More on minimalism... and snow shovels

[flexagon]

I've continued to read about minimalism online and a lot of it is resonating with me, despite the fact that I haven't agreed 100% with any minimalist blogger I've run across so far. Someone asked me yesterday what I like about it. I rattled off a few things that were mostly the benefits of not having a lot of physical stuff -- his response was "what a strange hodge-podge of ideas."

Fair enough. But my claim is that the ownership of objects is a strange hodge-podge to begin with.

An item you own can have simple utility. It may have material value. It takes up physical space. It may represent money that you spent, effort that you expended to acquire it. It may be a signaling device, telling visitors to your home what you are like. It may represent a memory. It might stand in your mind for an idea or a relationship. It is something you have to store. It is something you have to move sometimes. It is something you may have to maintain -- and this can be negligible for a book, or costly and complicated for a car. It is something you own but also have a responsibility to. It might represent a future dream or goal (pants that don't fit anymore, anyone?), or a past self (prom dress that doesn't fit anymore?). It is something that can sit around blocking your view of other items (like that tape measure you're looking for). Whatever -- my only point is that thing-ownership is not terribly simple, and it does have physical, time-management, rational, and emotional aspects to it. That's why it makes sense that the opposite of thing-ownership also has effects in all those areas.

What I'm aiming for, and meaning by "minimalism" right now for me, is something like:

• I want to own only things that I really love.
• Or, to say it another way, I want to only own things that are useful or inspiring.
• In addition, I mostly only want as many of any one thing as I need -- for another clothes example, no need for five pairs of black pants if I only wear my favorite two pairs in any given week. (A silly example since I don't even tend to wear my one pair of black pants, but hey.)
• In addition, I want calm, pleasing environments that are not cluttered.
• Lastly, I want to be living in the present as much as possible for a future-oriented person, and after all this reading, I think the state of my possessions can help with that. Seeing things all the time that hold memories but don't apply to my current life will only keep me stuck mentally in the past, which for the most part is my least favorite place ever.

The same friend as above, who I'll call rifmeister for the sake of argument, then asked: What about my snow shovel? Are my choices to either love my snow shovel, or buy a new shovel every time it snows?

First, I don't think it's crazy to love a snow shovel. I think it would be great to have one really nice snow shovel, maybe a cool color with one of those bendy ergonomic handles. Or you could just keep a random snow shovel around, file it under "utility" and not worry about it. But, at this point, I would not want a pile of six crappy snow-shovels leaning messily on my house in various states of disrepair. That wouldn't be minimalist, and no one shovel would be terribly useful; every time I shoveled I'd be trying to choose the least of six possible evils, and it would probably make me grouchy. Much better to have the single, very useful, possibly loveable shovel.

I'm not sure I buy into "minimalism as a philosophy". I think it's primarily an aesthetic. I'm pursuing it right now because I'm having fun doing so, not because I think it's "right" and everything else is wrong, and that's actually enough for me. :) I'm also only dealing with my own stuff, since I'm definitely in a household where one person is more minimalist than the other, and that's totally fine with me. We're both busy. I just want to see how far I can go in this direction, for fun.

Comments

[nahele-101.livejournal.com]

I am really enjoying your posts lately! This one and the last one are 100% awesome.

[flexagon]

Thanks. I actually owe you thanks for reminding me what I could do on my own, way back in February when I was being all wistful about aspects of college.

(And also to myself for chiding someone else about the possibilities of scaling back in a different way.)

It's enjoyable. I just mailed off four packages today of things I used to own... two ebayed, one freecycled, and one just a gift to an LJ friend. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

I often read and rarely reply, but this topic is so interesting.

I completely identify, and think you've summarized well here. We're remodeling our house, which means everything is in disarray. This process helps me realize 1) how much crap I don't really need or use I've simply shuffled from one location to the next,and 2) how much I value tidy, open spaces in my home. I am so overwhelmed though by the thought of going through all of the boxes of stuff. Have you been consciously maintaining a minimalist lifestyle, or was there a moment of awakening?

- Sarah C

[flexagon]

Hello, my lurking friend. How fascinating that we're thinking of similar things at similar times, yet again. (Sometimes I wonder how many of my hard-won, well-thought-out positions on life are really just a matter of my calendar age.)

There's definitely not been any one moment... I've never liked keeping junk around, but haven't moved consciously toward minimalism until the last few weeks. Honestly, I used to worry about giving up some kind of power balance if my stuff wasn't there to push back against my husband's stuff -- and like you, the idea of going through everything also sounded like a chore. A big chore. I can't explain why, but somehow asking "what here do I need?" makes the whole thing more fun than when I ask "can I get rid of this? what about that? what about this other thing?" Maybe it's just an easier question to answer, and yields more dramatic results too.

Getting my new desk helped. I had to go through my junk drawers for that, and nothing else is nearly as intimidating as those were. :-)

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

Very interesting! I'm not going for minimalism, but I'm kind of working on paring things down and only buying things that I love.