Minimalist vs Sustainable Lifestyle: What’s the Difference?

Living in a constantly changing world comes with certain responsibilities, as individuals, and as a global community. Both minimalism and sustainability have become buzzwords in recent years. Understanding the difference between the two is important and will help you make lifestyle choices to benefit you, your loved ones, and those around you. 

Less is More: Exploring Minimalism

Just like it sounds, minimalism is a way of life involving minimal consumption. In other words, consuming less and also more meaningfully. The beautiful irony of the minimalist lifestyle is that by embracing less, you actually create more of what matters — freedom, time, space, money, and meaning. 

By removing clutter from your life, you clear out room for whatever is most important to you. Dealing with only what’s necessary allows you to focus on things like your health and wellness, family, relationships, and how to help out your community. Removing less essential things in your schedule that take up your time and energy lets you tune into what matters most. Simple things like being present for your kids can now be a daily priority and not just something you’ll get to if you’re not too busy. 

While minimalism involves consuming fewer nonessential items, a minimalist lifestyle doesn’t have to be dull or boring. When going for a minimalist look in your home, you can select furniture or pieces that are elegant yet still essential to your lifestyle. For instance, for those that value having restful sleep, choosing premium Egyptian cotton bedding over poor-quality sheets to ensure optimal comfort is still part of minimalist living. After all, the idea is to clear space in your home for the things you find most important. 

Sustaining the Sustainable

In short, minimalism is part of the larger scale concept of sustainability. Most people think of a sustainable lifestyle as it relates to energy and resources, but it applies to different parts of daily life. Ideally, a sustainable lifestyle rides on 3 main pillars: ecological, economic, and social. 

Ecological sustainability urges everyone to reduce the number of products and resources they consume. Economic sustainability pushes for a world where everyone has just enough to live comfortably and to support all their family’s needs. Social sustainability values communities led by good leaders who make sure everyone’s rights are respected and protected no matter what. 

The goal of a sustainable lifestyle is to meet your own present needs without preventing future generations from meeting their needs down the line. You might enjoy jetting off to hotter climes six time a year, but is that excessive travel going to mean that future generations won’t be able to travel as much? Instead, consider one longer trip per year, and try to use greener transport to reach your destination. Hotels are also incredibly wasteful, with lights left on, water left running and towels being washed constantly, so ask yourself if you could make some better choices. Sustainable hotels in Chile, for example, may be a good option if you’re looking for a getaway more aligned with nature. While minimalism asks you to consume less, sustainability requires it to work — both now and in the future.

Minimalist vs Sustainable: An Overlapping of Lifestyles

Both minimalist and sustainable lifestyles go against the grain of what we know. For instance, many of us grew up connecting consumption with success. The more you can buy, the more successful others will see you as. For this reason, it’s easy to overlook how burdensome thoughtless consumption can be — not only financially, but also mentally, socially, and environmentally. 

Adopting either a minimalist or sustainable lifestyle is a step in the right direction towards positive change. Finding ways to combine both lifestyles is ideal. Consuming less while staying mindful of each pillar of sustainability in your everyday life are efforts that will bring about positive change for us and for future generations — and a better world of meaning and harmony.