While you might associate minimalism with having nothing, it could not be farther from the truth. In fact, the heart of minimalism is keeping the things close to you that mean the most to you. In a Netflix documentary called, “Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things,” my eyes were opened to the possibility that maybe some of my constant battles with my mental health issues could be vastly improved if I simply made changes to my lifestyle.
Instead of chasing the average “American Dream” involving the accumulation of materialistic goods, last summer I decided I only want to keep physical objects in my life that made me happy. No longer would I need to keep the endless makeup or nail polish in the bottom of my drawers between college and school. Maybe it was time to let go of the clothes in my closet that I didn’t love enough to bring with me to college and were left behind during the school year. Little by little, I found that getting rid of all of the extra dead weight in my life led to other changes in my life.
At that time when I first was learning about minimalism, I was going through a brutal break up that left me questioning all of my decisions that I have made in my life so far. However, the one thing that kept me anchored was the idea that maybe by clearing the physical clutter in my life, the mental clutter would be tidied up a bit too.
Before I knew it, cleaning out my closet led to cleaning out the old contacts in my phone. I found that as I got happier, everything started to change. The way I thought about buying things changed completely; now if I don’t love it, I won’t buy it. I was not only saving money, but I found that by having less material things in my life made it easier to be organized and reduced my overall stress.
Then, the way I thought about my relationships changed; I slowly started to let go of people that did not make an effort to be present in my life. I decided that I would much rather have 5 true friends than 50 people that were only there for me sometimes. I even went through a period of the summer where I deleted all of my social media for entire month to give myself the reflection time I needed without all of the external pressures faced as a young woman in today’s society. I suppose I could even say that converting to a minimalist lifestyle helped me rediscover who I am and the type of person that I want to be– the best version of myself.
If minimalism, or only living with the things that are the most meaningful to you, sounds like something you might be interested in, know that it is never too late to start. One general rule that I found really useful from the documentary is the 90/90 rule. This rule of thumb is that if you have not used something in the last ninety days, and you don’t plan on using it in the next ninety days, then maybe you should consider letting it go. Perhaps for every new item you introduce to your belongings, you donate two. There are so many ways to go about minimalism, that there is truly a way for everyone to become a minimalist in a way that works for you.
No matter how you decide to go about it, keep in mind that minimalism is a process. When you start on this journey, it could quite possibly change you forever. So this is it, I am extending to you your formal invitation to help find your purpose, meaning, and passion again. You’ll be able to start deliberately living for what you love and finding what means most to you in this world. You never know, you may even find that less is quite truly more.