While 10 Things I Hate About You is my favorite 90’s movie – 10 Things I Hate About Consumerism felt too aggressive of a blogpost to write. So behold… Ten things I love about being a minimalist accompanied by some of my favourite quotes from the book The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own by Joshua Becker.
1. Uncluttered mind – by living a minimalist life, I am able to concentrate on thoughts that bring me calm and joy instead of stress and anxiety. I have never had the ‘what do I wear’ dilemma in the mornings or felt stressed about the need to clean out the attic/garage/storage cupboard on the weekends. The ‘what’s for dinner’ dilemma is solved by my Minimalist Pantry and meal planning for the week. There are enough natural stressors in life without letting stuff be one of them.
Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value, and the removal of anything that distracts us from them.
MORE OF LESS
2. Freedom to move – the lifestyle I lived in my 20s is likely what has had the biggest impact on me adhering to a minimalist lifestyle. I lived many years out of a suitcase or a backpack while travelling around the globe for work, study and fun. Living a minimalist life made decisions to move easier as I wasn’t weighed down by stuff. My latest move took a few helpful family members and I only a few hours and less than five car trips including transporting a bed and sofa!
Remember, you have big plans for your life, and clutter can get in the way of those plans.
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3. Ease of packing – I am an adventurer at heart and love exploring new (and during COVID-19 familiar) places. Packing for weekend trips and longer getaways is incredibly easy as a minimalist. There is no debating which of your 20 sweaters to pack because you likely can fit all the ones you own in your bag. It also means I rarely forget any items because I can visually do a scan before I leave the house and look for any items I may have overlooked.
Physical possessions often keep us from experiencing more of the things that give us joy and fulfillment.
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4. Never spend time searching for items – I don’t think I’ve ever been late because I couldn’t find ‘X’ item. In fact, I can only think of one time that I have ‘lost’ something in my house and it was my cheeky ginger cat who was the culprit and he had ‘hidden’ it the one place I didn’t think to look. Only allowing the things you need to live the life you want into your life means that everything can have a designated place!
When you decide to live with less, you are not so busy earning money to buy stuff, buying stuff, and taking care of the stuff you bought.
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5. Gratitude for the things I do have – having fewer items makes you appreciate the ones you do have in a greater way. Because I am intentional about the items that come into my life, I spend time searching for just the right ones. This means they may often fulfil multiple purposes and will be something I can regularly appreciate having. I’m not the kind of minimalist who will ever own less than 100 things but each thing I own has a regular and intentional purpose.
Identify the life you want to lead, and pursue the kind of minimalism that will get you there.
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6. Minimalism promotes connection – when is the last time you asked a neighbour, friend or family member to borrow something? Chances are you might have just gone online and ordered the item for yourself. If there are items that I know I will use less than once or twice a year – I often ask to borrow them from someone close to me. Not only does going to pick up and drop off the item allow for an excuse to have a visit, but I genuinely find that people are more than happy to share and it brings them joy to lend out an item whether it be cookie cutters, a level, or a cooler!
You can’t reach for new experiences and relationships if you are too busy holding on to yesterday’s things.
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7. More time to spend on the things that bring me most joy health, spending time with close friends and family and sharing my passion for nutrition and minimalism! Not only does minimalism give you more time because you aren’t spending your time acquiring, fixing, organizing and removing things in your life – but you learn to say yes to more of the things that bring you joy and no to the things that really don’t matter.
Once we let go of the things that don’t matter, we are free to pursue all the things in life that really do matter.
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8. Money saving I feel like this is a self explanatory one. When people used to ask me how I travelled so much, the simple answer was I chose to spend my money on experiences over stuff. It really is amazing how fast $20 here and $50 there adds up throughout the years. Don’t kid yourself either – the resale value on ‘stuff’ is generally not high. You’ll be lucky to get a few bucks for those DVDs in a garage sale or find someone who wants to buy your fast fashion at anywhere near what you paid for it!
Live with whatever possessions give you the life you want.
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9. It is a sustainable way to live. It was great to hear people talk about how the ‘Life-changing magic of tidying up’ and the Netflix series spurred them into sorting through their stuff. However, wouldn’t it be great it as a society we didn’t accumulate so much stuff to begin with? We often forget about the reduce and reuse aspects and focus too much on recycle.
Owning less is great, wanting less is better.
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10. More memories It would be interesting the proportion of people who in their last days commented ‘I really wish that I had bought _____’. I’ve read that most people comment on the time they wish they had spent with loved ones or the experiences they wish they had taken part in. When you choose to live with less you are left with more time, more money and more freedom to build these memories.
Your things are keeping you from becoming all that you were intended to become.
More of Less
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