There are countless articles about why minimalism is awesome, or what stuff people own. But the most frequent question is: How the hell do I get started? Here are five, concrete minimalist tactics you can enact today.

Get a damn multi-tool

Multi-tools are practically created for minimalists. You can replace five different items with one item, which makes it way easier to find, maintain, and keep track of. I personally use the Victorinox Swiss Army Knife, which has a knife, scissors, tweezers, reusable toothpick, and can be used as a simple screwdriver.

One advanced hack: get rid of your nail clippers! It’s fairly easy to use the little scissors on the pocketknife to cut nails.

Swim Shorts = Exercise Shorts

Obviously, this will depend on your sense of fashion, and I can only speak to the male perspective. There’s really no reason I see that men need both exercise shorts AND swim shorts. Why not make them the same item? You can find any good pair of swim shorts that have a shorter, comfortable cut. I personally use board shorts, since they don’t have the inner net.

Read books on your phone

I don’t bother with a Kindle or iPad. The quality difference between reading on a tablet versus a phone is inconsequential for me — and having an extra device requires extra cables, more battery charging time, and lots of money. This is all a part of my book reading system, which involves using my iPhone and Amazon Kindle to read books.

Make Exercise Shoes your Default Shoes

No one seems to care if I wear my Nike 32 Pegasus shoes around all the time. They’re black, to match all my outfits, and extremely durable for a variety of conditions. Word of warning though, the wear and tear of the shoe means you’ll probably have to replace them yearly. On the plus side, now you’ll need way fewer shoes to keep track of.

Use Mail as Scratch Paper

I used to hate receiving physical mail and immediately throw most of it to the recycling bin. However, for minimalists, mail is a great way to get free scratch paper in the morning every single day! Or, there are actually ways you can unsubscribe from physical mail.

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