Benefits Of A Minimalist Life

4 couches, 200 pairs of jeans and depression, what do all of these things have in common? Me and my crappy little life in 2008.
Fast forward 2 years and things had changed, fast forward to 2018 and you might be forgiven for thinking I’d taken my monastic vows. What I know, is that living with less has given me more life than I ever believed possible.
Depression And Debt
In debt, melancholy and blindly buying I continued to accumulate until I had over 40k in credit card debt. One failed relationship and I bought a couple of extra couches, another romantic disaster and I spent a couple of thousand on jeans. I would bid on items on Ebay, just for the thrill of winning. Did the items fit me? No! Did I like the item when it arrived? Not a chance. I would open each item, toss it in a bag by the door and drop it off at the thrift store once it was full. Spending was the balm, meant to soothe my inner pain, all it did was give me ulcers, a deeper depression and debt.
Minimizing Me
I don’t know how it happened, but after some soul searching and hiding of the credit card statements it actually occurred to me that if buying wasn’t making me feel happy, then perhaps not buying and giving to others might.
It started simply enough by setting myself a daily challenge to get rid of things. My first donation was one small supermarket bag of clothes. I had to get rid of it immediately so as not to go back on my decision. This worked well and as my daily challenge changed and grew, so did my wish to get rid of things.
It took a long time to get rid of the hundreds of dresses and jeans I owned, even bagfuls at a time. I owned 70 nail varnishes at one point, ironic really as a chronic nail biter. Books numbered in the thousands, eventually dwindled to none as I started to use the library. I sold what I could, to try and pay down debt. I cancelled any email advertising and I cut up the credit cards. I would ask friends to come round and take something, anything, I didn’t mind what. As I did this, I started to feel less attachment to the things that owned me. Getting rid of things was becoming easier and easier. I never felt any regret over getting rid of anything.
People began to complain that I was a pain in the tuchus when it came to Christmas and birthdays. I truthfully told them that I didn’t want anything from them. If they insisted, I would ask for some ground coffee or fruit. Asking for useful things seemed to assuage their need for kindness towards me, but still left them nonplussed.
“How can you not want anything?” they would ask.
The Number 1 Benefit Of Minimalism
When things went wrong I would buy. When things went right I would buy. But then things would go wrong again so I would spend some more. My whole environment was a shrine to my completely erratic and ever changing emotions. There was no escape from the reminders of a life, out of control. My relationships controlled me, my spending dominated my life and the crap I bought was a constant prompt for me, the thirty-something who had no idea what she was doing.
As I whittled away everything I owned to virtually nothing, there were many advantages. The number one benefit of owning virtually nothing, was that my mind became untroubled. Mentally I felt like I had been flushed out. It’s odd to think that getting rid of physical items ‘cured’ my depression, but in many ways it did. I could finally focus on what really mattered, I wasn’t being smothered physically or mentally.
Ten years have passed since I felt suicidal, out of control, depressed and permanently anxious about my debt, spending and lifestyle. That’s not to say that life is a rainbows and lollipops existence all the time, but what I do know is that stuff will never make me happy. I know that 200 pairs of jeans are just 200 pairs of jeans and a whole lot more dollars than bears thinking about.
What I also know, is that I only have one pair of legs!
