Idea Of Minimalism - Is It Practically Possible?

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by Vedhavalli, Sep 8, 2020.

  1. kaluputti

    kaluputti Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,151
    Likes Received:
    572
    Trophy Points:
    208
    Gender:
    Female
    yes, teaching the children the difference between 'needs & wants' is very important, provided the parents themselves don't wield control over their wants.
     
    Viswamitra and Vedhavalli like this.
  2. Vedhavalli

    Vedhavalli Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    905
    Likes Received:
    1,364
    Trophy Points:
    263
    Gender:
    Female
    Thanks , great intro topic to teach younger minds.needs & wants
    This summer I gave the toys clothes etc donated to people in need than passing on to known people.
    The joy of giving is more than receiving.
     
    kaluputti and Viswamitra like this.
  3. Vedhavalli

    Vedhavalli Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    905
    Likes Received:
    1,364
    Trophy Points:
    263
    Gender:
    Female
    Very true indeed middle class families don't appreciate being simple rather take you are not doing well
     
  4. nemesis

    nemesis Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    2,490
    Likes Received:
    2,517
    Trophy Points:
    283
    Gender:
    Male
    Manufacturing and agriculture is stagnant, it's just service economy now. When your own salary is tied to consumption, I doubt one can embrace minimalism without it bothering somewhere.

    So minimalism applies to those who retire early and have a large corpus for the kids or such arrangements.
     
    Rihana likes this.
  5. SunPa

    SunPa Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,041
    Likes Received:
    2,413
    Trophy Points:
    283
    Gender:
    Female
    One (wo)man's minimalism doesnt have to another's

    To me minimalism means to give up the excess.
    And what is excess ?- non-important things which stress me out more than the comfort /joy they give.
    Take sarees for instance- I felt I had too many of them. The stress of having to air them out every year, checking which blouse fits , checking damages - all to wear once/twice in a year was too much. Now I have given away most , down to 10 of them included those from my wedding days, almost all have sentimental value.
    To someone who loves sarees, who take pain to coordinate the whole costume, who plan and buy accessories and take great joy in flaunting them - 50 sarees may hardly be enough. But for me , it was just too much work, and work not done properly , so was way in excess.

    Actually I realise minimalism isnt so much about things but about our mind/ our thoughts. And people. So, I am trying to not waste emotional energy on people who do not matter much.

    Long way to go , both with things and people but gets easier as I get older :)
     
    Amica, Rihana and Needtobestrong like this.
  6. Needtobestrong

    Needtobestrong Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,317
    Likes Received:
    1,535
    Trophy Points:
    283
    Gender:
    Female
    Trying not to waste emotional energy on people who don’t matter much is an interesting way to practice minimalism...I should do that too and save myself a lot of emotional baggage..
     
  7. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    12,481
    Likes Received:
    30,224
    Trophy Points:
    540
    Gender:
    Female
    Anyone has a minimalism strategy for email inbox management? : )
     
  8. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    12,481
    Likes Received:
    30,224
    Trophy Points:
    540
    Gender:
    Female
    Interesting read on the difference between simplicity and minimalism:

    Why I focus on simplicity, not minimalism - The Simplicity Habit
    You can join in the pursuit of simplicity without minimalism being your end goal.
    I find joy in my toss pillows, candles, teas, excess paper products, and overstock of food. And I’m ok with that.
     
    SunPa, Srama and Caughtinbetween like this.
  9. Caughtinbetween

    Caughtinbetween Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    542
    Likes Received:
    748
    Trophy Points:
    188
    Gender:
    Female
    Last year when I found it increasingly difficult to manage my work inbox and gmail had a lot of junk from over a decade i came across these two articles :

    Why You Need To Apply Minimalism To Your Email Inbox ---> it asks you not to create separate folders for important people/purpose . Worked for me with my gmail to some extent. I would pretty much delete , unsubscribe , archive to be deleted any thing which doesnt involve 1-1 conversations or except some very important emails. I usually spend like 5 mins before going to bed to do this. General search with some relevant keywords helps to find any email quickly.

    Inbox Minimalism | The Minimalists ---> this claims that folders help organize. I find this helpful with my work inbox. I have separate folders for all important colleagues , email-lists / groups etc. I delete anything junk immediately and can keep track of the inbox. Mostly because I find myself checking my work inbox more than gmail folders help it look slim and organized with the help of all the rules in outlook.

    Unsubscribing helps a lot .
     
    Rihana likes this.
  10. Caughtinbetween

    Caughtinbetween Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    542
    Likes Received:
    748
    Trophy Points:
    188
    Gender:
    Female
    Very good thread topic @Vedhavalli and wonderful responses from everyone.

    Lots of times I must have thought about this in different ways.
    Myself : I am not very gentle with high maintenance clothes and hence I try to avoid as much as possible . I prefer to buy inexpensive clothes which can be roughly used and tossed in the washing machine/dryer . At most I'd do a delicate cycle and separate whites. Recently while shifting base to this new city , while packing my stuff I realized I have a checked in suitcase full of sarees from my wedding and very few gifted in between. I haven't worn a saree in this past year at least. I wear saris like really rarely and am not too fascinated for it. I did stick to not buying any sarees for myself. I have one shelf in the closet full of my clothes in the house including both outside wear / home use and trying to deplete through it all before getting anything new . My last clothes shopping was like 10 months back and hoping to last through another year. I have one pair of shoes/chappals/sandals. During my pregnancy I did buy two handbags / quite a few maternity clothes which i never used and regret . I realized comfort is most important to me that to me only comes from a backpack/plain blue easy fitting jeans-T /PJ's.

    Husband: He has one closet full of clothes .He will keep buying often / his family sends a lot of clothes for him from india every year. Everything just adds on, nothing gets trashed /donated proportionately. He has clothes from over a decade too just because they dont get worn out as none gets repeated often. same with footwear/winter wear. all kinds of computer accessories. he doesnt like to throw out anything. I have now stopped organizing his closet as often , it overflows. But him and his family (much like my family) thinks expensive clothes and gold on your body elevates social standing. I dont agree but dont blame them. But gets very tough to keep patience when MIL gets on my nerves due to my ordinary clothes.

    DD: Here the blame is on me completely. I bought so many clothes for her that she hardly wore it 1-2 times before she outgrew it. And a lot of it was expensive and paying full MRP knowing very well that this would be on sale in the same store in next few months. Same with her toys 80-90% of which just lay around on the floor like a display. She was never big on those expensive toys. And all the baby gadgets that she never cared for. I also bought some gold for her which sits in the locker but i treat it as investment( though not a very good one) . I was recently thinking that I could have easily bought a small apartment in some tier 2 city with all this expenditure. I sometimes feel a lot of this was to satisfy my own ego/foolishness all the while knowing that baby was not very interested in this. And still making the same mistakes and dont regret.

    Same with kitchen stuff which can be really reduced . (Just the other day I was thinking of asking here if anyone got a cookbot and how do you find it :facepalm::BangHead:)
    I think I can only minimize my stuff . H, I dont interfere and DD needs some tough self restraint from me which still eludes me. I dont know why I have this pre-conceived notion that minimalism equates to less accumulation of personal stuff but its more.
     
    Rihana likes this.

Share This Page