Becoming a Minimalist

**Joan.of.the.Arch** · 07-13-2015, 12:27 PM

Cook from the most basic ingredients you can. But them in bulk so as to avoid packaging as much as possible. Walk, bike, or take public transportation. Have a wash-and-dry haircut. Avoid collecting craft supplies, art supplies for an art you do not do regularly. Don't try every office product that looks helpful or interesting. Sort your mail immediately everyday. Stop magazine subscriptions. Landscape simply. Be happy with the furniture you have rather than allowing yourself to tire of it and want to change. Borrow books, music, recordings of all sorts from a public library. Give away jewelry you don't wear. Have only enough place settings for your family plus one or two, then borrow when you are entertaining. Don't collect whimsical items. Use things up before you acquire replacements. Don't collect toiletries or cosmetics. Assure yourself that the fingernails you were born with look perfectly fine. Involve yourself in sports that take little equipment. When acquiring new furniture, think about getting stuff that you can move entirely by yourself, such as wicker, bamboo, plastic, even cardboard. If your minimalism is about how things look, choose monotones and solids for your home. Have clothing items that wash well together and little clothing that needs special treatment. Have a single coat that works for all occasions.

There are many things you could consider, but understand why you want to be minimalist so that you can see which things to bother with, which not. For example, are you trying to have more leisure time, trying to save money, trying to lead a less frazzled life, trying to be more humble, trying to fit into a smaller apartment, trying to go easier on the earth....etc...?

**ua_guy** · 07-13-2015, 01:29 PM

I caution people who say they want to lead a "minimalist" lifestyle. Instead, I recommend to them they just execute that mindset going forward-- don't necessarily throw everything away, especially things of value-- but maybe take a good look at purchases and trying to scale back where it's possible and convenient, at first. The fallacy is finding happiness in simply getting rid of things, versus actually living and finding true happiness in a bare-bones lifestyle of subsistence.

**snafu** · 07-16-2015, 07:53 AM

You'll laugh, I'm a seasonal minimalist. As we move toward spring/summer, I'm going room by room removing drapes, changing out wardrobes and reducing stuff so that it contains only the items we use almost daily. We get a lot of visitors so I need to keep the place 'company ready,' without spending a lot of time on clean & polish. It's startling how much longer housework takes when counter, shelves, cupboards, closets and drawers are fullish. All boxes and compression bags go to secondary storage under beds, under stair cupboard, basement and garage until 1st snow fall.

I keep telling myself I'll pare down the accessories and bric a brac but by January even those items I thought we'd let go feel desirable or even needed. What has helped the process most is a couple of protocols like, 'if not used in the past 12 months, it needs to go' with few exceptions. We are determined to keep volume in check so if something new comes in, something of similar size and purpose must go. That really helped curb impulse purchases but it's now more difficult with technological changes.

This year I saw an article that touted dark blue as the color for summer living. As I swept stuff away, I filled a laundry basket with anything with even a hint of blue. I needed to replace the deck table cloth and came across a heavily marked down Navy, 20 piece table setting package which garnered compliments for the kitchen and adjacent deck. It was fun to transform older blue pillow cases into outdoor cushion covers and re-purpose all the items in the laundry basket.

Becoming a Minimalist