The Concept of Minimalism and Roommates

Minimalism is a journey to find what truly makes you happy in life.  It isn't a fad about having the cleanest space with the least goods.  It isn't a switch you flip one day and spontaneously do.  You can't force yourself through getting rid of things.  You will never be able to "convert" people to minimalism.  And it certainly isn't a set number of things needed or not needed to "be a minimalist".  Everyone has their own version of what minimalism is.

What minimalism is to me is finding what sparks a smile.  It's about adding meaning back into your life.  It's about remembering what really matters to you, building meaningful relationships, and not always wondering what this mad dash of society is.  It's about breaking the habit of compulsory purchasing and asking yourself "Why?"  "Why am I buying this?" "Does it mean that much to me?"

This is a journey I found myself starting about a year or so ago, and adding roommates to that journey has been both rewarding and a bit taxing.

I started with stress and a small obsession with keeping clean.  I loved the pictures of peoples small spaces and how simple it all was.  They had what they needed and they were happy with it. I thought I had everything I ever needed, so why wasn't I happy?  I was stressing over the simplest things, like how dusty my items always were, and if I had enough room to mess around with the way I displayed things.  But who was I displaying them for?  And dusting shouldn't be an identifiable source of stress, regardless of my allergies.

It wasn't a sudden realization that I needed to downsize, it was a gradual understanding that this is not how I wanted my life to be.  Now, I had other stress factors in my life at the time which included a generalized anxiety disorder resulting in panic attacks, lapses in memory, and sudden bouts of depression/catatonic stasis, and yes I have since found the right mix of medications to help me cope better; but this was my wakeup call.

With the start of 2017 I set a goal for myself: no thrifting for an entire year, no retail therapy, only going through things and asking if they really made me happy; and if the answer was no: donate it.  This is the first new years resolution I have actually carried through with in ... quite a long time.  This resolution helped me achieve a few things.

1. I was a broke college student in their last semester working 2 part time jobs.  It saved me a lot of money, and I realized how often I simply wanted to go out and shop.

2. When trying to balance everything, I didn't have time to figure out when I had time to shop.  I was able to be more productive in the places it mattered most.

3. When everything in my life fell apart in March and April, I had a lot less to worry about packing.  I knew where all of my essentials were and I didn't spend as much time worrying if something was going to break.

My final move into this apartment told me that this was not the end of my journey.  Enter the roommates.

Sharing a room/apartment is one of the quickest ways to realize how much stuff (shit) you really have.  For me, it often was the core reason for spikes in my anxiety and the return of panic attacks.  Now, furniture aside (beds, dressers, desks and chairs I consider to be exempt), how much stuff is in the extra boxes?  To be frank, I got tired of unpacking and trying to find a place for things I didn't really like anymore, but I have too many OCD tendencies to just let it slide. For every 4 boxes of just stuff, I got rid of 2.  For every box of clothes, I donated at least half. I even went through my craft supplies and scrap bin to narrow things down.  The only thing I didn't really downsize were the amount of books.

Another thing these boxes helped with was realizing that if it was out of sight, out of mind, did you really miss it?  It made it much easier to let things go.  And having the support of the people in your life (the boyfriend) sure does make it feel like you've accomplished something.  I wanted so much to keep some scraps, but the Queen - a fellow crafter - always asked "Okay, but you have one just like it. What are you going to make out of that one?"  If I didn't have an answer, it went away.  "Will you reasonably use it in the next 6 months?"  If the answer was no, it went too.

Now, while I am no where close to the clean slate I want to be I am a lot closer to it than I thought I would be a year ago.  And I am proud to say that I still don't feel like I'm done. This has turned into a positive journey and it has made me more conscious of my habits.  After all of this, I still want LESS.