Minimalism Is More Than White Walls and Mid-Century Modern Furniture

Don’t you hate it when you discover something awesome, and then it turns into a huge trend?  Something being “trendy” is not a positive trait in my opinion, so this is one of my biggest pet peeves.  Our culture has an impressive way of twisting a great thing and plastering it everywhere until everyone tires of it and it disappears.

I like to say that I was a minimalist before minimalism was cool.  Minimalist style is a big “thing” right now, and the word brings images of bare white walls, indoor ferns and mid-century modern furniture.  There are a ton of products out there being marketed as “minimalist” right now, which is ironic, because the whole point of minimalism is buying and owning fewer things.

Minimalist style is not the same as minimalist living.  Minimalism isn’t meant to be a style.  It’s about removing the items and activities from our lives that distract from what is really important.

You might look at my house and doubt that I should be considered a minimalist.  My kids have plastic toys that use batteries, I have picture frames of photos everywhere, the walls are not white, and I don’t have a single piece of mid-century modern furniture. 

My favorite thing about minimalism is that you can apply it to your life in whatever way that you choose.

There are a few consistent concepts amongst most styles of minimalism.  I want to highlight those here so that you can benefit from minimalism, even if you hate mid-century-modern furniture and struggle to keep houseplants alive.

Our resources are limited and should be allocated toward our top priorities.

There is truth to the phrase “less is more” when you consider the fact that by having less of the things that do not really matter to us, there is more room for the things that do.

Our resources – time, money, space, and energy – are all limited.  Having more of one thing requires us to have less of something else.  Making the decision to create space in your environment, schedule, and budget reduces the distractions from what is most important. 

There is more to life than accumulating stuff.

Your life is not defined by the things that you own.  Do not sacrifice your health or your time with family for the sake of having more things. 

You do not have to go so far as to sell off everything until you can carry all you own with you while backpacking through Europe, if that’s not your jam.  However, you can sell items not being put to good use in your home to reduce debt.  You can commit to being more mindful of your spending.  You can make income decisions differently by rethinking where you send your money. 

There is more to the cost of something than what is shown on the price tag.

We have a tendency to think of the cost of something as the number on the price tag.  In reality, we spend more money, time and energy as long as we own something.  We waste less of these precious resources by owning less.

There is an opportunity cost to everything that you buy.  When you spend your money on something, you are no longer able to spend that money on something else.  You also are not able to use that money toward paying down debt or investing in your future.

Also, everything that we have continues to cost us long after we have paid the initial cost to buy it.  We buy larger homes or pay for storage units to make room for everything we have bought.  We pay annual personal property taxes on our vehicles and increase our insurance coverage for the things in our homes.  We spend more money on shelves and totes for organizing our things and hours cleaning and dusting around them.  Our clutter distracts us from enjoying time with our families and adds to the to-do list.

Consider the entire cost of an item before committing to making it part of your life.  You are giving up so much more than just the dollars shown on the price tag.

Quality over quantity.

In the era of Instagram and Amazon Prime, so many of the things that we buy are meant to solve an immediate, short-term need, and then be discarded.  The trends change constantly, and the products we buy are made cheaper and cheaper so that the manufacturers can keep up and continue making sales.  Our closets and landfills are filling up with the stuff that is “out”, has been replaced with the next big thing, or just does not work well anymore.

We need to stop wasting our time, money, space, and energy taken up by these low-quality, short-term items.  The next time you’re looking to buy something, seriously consider whether the purchase adds increased quality to your life and not just quantity to your stuff. 

Do I really need this? 

How much am I willing to pay to meet this need?

How many times will this product be used? 

What is the cost per use of this product?

How long will it last? 

Does the answer to these questions depend on the brands of the product that I’m considering?

Most often, the answer to “Do I really need this?” is “No” and we can skip the purchase and move on.  If the answer is yes, then we should make sure we are buying a product of sufficient quality to meet our need for an extended period of time.  The cost per use of an item increases if going the cheap route now means that you will have to upgrade or replace the product in the near future.  Often times, you’ll save money and space buy making the right purchase the first time.

Real-life minimalism is so much more than a style. 

Make it your own to make room for more of what matters to you!

Please share your thoughts in the comments!  Do you consider yourself a minimalist?  Are there characteristics of minimalism that you want to start applying to your life?

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