10 Minimalist Rules That Changed My Life

I used to feel really stuck in my life and unmotivated. I'd always try these extreme things to change my life—30-day challenges that I saw other people doing. But over the past few years, I've built some small, simple rules for myself that have really improved my day-to-day life, and I hope they can improve yours as well.

The House on Fire Rule: Recently, on our trip through Europe, British Airways lost our luggage. We kept our backpacks, but we lost all of our clothes. And it was at that point that I had a really cool realization: I didn't really care about any of that stuff. It wouldn't make any difference to me if I never saw all my clothes again. So, I've been practicing this rule recently. The rule is: think about your attic, your closet, your storage unit, whatever it is. What would happen if it just went away and evaporated into thin air? Your house burned down, and you lost all that stuff. Would you actually be relieved? Are you overly attached to it? Does your stuff actually kind of own you a little bit? For me, I had this realization—there's a few things in my house that I wouldn't love to lose, but for the most part, it wouldn't really affect me as a person—my happiness levels, anything—if my house burned down. And that's a really freaking concept, because the stuff we own ends up owning us. So, the more stuff I've gotten rid of, the more calm and mental clarity I've ended up having in my life.