Why Minimalism Is for Rich People
Let’s be honest, only rich people can afford to throw things out
What is minimalism?
Minimalism, as described by Joshua Becker from Becoming Minimalist, means “owning fewer possessions” and living with just the things that you need.
A while ago, I read Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and I subsequently threw nearly all my belongings away. Like Marie instructed, I pulled items close to my chest, and if they didn’t spark joy, I arranged them all together and put them into bin bags.
It seemed that a lot of things I owned didn’t spark joy, and so by the end, I had a lot of bin bags.
The initial feeling was that of lightness, I had so much space and I loved it. However, I soon realized over the days and weeks afterward that I’d probably gone too far. With growing annoyance, I’d look for something only to realize that it was probably resting on a garbage tip somewhere else.
Is it a cultural difference?
I remembered my disapproving mother watching me as I separated the charity bits from the bags that were going straight to the bin, and I wondered whether our different upbringings made her see what I was doing as a major waste.
