Minimalism in your life

JeffH said:
I've just called my wife from work and and told her to get herself, the kids and all their crap outta the house before I get home. I'm looking forward to an evening of Peace and relaxation tonight now.
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I might do that and get her to send her sister around as well :)
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I thought that :P



OP, thanks for the food for thought. I'm going to think about this closely. I feel like some things in my life aren't really going in the right direction, and argued with my girlfriend this weekend about what I want from my life. I've realised that I need to reassess, and so this has come at an opportune moment. Thanks :D
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You should find god instead ;)
 
I lead a relatively minimalistic life style, though I don't go about it in a conscious manner. I just abhore clutter and nik-naks and am a tidy person. I went through a white / laminate / glass phase, but nothing like the sort of thing on that website - more of a design preference at the time. There's no room for that now I live with the gf and we have a kid and that doesn't particularly bother me.
 
I read the first few paragraphs of the start here page and had an overwhelming desire to get on a plane and punch those self-congratulatory tools in the face.
 
I'm a product of consumerism and not daft enough to think I can change that completely.

But I don't dwell on it all, yes I know I shouldn't want all this stuff, the fancy house, fancy car. But it's inevitable.
 
read one page about relationships, nothing I read was ground-breaking.
to summarise,
cut ties with the douches in your life if you can't get the relationship to work.
Well yeh that's kinda obvious, surely people do that anyway no ?
 
4T5 said:
Scrolled down, saw $ signs, pressed back.
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Their books are on sale, which I believe are just a collection of the essays they have on the website.

There's a lot of well-written essays on there, but yes... It does look a little cluttered... Oh, irony.
 
I've moved to Berlin recently so my life had to fit into the back of an estate car. It was pretty satisfying chucking all my old rubbish, had to be a bit brutal.
 
I'm a believe in the saying around "The more space you have, the more stuff you acumulate". I used to live in a 1 bedroom flat with a cupboard for storage, and i since moved into a 2 bedroom flat with a loft and i've somehow managed to fill it all with stuff. Maybe the devout minimalists should therefore live in a box on the street?
 
They have such a vague definition of what Minimalism is, that it's not really anything. I'm pretty sure that "stop doing things you don't want to do" and "stop living in excess" are just normal good advice.
 
When I left Uni I got rid of pretty much all of my stuff except for a suitcase of clothes and a backpack which contained my camera and laptop.

That was five years ago.

Since then I've moved in to a two-bed flat with my girlfriend, got two cars and a shed load of stuff. She's a bit of a hoarder but I'm slowly chipping away at that. :p
 
Outline said:
The emotional weight that comes with owning/hoarding material possessions is definitely a huge part of it... But as mentioned, it's also your frame of mind... Realizing that it's okay to let go of unnecessary things in your life, releasing yourself of the stress.
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This is a thoroughly confusing statement. Stress doesn't result from having things. Occasionally stress results from their absence, but in general possessions and stress are independent.

I've got lots of things of minimal use or value, sitting around in boxes and on my desk. Yet I feel no stress. It's hard to imagine why I would be less stressed if I threw things away - what is this "emotional weight"?
 
JonJ678 said:
This is a thoroughly confusing statement. Stress doesn't result from having things. Occasionally stress results from their absence, but in general possessions and stress are independent.

I've got lots of things of minimal use or value, sitting around in boxes and on my desk. Yet I feel no stress. It's hard to imagine why I would be less stressed if I threw things away - what is this "emotional weight"?
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You're welcome to your own opinion, but there are plenty of people who feel trapped by the responsibility of owning and storing large quantities of items.

Should you own a house, full of furniture, sports equipment, lawnmowers and cars, you have to face all of that should you want to move, change your circumstance, travel for months on end. That 'stuff' is your baggage, that can weigh a person down.

To each their own. I'm not here to justify or convince anyone, I'm interested in others' opinions.
 
If single, I could live out of a travel case. Having a family (particularly kids stuff and the wife's tat) fills every available square foot of shelving and storage space, regularly spilling out at the seams. Drives me mental
 
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Breathe in, breathe out :D

I have clutter but it's all organised to function in a minimal manner. The task I'm working on is the only thing in front of me with everything else organised until I need them. So in effect I may have many things but I know exactly where they are and the state they are in at all times.
 
Is that your room? Pretty cool, but why is there a Brachiosaurus egg in the corner? Dr Alan Grant wouldn't approve.
 
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