As I once mentioned in my video: “Too much
of anything is bad.”
This sentence works really well for someone
who owns too much, but it can also be used
on minimalists who are being overly literal
with minimalism.
To be honest, I faced this issue at the beginning
of my minimalism journey as well. I had a
particular perception of how a minimalist
should look like based on what I’ve absorbed
from the internet, instead of finding what
is minimalism for myself. Which later on then
i realized minimalism is different for everyone
when i receive comments like:
“You have more clothes than me and I don’t
even consider myself as a minimalist.”
“You wear too many accessories to talk about
minimalism.”
I guess we all have our own meaning on what
minimalism connotes, or how minimalism should
be. But sometimes we get so strict and inflexible
when it comes to anything with an “ism”
behind, it’s as if there’s no other way
than this particular way. And get critical
with our judgement.
So recently, I got really inspired by Jenny
Mustard’s and other minimalists videos on
why they are not a minimalist, and I thought
that’s a pretty awesome and goofy way, with
a sense of self-mocking humor, to go against
what I have always preached about owning less
and I might as well spill the beans and show
you guys why am I not a minimalist. I have
classified them into 5 categories, which is
easier for you guys to relate to.
First let us start with collection.
Let’s start with something I’ve always
mentioned about and always used as an example
on my videos. That will be my house plants.
It’s a recent hobby that I’ve adopted
last year. Frankly speaking, my younger self
probably will be surprised by this newly developed
interest because I used to be someone who
dislikes plants. I even told my girlfriend
that I wouldn’t want to have any plants
in our future house. It’s not that I hated
them, I just don’t know how to appreciate
plants. And back then my mind was filled with
street-culture and I wanted my house to be
decorated with street arts and figurines,
and I thought plants were too lame to be in
the house.
But yet the current me today wants to have
a room just for plants.
I think it’s totally fine to have collections
as a minimalist if they’re practical, if
they are within your means, but a room full
of plants is not practical, so I kept a ceiling
for my plant’s collection, limit it to less
than 10 plants in my possession at this point
of time. Which can be a challenge because
there are so many beautiful plants out there,
I’m always so tempted to bring in new cutting
for propagation.
You might ask: Why do I have to limit my collection?
And that’s because I also cherish my living
space which is also the next point.
When we talk about a minimalist living space,
it’s hard not to relate tiny house movement
with a minimalist lifestyle, and I can see
why they are strongly connected. When we talk
about movement, tiny house movement is almost
a sub movement developed from minimalism.
Opting for a simple & tiny house in order
to be financial prudence and have more time
to do what you want to do, instead of having
a huge debt and tie you down to a job that
you hate. Of course there are other reasons
why people choose to stay in a tiny house,
but don’t get me wrong, those tiny houses
look extremely nice and cosy, but it’s not
really what I prefer when it comes to living
space.
As much as I love being frugal for deliberate
reasons, I love my negative space too. Negative
space is the nothingness between the physical
things that filled up the room and they are
as important as the other decorative items
in a living space.
I remember, Joshua from the minimalists once
mentioned this on their podcast which i strongly
resonate with and I’m just paraphrasing
it “A good curator creates space while a
collector just fills space”. Let’s take
museums and exhibitions, for example, they
are well curated because of the negative space
in between each artwork which makes the artworks
stands out because of the negative space.
Having enough negative space is something
that I want to achieve in my future house
but currently i’m living in a small room
this, and what’s outside this room is a
world of maximalist. And because of this tiny
space I have things can be messy at times.
So a tiny house might be too extreme for my
liking.
Next will be aesthetics.
Let’s talk about something minimalists rarely
talk about, Tattoos.
Even though they are not exactly physical.
They don’t take out physical space but instead,
it occupies our skin space. Tattoos can be
considered as a non-essential, it’s something
that doesn’t have obvious functionality
in this era, but I’ve been a fan of tattoos
for years and recent years i’m interested
in Irezumi, traditional Japanese tattoos.
I really appreciate this kind of art form,
whether you see it as an art, aesthetics or
meaningful symbol behind the tattoos, for
me being a minimalist doesn’t stop me from
wanting more.
Even though I have a minimal amount of tattoos
currently. 2 of them to be exact, but I do
wish to go more in the future.
Camera Gears (tools)
Next is tools. I have quite a bit of camera
gear for the video production for this channel.
Which I can’t go any minimal without sacrificing
the quality of the video and the productivity
of my workflow. I have a lot of cables, batteries
and tripods and they can be really messy at
times.To be honest, it’s my fault for being
unorganized, but I truly appreciate each one
of them which provide value to me and in terms
provide value to you through the video. That
also brings us to the next issue.
Digital Clutter.
My digital situation currently is far from
being a minimalist. Digital clutter is a big
field for us to touch on, because we are talking
about the screen time spent on emails, social
media and the number of digital documents,
photos, videos. I have tons and tons of video
clips and photos, taken for the purpose of
memories and video production.
Some are really redundant like my university
notes or duplicate photos. I can filter them
down but i always give this reason that I
will take up too much of time just from filtering.
For emails, I have to admit I’m pretty minimal
when it comes to spending time replying emails
but yet that causes a big problem of creating
a mountain of unread emails in my inbox.
Lastly, social media. I’m talking about
Instagram and youtube because that’s the
only 2 social media platforms that I’m using
vigorously, and I’m not proud of it.
Despite knowing how unproductive it can be,
I do find lots of inspirations and learnt
a lot of knowledge from it. But at the same
time ignoring those notifications, likes and
new contents while I want to be productive
can be tough because we know that all of these
social media platforms are well-designed to
make us addicted to it, by exploiting the
vulnerability of our human psychology. Digital
clutter is one out of these 5 points that
I would like to declutter and i’m still
working on it.
So, these are the 5 points that make me less
of a minimalist if there’s actually a rule
that needed to be followed in order for us
to be one.
Some of these items are still minimal for
the time being but they are something that
I wish to have more. 4 of those points which
I don’t plan to go minimal while digital
minimalism is still something I’m still
working on.
I know that the minimalism trend is rising
for years now, both the aesthetics and lifestyle.
Similar to any other movements, it spreads
rapidly across the world. Even if I hate or
don’t want to admit it, I’m probably the
product of this trend. And it’s nothing
bad because it definitely changed my life
for the better.
But because of the widespread of minimalism,
and the nature of it being highly individual
and easy to approach, that creates differences
between every minimalist and every form of
minimalism or whatever label we might think
of.
So, it’s important to understand the fact
that minimalism can be different for every
single one of us and see it as a tool to live
a purposeful life. But if the challenge of
owning less for yourself has become a competition
of pursuing the least then maybe it’s time
for us to step back and reflect if that’s
the kind of lifestyle we want to pursue, because
minimalism is never a competition nor is it
an end goal for us.
We should see it as a tool that fits into
your life, instead of depriving ourselves
to carry the label and comparing who is more
of a minimalist.
I don't know if we will ever cross path again
on youtube, so if you are here for the first
time and enjoyed watching this, you might
want to consider subscribing to this channel
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