More and more people are looking for ways to improve their quality of life and many are turning to minimalism. This ancient practice is based on the theory that simplifying your life will increase your happiness. However, not everyone has had great results when practicing minimalism. Some people do not find the peace and joy that minimalism purports.

Thankfully, there are ways that you can test out minimalism without taking a massive "get rid of everything" plunge. You can simply rent a self storage unit to store excess items instead of tossing them to the curb.

How to Determine if Minimalism is Right for You

Perhaps you've learned about minimalism online, or from a friend, and you're intrigued. People are finding peace and joy by pursuing a simplified life, and you want in on it. However, taking baby steps will ensure you don't do anything you'll regret. Follow the below steps to find out if this way of life is right for you:

1. Buy boxes and bins. Before you get started, you need to prepare. Purchase or find a number of different boxes and bins. These will allow you plenty of room to sort through your belongings. You can purchase durable boxes from self storage facilities.
2. Start sorting through your belongings. This is the most time consuming step, but it's important. You'll need to determine what's important in your life. Go through each room and examine each item within the room. Put them into one of three categories:
   1. Keep. These are items that you absolutely cannot live without. Only put items in this category if you've used them within the past three months. Otherwise, they are not useful to your life.
   2. Discard. It's clear that you don't need some items in your life anymore. You can either throw them away or sell them. If you haven't used the items within the past 4-5 months, chances are you can live without it.
   3. Store. Items in this category will go into the self storage unit. They will wait there for six months so you can determine if anything in storage is actually needed. After that time period, you'll know for sure whether or not you need to keep or discard the item.
3. Wait and decide. In the event that you need something that you stored, simply visit your self storage unit and retrieve it. If you've discovered that you haven't had to use an item in 6 months, it's time to get rid of it.

Using these steps, you'll gradually test minimalism over an extended period of time. You won't simply get rid of everything you own. You'll get rid of things slowly as you discover you don't need them and start to experience a more simplified life.