Back in the early 2010s, there was a wave of popular articles about people who owned oddly specific, low numbers of things, like 75, or 200, or whatever. At first I was kind of fascinated by this, but the fascination wore off, and years and years later I would see this made fun of as people asked if each nail in one of those tiny plastic boxes counted as one object.
I consider myself a type of minimalist, just not that type of minimalist. In fact, “popular” minimalism kind of turns me off, honestly. Too often it just seems to be an Instagram, lifestyle-porn, semi-industrial curation of one’s life, with a whole lot of white and a whole lot of blah.
I think there’s tremendous value in paring one’s possessions down and focusing on those things that bring you the most value. But I sure as heck am not living that Instagram life, and I’m not sure that Instagram life is worth living, either.
Popular minimalism is like a cult: do what we say, live the way we tell you. I’ve had a hard time finding anything about minimalism on YouTube that doesn’t feature someone, usually a couple, living in a plain white apartment with hardly anything. One couple even had the guts to admit that they had thrown some of their nic-naks from the table into their bedroom for that video. Thanks for the honesty, I guess, but doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose?
Sometimes it just seems plastic and fake, painting this unrealistic image of life. Life is cluttered. We set stuff on tables, on shelves, we have projects we simply set aside.
I don’t understand why the color white is so popular, either. Apparently it’s not enough to get rid of stuff, you have to get rid of color, too. I don’t keep up with style or anything like that, but it sounds like “maximalism” was developed as a response to this. If you do a quick Google search, you’ll see some wild walls and wild colors representing maximalism. My bone to pick with this, though, is that it is still highly curated, and the photo shoots are quick to remove any signs of clutter. It strikes me as a bunch of stuffy whiners who threw up design all over their walls just to stick it to the minimalists. But they’re really not that different: highly curated, highly unrepresentative of normal life.
But that’s the issue with the design world, anyway. It’s all about appearances and not about reality.
On the one hand I love minimalist architecture. If I worked in one of those buildings, that would be awesome! Of course, my office space would still be different, but I wouldn’t pass up the chance to pretend I work on the Woglinde (a spaceship from Xenosaga). On the other hand, there’s only so much white that I want in my living space, and I like a few decorations on the wall.
I think the value of minimalism in the lives of us mere mortals is simply that of getting rid of distractions and saving money in the process. If you aren’t busy filling your house/apartment up with junk you never use, you’re going to have more money at the end of the day, and you are also going to feel more rested, as the weight of navigating and dealing with your stuff isn’t stifling you. Even I don’t have an “absolute minimum” of stuff, but my possessions have been pretty thoroughly pared down over the years, always with some room for improvement.
I also used to idealize hopping in a car and hitting the open road. I do still try to consider how difficult new possessions would be to move, but the friends who have actually hit the road with nothing more than a suitcase or box usually say there isn’t much special about it. If I ever do move out of state, likely I would leave a lot of furniture behind, but I would sorely miss my colorful Indian cabinet and bookshelf. It’s not good getting too attached to your possessions, but it’s not therefore desirable to not have any good possessions. Maybe save the road trip for the road trip, and don’t mistake it for living a fulfilling life.
I also find it annoying when minimalists are almost anti-entertainment. They’ll be like, “I don’t have a TV!” But then they’ll concede, “But I do watch Netflix on my laptop!” Of course, staring down at a laptop screen to watch movies sounds like a neck-destroying ergonomics disaster, but hey, whatever it takes to shave that television from your possessions and prove yourself a “true” minimalist for the camera!
I guess having fewer possessions for me is less some sort of lifestyle and more of a systems-theoretical strategy. On the one hand, yes, I think life is better with a minimum of junk. On the other hand, people are notoriously bad at recognizing that the true cost of a thing exceeds its initial sticker price, so it’s not uncommon for people’s junk to be costing them as they replace broken things, pay to heat and cool boxes, buy chargers and extensions and adapters and little replacement parts for this that and the other.
Also I’ve learned over time that the arguments for keeping things are often weak and psychologically motivated. Very rarely do we keep old things for good reasons.
In real life, people have different priorities, different interests, and different styles. But popular minimalism is almost like a cult of white walls, little plants, blank spaces, and a fanatical dedication to what all the other popular minimalists are doing, sometimes even a dedication to trying to out-minimalize other minimalists! I find it difficult to listen to anything these people say with more than a grain of salt.