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It gets depressing. I pared down a lot of what I owned simply because I didn't use it and the clutter bothered me, plus I had to move apartments by myself. At

It gets depressing. I pared down a lot of what I owned simply because I didn't use it and the clutter bothered me, plus I had to move apartments by myself. At first, it was really great. No clutter, only what I needed, super basic life. But then you walk into your apartment where you only have a (simple) bed and desk, maybe a few pieces of clothing on the ground and you feel empty and depressed. It isn't because I want stuff... I actually really don't like buying things (that is another aspect: I have major anxiety around money so I hoard money, which is convenient for a "minimalist". Think "money anorexic") It just feels empty. Like another poster mentioned: it consumes you. You constantly have to consider the space / minimalism implications of buying something. It is weird to describe. Yeah, all of this sounds overly dramatic but I do feel sad when I look at my apartment some times. My partner is pushing me to buy a couch because they don't like laying in my bed when they come over. Also it is a little embarrassing to pull out the sleeping bag and air mattress when I have guests come over...

twblalock 10y ago
Doing the minimalism thing is clearly detrimental to your mental health. You should stop.
- madamelic 10y ago
  Yeah, it is a little consuming I'll admit. Hoping to be able to relax emotionally once I get a month or two of living expenses built up. Minimalism, I think, is a great aspiration but I personally don't think is something you should try to live as a lifestyle. Time will tell I guess.
  - twblalock 10y ago
    What you should aspire to is a lifestyle that doesn't stress you out or require constant comparisons to an ideal. There is no point aspiring to minimalism because it doesn't fit those criteria for you.
hosh 10y ago
The real purpose of paring down these things is precisely to expose those vulnerabilities and anxieties you might not otherwise have found. If you have not already, I highly recommend you take some meditation practice. This is really about getting to the real you, which may have been obscured by the extra clutter. On your way there, you will see parts of yourself that you don't particularly like. It is no different than moving the couch and finding forgotten dust bunnies of your mind. It is the same when decluttering. I don't know about what other blog posts have written about it. I decluttered in the same way I meditate: the feelings that arises when you contemplate throwing something away are the various stories, narratives, and attachments you have about that particular object. They are coming to the surface as a chance for you to really examine whether it is necessary or not. For example, someone might buy an object to fill up a room, but they are not even aware of the deeper motivation of staving off loneliness. That loneliness does not surface up until something such as decluttering comes up. The internal attachment you have to an external object creates a kind of feedback loop to keep that object in that place, and anchors your memories. Stir up your possessions, and you also stir up your psyche. The koan "do you own these things or do these things own you" still apply. If you are obsessing abut what you buy in the space, then these objects -- or rather, what the lack of objects says about you and what social signals they give to other people owns you. That is confining to your spirit. It's not real freedom.
sliverstorm 10y ago
It's easy to take too far. For me, good minimalism is selling things I haven't used in a long time, or furniture that doesn't "fit" in the floorplan of my house (for example, no one needs two kitchen tables). Stuff that just occupies space. Bad minimalism is getting rid of decorations (art, photos, plants) and key furniture. I want my house to feel like someone lives there, so a bare room with a laptop in the middle is OUT. A much easier razor than "is this minimal or not" is, "am I going to wind up selling this in six months because I don't use it, god that'll be a pain"
- madamelic 10y ago
  You have hit the nail exactly on the head. This is exactly how I feel about minimalism now.
- slackstation 10y ago
  Yes, if you are going to minimalism as a lived, pre-subscribed aesthetic experience, it's basically a really uncomfortable fashion. I find it better suited as a tool to examine your life and peel away things that aren't needed. That extra space and lightness that is made gives you freedom to do more of what you want and less of things you are forced into. I personally started minimizing my wardrobe. By having radically fewer individual pieces of clothing, then I can more consciously consume. Case in point, if I have 20 pairs of jeans that I randomly picked up because they looked nice or more likely, I was bored and wanted to distract myself with shopping, then I was much less likely to buy something from a brand that treats it's workers and the environment responsibly; something I personally care about. I would like to save money so that I can have the freedom to travel for extended periods while I'm still young. Getting rid of alot of things I didn't use but, were taking up space in my apartment allowed me to see just how much space was taken up by things I didn't really need and more importantly weren't adding value to my life. Ultimately, minimalism for me is trying to give myself the room and the lightness to reach a certain escape velocity from the life I feel I have to live just to survive in my environment to the life I tell myself that I want to have. It's easy to say, if I had the means, I would travel full time or I would bike across the United States or I would hike the PCT or Appalachian Trail. It's almost a comfort to say, I can't afford it, or I could never take the time off, or what would I do with my apartment for 3 months? It's entirely another thing all together to watch yourself answer those questions and resolve those roadblocks and to see if you really have the will to be the person you tell yourself you really are on the inside but, because of circumstances you don't have to opportunity to be. Alot of people of financial privilege find appeal in this minimalist life only because it's easier and clearer to see that having everything or almost everything you want doesn't actually make you as happy as you expect you it will. At a certain point there are many people who feel working hard to get more stuff is a losing bargain. Having less stuff and (for me at least) less carrying costs for having so much stuff, such a nice apartment, such a nice car, so many nights out, so many ways to keep up with the Jones' was something I gladly shrugged off once I saw how much of a difference it was making in my life. Will I end up a hyper-minimalist in the end? I don't honestly know but, I do know that what I have done so far has impacted my life in real and amazing ways. Having less stuff isn't magic. What is magic is how your life grows when you give it space. By going to a system of clothes, I have both fewer clothes, less time to shop for them and more outfit options while spending less time wondering what combination I would wear. Encouraged by that, I'm planning on moving out of what seems like my huge luxury apartment into a smaller one both to have less space to fill up and also to save money. Saving money and making a plan to confront who I really am. Am I the traveling, freewheeling, wake up in a different country, lover of the outdoors person that I tell myself I am or will I shy away from the new back toward the familiar? Does that even actually make a difference to who I am? All of those questions can't be answered unless I change my life in an effort to answer them and that's what minimalism is doing for me, allowing me to start answering those questions.
omouse 10y ago
>But then you walk into your apartment where you only have a (simple) bed and desk, maybe a few pieces of clothing on the ground and you feel empty and depressed. It's at that point you realize that you need to make your own fun and creativity. You're free to start adding creativity to your life in the form of music, art, writing, etc.
marcosdumay 10y ago
> But then you walk into your apartment where you only have a (simple) bed and desk... I don't know why, but to me that image feels lonely, not empty.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- wcarron 10y ago
  I think that was the implication. Minimalism as an art form has been replaced by a contest of 'less', and in the process, we scrub away things that make us happy for the sake of whitewashed walls.
trentmb 10y ago
Get some houseplants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study
- komali2 10y ago
  I recommend a Japanese Peace Lily.
  - q-base 10y ago
    Out of curiosity I had to look-up that one. Strong candidate for next indoor plant. Thanks! Even though I wasn't really looking for new plants and I admit that half of it sold me on the "Japanese" part :)
  - character0 10y ago
    Are you a fan of 'Hot Fuzz' or just enjoy the plant? Either way, I would have to second this recommendation. It's nice to look at, hardy, responsive to watering (everything just perks up), and doesn't require a ton of light.
    - komali2 10y ago
      Hah, that was the reference, but I bought one after watching the movie for the umpteenth time, and it really is an easy plant to take care of.
- warfangle 10y ago
  Getting some art from local artists whose work you enjoy is also an option. Even though it's stuff, it's possible to enjoy its aesthetic. Unless you're in SF, y'all forced all the artists out so there aren't any local ones anymore.
  - wodenokoto 10y ago
    why local? I got a factory painting from Aliexpress and I love it. I also have a painting from a street painter in Vietnam (you know, a guy that paints generic "traditional" art for turists) and I love it.
welanes 10y ago
> It gets depressing....It just feels empty....it consumes you. Maybe try treating it as an aesthetic preference rather than a fundamentalist religion and you'll be happier. Over the weekend the FT published an interview with the famed Japanese architect Tadao Ando https://www.ft.com/content/e0112c50-9f55-11e6-891e-abe238dee8e2 https://www.ft.com/content/e0112c50-9f55-11e6-891e-abe238dee.... A wonderful read, and featuring a quote which seems apt: “Architecture has a function. But at the same time a home is a home for the spirit”
Poiesis 10y ago
I've come to accept minimalism as encompassing a kind of mindfulness. You've lived without a couch, considered that against the alternative, and maybe you decided that you want to have a couch in your life. Nothing wrong with that. Consciously making a decision before deciding to buy a new thing is a laudable practice; it's the mindless spending of money that really kills you. It is said that it took Steve Jobs ten years to buy a couch. Without making a value judgement one way or the other on that long decision, I'll just point out that in the end, he did buy that couch.
hannob 10y ago
It seems to me that you drove minimalism to some crazy extreme. For me it was largely getting rid of stuff that I simply didn't need. I don't think it's a positive interpretation of minimalism to try to own as little as feasible, even if you don't really want it.
ASalazarMX 10y ago
Come on, at least buy a few nice wallpapers, carpet or curtains. Something good enough to look nice but cheap enough you can leave behind if you move.
djsumdog 10y ago
I think it depends on the reasons and the means. I backpacked for 11 months. Everything I owned, I carried in two bags: http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/ http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/ ..and I had scaled down originally when I started my journey and moved to Australia. It's easy when you have flatmates because almost everything you own is in your room and I could always pack up almost all of it. After 11 months of backpacking though, it really wore on me. Being in hostels and hearing people snore every night. Even when I was staying with friends for a month or two, it was still different from having a place of my own. Now that I have a place to myself again, I just see all the just I've accumulated in such a short time and I remind myself I need to put stuff on eBay soon. I buy things in terms of wondering when and how much I'll sell it for (I just think of it as renting stuff). I have a feeling I'll always scale down ever few years. Next trip won't be as extreme as two backpacks. I'll probably buy a car (sold mine 5 years ago) and road trip this time. I will say this tough: that 11 months was totally worth it. I've never felt more okay with my life, healthy and happy about the world. I see engineer jobs as just a paycheck; saving up to see if I can sustain myself longer next time.

twblalock 10y ago

Doing the minimalism thing is clearly detrimental to your mental health. You should stop.

madamelic 10y ago
Yeah, it is a little consuming I'll admit. Hoping to be able to relax emotionally once I get a month or two of living expenses built up. Minimalism, I think, is a great aspiration but I personally don't think is something you should try to live as a lifestyle. Time will tell I guess.
- twblalock 10y ago
  What you should aspire to is a lifestyle that doesn't stress you out or require constant comparisons to an ideal. There is no point aspiring to minimalism because it doesn't fit those criteria for you.

hosh 10y ago

The real purpose of paring down these things is precisely to expose those vulnerabilities and anxieties you might not otherwise have found. If you have not already, I highly recommend you take some meditation practice. This is really about getting to the real you, which may have been obscured by the extra clutter. On your way there, you will see parts of yourself that you don't particularly like. It is no different than moving the couch and finding forgotten dust bunnies of your mind. It is the same when decluttering. I don't know about what other blog posts have written about it. I decluttered in the same way I meditate: the feelings that arises when you contemplate throwing something away are the various stories, narratives, and attachments you have about that particular object. They are coming to the surface as a chance for you to really examine whether it is necessary or not. For example, someone might buy an object to fill up a room, but they are not even aware of the deeper motivation of staving off loneliness. That loneliness does not surface up until something such as decluttering comes up. The internal attachment you have to an external object creates a kind of feedback loop to keep that object in that place, and anchors your memories. Stir up your possessions, and you also stir up your psyche. The koan "do you own these things or do these things own you" still apply. If you are obsessing abut what you buy in the space, then these objects -- or rather, what the lack of objects says about you and what social signals they give to other people owns you. That is confining to your spirit. It's not real freedom.

sliverstorm 10y ago

It's easy to take too far. For me, good minimalism is selling things I haven't used in a long time, or furniture that doesn't "fit" in the floorplan of my house (for example, no one needs two kitchen tables). Stuff that just occupies space. Bad minimalism is getting rid of decorations (art, photos, plants) and key furniture. I want my house to feel like someone lives there, so a bare room with a laptop in the middle is OUT. A much easier razor than "is this minimal or not" is, "am I going to wind up selling this in six months because I don't use it, god that'll be a pain"

madamelic 10y ago
You have hit the nail exactly on the head. This is exactly how I feel about minimalism now.
slackstation 10y ago
Yes, if you are going to minimalism as a lived, pre-subscribed aesthetic experience, it's basically a really uncomfortable fashion. I find it better suited as a tool to examine your life and peel away things that aren't needed. That extra space and lightness that is made gives you freedom to do more of what you want and less of things you are forced into. I personally started minimizing my wardrobe. By having radically fewer individual pieces of clothing, then I can more consciously consume. Case in point, if I have 20 pairs of jeans that I randomly picked up because they looked nice or more likely, I was bored and wanted to distract myself with shopping, then I was much less likely to buy something from a brand that treats it's workers and the environment responsibly; something I personally care about. I would like to save money so that I can have the freedom to travel for extended periods while I'm still young. Getting rid of alot of things I didn't use but, were taking up space in my apartment allowed me to see just how much space was taken up by things I didn't really need and more importantly weren't adding value to my life. Ultimately, minimalism for me is trying to give myself the room and the lightness to reach a certain escape velocity from the life I feel I have to live just to survive in my environment to the life I tell myself that I want to have. It's easy to say, if I had the means, I would travel full time or I would bike across the United States or I would hike the PCT or Appalachian Trail. It's almost a comfort to say, I can't afford it, or I could never take the time off, or what would I do with my apartment for 3 months? It's entirely another thing all together to watch yourself answer those questions and resolve those roadblocks and to see if you really have the will to be the person you tell yourself you really are on the inside but, because of circumstances you don't have to opportunity to be. Alot of people of financial privilege find appeal in this minimalist life only because it's easier and clearer to see that having everything or almost everything you want doesn't actually make you as happy as you expect you it will. At a certain point there are many people who feel working hard to get more stuff is a losing bargain. Having less stuff and (for me at least) less carrying costs for having so much stuff, such a nice apartment, such a nice car, so many nights out, so many ways to keep up with the Jones' was something I gladly shrugged off once I saw how much of a difference it was making in my life. Will I end up a hyper-minimalist in the end? I don't honestly know but, I do know that what I have done so far has impacted my life in real and amazing ways. Having less stuff isn't magic. What is magic is how your life grows when you give it space. By going to a system of clothes, I have both fewer clothes, less time to shop for them and more outfit options while spending less time wondering what combination I would wear. Encouraged by that, I'm planning on moving out of what seems like my huge luxury apartment into a smaller one both to have less space to fill up and also to save money. Saving money and making a plan to confront who I really am. Am I the traveling, freewheeling, wake up in a different country, lover of the outdoors person that I tell myself I am or will I shy away from the new back toward the familiar? Does that even actually make a difference to who I am? All of those questions can't be answered unless I change my life in an effort to answer them and that's what minimalism is doing for me, allowing me to start answering those questions.

omouse 10y ago

>But then you walk into your apartment where you only have a (simple) bed and desk, maybe a few pieces of clothing on the ground and you feel empty and depressed. It's at that point you realize that you need to make your own fun and creativity. You're free to start adding creativity to your life in the form of music, art, writing, etc.

marcosdumay 10y ago

> But then you walk into your apartment where you only have a (simple) bed and desk... I don't know why, but to me that image feels lonely, not empty.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
wcarron 10y ago
I think that was the implication. Minimalism as an art form has been replaced by a contest of 'less', and in the process, we scrub away things that make us happy for the sake of whitewashed walls.

trentmb 10y ago

Get some houseplants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study

komali2 10y ago
I recommend a Japanese Peace Lily.
- q-base 10y ago
  Out of curiosity I had to look-up that one. Strong candidate for next indoor plant. Thanks! Even though I wasn't really looking for new plants and I admit that half of it sold me on the "Japanese" part :)
- character0 10y ago
  Are you a fan of 'Hot Fuzz' or just enjoy the plant? Either way, I would have to second this recommendation. It's nice to look at, hardy, responsive to watering (everything just perks up), and doesn't require a ton of light.
  - komali2 10y ago
    Hah, that was the reference, but I bought one after watching the movie for the umpteenth time, and it really is an easy plant to take care of.
warfangle 10y ago
Getting some art from local artists whose work you enjoy is also an option. Even though it's stuff, it's possible to enjoy its aesthetic. Unless you're in SF, y'all forced all the artists out so there aren't any local ones anymore.
- wodenokoto 10y ago
  why local? I got a factory painting from Aliexpress and I love it. I also have a painting from a street painter in Vietnam (you know, a guy that paints generic "traditional" art for turists) and I love it.

welanes 10y ago

> It gets depressing....It just feels empty....it consumes you. Maybe try treating it as an aesthetic preference rather than a fundamentalist religion and you'll be happier. Over the weekend the FT published an interview with the famed Japanese architect Tadao Ando https://www.ft.com/content/e0112c50-9f55-11e6-891e-abe238dee8e2 https://www.ft.com/content/e0112c50-9f55-11e6-891e-abe238dee.... A wonderful read, and featuring a quote which seems apt: “Architecture has a function. But at the same time a home is a home for the spirit”

Poiesis 10y ago

I've come to accept minimalism as encompassing a kind of mindfulness. You've lived without a couch, considered that against the alternative, and maybe you decided that you want to have a couch in your life. Nothing wrong with that. Consciously making a decision before deciding to buy a new thing is a laudable practice; it's the mindless spending of money that really kills you. It is said that it took Steve Jobs ten years to buy a couch. Without making a value judgement one way or the other on that long decision, I'll just point out that in the end, he did buy that couch.

hannob 10y ago

It seems to me that you drove minimalism to some crazy extreme. For me it was largely getting rid of stuff that I simply didn't need. I don't think it's a positive interpretation of minimalism to try to own as little as feasible, even if you don't really want it.

ASalazarMX 10y ago

Come on, at least buy a few nice wallpapers, carpet or curtains. Something good enough to look nice but cheap enough you can leave behind if you move.

djsumdog 10y ago

I think it depends on the reasons and the means. I backpacked for 11 months. Everything I owned, I carried in two bags: http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/ http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/ ..and I had scaled down originally when I started my journey and moved to Australia. It's easy when you have flatmates because almost everything you own is in your room and I could always pack up almost all of it. After 11 months of backpacking though, it really wore on me. Being in hostels and hearing people snore every night. Even when I was staying with friends for a month or two, it was still different from having a place of my own. Now that I have a place to myself again, I just see all the just I've accumulated in such a short time and I remind myself I need to put stuff on eBay soon. I buy things in terms of wondering when and how much I'll sell it for (I just think of it as renting stuff). I have a feeling I'll always scale down ever few years. Next trip won't be as extreme as two backpacks. I'll probably buy a car (sold mine 5 years ago) and road trip this time. I will say this tough: that 11 months was totally worth it. I've never felt more okay with my life, healthy and happy about the world. I see engineer jobs as just a paycheck; saving up to see if I can sustain myself longer next time.