What do you need?

Minimalism is all about what you need. I was listening to the minimalist podcast, and he had a very brilliant idea on how to go about it. He said you should pack everything in your house like someone moving houses. Pack everything in boxes, then be removing only what you need to use. From there you will be able to tell apart from what you really need, and what needs to go.

Packing everything helps you have a clear picture of what you have accumulated

One of the most boring yet hectic and tiresome assignments is moving houses. It’s so tiring, that we have opted to have the movers do the packing and moving for us.

That may rob us of an opportunity to really know what is not necessary stuff we have been buying over time. And continue moving around with them.

By allowing ourselves an opportunity to see what we have, and pack them in boxes. We will be able to declutter.

A few months, my house needed renovations. So I had to change houses. Despite being a very short distance, since I was moving to the next house. It was still tiresome, and I hated the whole process. I was shocked to uncover some stuff I had no idea I owed.

I managed to have some people to donate to but remained with some more that I thought I needed. But am yet to use them, so I think they should go too. Funny enough, part of me still thinks I need them.

Picking stuff when you need them helps distinguish need from junk

By only picking what you need from the packed boxes, you will be able to see what is working for you.

Whatever remains in the boxes, should either be resold or donated.

You also have to check on what you don’t use much, that could be rented when needed, or even borrowed from our friends. You don’t have to know everything, some stuff is rarely used, and renting/borrowing for that particular need time makes more sense.

It’s nice to be self-reliant and dependent. But some tools are more economically shared, and not owned.

In a farming community, we don’t all need tractors. We could have a few and share amongst ourselves. Same to our computers, tablets, and the likes. Why should we all have laptops and desktops when we could share. One could be using the tablet, as the one works on the laptop.

Nowadays, you will find someone with a laptop connected to a monitor, with a tablet/iPad plus their phones not forgetting the smartwatches. All on one table for one person. Is it really necessary?

Boils down to Needs vs Wants

The needs versus the wants song have been sung to us for a while. We have been doing our best to distinguish the two, and the ride hasn’t been smooth. Especially now that we are all after comfort and convenience.

Another point I borrowed from the podcast, is how to work on our attachment to all this stuff. Once you can cure that, you will manage to truly tell apart needs from wants.

Minimalism is good for our planet

With the diminishing of our natural resources that we have over-exploited for a while now, there’s a need to slow down.

We have been taking more and frequently than our planet could replenish. While for some natural resources, are non-renewable, hence fading fast than we could imagine.

If we all embraced a minimalistic lifestyle, we will only have what we need. Hence reduced the need to over-exploit precious natural resources.