Abundance of material things
In the modern society that we are living in today, many people would reply to this prompt, that they have an abundance of material things in their ownership, some things of which they never actually use or need. Having such a need and want for an excess amount of material things is also known as living a materialistic life. When asked if modern society is too materialistic, eighty-four percent of voters said yes, modern society is too materialistic today (“Is modern society too materialistic”). The word materialistic is defined as: “overly concerned or preoccupied with material possessions rather than with intellectual or spiritual things” (Merriam-Webster). The key to owning material possessions is to have a steady balance between practical needs and material wants. One lifestyle that is growing vastly in popularity in today’s society is minimalism. Minimalism is the polar opposite of what it means to be materialistic. Raving reviews of people going minimalist explain how it has changed their life drastically for the better. But is minimalism really a better lifestyle?
The Minimalist lifestyle
The Minimalist lifestyle can mean many things to many different people. Minimalism is a lifestyle choice that everyone is naturally born with, but (mostly) the entirety of the human population grows out of as they age (Sasaki 33). It “is a lifestyle in which you reduce your possessions to the absolute minimum you need” (Sasaki 24). Many people associate the word “minimalism” with the word “empty” (Jay 7). The word “empty” can have a negative connotation, giving the impression of boring, or not full of life. But really it can mean quite the opposite. Sure, a minimalist has a much smaller number of material items compared to a lot of other people, but it doesn’t mean that they have absolutely nothing. Minimalism relates to many of other aspects of life rather than just possessions. “Minimalism is a tool we use to get rid of the excess stuff in our lives to make room for the essentials. Minimalism allows us to focus on what’s important in life—health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution—so we can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom” (Millburn). To sum up the meaning of the minimalist lifestyle in a few words: it means to have fewer physical possessions to weigh you down and have fewer things to depend on (Labiak).
If minimalism is really as raved about and as beneficial as minimalists say it is, why is it not just an average everyday lifestyle? The fact is that mostly all people who are minimalists didn’t always live a minimalist lifestyle. Minimalists usually hit a “tipping point” that led them to really pursue this lifestyle. This tipping point can be for many different reasons depending on each specific person and situation.
People who went minimalist
Fumio Sasaki author of bestseller Goodbye, Things writes that before minimalism he was finding himself “miserable, constantly comparing himself to others, (or) just believing life sucks” (Sasaki 27). All of these points inspired him to start getting rid of different objects that were cluttering his apartment. Later leading him and his lifestyle all the way to minimalism.
Another first-hand example as to why they went minimalist is Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, more popularly known as The Minimalists. These two men were both successful six-figure corporate businessmen and also friends. After a couple very down turning events in Millburn’s life, he stumbled across a colleague’s minimalist website. He did more researching into minimalism and was inspired to gradually pursue simple living which eventually turned into a full-blown minimalist lifestyle. as one of his own. Millburn, being close friends with Nicodemus inspired him to turn to a minimalist lifestyle as well (Millburn and Nicodemus).
Francine Jay, the author of The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Guide to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify, had a different means of becoming minimalist. She was under different circumstances than the past two examples, extensively travelling and living out of one suitcase for a portion of her young life. She loved the life that she was living with very few items while travelling and wanted to keep her life still simple like that when she did settle down (Jay).
Why I am interested in minimalism
I personally have just recently peaked an interest in going minimalist. When I moved to college, I struggled a lot with living in such a small space with all of the material things that I had wanted to bring to college with me. I knew that there would be no possible way to fit all of my wardrobe and other material possessions in my small box of a dorm room. That didn’t stop me from trying however, along with a lot of other students as well. Freshman year I moved into my dorm with my entire wardrobe along with a lot of other accessories I knew that I would never use, but still wanted to have with me just in case. Living with all those possessions in such a small space made it really hard to clean let alone enjoy spending time in my dorm room. I had trouble facing the fact that I really needed to simplify my wardrobe and send some things back home. I found myself living very materialistic. Being materialistic meant that I always had a continuous desire for material things. Not one thing was ever good enough for me. I needed more and more. I lived with the daily mindset that if I had more expensive, or more stuff in general, my life would be increasingly better, and I would be much happier. But the longer I stayed crammed in a small dorm room, stuffed to the brim with things, I realized that I really wasn’t happy. Not only was I unhappy with my lack of open space, but I found myself constantly comparing myself to other students around campus. I looked at their material possessions and thought to myself “If I had that, I would be happier. My life would be so much better.” After much self-reflection, I decided that I needed to change my maximalist lifestyle. I was unhappy, and it was very unhealthy for me to keep living like this.
Process of going minimalist
Going minimalist sounds like something very simple and easy to do, for most people it is quite the opposite and can be quite grueling. Achieving the lifestyle is a forever ongoing process in one’s life. Courtney Carver, an active minimalist writes that changing her lifestyle to minimalist was an evolution that took her seven years and it is still ongoing today. “In my experience, slow shifts are more sustainable than radical change. I have a family and they come first. I had to experiment to determine what was enough for me. I was seeking more. Just getting rid of stuff wasn’t my intention. I wanted to discover what meant most to me, what made my heart sing. I am still seeking, experimenting and defining enough. I don’t have an end point in mind” (Carver). Since minimalist living has its own meaning to each individual, there is no pin-point way to come to the conclusion in your minimalist journey that you have achieved the universal meaning of minimalism. But there are different defining steps that can be taken to help in the process of going minimalist. Courtney Carver lists “7 tiny steps for the beginner minimalist. 1. Write it down 2. Discard duplicates 3. Declare a clutter-free zone 4. Travel lightly 5. Dress with less 6. Simplify meals 7. Save $1000” (Carver). In the national bestseller The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Guide to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify, it illustrates the process known as “STREAMLINE”. Streamline is an acronym for another way to transition your lifestyle to minimalism. “S- Start Over. T-Trash, Treasure, or Transfer. R- Reason for each item. E- Everything in its place. A- All surfaces clear. M- Modules. L- Limits. I- If one comes in, one goes out. N- Narrow down. E- Everyday maintenance. (Jay, 63).” There are many different strategies one can utilize to adapt minimalism into their life.
Getting rid of your material possessions
A prominent and one of if not the most important step in becoming minimalist is getting rid of a large percentage of your material possessions. This can be extremely for most people and can hardly ever be done at once. It can take up to multiple years to achieve a point of happiness with getting rid of some of your things. Attachment to things is a normal thing to experience. So, when the time does come to throw something away or donate it, a lot of people will try to avoid it at all costs or even rationalize with themselves as to why they should keep things they don’t use and/or never need. A particularly sticky and difficult subject when it comes to ridding personal items is gifts, heirlooms, and sentimental items. These items, maybe even though you didn’t receive them out of want, all hold certain values and meanings. A good tactic to ridding these items is to set a select number of items that you will keep for yourself or put away in storage. After that, it is very helpful to think about the positives of getting rid of the item. If you sell it or donate it to a charity or someone in need that would like to it/get more out of it then you would with it just sitting in your house collecting dust.
Maximalism
While minimalism is focused on throwing out mostly all of your material belongings, maximalism, another lifestyle choice focused on bettering oneself, embraces your material possessions. Maximalism, while polar opposite from minimalism, is another lifestyle that can be argued to better one’s life. It is about living a life devoted to the pursuit of pleasure (Labiak). Maximalists argue that while minimalism is also about bettering your life, your life is not ultimately drastically bettered because all minimalists focus on ridding themselves of unnecessary things rather than focusing on being happy. Maximalists don’t have to take any steps regarding their material belongings unlike minimalists. One important not to highlight about maximalism if that it is not necessarily about clutter or excess (Koopman) They don’t “waste” their time and focus purging on objects and/or making themselves part with things that they ultimately do not want to. Maximalists argue that why should people cause themselves emotional stress purging items when they can just keep what makes them happy. This does not mean owning absolutely everything there is to own and spending your own money. But a mere preference of what you prefer. If you want to live in a big house, a medium sized house, or a small house, there is no right or wrong answer other than your own opinion.
Being a maximalist is not just about being able to own material possessions, it is about being able to experience and enjoy life more. Associating happiness with material things is not healthy, as the two merely should not related or compared. Without spending time worrying about all of your possessions you can focus on all the other things life has to offer. Maximalism starts with a certain mental attitude. This can take a while to achieve but can be very beneficial. Some of these mindsets include: “Live in Abundance, Think Big, and Wealth Thinking.” “Maximize the beautiful moments, feelings of happiness, joy, good use of time, and the beautiful things in life” (Herzog). A maximalist makes the most of their life. Pursue a career that you love, do activities that excite you, form relationships with people that interest you.
Minimalist vs maximalist lifestyles
Minimalist and maximalist lifestyles have completely opposite strategies for going about life, they ultimately end up sharing the same end goal. Whether that end goal is ever achieved or not is up to every individual, but everyone as humans just want to be happy. While maximalism and minimalism were explicitly talked about as lifestyle choices to pursue to meet this end goal of happiness, there is an infinite of solutions to reach happiness.
At the beginning of this paper I asked: “If you were asked to describe the amount of material possessions in your living space, how would you respond? Would you say that it is filled to the brim with material possessions that mean a lot to you? Would you reply that there are just enough material possessions to where your space is not over crowded but also not empty? Or would you respond that all your material possessions meet your basic necessities and nothing more?”. I would like you to think back to how you originally answered the question. There is no right or wrong answer, only the question to if you are happy or not with the way you are living.
When debating if minimalism is a happier lifestyle or if a maximalist lifestyle is a better way to live, it is really all just up to personal taste. It is like choosing which food is your favorite, it just depends on the specific person you are asking the question to and their opinion. A more appropriate question to be asked when regarding is minimalism or maximalism a better lifestyle should be: “Which lifestyle do you prefer?” While going minimalist or maximalist has their own individual and very opposite benefits, it is all personal choice if minimalism is really a better lifestyle or not. The better lifestyle is the happier lifestyle for you.
Works Cited
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Carver, Courtney, et al. “7 Tiny Steps for the Beginner Minimalist.” Be More with Less, 30 Oct. 2018, bemorewithless.com/begin/.
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D’Avella. “Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things.” Netflix, 2017, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80114460?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2Cd98e93 d00bdf8a1dad37a1b2a550efb39fb1e81%3Aae0c432ec55bf9d17ffa4fadeec1a91027e07 6%2C%2C.
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Herzog, Christa. “Maximalism In All Beautiful Things of Life.” Create, 27 Feb. 2018, create.christaherzog.com/maximalism-in-all-beautifulthings-of-life/.
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“Is Modern Society Too Materialistic?” Debate.org, www.debate.org/opinions/is-modern-society-too-materialistic.
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Jay, Francine. The Joy of Less: a Minimalist Guide to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify. Chronicle Books, 2016.
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Koopman, Diane. “How To Tell If You’re A Minimalist or a Maximalist.” Lifehack, Lifehack, 4 Mar. 2016, www.lifehack.org/371954/how-tell-youre-minimalist-maximalist.
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Labiak, Mitchell. “Which One Is Better: A Minimalist Lifestyle or a Maximalist Lifestyle?” Lifehack, Lifehack, 15 May 2017, www.lifehack.org/584515/which-one-better-minimalist-lifestyle-maximalist-lifestyle.
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Loechner, Erin. “Small Step No. 15: You Doing You.” Design For Mankind, 25 June 2018, designformankind.com/2017/10/minimalist/.
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Millburn, Joshua, and Ryan Nicodemus. “The Minimalists.” The Minimalists, 2016, www.theminimalists.com/.
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Sasaki, Fumio. Goodbye, Things: the New Japanese Minimalism. W.W. Norton & Company, 2017.
