I have to say, I never thought I would call myself anything related to being a minimalist. I was raised in a very materialistic home and placed a pretty high value on having stuff. So what exactly is a minimalist? Here’s the dictionary definition.
minimalist
[min-uh-muh-list]
–noun
1. a person who favors a moderate approach to the achievement of a set of goals or who holds minimal expectations for the success of a program.
2. a practitioner of minimalism in music or art.
–adjective
3. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of minimalism.
4. being or offering no more than what is required or essential.
Every day, within my normal routine, I’m finding a lot of material possessions that I just don’t need, want or even use. I have a basket set up as a staging area to get these things out of my house. Not a day has gone by, within the last week, that I haven’t placed at least one thing in there. I open the kitchen drawer and realize I have extra hot pads, I walk by a shelf wondering why I have a cluster of too many vases on it, do I really need that stack of books… you get the picture. I like this new mentality. It’s that same one that keeps me from buying impulse items, shopping for no reason and buying things just because it’s a good deal.
I suppose if I look at this, applying the definition, I din’t know how many people would say I’m striving to be a minimalist. When you look at the part that says “required or essential”, does that mean for us to live or to live in our society? My minimalism would be considered the latter of the two. Clearly, I don’t need a car to live, I don’t need that cute art bowl on my table to live, nor do I need the most awesome hot tub in my back yard to live. Comparing these items to our basic necessities of food, water and moderate shelter, it’s extravagant. When compared to a middle class family, it’s the norm.
My house is considered small in the higher income, affluent city I live in. I’ve thought about downsizing. I even had a nightmare about it last night. Worse yet, it’s a recurring one. I bought a new, bigger house about 30 minutes north of where I live. I got a good deal on it, so I bought it with the intention of selling my current house. In this dream, I always forget I have the new house until the 1st mortgage payment invoice shows up. I haven’t sold my house, I’ve lost the key to the new house and I’m not even sure exactly where the new house is. I usually wake up from this nightmare in a panic, clenching my teeth, stressed out about something that never happened.
As Madonna says, we’re living in a material world, but I don’t want to be a material girl.