MINIMALISM - NARROWING IT DOWN....

My new favorite youtube channel is clean.simple.free.  In these posts Alexia Fox explains things in a way I understand about Minimalism.  What I like about her posts is that she is a not a phony and not an extremist, she just shares her view of life with minimalism, shows what minimalism means to her (which is a moderate but nice way to live), and also explores things like frugality vs minimalism and meditation combined with minimalism.  Thanks to these posts I have been exploring minimalism in my own life, yes I know those who know me well are dying laughing right now but yes it's true!  I am reforming from a packrat/constant redecorator into a minimalist!  What rang true for me with Alexia's posts is that she is an artist and minimalism helped her find more time for her artwork as well as more time for meditation and working out - all of which I need more time for.

 I have found now that my "stuff" is just complicating my life rather than making it better.  I know this sounds like I am doing things backwards but how I approached my new venture is by making an Amazon wish list of the things I truly need to make my life better.  They range from higher end purchases of a new couch to lower priced purchases of a hanging jewelry storage to make better use of my storage areas.  I realize this sounds ridiculous but my issues with stuff is I literally have too much of the fun stuff - magazines, cookbooks, kitchen supplies, dinnerware, decorative items, etc - basically the kind of stuff that you buy on those random shopping sprees to make yourself feel better.  What I need to do is get rid of 75% of those items (or at least 50%) and use any money I retain from selling these items to purchase things that will actually be useful for my life.

For example, on one of her posts, Alexia talked about purchasing a pricier Apple computer.  She was able to do so from skipping all of those "feel good" purchases and saving her money for something that would actually enrich her life.  That is basically what I am going for.  I find it is much easier to let go of things when I have a goal in mind.  While I may not be able to sell everything I need to and may end up donating a lot of things, I still feel it is easier to go about this new goal of Moderate Minimalism (yes I just coined this word!) by setting goals of surrounding myself with practical things I will actually use and actually need.

Hence out go the clothes that dont fit, shoes I dont wear, decorative items that aren't my style anymore, kitchen appliances I don't need, and about 5 million cookbooks I really don't have time to use!  Hopefully by selling these items I can start getting the kind of life I want, surrounded by quality items I actually need, not a whole load of things I really don't need.  That is my kind of minimalism...