A Minimalist is Born!

Call it an extreme step, but hey, I just became a minimalist (at least for 2012). What is a minimalist you ask. In simple words, a minimalist is a person who lives happily without accumulating useless material goods (aka clutter).

1. I suck at cleaning and organizing. My roommate can vouch for this one. I just don’t know how to organize things efficiently. May be I’m just bad, or may be I get overwhelmed. But if I have too much stuff, I just don’t know what to do with it. So I figured, if I get rid of things that I don’t need, there is no need for me to organize storage every now and then. And I can use that time to do something I like instead. This sounds great to me.
2. I use a set of few things over and over again. There are just a few of my favorite things that I use, the rest just sit in storage waiting to see a day when they can serve me. Why not just donate them and let them serve someone else?
3. Kills the urge of therapy shopping. I love love and absolutely love to shop. And the purchases that sit in the boxes make me look like a hoarder. It’s like there is going to be a war and they are going to blow up all the malls and stores and I would never be able to buy anything. So I just want to buy things, right now! Sometimes when I am low, I go shopping and get some stuff that I really don’t need. It works like therapy.  But now when I shop, I look at the ‘thing’ as responsibility. Chain of thoughts – If I buy this I will have to clean it, organize it, take care of it and waste time on it. Result – I don’t buy it unless I need it or really really like it.
4. No compromise on quality. This is probably the top reason. When you buy multiple things, you cut down on price and hence on quality. But now, since I know I can only buy a small number of things that are absolutely necessary, I can buy something that I really like, irrespective of the price. Which is great!
5. Realization. There is more to life than possessions. I read somewhere ‘The more stuff you own, the more your stuff owns you’. So true! I can hoard like a collector but what am I going to get out of it? I would end up spending my money on things I somewhat want, and will not care about two days from today and it will end up in storage. Not having a load of clutter makes me feel free, mobile and gives me more time and money to do things I like (like travel, going out, hobbies, just being lazy). Like I once mentioned on The Labyrinth ‘I want to collect experiences, not material’.

No I am not going to sell my car. Or get rid of all my clothes and shoes and bags. I plan on continuing to live a normal lifestyle; without being wasteful. It just means that I am going to buy things in small numbers, but better quality. Also, I will not buy things that I don’t need or will not use. I am still keeping my handbags and shoes and most of my clothes. But I did donate four boxes full of possessions aka clutter from my closet this weekend. And you know what, I feel great!