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There seem to be many levels of minimalism so start small and focus on getting rid of the easy things. It doesn't matter if you start in the darkest corner of your basement and only get rid of 1 thing a week because your making progress.
I wanted to organize my basement and came to the conclusion that it would be easier to get rid of things than shuffle it around or conceal it in totes. Many car loads of items donated or sold on ebay. I mostly read on kindle and only keep around a few important books. I got rid of old game systems, completed puzzles, baseball cards, and other useless odd and ends. Some totes are still needed though. Even after serious decluttering I still have several junk boxes with computer related cables and various household items needed for maintenance. This stuff doesn't bother me because some is very necessary if you own a house.
I have a telescope in my garage that is awesome but I work nights in a city so it doesn't get a lot of use. I've been tempted to switch it out for some binos. I sold my acoustic drum kit and just focus on the e-kit now. Its good to have various hobbies but I try to minimize my gear to what I actually use and sometimes backups are good to have. The want to be a minimalist can help you focus on your hobbies with less clutter.
It's a stressful process but my house is looking great and its easy to find stuff. Its hardly a empty minimalist residence but I could move a lot easier now.
have fun. many helpful youtube videos and various sites like the Miss Minimalist blog
How do minimalists escape the necessary clutter of life?
It's a remarkably simple answer: Your definition of "necessary clutter" is not the same as anyone else. Some people need less, some people need more. The choice is yours. The end.
This.
TamaraSavannah, my house would drive you crazy. Completely empty cupboards. Completely empty closets. Even some completely empty rooms.
you need to spend a few weeks on the Appalachian Trail, living out of your backpack. You'll very quickly come to see that 90% of that stuff is completely frivilrous. So you CAN just dump it, if you want to do so. remember :"You don't own stuff, stuff owns YOU". Stuff does not have to lubricate you, insure you, secure you, haul you around, protect you from corrosion, fire, impact, etc, sort you, learn to use you, etc. The more stuff you have, the less free you are, unless you're so rich that you can just abandon and replace it all, on a daily basis, or at least, have a couple of "keepers" do everything for you.
Perhaps yes, perhaps no. Coming across this old post and looking at aspects.....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitt Chick
That is not necessary clutter... that is holding on to things you don't need anymore (hoarding?).
When you buy a new one, get rid of the old one.
One in - one out. This is what DH and I live by for most non-perishables.
We are clutter free... I really cannot fathom the concept of necessary clutter.
The unfortunate thing about "not needing it anymore" is the question of whether or not one might need it anymore.
I am looking at an intensive photo assignment of two days, week after week, and I am wondering if I will have enough battery power in an outletless location. I have 5 batteries for my camera right now, two untested from that cost vs brand name approach, and am wondering about potential backups. One of the approaches is to carry along my old DLSR that I replaced two years ago. It got washed out so I replaced it in a week but still, it works some of the time.
Or take dive instrumentation. I have 2 dive computers but right now I am using my first analog gauges for various reasons, such as I have found as my vision changes, it is not easy to read my digital readouts underwater, so I have gone back to dials.
I still have my MS-DOS books and I have found they are still useful if one knows how to work at the command prompt level. Or programming in C with equations out of a Bowditch. The list just rather goes on and on.
So is there a difference here over 4 years? Sort of in that there is still a need but the reasons behind the needs have changed........although the compulsion may still be the same.
What compulsion? The wish not to have to pay for something to accomplish the same need over and over again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by randomparent
.......I feel the need to ask, although I'm not sure I should, why exactly is yours "a life where things can't be found when they are needed?" What is holding you back from creating a more organized household?
Well, the question of space and how to utilize it best. On my bookshelves, I put books together based on their vertical height, not because of subject or author. So that means that books about pilots being down behind enemy lines are side to side with LeGuin, the personalty of cats, and First Aid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MJ7
I'm a minimalist, but not a die-hard one that doesn't believe in wearing shoes. I just like to have less items, I'm not really a consumer like many Americans. Focus on the things you truly enjoy in life and get rid of the rest. Technology also allows one to de-clutter their residence.
WELL, THAT IS PROBABLY TRUE.......about technology and back in 2014, before the rental house, before Operation: WHIRLWIND, it would have been quite possible.
Now, however, that I am out in the boondocks and am in something of a technology drop off, it is quite something else. Had I known then what I know now, I would have downloaded a lot more rather than depending on it would always be there at the flick of a key stroke.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CSD610
Some people minimalists or not use common sense when it comes to purchasing items they feel they need for their home.
Instead of purchasing an item to replace an item that merely needs a new battery, common sense should tell one to purchase just the battery. It takes roughly 2 minutes to replace a battery in an item a wee bit longer if the battery compartment door is being stubborn and does not come off easily.
Otherwise if something is actually broken and needs replaced the broken item gets tossed or recycled and the new item is purchased and put in its places.
They have what they need and use what they have, no more, no less.
Alas, that is a concept out here at the ranch that can't be for two reasons. First of all, money, money, money for if it is cheaper to buy a new unit with a battery than just the battery itself, the former winds out.
Secondly, while I am not too crazy about keeping industrial consumables around, I find it is necessary since going out and getting what is needed when it is needed is at least a 90 minute trip (there, get it, back).
Now, in some ways, that can be reduced by good house design. I don't keep gasoline around the house because the emergency generator is diesel and I hire a lawn service. There, of course, there are trade offs such as cost of a gas generator can be about $400 while a diesel generator is $4000 or shelling out $60-100 for what takes them 20 minutes vs how much would it cost the individual.
So I guess in some ways, the minimal concept wins out, even if it is money-money-money.
We talked a lot about flash lights 4 years back. One thing about flash lights I am finding is that different flash lights have different missions and it is just not only about shining a light.
I have two club flash lights, a D cell Mag Light and a smaller Wally World type which are useful for shining light or to be used as a weapon if needed. There are lots of camp lanterns around and last week when I had car trouble and was wondering if I was going have to do emergency engine work, having one or two of those sitting on the engine with the hood up would have been the preferred light. I always carry a mini Mag light and now, have a UV light for scorpions in the house.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sporkk
........I have a telescope in my garage that is awesome but I work nights in a city so it doesn't get a lot of use. I've been tempted to switch it out for some binos. I sold my acoustic drum kit and just focus on the e-kit now. Its good to have various hobbies but I try to minimize my gear to what I actually use and sometimes backups are good to have. The want to be a minimalist can help you focus on your hobbies with less clutter.
It's a stressful process but my house is looking great and its easy to find stuff. Its hardly a empty minimalist residence but I could move a lot easier now.
have fun. many helpful youtube videos and various sites like the Miss Minimalist blog
Well, two things.
First of all, the place is littered with binoculars. Between inheriting oodles including WWII war trophies and that they are just the kind of things given as presents growing up, I have a set stationed at every window approach, in each car, in the bike bag, in the bail out bag, and so forth.
So what can we say about that? If you have a lot of something, find a niche, a place for it and if you can't, then perhaps you ought to consider disposing of it?
Secondly, right now is a glory time for youtube videos because I am out of quota, on degraded service, and it isn't costing me. When I get next month's quota, though, I will be watching it like a hawk, trying not to use it up.
While it is probably wise to develop good habits (what if being out of quota means NO SERVICE as oppose to degraded service), are there aspects of modern normal (and not like the gas crisis after Harvey) consumer life that compel us to be resource "hoarders" when it isn't necessary?
Okay, went through all the pages of 4 years ago and after Operation: WHIRLWIND, yes, that was a lot of stuff, too much stuff, to move.
What's one thing I can say about the present? Well, for instance, I really would like some more land line phone sets in other rooms of the house so I didn't have to run to be the bedroom to prevent the answering machine from answering for me. More new ones, however, are not the shopping list, even if they only cost $10. I am hoping that eventually I will find the box with all those other units from Mom's house, from my Grand Aunt's house (with the great big touch pads) and put them into use.
Money, money, money because building this house took a lot.
With most things you need every once in a while, the best thing is just to use it once, throw it away, and if you need another buy another on Amazon. It's a bit of a waste of money but at least there's no clutter. I buy the cheapest example of whatever it is I need, whatever doo-hicky, and then I toss it in the trash right after using it so it doesn't clutter the house. Plus, a lot of the time I never even need the thing again anyway, so it would have just sat in a drawer. It can be a bit annoying with things like screwdrivers because I probably have to order 2-3 per year, but at least they're cheap. I am not keeping stupid screwdrivers in my house, no way, there are better things to store in a house like my bobblehead collection or my vintage baseball cards.
Haha just joking :P Organization is the key, I think, everything in its proper place. A tool box, I have a drawer for batteries and replacement parts to things like the fridge filter, that kinda stuff. It keeps no clutter visible but organized in proper locations so I can easily find anything.
With most things you need every once in a while, the best thing is just to use it once, throw it away, and if you need another buy another on Amazon. It's a bit of a waste of money but at least there's no clutter. I buy the cheapest example of whatever it is I need, whatever doo-hicky, and then I toss it in the trash right after using it so it doesn't clutter the house. Plus, a lot of the time I never even need the thing again anyway, so it would have just sat in a drawer. It can be a bit annoying with things like screwdrivers because I probably have to order 2-3 per year, but at least they're cheap. I am not keeping stupid screwdrivers in my house, no way, there are better things to store in a house like my bobblehead collection or my vintage baseball cards.
Haha just joking :P Organization is the key, I think, everything in its proper place. A tool box, I have a drawer for batteries and replacement parts to things like the fridge filter, that kinda stuff. It keeps no clutter visible but organized in proper locations so I can easily find anything.
I remember the time when in the apartments, the dead bolt on the door of the one I was in failed and my tool kit was locked in the other apartment. The best I could do with a kitchen bread knife was get the outer panel off. The maintenance man had to crawl in through my bedroom window to come to my rescue.
Moral of the story is never be behind a door that can lock on you without a tool box. Several boxes of different types now through out.
(the subject was handheld camp lanterns and how it costs less to buy a new lantern and battery than the battery alone)
I don't understand...............who doesn't need flash lights? Who doesn't need something that throws a great big beam that won't roll away?
If the "torch" is still workable, why throw it away.......but why spend more money on just the battery when the combination is cheaper?
I have a nice heavy flashlight in my nightstand top drawer, and I have a nice heavy flashlight in my desk in the top right drawer. I change the batteries yearly, on New Years Day, along with the batteries in my smoke alarms and put those in the clock radios as the battery back up and recycling the old clock batteries.
When the flashlight is used, and it happens about twice a month, it gets put back. My house is 1000 square feet, I don’t need more than two, and the fact they are heavy, I can use it to clout an intruder on the head, which I would certainly do.
And I certainly don’t expect to have an intruder in my house.
Here’s the thing. You don’t need four or fourteen of something. You need to have places where things go. And then force yourself to put it back, and soon it will be habit to do so.
My grandmother always said — When stuff is everywhere, what you need seems to be nowhere. Everything has a home.
__________________ Solly says — Be nice!
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Solly says — Be nice!
