As with most of my little projects, this one occurred to me when I tripped on a pile of clutter in my bedroom. I own too much stuff! Most of the stuff is useful, but a lot of it I never use. So I started researching my possible options to helping me de-clutter and one of the first things I found was the term “minimalism.” I had seen the art style, and heck, I think half of my artwork is somewhat inspired by minimalism. But never had I seen this term used as a way to live your life.
Apparently if you live a minimalist lifestyle, you feel better about your life. And I don’t mean that I’m not happy with my life. However, cleaning my apartment is annoying, and I think getting rid of the clutter will help me be happier. After reading into it for a bit though, it started to make sense. There seems to be a couple of rules that apply to minimalism:
- Get rid of the unnecessary
- Have only what is essential
Easy enough, right? This would mean only owning want I really need in life. Except that I have a lot of hobbies. I also love antiques and feel the need to collect them and use them. So most of the family heirlooms come into my possession because I am one of the few of the youngest generation that cares about the past in my family. So how exactly should I take on this?
That is the true question, and I have been trying to set up a plan to get this to work. So I wrote down all of my “hobbies,” or things I like to do.
As it turns out, there are a lot of things I enjoy doing. Each hobby requires it own set of materials. Some are useful for my eco-conscious self, which even with that I’m still working on that.
After many hours of thinking about this, I finally came up with an idea. I plan to take a different tactic to getting to this minimalism lifestyle than most people do (at least the people I found on the internet). My plan is to use the supplies I have collected and create stuff for friends, family, and maybe start creating prototypes for etsy? Maybe? It will take me a while to get closer to living a minimalist lifestyle, but I think this is the easiest way for me to do it. In other words, I’m going to be frugal and work my way towards minimalism.
For the next few months I think will try to do updates on which part of my big project I’ve completed on here, especially since most of the projects with this is creating arts and craft things. This will be an interesting adventure, and I hope you guys will join me on this project!
ArtsyRobotz 
All the best!! 🍀🍀
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Thank you! 😀
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I hope it goes well! I do fear what you’re talking about is basically adding another task to your list: “Minimalizing”. (Sounds like you’re using Ant-Man’s power… 😉 How long do you think it’ll take you finish it?
Unfortunately, I’m not crafty/artsy, so I can’t really join you on this. 😦 Also…
A few years ago, I found myself needing to better manage life (long story). I made a list like yours, but in order of priority. Then I drew a line and stopped doing everything below it. I donated or gave away everything related to those things that were dropped. I also got rid of a lot of books I wasn’t reading, games I didn’t play very often, and gaming materials that hadn’t seen recent use (like RPG stuff from the 70s and 80s! 😮 ). The decluttering was amazingly and immediately destressing (which was the objective), and other people were able to make good use of my old stuff.
I really didn’t want to get rid of it, as I felt like I was throwing away money, so I understand what you’re doing. But in my situation it was well worth it. 🙂
– Russ L. (Rabit)
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Haha, of course. I love keeping myself busy. 🙂 I think it’ll take me a couple of months to truly complete this task.
It’s hard for me to draw a line, but as much as I dislike it I know it’s probably the only way to truly “minimalize” (which really does sound like Ant-Man’s power) what I have. I think there will be a while where the mess will get worse as I try to do this, but after it’s all completed I will be happy with it. I think, and hope.
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