Minimalism: Making Room In Your Mind

Look around you and take an inventory of the objects you see… Do you have the feeling that there are many things accumulated? More than what you actually need?

Are you one of those women who has a huge bag that you haven’t seen the bottom of for some time? Do you have clothes that you haven’t worn for over a year now? Kitchen utensils that you have only used once?

We live in a world where it is normal to accumulate more items than you need, be it office tools, clothes, shoes, make-up, tools, etc.

These objects take up physical space in our homes, they mess up wardrobes, chests of drawers, chests, shoe racks … But the worst thing is that they also occupy our mental space and our time, as we have to classify, order and clean them.

Well, there is a philosophy of life that can help you see and manage this accumulation of things in a different way. Let’s talk about minimalism.

Minimalism is not about having less, but about making room for what really matters.

What is minimalism?

Minimalism is a philosophy of life that proposes to reduce, as much as possible, the number of material objects we possess.

The idea is to live with the bare minimum that, for each of us and based on our life circumstances, is different: to have fewer things to have more physical and mental space.

In the process of reflecting on why we accumulate objects that we don’t use, we will realize that there are many reasons of an emotional nature, in addition to the typical “if I ever need to”.

Clothes, gifts, letters that we are unable to get rid of, because they remind us of moments from the past, as if memories were hidden in material objects.

Minimalism is an exercise that helps us separate from material objects and realize that memories live within us, not in objects.

The less you need, the more free you will be.

How to put minimalism into practice

The ideal is to start a little at a time, divide the objects into categories and evaluate what you really need, which objects you are not sure you need and which ones you are sure you want to discard.

• In the kitchen: what are the kitchen utensils you haven’t used for more than a year? Do you really use all the spices you have?
• In the closet: what are the clothes or shoes that no longer fit or have not been used for more than a year?

• In the study: do you have notebooks, old diaries, notes that date back to years ago or drawers that you practically never open?

There are a few challenges that can help you put minimalism into practice :

Project 333

Project 333 invites us to choose 33 items of clothing (it is not necessary to throw the others away, just put them aside) and spend a period of 3 months using only those.

So we will realize how little we need to dress and, moreover, how much time we save to choose what to wear, since we don’t have much to choose from.

Minimalist race

Another challenge is to agree with someone who is going through the same process to embark on a kind of minimalist race.

On the first day of the month both of you will have to get rid of something you own; the second day of two objects; the third of three … and so on until the thirtieth day. Whoever manages to resist longer, wins.

Once you have your heap of items to get rid of, you can donate many or sell them to second-hand shops.

Benefits of minimalism

• It helps us to keep the house tidy and to get rid of the “junk”.
• It saves us time because we don’t have to make big changes in the closet, clean dishes we don’t use, etc. Even when we have to decide what to wear.
• We learn to detach ourselves from material objects and become aware of the fact that true memories live within us.
• It opens us to the future, eliminating the attachment we have to the objects of the past.

• It makes us freer : we have less burdens when the time comes to move or travel, which makes it easier.
• It makes us more aware of what we consume, which saves us both for ourselves and for the environment.
• And, above all, it helps us to understand that what really matters, rarely are material things.

If, at times, you have felt suffocated by what you accumulate, it was difficult for you to find something or you had the feeling of wasting a lot of time putting in place and cleaning your objects, we invite you to try this philosophy of life.

Minimalism is a direct path to peace of mind