Minimalism or how to live an uncluttered life …
I have been reading and thinking a lot about minimalism lately and while I feel a bit uneasy about the entire life style aspect of it, I do think it is worth to consider living with less, or at least thinking twice or three times about buying something new. We have so much. Even those amongst us who have very little still have an enormous amount of stuff lying around, in cupboards, cellars, boxes, parents houses …
I do love places where there are interesting things to discover, books, art, beautiful stones, plants and that is a reason why minimalism does not resonate with me that much on a life style level, I find empty places often boring and cold and uninspiring, but I equally strongly dislike clutter, unused stuff, clothes that haven´t been worn in year, books no one will ever read again (unless donated) , presents no one ever wanted, boxes of old papers and diaries in the cellar, furniture never needed again … and all this stuff we keep for “just in case”.
And the comes awareness of what we actually possess , what we have accumulated over time, the useless bad quality stuff we thought we absolutely needed, the electronics hardly we hardly ever used, the fashionable sweater that itches and is made out of plastic … To become really aware of why we bought things and how not happy they made us: I think this is worth thinking about, and then maybe extend our awareness to where these things actually come from, who made them, and at what shocking human and environmental cost.
To be aware and awake and to not hide behind the “everyone is doing it so I have to buy it to and it can´t be that bad” trap, that for me is the real benefit of this minimalism trend.
I have been reading and thinking a lot about minimalism lately and while I feel a bit uneasy about the entire life style aspect of it, I do think it is worth to consider living with less, or at least thinking twice or three times about buying something new. We have so much. Even those amongst us who have very little still have an enormous amount of stuff lying around, in cupboards, cellars, boxes, parents houses …
I do love places where there are interesting things to discover, books, art, beautiful stones, plants and that is a reason why minimalism does not resonate with me that much on a life style level, I find empty places often boring and cold and uninspiring, but I equally strongly dislike clutter, unused stuff, clothes that haven´t been worn in year, books no one will ever read again (unless donated) , presents no one ever wanted, boxes of old papers and diaries in the cellar, furniture never needed again … and all this stuff we keep for “just in case”.
And the comes awareness of what we actually possess , what we have accumulated over time, the useless bad quality stuff we thought we absolutely needed, the electronics hardly we hardly ever used, the fashionable sweater that itches and is made out of plastic … To become really aware of why we bought things and how not happy they made us: I think this is worth thinking about, and then maybe extend our awareness to where these things actually come from, who made them, and at what shocking human and environmental cost.
To be aware and awake and to not hide behind the “everyone is doing it so I have to buy it to and it can´t be that bad” trap, that for me is the real benefit of this minimalism trend.
And, "de-cluttering" actully frees up quite a lot of energy and gets rid of old stale sticky energy as well ..
There are loads of blogs about minimalism and de-cluttering ... here are just a few:
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