A Minimalist´s Daily Useful Household Actions to Avoid a Sedentary Life

Cleaning not only makes your living space healthier for you physically, but also mentally. Mold, dust, pet hair, and other common contaminants cause bodily sickness, but clutter and poorly managed surroundings causes mental stress. Some of the following favor manual ways over using gadgets and appliances. Gadgets and appliances can of course be used if you must, but gadgets and appliances generally make you avoid physical effort, which we are trying to obtain. Doing actions which are purposeful and practical is important so that you are motivated. The following list is especially oriented as a basic list that most anyone can do in any home.

• Sweep or vacuum your home. Use a smaller broom for hand and eye coordination. Mop your kitchen and bathroom. If you have any shared public spaces such as stairs or sidewalk you could sweep that too.
• Pickup any trash not only in your residence, but around your residence, including even the smallest of trash, like cigarette butts. Use plastic gloves if you wish.
• Pickup and clean under and behind things. This is good purposeful physical activity. Clean under your table, under your microwave, even under your bed.
• Dust not only possessions, but also dust walls, curtains, and cabinets.
• Scrub bathroom walls, toilet, and sink, the kitchen sink and counter, tabletop, dishware (coffee mugs, pots, pans...etc. Also scrub your body with a lufa when showering. Scrub floors really well, getting on hands and knees too to use different muscles and cleans better than using a long mop.
• Hand wash your clothes, dish cloths and cleaning rags, and shoes daily.
• Clean the inside of the refrigerator and microwave.
• Brush your teeth after every time you eat or drink anything other than water.
• Clean windows. This is an especially good upper body motion and get your face into some natural light for vitamin D.
• Crush cardboard and plastic before recycling. Separate well all recyclables. It's another physical action with purpose.

Arrange and set up your possessions in your home so that you must physically interact with them more. This isn't to be pretentious or to make up actions, in fact it's to go back to doing actions that improve our health, something that lives of over-convenience and comfort rob us of.

• Setup your desktop computer so that you have a touchscreen at generally head level (good for ergonomics), so that you are raising your arms to interact with your computer. If you have a laptop get an external keyboard and put your screen up at head level as mentioned.
• Make bread by hand. Kneading the dough is good for hands and fingers (against arthritis). Do any mixing by hand for all your food preparation.
• Keep items high when you can (to raise arms, saves space too). Use suction hooks or other means to hang clothes and towels high.
• Do not use remote controls. Goto the television or appliances instead. This itself will motivate you to not be such a television addict perhaps.
• Chew your food thoroughly before swallowing greatly helps your body digest and absorb nutrients in the food so that they don't simply pass through your system. It also works facial and mouth muscles.
• Sit on the floor instead of a chair sometimes. This way you use different muscles groups, and in fact it requires more effort to get up and down than simply sitting in a chair.
• Fold your laundry, iron it very well, and make your bed very well. Do it all to hotel standards. Keep your clothes folded and not laying around.

The above list of ideas will get you moving around an already spartan and simplified home, making you not only a minimalist, but a healthier minimalist. Life has become quite convenient and comfortable, so intentionality is necessary to prevent living sedentary lives. Make a point of really using elbow grease in all the above actions will keep you focused on honest to goodness householder tasks that are good for physical health. Do these tasks well, as the purposeful nature of these actions are good for overall mental health.