I used to think that minimalism is a crazy lifestyle of having nothing but a toothbrush in your apartment. No furniture, no tableware, no decorations. Minimalism has always appeared to me as an extremely frugal way of living.
As I have been decluttering my apartment, I started reading books on essentialism, time management and habits and to my surprise, most of them mentioned perks of minimalism. That caught my attention, and I decided to read a bit more about it. Unexpectedly I realised that my perception was quite distorted. So, what is minimalism?
Minimalism concentrates on what is important. Getting rid of possessions, toxic people, wrong surroundings indeed can be a part of a lifestyle, but it is only up to you to decide what to keep. You certainly don't need to live in a car and have the famous 33-item capsule wardrobe to become a minimalist. As I have been studying people’s relationship with possessions I concluded that minimalism is not about the number of things you have, but their meaningfulness. While Marie Kondo method tells you to keep what sparks joy, minimalism begs a question 'Do I really need this?'. It is truly hard to part with things and even harder with people, but I have learned that it brings a lot of space to what matters.
Famous minimalism ambassadors Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus have pointed out that every lifestyle is unique:
'There are many flavours of minimalism: a 20-year-old single guy’s minimalist lifestyle looks different from a 45-year-old mother’s minimalist lifestyle. Even though everyone embraces minimalism differently, each path leads to the same place: a life with more time, more money, and more freedom to live a more meaningful life'.
It is important to mention that minimalism goes hand in hand with vegetarianism, zero-waste lifestyle and share economy. Although I am not ready to go zero-waste, I believe that we should have an understanding of how we impact the environment.
If you want to learn more about minimalism you can follow the links below to find videos and books that I find informative:
'Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less' by Greg McKeown
'Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life' by Joshua Fields Millburn, Ryan Nicodemus