The title is right, I don’t feel that minimalism is all that it’s cracked up to be. Mostly because most of the people I’ve known who espoused it are aspirational devotees, not actually involved in careful and planned pruning of non-essentials from life.
Believe me, as a sort of road bum, a Pius Itinerant, I lived about the most minimal life you could imagine. I had me, a pack with clothes and books in it, and a guitar. This wasn’t a rational decision to reduce things to a bare minimum. Things were scarce because they were all I could afford and carry.
Things changed after I settled. I had a cat, a tiny place to live by the railroad tracks, and a tiny garden I developed to grow tomatoes, catnip, and a few assorted veggies. But I had to go to use the shower in the big loft building behind me. It was minimal. And I had no health insurance. When I got pneumonia, the City of Boston generously put me on General Assistance for two weeks.
When people imagine minimalism, they imagine waking in a wooded dell by the tweet tweet tweet of birds. But for me, it was more likely the crash and bang of a railroad engine switching cars at four AM.
The imagined simple life is free of the rigamarole of intrusive government interference. But the rather minimal assistance I got kept me alive while I almost hacked my lungs out. My advice is to be careful of what you wish for. It’s always more or less than you need or want, and not always in a good way.
I don’t oppose a knowledgeable form of minimalism – a knowing, gradual elimination of what you know is surplus or deleterious. I do object to the sort of unknowing clearing of all based on the idiotic guidance of the gurus, influencers, and authors. Trust me. they won’t be there when it all goes belly up in an emergency.
So, yes, the benefits of minimalist living are, in my regard, greatly exaggerated. They form an ideal life, and life itself never conforms to ideals, only to reality.
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I agree.
I have lived very large- and very small- and I think right here in the middle is the place for me.
Agreed. I have lots of tools and books because I use them. I’m on the spare side in terms of other things. Everyone’s formula is different.
A friend of mine became suddenly minimalist when her parents threw a lot of her stuff away, on the pretext of tidying. All that happened was she ended up spending loads to replace it.
Something similar happened to me once. Not a nice experience. By the way, my friend, the brewer, groaned when I sent him the crack about the pint having a baby and calling it microbrew!
Oh, man, wait til you read today’s 🤣
Oh, spot on with this. I have known a couple of honest-to-goodness, practicing minimalists. It was a “nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there” sort of thing.
I’m not a maximalist either. I’m a comfortablist. I went from being an upper-ish middle class kid, to the wife of a Silicon Valley engineer at 6-figures, to now living below the poverty line. Over the years and many, many moves, I’ve had to get rid of excess. At first, that was reasonable. Then I pared things down to bare minimums. Then I had those things stolen. Now, I’m hopefully facing a move across the ocean, to a tiny flat, and I can’t afford to bring everything I own even though it is no longer all that much. There’s a big difference between carefully chosen minimalist lifestyle and having LOSS foisted upon you, against your will and choosing.
Enjoyed the post.
Your last point is very appropriate. That’s not minimalism, it’s theft of your life.
Your graphic for this post says so much!! I keep what I use, and keep what others may very well use in the near future, but I’ve started what Martha would call “de-fardelizing.” I’d have started sooner, but this house was a free hotel for decades — who knew that would (hopefully) end one day?? I am personally more a minimalist than not, but yes – whether it’s one choice or otherwise, dis-owning stuff / schools / location can be a really negative extreme! Good points.
Isn’t it ironic that we don’t hear too much about Marie Kondo anymore? I guess she no longer sparks joy.
She never sparked anything but distaste with me…my mother was the original, and I hated it.
I agree with you, Lou. I think true minimalism involves a clear-eyed look at life’s necessities. I lived many years without health insurance except the disaster insurance I paid for at (then) $75/month. Not on me; on my employer. When I nearly lost my right eye to a bacterial infection, I got a clerical job at the college where I taught. My degree wouldn’t get me health insurance, but my typing skill did. I think minimalism involves a little serious thought.
Right now? I’m deeply grateful almost daily for the great retirement package I walked away from the university with. After 20+ years teaching without any benefits, those final 14 years set me up for life, I guess. Not in a fancy place, but I’m good with a little house in the bark of beyond. Is that “minimalist”?
Your life is what is appropriate and comfortable for you. That’s all that matters.