Minimalism For Creatives | 5 Clutter-Free Tips For Creative People

Something I get asked about quite a bit is how to stay clutter-free when you have a million creative passions. I completely understand this mind-boggle but I assure you there’s a path to minimalism for creatives.

This week’s topic was inspired by Tammy- a music teacher, songwriter, animal rescuer, crocheter, knitter, crafter, and photographer. As a creative person, I understand that there can be a battle between your passions and your space.

Side note: I initially went to college with an art scholarship for painting. I’ve since dabbled in quite a few arts- singing, writing, authoring a book, painting, videography, photography, and graphics design for my business. This year, I even got into crochet!

All of this to say, I totally understand what it’s like to be a creative and try to balance that with your space. Unfortunately, there’s this huge misconception that one can not be minimalist and multi-creative. So, I’m here as a minimalist and a multi-creative person to tell you that that is absolutely not true.

You Can Be Both.

I’m going to share 5 guidelines for clutter-free living and/or minimalism for creatives including what I’ve done with some of my own creative supplies. But first, there’s a mindset shift that has to happen for all of us creative people to bridge a gap that exists.

If you feel that creatives aren’t meant to be clutter-free or that minimalism would be a block to your creative process it’s going to be very difficult for you to maintain a clutter-free space. You’ll find resistance in becoming whatever version of clutter-free or a minimalist you’re working toward.

Finding inspiration in order

I find that I am more artistically inspired when my art supplies are orderly. If I was presented with a giant box filled with paints, brushes, and charcoals all in disarray…there would be nothing inspiring about that to me. It doesn’t call to me to create something.

As opposed to having my supplies minimized so that I’m able to actually see the things that I want to use most frequently. Consider the whole 80/20 rule- you probably use 80% of your belongings 20% of the time.

Keeping that in mind, the things that you actually use will get more use and be more inspiring to be used if you don’t have quite so much in it and if the stuff you do have is somehow organized.

I get inspired to mess around with my photography equipment when I see that it’s easily accessible, and laid out in a neat and orderly way. That inspires me. Creative juices start flowing. If you start looking at minimizing as being a part of your creative process, you’ll find the transition from chaotic-mess-with-all-your supplies to organized-and-inspired much smoother and with a lot less personal resistance.

Think more creativity with less stuff.

If you’re a passionate creative who’s ready to finally minimize and get in order all of your passionate creative supplies, here are some guidelines that I operate by. I recommend you give ’em a whirl.

#1. Stay Project Focused

We tend to have these far-reaching ideas and often get inspired and excited about the supplies themselves without having an actual project in mind. This results in numerous unused supplies.

When you stay project focused and you really hone in on the current project you’re able to get the best supplies for that particular project without the excess.

Recently, I created three crocheted blankets and a crocheted outfit for my dog in a very short time span for Christmas. It was a pretty hectic couple of crochet months that led to many trips to the yarn store. There were SO many different yarns and colors to look at and my creative wheels just started firing left and right.

I was thinking, “Oh, you know what, this nice hygge material is so soft and furry…maybe I can use this when I’m done with the blankets for something else…”. You know how it goes. I wanted to try all of the different things but I forced myself to only shop for one project at a time. I didn’t even shop for ALL of the projects that I knew I was planning on doing, just one project at a time.

First, I made Charlie’s little dog outfit and I ONLY bought the yarn for that dog outfit. When I completed that project I moved on to the next. When you stay project-focused like that you’re actually able to prolong your excitement because each time you finish a project you get to go shop for your new project supplies.

So, stay focused on the projects. Before you go buy a bunch of supplies, make sure that you actually have an idea of what you’re going to do with them.

#2. Have Space Limitations For Your Creative Supplies

It’s important that you have designated space limitations for your creative supplies. This may be separated space limitations for different types of creative passions and hobbies. For example, I’ve designated a part of my storage area in the garage for my lighting equipment.

Crocheters and knitters

For crochet supplies, I’ve assigned a limit of one shopping bag. So, first, I require that I only have what I need for a single project. That way, I’m working through my yarn one at a time and it’s not piling up. Then, I’m giving myself the limitation of only purchasing enough to fill up one shopping bag. You can see how these 2 guidelines work hand-in-hand.

There’s no way that I’m effectively gonna be able to use hundreds of skeins of yarn. It’s just not happening. There’s no project that requires that much yarn. So why would I want to hold onto all of that just to take up space in my closet?

Musicians

If you are a songwriter or a pianist you could give yourself the limitation of a binder (or a set of binders) along with a shelf section solely dedicated to all of your musical papers. You might even go beyond that and start uploading the papers that you’re no longer using to digitize them online. That is 100% what I would do, especially when it comes to written music. You can always print it out and you’ll always have your beautiful music saved somewhere.

Painters and artists

For painting supplies, it may be a bin or a box. That’s exactly what we use here. I have a set of acrylic paints, a set of oil paints, and a set of mini canvas boards to do projects with my daughters. All of those exist in a single bin. They have this bin limitation and I’m not buying more paints until I run out of the current collection.

Photographers

For photography equipment, I have the original camera that I bought about a decade ago- it’s a Canon T3i. When I started making YouTube videos I pulled it back out and it still works great. I purchased new lenses for it and created space by getting rid of lenses I wasn’t using.

My current lenses are the stock lens that came with the camera, the zoom lens that I bought at the same time, and a new Sigma lens (<– affiliate link) that I typically use to video all of my YouTube videos. The Sigma lens generally stays on the camera and the camera generally stays on the tripod for easy access. The other two lenses stay inside the camera bag. And that’s it- not a ton of supplies.

Displaying creative supplies

Since we’re talking about spatial limitations and where to locate things, I do want to add that there are some things that look nice on display. You may want to incorporate some of your attractive supplies as part of your decor to showcase your interests and personality. My guitar is set up as part of the decor in my studio and I keep my podcast microphone with its boom stand on a little table in the studio. I like the way that it looks and enjoy the convenience of having it readily available.

#3. Have A Plan Or A System For The Leftover Supplies

Most creative projects are going to have some kind of leftover supplies. There are going to be the leftover paints that you didn’t use up or leftover yarn that you didn’t need to complete your project. It’s important to plan or have a system for these leftover supplies in place so that you’re not left shoving them into random places.

Your plan might be to keep them in a bin until they’re completely empty and rely on those spacial limitations. For example, you might want to hold onto unused paints until the tube is completely empty. You may have a friend or donation center that you regularly donate your leftover supplies to. Or it could be that you use the remaining yarn to create gloves or toboggans for the homeless.

Whatever the plan, it’s best to have one for the moment you know is going to come so that you’re not left with a clutter problem.

#4. Be Honest About What Type Of Creative You Are

I understand what it’s like to see new types of creative projects and I’ll think, “Oh, that looks great! I would love to try it” and never get around to it. Sometimes, it’s not that the project isn’t interesting but that it’s not AS interesting to you as something else you’d rather spend your time working on.

So be honest with yourself. Is this the thing that you’re never going to get to because, in reality, you would rather spend your creative time doing something else? Many times we buy supplies based on the type of person we’d like to be…and it doesn’t always match up with who we actually are or what we truly enjoy doing with our time.

Self-awareness is pretty much a key in all of life, including clutter-free living.

#5. Make Space For Your Creative Passions

A lot of times, it’s not that we need to cut down on the tennis balls and tennis rackets (or whatever you’re into) but that there’s just so much clutter in general.

It could be that you need to create more space for those creative supplies and that there are other things you should be decluttering. Maybe if you clear your living room shelves of extra books and little decor items you’ll find that you have quite a bit of space to put a bin for crafts.

If you decluttered your closet of excess clothes that you’re not wearing you might actually have a space to put your camera equipment or your art equipment. Make space for your passions and then see if maybe you don’t need to declutter quite as many of them as you thought you did!

Remember, at the end of the day, it’s not about owning the bare minimum number of things, it’s about creating holistic supportive spaces that make you happy and that make you feel good. If you need some help getting started on that whole process, then I recommend that you take my free masterclass, My Holistic Clutter-Free Formula to get started!