Why “Minimal” is sometimes Optimal
A couple of years back, I was intrigued by what sounded like a new-age mumbo-jumbo or more of a millennial lingo, “Minimalism”.
In reality, the concept is as old as the hills, in a by-gone era when crass commercialism was absent and our tendency to accumulate things way more than what we need was not the norm. Be that as it may, (and I don’t want to sound like a repressive Luddite in the room), the need de jour is definitely a way to de-clutter the hundred thousand objects that occupy our homes and make it more of a manageable count.
I think the jury is clear on this one.
I want to share my journey down this path which began by reading the now Netflix famous Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.
The book has solid tips on how to start de-cluttering our houses, gives detailed ideas on the process, and was very useful. Except for the teensy part, where she writes about talking to your socks daily (no, I’m not making this up!) and thanking them for their support or something like that. I’m sorry, but this is where I draw the line, Ms. Kondo :-)
Some key takeaways from the book are -
- Avoid a basic mistake of discarding by location, not category. We usually clean up room after room, which is why we keep on cleaning room after room. Sorting by placing things by category, for e.g clothes or books should be brought from all over the house and then discarded. Sounds too simple but this makes a huge difference.
- Before deciding to keep or throw, hold it physically and think if the article sparks joy or some pleasant memories. Or if they used to once upon a time long ago, but it doesn’t now.
- Tidy in a certain order which is first Clothes, then Books, Papers, Komono (Misc. stuff) and last, Sentimental stuff.
I started with these ideas from the book, but also checked out reducing, re and upcycling articles from pinterest.com which were also super helpful.
Spending a couple of hours about 5 days a week, for almost an year, it got me to a point of having cleared up most of our stuff and organizing things to only the ones which are useful, or invoke pleasant memories.
The hardest part was sorting through the old memories stuff, mainly because I’m a #sentimentalidiotandbasketnutcase :-) But, in my defense, from about 50,000 boxes, I brought down to around 10 boxes. Hey, that’s how much I could go! It was tough to let go of my girls’ baby dresses, toys, stuffed bears, books and only about a truckload of toddler and elementary school papers.
It was a long, hard and laborious task, but I’m glad I did it.
Now, if only I could go minimal on my constant verbal output, maybe those around me could benefit a lot more. Well, that’s a goal for some day in the near future :-)
Thanks to my inspiring young niece and her husband who told me about adopting a “minimalistic” lifestyle and embarking me down this path.
