Most people’s view of minimalism is wrong, it was warped and shaped by extremists. People with a need to push boundaries, to go further, deeper, more intense than anyone else. People with a need or addiction for being extreme in all things.
Minimalism is not
Only owning 10 things
Owning no furniture
Having exactly 1 cup, bowl, plate, folk, knife, spoon
Seeing if you can live in an apartment the size of a matchbox
Going without
Sacrificing
Ridiculous
Minimalism is
Removing only what you no longer need or no longer serves you
You get to decide what – and how much – that is
I consider minimalism like sculpting. You are the artist, what you are sculpting is your life and as a sculptor removes what is unnecessary to reveal the statue beneath, so you remove what is unnecessary to reveal the life you want to live. Your home might not look minimalist to others but they don’t have to live in it. You do. You like to collect a specific item, say miniature figurines? Cool, you get to keep them all. This is your passion, your joy, you get to keep it. It serves you with emotional contentment. You inherited a collection of miniature figurines that you don’t care about and they take up space? They go. Minimalism is about the intent and purpose behind what you own, not about the number of items.
Want a more minimalist life but don’t want to give up what you currently own? That’s doable. Just follow 2 rules.
- Do not buy any more items (apart from food)
- Follow the one in, one out rule
When you need something new, make it a gift someone can give you, christmas, birthday etc. And when they do, get rid of one thing currently in your home. The ‘one in, one out’ rule does not have to be a like item – one jumper out, one jumper in. Just make it, when something comes in something else has to go. But don’t make it ‘one cooking appliance coming in, one old paper receipt going out’. That’s not what the rule is about and you know it.
Side quest: When dealing with receipts, all paper receipts should be filed immediately in one of two places – a ‘for tax purposes’ file or an ‘until warranty runs out’ file. Each year when you file your taxes, keep a copy with all the receipts in a safe place (like a filing cabinet) for how long you are legally required to do so. Keep each year in its own file or envelope, then when the required amount of time to keep it is up, toss it. If the required length of time is 7 years, you will only ever have 7 files/envelopes to maintain. Year 8, the oldest is tossed and the newest is added to the back of the pile.
Minimalism is not meant to be hard or draining, it is simply one way to manage your life for the most enjoyment and enrichment possible, for you. For some it will look like organising a book shelf by topic, for some by size and for others, by genre. For some, organising the pantry is emptying everything into identical containers, neatly labelled, for others it is lining everything up orderly. For me, it is about having somethings in containers (not all identical) and the rest in baskets under category titles like ‘breakfast, soup, snacks’, etc. I like my cupboards to look neat when I open them but I’m not overly fussy about the order of items within the baskets. My linen cupboard is ordered the same way, everything in baskets.
Now, you might be thinking a hoarder or maximalist could call themselves a minimalist to justify keeping everything. Not really, it all comes back to intent. A minimalist is seeking to organise their life for simplicity and ease. A maximalist thrives on being surrounded by an abundance of items and categories. A hoarder is fighting anxiety and other psychological issues. As a side issue, the difference between a hoarder and maximalist is a hoarder does not differentiate what they keep, while a maximalist has specific passions or interests and creates curated collections.
If you have a bookcase in your living room that holds several books, some photos in frames, a plant, a couple of board games and a collection of knick knacks collected from trips over the years – that can still be classed as minimalism. Again, it’s about the intent behind each item and also the overall picture. What else is going on in that room?
It’s time we stop letting the internet dictate who we are and what we can have.