For me, minimalism is not about mindlessly eliminating as many “things” as possible.
It’s not about quantity at all in fact.
Michael Boorman over at Wisdom Made Easy, and I were chatting about this recently.
For me, minimalism is about reducing things which add surface area, stress or noise.
It’s about only adding things that ADD VALUE to my life.
If a nice pair of sunglasses adds value to your life, then why feel guilty about it?
Of course, there’s a balance…
Buying clothes for the sake of it can become a nasty habit which accumulates clutter in your life.
Many are in the habit of mindless impulse buying for a short-term dopamine hit.
Or worse, buy things to play status games.
“we buy things we don’t need, with money we can’t afford, to impress people we don’t like”
– Dave Ramsey
You have to beware tying your sense of self-worth to what some stranger thinks about your fashion sense…
(Note, I don’t have a fashion sense 😅 most of the time I’m wearing mudstreaked work trousers, welly boots, and a tshirt that used to be white. So I’m not the best person to ask about fashion.)
But on balance, I’m not going to beat myself up over the odd impulse purchase.
An example:
A few years ago I bought a spare car.
I’m not into status games.
I have no interest in Porsches or Lambos.
I would rather drag my balls across a mile of broken glass than be caught in one of those range rovers that seem to come as standard when your a middle aged white dude who owns a business.
But I did go out and buy an old 1997 BMW z3 convertible.
It cost me £1500.
On face value…
It was superfluous to my needs.
I already have a very practical comfy car.
It adds hidden costs in tax, insurance, fuel, repairs.
It takes up valuable surface area in my life in that I have to spend time to clean it and care for it…
But for me, it brings value to my life.
I can afford the small added cost it adds.
I love to see the doggo’s ears flapping happily in the wind.
It makes me very happy it’s a lot of fun.
Sometimes a “thing” can reveal things about yourself you didn’t know,
Or let you experiment with different lifestyles.
And variety is the spice of life after all.
So if it brings value to you,
Then bash on mate.
