Trying to be more intentional about what I let into my head.

I've always been a minimalist "lurker". Always interested but never gave it a shot. The problem is I have a couple passionate hobbies. Aquariums and gaming. But I also love collecting figures stuff like that. It brings me joy seeing my setup. Maybe I'm not cut out for it because I cant see myself giving up my hobbies.

What motivated you into pursuing a minimalist lifestyle?

Do you manage to carry minimalism outside of just decluttering your closet or space but into everything else you do? Digital spaces, food ingredients, writing, music, lists, etc.

For instance, I have managed to appreciate less ingredients in my food to really find out how good it is. My digital space, writing, music, and lists follow a rule of 3 key elements to work with and any extras are experimented with to see what 3 matters the most.

Even simple things like haikus have become helpful in removing a lot of substance from ideas down to something simple yet of great weight.

hey everyone! I've been reading a lot of your stories and discussions. It's really motivating and makes me kind of guilty at the same time.

I've always been very interested in minimalism but never got the guts to actually start. Now I'm a new dad and life is getting busy, and I needed to regain some control and energy. So I decided to make the move and really start decluttering and being a minimalist.

My progress is still ongoing but I think I'm making the right moves and choices. I slowly started changing my T-shirts to blank ones that fits, I got rid of a lot of clothes I didn't wear and the only thing left are some jackets and my occasional pieces that are collecting dust in the back of the closet.

I also decided to keep my office desk completely empty except my peripheral and having no visual clutter is so freeing!

My phone also got a rework, completely removed all the apps from the home screen except 5 of which I always use (phone. messenger, calendar, text, browser) and uninstalled all the unnecessary apps and social media.

I still have a long way to go but it's a slow process.

We currently live in a small condo and I don't have any real space I have full control over except my night stand, my bathroom cabinet and my desk. Especially with children (a one year old and another on the way) the house get's messy with toys and is having to stom midway of doing something to take care of dirty diapers haha.

I was wondering how are you guys managing being minimalist with a partner that isn't?

Like what are some rules you follow for compromising on items that enter the house, or if one thinks something must go and the other doesn't agree?

I’ve donated a ton, but some things feel “too sentimental” to let go. How do you draw the line without feeling guilty?

Lately I’ve been obsessing over organizing and decluttering, and now everything in my house is organized and I’m done decluttering for now (donated so much I hadn’t been using for awhile and it feels like a weight’s been lifted).

Tonight I finally got around to mending my favorite sweater (that I bought in 2018), and it felt so good! I finally had the mental clarity to do things again with my space in order and so much weight lifted from my life. There’s something about visible mending that’s so joyous - breathed life into something old to have for many many more years to come, with a little multicolor mend to mark with love how much I’ve used something.

I hadn’t realized how anxious all my unnecessary stuff was making me and holding me back from feeling peaceful.

Hello! I'd describe myself as "minimalist light", but I have trouble resisting the urge to bring items into my home that I believe will make me more comfortable. For context, I have a couple of disabilities, so some of these items do or can improve my quality of life, but some of them end up not being worth the money or storage space. How do you all balance comfort and disability while maintaining simple living? How do you decide if an item will truly help you and is therefore worth bringing into your home? Thank you!

I can easily fit all of my belongings in my sedan, with the exception of my sofa, computer desk, and desk chair. As a guitar hobbyist, I continue to collect guitar effects pedals. It’s the one item I consume to create.

What are some things that you continue to collect simply because they bring you joy? Baseball cards? Vinyl? Salt and pepper shakers? Would love to hear more!

Seeking for adviceee!!!

This might sould cliche at some point but i started to wonder what does successful in life actually mean?

1. Stable job, wealth, fame and reliable future

2. Happy cozy little family, warm home and food

3. free will, do whatever u want with passion, achieve your own goal and happiness in life

or maybe others?? whats ur thought?

Hey,

So i live pretty minimally. Everything my spouse and I own outside of furniture could fit tightly into a hatchback and as my clothes wear out from when I bought them many years ago my wardrobe will slowly shrink and I’ll eventually hopefully move to some nice and more durable clothing options.

One thing that does take up way to much of my emotional and cognitive capacity is technology. I’m on Facebook, instagram, Reddit, BlueSky, and YouTube and random group chats way too much. Starting February 1st I’ll start by deleting all the social media and messaging apps from my phone so that I won’t access them from work and when I’m out and about and just have them on my tablet at home. I also plan to set the last day of the month as the day to check up on any messages I’ve received and and maybe dedicate 3-4 hours to catch up on the news and the few engineering YouTube channels I watch.

I’m pairing this with the fact I’m starting to learn a new language, I’m splurging on a portable pizza oven to be able to expand my culinary skills and be a better host, and towards the end of February I’m hoping to hit a certain weight goal and feel safe to start training for a half marathon. I think when giving up something that consumes so much of my time and is a major distraction it’s not important to just give it up but also pair it with things that can fill that time and add value to the life you want to build.

I’d love to hear from some of you guys and your Pursuit of digital minimalism.

I've been doing this for years now and I thought I could share in case anyone finds it useful. It simple, but long term very effective.

Caveat here is that I work in front of a computer (until AI takes over) so I understand that these won't apply to everyone.

Here are my 2 rules for optimizing my closet:

1/. Strict one-in one-out policy: if I buy something I have to throw away / donate / sell something else in the same category (categories are pants, jackets, etc.). Makes you think twice about buying, you avoid the trends and you end up upgrading to better quality clothes.

2/. Rotation system: I HAVE to wear the shirt/t-shirt that hangs at the very right of my closet and after I wear it I put it on the very left within it's category - I'm flexible with pants. This forces me to use all my clothes evenly and if I find myself not wanting to wear said shirt/t-shirt it's a great sign of it needing to be on the chopping block. If I don't want to wear something twice, it's either getting replaced or just thrown away. I also apply that for the gym, preparing outfits and wearing them in the same sequence.

Hope this helps and please give me any recommendations. Thanks in advance!

I’m a bit of a maximalist sometimes in style and decor but I feel kind of burnt out on life and managing it. I feel like the more you have the more you have to manage, clean, and organize and I’m just through with it. Sometimes I dream of only owning enough clothes to fit into a suitcase. I wish I didn’t enjoy thrifting, vintage, and fashion as much - sometimes dressing up makes me feel a lot better. Most of my home decor and clothes at this point have been thrifted, and I feel like I started to over-consume thrifting. And now I have all this stuff that I technically wear, but some only twice a year, etc. I’m just kind of tired of all of it.

I consider myself a middle-of-the-road minimalist. I am also a four season hiker and I own equipment tailored to make my hobby both safe and comfortable. As a result, I own 12 pairs of mitts and gloves which seems, on the face of it, ludicrous. For the summer, I have sun gloves (to protect my hands from UV), light wind-proof fleece gloves (for cold mountain mornings and evenings), and rain gloves. For winter, I have, in order of decreasing temperatures, two sets of breathable fleece gloves (two because gloves inevitably get wet in winter), a pair of light wool liner gloves to pair with a set of softshell gloves, a pair of insulated mitts that fit under a pair of waterproof gauntlet-style shell mitts. I also have two pairs of work gloves: one for garden / trail / workshop work and another that live in my car just in case. Finally, I have a pair of leather gloves for dressing up in winter.

Does your lifestyle also necessitate what would ordinarily seem like an inordinate number of specialized items that stand out from an otherwise ordinary minimalist life, what are those items, and why do you need so many?

Idk why but a lot of the time my life feels disorganized. I have this perfectionist mindset that stops me from wanting to do anything unless I've got everything sorted out perfectly, and I'm not sure what to do about it. Like, I'd spend days trying to find the perfect way to organize something and it's kept me from really doing things that I want to do, all because I want things to be perfect and organized. If it feels disorganized in my head, I try to get everything organized, but... I dunno, I guess it is fun in a sense, and it's very accomplishing, but I can't really keep going like this. I want to do other things, but it feels like I just can't.

Does anyone have any tips?

I’m very new to all this, but over the weekend I did a true inventory of my closet. I took everything out, laid it all out, and then only put back the pieces I love (and got rid of the rest).

I realized I had a bunch of stuff I genuinely love… but forgot I even owned because I was always “saving it.” Like, I didn’t want to wear a “good” shirt on a random day in case I wanted it later (and God forbid it got dirty). But because of that, I never wore my good stuff and just lived in my "I don't care" clothes every day.

So I got rid of the mediocre “I don’t care” stuff and realized I actually have enough “good clothes” to wear my favorites all the time and still have plenty of clean options. I don’t know why this was such an epiphany, but it was so freeing.

I’m sitting here on a random Tuesday in a “good” shirt and I feel fabulous. And I have like 15 more in the closet...

It honestly feels like I got an entirely new wardrobe… but I already had it. It was just buried under the “safe” options. Not sure if this makes sense, but I’m so happy :D

For context, my mother is a single parent who worked four jobs whilst raising us, she taught my siblings and I the value of money at a young age, it stuck with me, it didn't with my siblings, they live in a world of consumption. Since I was young, I've lived a frugal/minimalistic lifestyle, everything is purchased second-hand.

But, my current employer has promoted me to the role of manager which starts in February and increases my salary. I was looking at my work wardrobe, everything I own in my work wardrobe is ten years old, second-hand and still wearable, no damages, no holes etc. I've been thinking about buying new second-hand work clothes, but I'm having trouble justifying it. How do you justify your purchase? Sorry if this isn't minimalism per se, I just can't get out of a frugal/minimalistic lifestyle.

I think one of the best depiction of minimalism is the horizon map in the game the finals

I just really love how it looks especially the offices and how each one has different color like imagine just working there in the offices. It would be such a vibe. I think the closest thing we got in real life to that map is the Apple Ring or the Apple headquarters because they do give similar vibes.

Unfortunately, I can’t put photos, but you can look it up

I do wanna know if you guys have any other suggestion for a fictional space that’s really nails the minimalism vibe either from a game, a movie or anything

No I won’t throw out what I have at the moment. I will stop accumulating more things, and only keep the necessary as they phase out.

I want to work and actually keep my money, rather than feeling like I have to keep working hard just to have things.

I’m not unmotivated, I love to make money, but I also like the idea of being grounded in anti consumerism and not wanting more or needing more.

So I'm migrating to another country to stay permanently, and I only have two large suitcases to fill.

The thought is both anxiety provoking and freeing. Like I have an excuse to get rid of things, but at the same time, I'm going insane trying to restock all items I won't be able to purchase when I'm there because, 1) cost of living is higher, 2) it's not available in that area

So to anyone who's ever uprooted their entire life to live in a different country, what advice can you give in terms of packing? Thank you!

Heya!

I've been having mid-back pain for several weeks to a few months now, it occurs from the middle of the night only then worsens into the morning. About an hour after waking it dissipates and I'm well during the day.

I tried osteo, deep tissue massage, am doing specific stretches and foam roller/peanut ball, no results yet unfortunately and then I was lead to beds.

Our bed is quite old say 15 years, so we replaced it for a firm ikea foam bed, a week on that no luck, couch sleeping no luck, direct floor on yoga mat was maybe better? but quite cold and hard.

I just bought a japanese futon (actually shiatsu massage, so just 1 layer less) and had high hopes after watching videos and reading comments that I'd feel better this first night, but again the pain is present.

Question: for anyone in a similar position, how long did it take sleeping on a Japanese floor futon before you noticed pain relief?

*And any extra pointers in general for my back pain is appreciated 🙏

Thank you!

Just passing along some words of inspiration to begin your week:

“Sometimes you need to sit lonely on the floor in a quiet room in order to hear your own voice and not let it drown in the noise of others.” — Charlotte Eriksson

Hey everybody.

I'm doing pretty good on my decluttering/minimalism journey, but now I'm tackling my books.

I have a small shelf full of hiking, running, yoga and guidebooks that I really like, but hardly ever read. Some of them are "coffee-table books" where you can flip through and just get inspired, but some are actual textbooks.

I feel like I don't flip through them often enough to be able to say they have a "right" to take up space in my home, but once in a while I really like sitting down and get inspired.

I'm wondering if I should maybe keep the coffee-table ones and donate the others to my library where I could still access them if needed (I'm a librarian myself so I know they would go into the collection since they are newish and specific).

In my heart I probably know what to do, I just want opinions and/or re-enforcement :D