the real meaning behind minimalism

When we think of minimalism pictures of tiny houses, people whose life fits into one tiny backpack, apartments without furniture and empty closets are often the first things that pop up in our heads.

We think of minimalism as of owning less but if that was true minimalism would just be another kind of materialism, in which you don’t define yourself by all the great stuff you buy but by all the stuff you refuse to buy. 

To me minimalism is not that, it’s not about materials but rather about setting priorities. 

As a person who practices minimalism you set priorities and “declutter” your life, meaning that you keep only what has great value to you. 

Knowing the value of everything in your life, products, as well as relationships, activities, job, etc. and freeing yourself from the things that have no value to you and the ones that negatively influence your life – that’s what minimalism truly is.  

You have less to worry about and can focus on your priorities and the things in life that have great value to you.  

My personal experience with minimalism

Minimalism is the progress of a lifetime. You grow up, setting your priorities, and changing these. 

But sometimes you forget about your top priorities and let other stuff take place. 

I’ve been there and I often still am but minimalism has helped me be aware of my values and what meaning different things in life have to me. 

I know that earlier I said that minimalism isn’t materialism but getting rid of meaningless clutter is still a great step to raising awareness for everything that enters your life. 

I always loved decluttering and by doing that I felt like I had less to worry about in my day to day life. Getting rid of all the meaningless products I had laying around brought me a great sense of freedom. 

I am bound to less and less dependent on meaningless things. 

And the more independent I got the more freedom I gained. 

What I discovered, later on, was that minor changes had the biggest impact. 

I got rid of a big part of my wardrobe and not standing in front of my closet every day stressing about what to wear, gave me ten more minutes every morning that I now use for some mindful practice like meditation or yoga before school. It keeps me way more mindful throughout the day which leads to less stress, more focus, and highly productive work. 

Even though I have a very minimalistic lifestyle there are still a lot of things that I hold on to that harm my life. 

I am currently working on changing this one bad habit of mine, which is pointless online-shopping when bored or in a bad mood. I had times when I would go onto different online shops and spend hours putting stuff into my cart without ever buying anything. 

So you see that everyone has at least one thing that impacts their lives negatively but they still have a hard time giving up.

The important thing is that I am conscious of all those things that negatively influence my life and I am working on them. It’s progress.

Getting the wrong impression

A problem that I am facing a lot is people around me getting the wrong impression of minimalism. Friends go into my room and what they see is an all-white room with white furniture, a white desk with only one lamp and a plant on it, and an organized closet.

It isn’t considered normal for a teenager like me to have some plants, a drawing, a record player, and a Chinese fan as their only room decor. No posters, no colorful pillows, no fairy lights. And even though I see my room design as part of my minimalistic journey I don’t want the people around me to think that this is exactly what minimalism is. 

But they do think that. 

I feel like minimalism is something that has the potential to enrichen people’s lives a lot and I think that everyone should have it in their lives. 

I am not saying that everyone should have an all-white room like mine but that they should have some kind of awareness towards the things that add value to their lives and the things that don’t.

It disappoints me to know that there are people who get the wrong impression of minimalism and feel like they couldn’t embrace it because of people like me who do embrace minimalism but unwillingly give the wrong impression. 

So the main reason that I am writing this post is that I want people to understand that minimalism isn’t living with only one pair of jeans. 

So what about you?

If this blog post has inspired you in some way and you want to give minimalism a shot or if you are already on your minimalistic journey and this post has given you another point of view, here are some tips on how to get started.

Write down your priorities.

What are the 5 most important things in your life?

Remember your why

After setting your priorities, you should always ask yourself, why am I doing this? Why have I started in the first place? Why is this important to me? Why am I so attached to this? This will help you remember your priorities and prioritize the things you do. So if your number one priority is your family but you’re working all the time this will remind you of why you even started working and help shift your time planning to more family time.

Try being aware of your surroundings and your body and mind

Being aware of these things helps you find out what value different things have to you personally, how they impact your life and what you need to change for a healthier and happier self and a better lifestyle

Know the value of things

There are two main kinds of value, usefulness, and joy, so look out for the things that have no good use and spark no joy. Many people think that as a minimalist you can’t keep any of the things that you like if they aren’t useful, but honestly, if you love your book collection than keep your 10.000 books and if you’re totally into fashion you can keep your huge wardrobe. Don’t make minimalism stop you from doing what you love. But also try looking for quality over quantity, meaning that if you love dresses maybe buy twenty high-quality dresses that stay for a lifetime but cost a bit more instead of buying fifty low-quality five-dollar dresses that already have to be thrown away after several weeks. 

Declutter your life

Keep the things that are useful or that spark joy to you and slowly start freeing yourself from the things you don’t need, don’t go from zero to one hundred in one single day, rather start by choosing one little part of your life (maybe the wallet, the apps on your phone…) because as I said earlier, the smallest changes can have the biggest impact. 

Having a hard time freeing yourself from things is normal.

Take your time and start easy. There will be a point when you’ll have to start facing the harder stuff, but the first and most important step is being honest with yourself and admitting to yourself that you’re attached to this thing and that it negatively impacts your life. When you’ve done that you can start by going baby-steps and focus on one step at a time. 

I hope that this post has helped you think of minimalism in another light and that the tips will help you. 

If you want to share your thoughts on this or the experiences you made with minimalism make sure to contact me.