I adhere (or strive to adhere) to the tenets of Minimalism.
What is minimalism?
Minimalism is at the same time easy and complicated to define, largely because it means different things to different people. For some, minimalism means living in a house with white walls and no decorations hanging anywhere. For others, minimalism means owning 51 physical items or less, total. (I own a lot more than 51 things, that’s for sure. In fact, did you know the average American home has 300,000 things in it? And at the same time, the average American home only houses 2.53 people. I am terrible at math, but even I know that means that every American has an average of 118,577 items. Seems a bit much.)
As for me? I am still on my journey of minimalist self-discovery. I am only just scraping the surface of deciding what minimalism means to me, but for now I can summarize it succinctly with this: waste nothing.
Waste nothing, including…
- Time. Time is our most valuable resource. We can (usually, somehow) make more money; but we can never, never make more time. This means that I no longer binge-watch Netflix. I try not to zone out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest anymore (still a work in progress). I also work really hard on getting menial chores done as efficiently as possible, so I can spend more time doing what I enjoy, and less time doing what I detest.
- Money. When we were first married, my husband and I had very little debt. Then we got caught up in keeping up with some Joneses we knew, and before long we had over $70,000 in consumer debt, on top of our $150,000 mortgage. (Most of our debt consisted of vehicles, including non-essential recreational ones, a few credit cards, and Apple products. #truestory) Then we heard about Dave Ramsey and smartened up. We worked extra jobs, sold what we could, paid off the items we actually *needed*, and were able to cash flow my university degree in the process. We downsized our home and we’re currently debt-free except for our $75,000 (and dwindling!) mortgage. We’ve been driving our two vehicles for 10 and 6 years, respectively, and when they need to be replaced we’ll only buy used, and only with cash. We will never go back.
- Resources. This is where Zero Waste connects to minimalism for me. I have found that by reducing my waste of physical resources (i.e. packaging materials, plastic knick-knacks, tech gadgets, sundry trinkets, even groceries to an extent), I’ve actually become more judicious in what items I acquire in the first place. If I decide that I actually don’t *need* the new iPhone X, then I magically don’t have to figure out what to do with my current great-condition iPhone 6. I also don’t have to dispose of the packaging for the new iPhone, or the packaging for the case and screen protector I’ll inevitably “need,” since my current ones won’t transfer over because marketers frequently change designs to make me feel like my current stuff is old junk, and therefore make me want to buy their new, shiny, updated junk.
- Life energy. In keeping with my decision to stop wasting time, I now make a concentrated effort to do only those things that add value to my life. (Note that doesn’t mean that I only do the things I want to do, because sometimes doing things I dread are actually necessary, and often quite valuable. For example, I am a mother of two small children. Also, I hate changing poopy diapers. But I’m not going to say that because I hate doing it, changing poopy diapers is now a waste of my life energy and therefore I will no longer do it. That would be child abuse. [Unless of course I started working on elimination communication with my baby, which is an option but not one I have the life energy to spend on currently.])
Why is minimalism a thing?
Now you know how I define my particular brand of minimalism. But…why do I care? What makes me want to live this way?
I became attracted to minimalism when, like everyone else in 2015, I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. Her message of owning literally nothing but the essentials and basking in the joy of a permanently clean house forevermore was a revelation to me. I wanted that for my life. I needed that for my life.
I look around my house, and some days I feel like I’m drowning in the random clutter. I trip over piles of laundry that I never put away before I had to wear them again. My brain drowns in all the tasks I have to do—most of them involving managing my stuff in some way—and I want it all gone. I crave a house that never takes longer than 30 minutes to clean, top to bottom. I dream of the day when waking up and going to bed will be pleasant experiences, because I’ll start the day with a clean slate and end it with no unfinished chores.
I never did konmari my house. BUT I WILL, DAMMIT! And soon. And I’ll document it all here, for your viewing pleasure.
Later, I discovered The Minimalists, and their podcasts rekindled the flame in me that Kondo sparked a few years earlier. Almost every time I listen to one of The Minimalists’ podcasts, my life changes for the better somehow. In fact, it was only seven days ago that my husband and I travelled two hours to hear them speak live in Calgary, and on our drive home from their talk I finally committed to making this website a reality. The next day I bought my URL, and here we are. I have no idea where it’s going to take me, but if this blog ever becomes remotely successful, I’ll owe it to hearing those guys in person. (By the way, I’m defining success here as adding value to someone else’s life. Not necessarily making money.)
As I continue to focus on my quest for better minimalism, I’ll track my updates and discoveries here. I’m definitely not the minimalist I want to be yet, but hopefully by writing about it daily I’ll gain more momentum. Thanks for following!