Any failed minimalists out there?

[harley]

Got you beat. I've only got two, as in two housefuls of stuff. And a couple of cars. And a couple of kayaks...dammit!

 

[flyfishnevada]

Got you beat. I've only got two, as in two housefuls of stuff. And a couple of cars. And a couple of kayaks...dammit!

But if you keep the kayaks and the cars in your house...

 

[traineeinvestor]

While I am all for a decluttered living environment, arbitrarily limiting myself to 100 items (or whatever) is more likely to deprive myself of some of the things whcih give me pleasure and which I have worked hard for. My wine fridge alone would come close to having 100 bottles in it at a time. The study I share with my wife has over 200 books in it (and we probably have twice as many again in other rooms).

That said, I enjoyed doing our last big clean out in January 2009 and the less cluttered feeling that we (briefly) enjoyed after it was done and am pushing my family to do another one before the end of this year.

 

[DangerMouse]

While I am all for a decluttered living environment, arbitrarily limiting myself to 100 items (or whatever) is more likely to deprive myself of some of the things whcih give me pleasure and which I have worked hard for. My wine fridge alone would come close to having 100 bottles in it at a time.

Well that little problem would be easily fixed if you invite us all over for drinks, we can soon reduce that 100 bottles to 1 in no time.

 

[traineeinvestor]

Well that little problem would be easily fixed if you invite us all over for drinks, we can soon reduce that 100 bottles to 1 in no time.

Sounds tempting, but I would be a bit worried about whether the "1" bottle would survive the experience....

 

[W2R]

There is no way that I would ever reduce my belongings to 100 items.

On the other hand, I have been decluttering for several years and at the moment I am "full steam ahead" on this project. The anticipation of an interstate move via rental truck has certainly caused me to think twice about each item and whether or not I really want it.

I can't even begin to imagine how much stuff a person would accumulate who lives in the same house for 40+ years. What a nightmare for the heirs to sort out later on. It is really easy to squirrel things away, thinking "I might want that some day" when really, I won't.

 

[ERD50]

Got you beat. I've only got two, as in two housefuls of stuff. And a couple of cars. And a couple of kayaks...dammit!

OK, I guess I'm at three 'stuffs' now.

My Stuff.
Her Stuff.
Our stuff.

Geez, even my keyboard is a 101-key model. I guess I need to declutter with an iPad.


-ERD50

 

[HsiaoChu]

I'd like to be a minimlist. My ideal room is ne painted white everywhere with a few small numbers of fairly modern furniture. However, my wife is a collector. She collects everything.

There is are some exceptions to minimalism. One of these is photography. Another is tools. In house renovation and building, I've discovered that its all about the right tools for the job. For example, recently I got a Dremel multi-max tool. I have no idea how I survived without this tool. Cutting drywall, and cutting little spot that I used to use a chisel and a hammer are now immensely easier and way way more precise. The oly problem is that the blades are not cheap and they wear out quickly.

I used to use my radial arm saw for most cutting. But then I got a Ryobi Electric Miter saw. I haven't used the radial since, and the Ryobi is way more precise than the radial could ever be. and the table saw is easier to use for most tasks than the radial.

In some tasks, minimalist doesn't work very well.

 

[flyfishnevada]

On the other hand, I have been decluttering for several years and at the moment I am "full steam ahead" on this project. The anticipation of an interstate move via rental truck has certainly caused me to think twice about each item and whether or not I really want it.

I can't even begin to imagine how much stuff a person would accumulate who lives in the same house for 40+ years. What a nightmare for the heirs to sort out later on. It is really easy to squirrel things away, thinking "I might want that some day" when really, I won't.

We are panning to full-time RV when the kids go to college. At the very minimum we might buy a small condo to establish a home base and give the kids some place to crash during the summers and holidays. Either way, we will need to down size seriously, but even then I'm sure a lot of stuff will end up in storage. We may not be able to take it with us, but we don't want to give it up.

When we cleaned out my DW's grandmothers house it was just packed with stuff. There was so much furniture and the garage was full of he grandfather's stuff. And I mean full, to the rafters! Mostly tools, work benches, stuff like that. We took what we needed and the valuable stuff, but I know a guy that is the same way. Just collects tools and old cars. He took most of it. Now his kids will need to deal with it someday.

 

[FurBall]

I can't even begin to imagine how much stuff a person would accumulate who lives in the same house for 40+ years. What a nightmare for the heirs to sort out later on. It is really easy to squirrel things away, thinking "I might want that some day" when really, I won't.

3 yrs ago my mother moved out of the house she had lived in for 45 years. She had filled the huge house that previously housed a minimum of 9 people with things "someone could use someday." For two years before the move we decluttered. Nonetheless, the downsizing was wrenching for her and us. As a child of the Depression, she just couldn't part with anything that someone might find useful someday.

On the bright side, she saved things that have been so much fun to find amid the junk:
1. Receipts from the birth of each of her children. It was fun to know I cost $51 to be born at the "Women's Lying In Hospital" in New York.
2. Tax returns from the 40s and 50s. Just fun to see the numbers and the forms.
3. Every condolence letter and telegram from my father's premature death in the early 70s. A number of us read them and reminisced.
4. Pay stubs from all the kids' first jobs. I cleared $19.80 in my very first pay check. I remember thinking I was rich.
5. Beautiful sappy poems and love letters my father had written to my mother over many years.

All of this made/makes it well worth the effort to clear out the tons of junk.

 

[Urchina]

I love the **idea** of minimalism, and I've lived a minimalist lifestyle (by choice) more than once. These jaunts into minimalism (backpacking around Europe for a summer, living in a sleeping bag in a spare room with a single milk crate of "stuff" including clothes for a summer, traveling for business with only a carry-on, etc.) have been short-lived relative to the overall trajectory of my life. But they were refreshing interludes in a life top-heavy with stuff.

The beauty of minimalism, as I've experienced it, is that it allows you to free your mind and time from caring for things. The agony of it, as I've experienced it, is that if you don't have a better use for your mind and time, you'll feel empty and at loose ends, which is unsettling at best and downright distressing at worst.

I'm not interested in the "how many things" debate because I see it as irrelevant, sort of a red herring or a crude yardstick for people who aren't really thinking about the relationship they have with objects. They use it as a guideline because they haven't really worked out what they need to be happy, functional and fulfilled. It's sort of like asking "How much do I need to retire early?" -- the answer depends on you and what your personal needs are. I think the real thing to consider is -- do your things (working for, owning, maintaining, cleaning, using etc.) diminish the time you would have for other, potentially more rewarding activities?

Minimalism is time frugality, just as LBYM is financial frugality. You choose to own less because you want more time and space to live. The number of objects you own becomes an issue only when you get into time debt -- you forgo things you want to do because you have to spend time maintaining objects you neither use nor need. That's clutter, and that's a waste, especially since that object took resources to manufacture, transport, and sell.

So now, for me, clutter represents wasted resources (yay! another guilt burden to carry!). But thinking of it this way helps me be more mindful in what we bring into our house and lives. I'd like to say we're less cluttered, but that would not be true. But I'm thinking about it, at least. I'm hoping that counts for something!

 

[Meadbh]

Excellent post Urchina!

 

[W2R]

Urchina, I agree that was an excellent post and IMO a wonderful contribution to the forum. I read it aloud to Frank, and he bookmarked the URL after reading it again too. Thank you!

 

[queeneev]

Minimalism is a catch 22 for me. I like the idea because it provides a certain simplicity, and serenity, almost a spiritual virtue. I am a neat freak and cleanaholic. Having an uncluttered kitchen table brings me joy. I have no window treatments or carpets in my home.

However, I also am an ardent waste-not-want-not advocate, which means saving the peanut butter jars, the fabric remnants, rubber bands, wood scraps, buttons, wrapping papers, etc etc. And I like my money for today AND for tomorrow, so I accumulate items that are a great bargain even if I know I won't need them right away, like the most excellent free stuff that Staples has been giving away this month. Knowing that i will need certain things in the future, and can keep/obtrain them now for low or no cost, I am compelled to neglect the minimalist in me and bring stuff home. My compromise (to myself) is that I have to deep-storage this "stuff" (versus sticking it in the cabinets and drawers), and fortunately, I have a large basement that I can use for storage.

I do, however, practice a non-materialistic lifestyle. My discretionary expenditures are pretty much down to nothing, give or take some entertainment and a good meal. I don't buy knicknacks, clothing, furniture, jewelry, gizmos.

Give me a good deal on cast iron pots, fabric and threads, canning jars, gardening tools, and some heirloom seeds, and I will gladly take possession. Maybe there is a different philosophy we can name, a combo of minimalist/survivalist. "Minvivalist"?

 

[Katsmeow]

One problem I find with keeping something that I might (will) need later or even buying something that is a good deal that I will need later is that when later gets here I can't find it.

I've tried setting aside a place but even then I'll forget that the extra monitor cable is in the second drawer of the cabinet in that room over there. Instead I'll go look in the box on the top shelf of the closet in that room or whatever. Then I give up and go buy a new one. Then next week I find the one I had saved. Sigh.

 

[NW-Bound]

One problem I find with keeping something that I might (will) need later or even buying something that is a good deal that I will need later is that when later gets here I can't find it.

I've tried setting aside a place but even then I'll forget that the extra monitor cable is in the second drawer of the cabinet in that room over there. Instead I'll go look in the box on the top shelf of the closet in that room or whatever. Then I give up and go buy a new one. Then next week I find the one I had saved. Sigh.

Aren't we twins or what?

Er, I mean dissimilar twins obviously, as we are of different sexes.

 

[Onward]

If you're gonna save stuff, and have it do you any good, you have to be very, very organized. You a need a system or systems of categorization, storage, and lookup. I take this probably to an extreme: I know exactly where every single thing I own is, down to every paper clip and penny. Sounds a bit weird, but I've never regretted it.

 

[Meadbh]

The growth of the storage industry reflects the excess inventory that many of us have accumulated. It's mostly "waste", as people haven't used most of the stuff for years, and will probably never use most of it again.

If I move house again, I will take the opportunity to minimize my "stuff". But there is no way I could survive on 100 things.

 

[haha]

If you're gonna save stuff, and have it do you any good, you have to be very, very organized. You a need a system or systems of categorization, storage, and lookup. I take this probably to an extreme: I know exactly where every single thing I own is, down to every paper clip and penny. Sounds a bit weird, but I've never regretted it.

Good lord! Half the time I can't even find my willy.

Ha

 

[kyounge1956]

The growth of the storage industry reflects the excess inventory that many of us have accumulated. It's mostly "waste", as people haven't used most of the stuff for years, and will probably never use most of it again.

If I move house again, I will take the opportunity to minimize my "stuff". But there is no way I could survive on 100 things. (emphasis added)

Me too. Step one: anything that never got unpacked after my last move isn't coming with me on my next move!

 

[Katsmeow]

One of the things that is interesting is that as I've been slowly paring down things I've gotten rid of more and more. Stuff that I thought I had to keep, a year later I've thrown out. We just had 1800 Got Junk out here for the 4th time and each time we've thrown out things that we had decided to keep.

Right now I am giving the new scanner a workout and scanning in lots and lots of paper and then throwing out most of the originals.

 

[ls99]

A nice little sign hanging in my electronics shop:

Junk: is the stuff you threw away the week before you needed it.





"Good lord! Half the time I can't even find my willy.

Ha" Guess the other half of the time it gets in your way?

 

[ziggy29]

Me too. Step one: anything that never got unpacked after my last move isn't coming with me on my next move!

Yep, we do that too. In Houston when we moved we did that as a "housecooling" party just before we moved, and our guests had to *take* stuff we weren't going to move instead of giving us more stuff in a housewarming.

 

[kyounge1956]

Yep, we do that too. In Houston when we moved we did that as a "housecooling" party just before we moved, and our guests had to *take* stuff we weren't going to move instead of giving us more stuff in a housewarming.

What a great idea! I've been thinking garage sale followed by trip to the Goodwill donation dropoff, but I'll have to add a "housecooling party" to that list.

 

[Moemg]

Yep, we do that too. In Houston when we moved we did that as a "housecooling" party just before we moved, and our guests had to *take* stuff we weren't going to move instead of giving us more stuff in a housewarming.

What a great idea !