What Is Minimalism All About?

Minimalism has been around for a long time, yet it is enjoying a heyday we have never seen. In a nutshell, this is because minimalism presents an alternative mindset that can supersede our capitalist attitude that has caused many of current social issues. Before getting into this, let me introduce what minimalism is really about. Minimalists believe that having fewer things makes us happier (“less is more”!). Why? By having few things, in their view (or maybe I should say “our view” since I’m a minimalist), we can pay more attention to the quality and value of each, thus we can appreciate them and be more satisfied. The important thing, however, is that minimalism is way, way beyond decluttering material things.

Limiting the number of friends is one thing. I know, it sounds cold. But by doing so, we can talk and interact more with an important group of friends and have a deeper connection with them. In fact, all of us do this subconsciously (a research proved that we can only have 150 meaningful connections). But intentionally limiting friendships forces ourselves to think about what kind of relationship is actually vital to us. What kind of friends are the ones who you feel more comfortable being with? Who do you love spending time with? Who gives you positive advice or energy, or does it matter? Marie Kondo, who is known for her unique and magically effective method of decluttering, also talks about tidying connections with people in her book Joy at Work, co-authored with Scott Sonenshein. Somewhat surprisingly, when she used the famous KonMari method…