuff they've bought online.

Americans are also taking up more space with all the stuff they are amassing. Self-storage units are rapidly increasing too.

Carpool to work if you can to significantly reduce wear and tear on your car, save on gas, and take advantage of carpool lanes that might make it easier to get to work.

Check at least once a month to keep the tires on your vehicle properly inflated. Doing so can improve your gas mileage.

Refinance your home or automobile at a lower rate to save money over the life of the loan and lower your monthly payment.

If your student loans are locked in at a high-interest rate, figure out whether it makes sense to consolidate all or some of them.

When you’re nervous, it shows in the way you’re standing or what you’re doing with your hands. The same goes for when you’re confident. Standing tall and making eye contact shows confidence. 

If you need a quick boost of confidence, take a power pose. One great power pose is the wonder woman – your hands on your hips, legs out in a V shape, shoulders and back straight, and chin slightly up. 

• Speak clearly and with an even tone. Not too loud or too quiet, as you could come across as dominating or shy.
• Using filler words such as ‘um’ or ‘so’ or filling in gaps with ‘like’ or ‘you know’ will make you seem less knowledgeable. Pay special attention to your usage of the word ‘like’.
• If you need time to compose your thoughts, simply pause, or restate the question.

... you can use on any area of your life, and in fact on your life as a whole:

• Collect everything in one place.
• Choose the essential, the things most important to you.
• Eliminate the rest. Don't get sentimental.
• Organize the remaining stuff neatly and nicely.

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."