MINDFUL MINIMALISM •//• A Minimalist Lifestyle and Its Conversations

Being a maximalist is never my lifestyle, I mean why spend so much on irrelevant things? I will always say my mom is my one of role models in terms of minimalism, I grew up watching my mom exhibit a minimalist lifestyle and I am grateful for that.

I grew up being mindful of what I buy, people usually say that I have this lifestyle because I am not yet a wealthy person and when I become wealthy I will change. Although I doubt that I would change because I was trained to be minimal from my childhood but sometimes I wonder if I will change when I become wealthy.

I am the type of person who dislikes having unnecessary things hanging around me, although I can’t say I haven’t fallen victim to buying unnecessary things, of course, I have bought one or two things that I beat myself about because it turns out that I don’t need it.

Mostly, in times of cluttering items, I usually gift anyone I feel like it might be useful to them at least that way I know my money wasn’t wasted but valued through someone else.

There are many times that my habit of minimalist has been misunderstood or challenged, I can’t even count how many times. Most times, people usually perceive it as stinginess or poverty.

Well, a few days ago I had a discussion with a friend of mine, we are both resuming school this January. There are some things that I need to get because we will both be securing an apartment this January.

We ended up discussing what we would be getting for our school resumption and our various apartments. I ended up telling her the basic things like bed, desk, gas cooker, etc. I was going to get it, but she laughed and said I was being stingy.

I began to wonder if I was being stingy but it turns out that I was only avoiding unnecessary possessions. I smiled at her and told her to share her shopping list, she started listing a lot of things that made me speculate about how big the house was to contain all that she had listed.

Many of the things she listed were quite funny to me. However, I felt like maybe she was just so excited about it and she just assumed that she would need a lot of things. But she said I was just being stingy and I would regret not buying a lot.

I told her to hold her horse and first get there to see what she really needs because she might later find out that she doesn’t need all the things she has listed.

I suggested that she should try to be minimal and I gave her an example of how she can be minimal and not stingy as she called it, she listed that she wanted to get a lamp and also a table fan for reading but I told her what I had in mind is a 2 in 1 lamp and table fan, in order to maintain a decluttered space.

Although, it doesn’t look like she was going to yield to what I said, well I can’t really force someone to be minimal. I hope she gets to understand what I meant.

There was this rule I learnt a few years back and it has helped me to be minimal, but I can’t remember where I learnt it from. This rule is if you want to get something, wait do not get it immediately, if you still need that thing after a period of time then you can get it.

This rule has helped me many times because there are some things that entice me immediately I see them but they always turn out to be irrelevant and after a week or two, I totally forget getting them and I don’t need them anymore.