small steps are still steps

first post and a background to this blog

most people will tell you that they are pursuing a minimalist lifestyle in order to simplify, slow down, declutter, and in general, not letting stuff – or the pursuit of it – get in the way of living their lives. these are all profoundly good reasons to move towards minimalism, and i certainly identify with all of those things and more.

but there’s another reason, too.

some of those individuals looking towards minimalism are those who come from a background of clutter – material or emotional. perhaps your parents’ house(s) were monuments to the pursuit of always having the biggest, the best, the largest.

perhaps they saw their caregivers giving up an inordinate amount of time and energy in the pursuit of things that weren’t needed, while ignoring the important things we all need: being surrounded by people we love, engaging deeply in hobbies that bring us joy, and being financially secure.

for my own part, i come from a very small family that tends not to have many children. the end result of this is that when someone died, all of their stuff would come to us. from my earliest memories, our houses were always jam-packed with the detritus of other peoples’ lives, many of them from family members who had died before i was even born. boxes full of stuff. trunks full of stuff. entire houses worth of stuff. even if it was ugly, or broken, or completely unneeded, it was in our space.

this is important: when you have a lot of stuff that you feel you can’t get rid of for sentimental reasons (or because you feel like you should keep it, as some sort of monument to the dead), you have to buy a bigger house than what you really need. you have to heat and cool the house, pay more property taxes, pay more insurance costs. you have a harder time keeping your house clean because there’s so much stuff that can collect dust, so many behind-the-stuff areas that become impossible to reach.  you don’t have the money to replace broken dishwashers or lay new carpet when needed, because your money is going to maintenance of stuff. 

the monetary investment in stuff, and in the storage and maintenance of said stuff, adds up extremely quickly.

it’s a horrible cycle to get stuck in. i know. i grew up around it.

i decided at any early age that i was going to break that cycle. i couldn’t live like that anymore. my first house was around 1,000 sq ft and much of that 1,000 sq ft was empty.

i am not the kind of person who says things like this to brag. in general, i believe people are entitled to live exactly as they please, as long as it causes no harm to others. but right from the beginning of my independent life, i rejected owning stuff as a good enough reason to keep accumulating it.

however, as with all things in life, it is an ongoing journey.

unhurried minimalism 

i define unhurried minimalism thusly: taking small but concrete steps towards minimalism, figuring out how minimalism works best for me, and being mindful about what i consume, always keeping as my guiding thought what do i want my life to look like?

this doesn’t just pertain to material items, although that is certainly an important part of it as i continue to whittle away at what i do have until i am left with material goods that strictly fall into one of two categories: items i really need (and figuring out which objects can serve multiple purposes), and a small collection of items i really want (and which i am not just keeping out of a sense of obligation to myself or anyone else).

unhurried minimalism also means being more conscious of what you do own, what you do purchase, and why. it is being conscious of what benefits you, materially or emotionally, as you move towards what you want your life to look like.

small steps are still steps

as i move into the next portion of my life, my motto is this: stop the glorification of busy. 

this takes some doing.

i’m sure i’ll ramble on about this topic at a later date, but to me, stopping the glorification of busy is a great rallying cry for starting the process of minimalism in life and it stretches in so many directions.

consume and maintain less so that not as much money is needed to live. this decreases the amount of time you need to work, or at the very least, makes it so that you have more financial freedom in having money leftover at the end of every month.

consume less media so that you have more time for your hobbies and for your loved ones.

stop equating being busy with being important. they are two entirely different animals.

stop the meaningless busy by being more cognizant of where your time is going and why. 

start slow. start small. clean out a closet. a bedroom. a cabinet. save that extra $50 instead of buying a new gadget that you will use twice and then lose interest. say “i don’t know if i’ll like this new hobby, but i will try it.”

small steps are still steps. and that’s what this is all about.