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Richer with Less

I have this hobby of googling random words or names that come to my mind. Sometimes, there's nothing much from the search results. Sometimes, otherwise.

Today, I googled minimialist:


Since the search, I have been reading on this topic for the past few hours.

Minimalism

The main idea revolving around the concept of minimalism, is basically having less possessions so that one can focus on more important things in your life and lead richer lives, or in short less for more.

Joshua Millburn describes it best with this
Minimalists don’t focus on having less, less, less; rather, we focus on making room for more: more time, more passion, more experiences, more growth, more contribution, more contentment. More freedom. Clearing the clutter from life’s path helps us make that room.

Look at the photos and simple captions here to have an insight of how ZEN minimalism can be.

It seems that minimalism has become increasingly fashionable, particularly in Japan.


How I will be Applying Minimialism

This concept of de- cluttering to live richer life simply appeals to me. But decluttering doesn't mean you start throwing stuff away now. It could be instead making better use of stuff that you already have at home, and stop buying what is unnecessary. For things that have become useless to you, are there ways to rejuvenate them by finding new uses for them? The first step of having less, could simply to make better use of what you already have by applying the three Rs -- reduce, reuse, recycle.

For me, there's so many consumables at my home, and simply by using them (and not buying anymore), I will be able to declutter.

I love grocery shopping, and my refrigerator, and kitchen cabinets is brimming with food. As such, my first project would be to declutter my kitchen, simply by not buying any food (whether cooked or not) until I eat them up. I'm going to start from today till next Monday as a trial. Let's see how it goes.

Also, I have loads of body foam, moisturizer,  shampoo and other toiletries, courtesy of my hotel stay. To be exact, hundreds of these small bottles of toiletries. You see, I used to travel regularly for work, and at the end of the work trip, my luggage is always brimming, not due to shopping, but because of all the toiletries that I take. However, I also buy toiletries for daily use at home. As such, another way for decluttering for me will be to simply stop buying toiletries and use those!

The above are about having less.

But like what Joshua Millburn says, less is only part of the story. The other part is to have more. One thing for sure, the actions will definitely help me save more. While I love food, not all my feeding sessions are for enjoyment. Most of them are simply for survival. So by simply eating what is available, it saves me time from shopping and my mental power of thinking what to eat. Similarly, since I really don't care about toiletries, and my skin is generally not so sensitive, why should I waste mental power and time on getting them when I have loads of them.

All these energy saved can be applied to other more meaningful areas, like learning a new skill or teaching my kid a new skill.

Comments

  1. I think it's also a change of mindset. Also, do we really need to take those things just because they are free? The good ones probably but there are some that we probably end up storing somewhere and in the end, we throw it away because of expiry or something.

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