For those who say minimalism is too expensive, I just did a massive minimalist overhaul of my home for $20.

I'm 26(f), I live in a one bedroom efficiency apartment. I have a solid job working for the government and make fairly good money, and I'm also a student. Still, money is tight and I have expenses, but I'm also a minimalist, so I'm always on the lookout for ways I can make my home, my life, and myself more minimalist.<br><br>I have a problem of hording my writing and poetry. I have notebooks and notebooks from childhood to today of just thoughts, poetry, and random useless scribbles. I used to be crazy about "not writing something down unless it was perfect" to the point that I'd rip out of a notebook any writing that contained crossed out words. And I didn't like typing my work, so a lot of it just kind of died.<br><br>I got new notebooks for Christmas. Awesome quality ones, and I really want to use them for the work that I'm doing now, rather than the random scribbles from when I was 15. So I decided it was time to clean up all of my other notebooks.<br><br>I spent all day doing it, but I sat down and went through every writing and poetry filled notebook I have. The ones that are basically empty I left alone, in case I need them later, but the ones that are full of writing, I read through. If I found a poem or a passage that I thought was important to keep, I typed it up on my computer. I'm working on three separate works right now, and I found a lot of useful stuff in there that I can edit and use.<br><br>I then shredded everything I hadn't taken, I emptied out all of the notebooks I'd left, and I'm going to be using them as grocery lists, notes from home, etc in the future. I even shredded old grocery lists and notes from work, because if I still have it, I don't need it anymore.<br><br>I put all of my important writing on my external hard drive, and deleted most of the useless files from my documents folder, which was surprisingly refreshing, even though it was just a minor thing.<br><br>I then went through my closet, and got rid of a lot of useless stuff like paperclip chains, broken jewelry, useless fake flowers, etc, and I threw out/gave away a lot of my old clothes, shoes, and undergarments, and put a lot of stuff in storage (a lot of Halloween costumes).<br><br>I have a third of a trashcan full of useless stuff, and my apartment is a lot cleaner, a lot more minimalistic, and I feel a lot better, and more focused on what I need to be doing.<br><br>I did all of this for $20, which was the price of the pack of notebooks I bought from Walmart to take more notes and write in before bed, paperclip chain and all, to keep me focused when I'm on break at work.<br><br>I have a shelf full of fake plants, and I put all of my remaining notebooks on my desk. And that's all the writing I have now, and it's all I need. The rest doesn't matter, and I don't need to keep it.<br><br>For those of you who think that minimalism is useless, or that you can't be a minimalist because you don't have the money, get off your ass and do something. You don't need money, you need to be motivated.