What is Minimalist?

Is it a way of dressing or decorating a house? So why are people talking more about being minimalist these days?

I think our lives become more and more complicated day by day. Everyone has social expectations. have their own burdens And there are many distractions around us, sometimes it’s ‘picking only the essentials’ to make us more attentive and happier in life.

But what exactly is minimalist, and what are its benefits? In this article, let’s take a look.

What is Minimalist? 

Minimalist (pronounced minimalist) is the principle of living by spending only what is essential. It is to reduce the unimportant things to make space only for the things that are valuable to us. This principle means that we must understand what is most important to us. which we should divide time and space for these things only

The word minimal (minimalist) literally translates as ‘very little’ or ‘minimal’. Minimalist means that it is someone who likes less. But the meaning of minimalist in this article is not so literal.

At the heart of being minimalist is finding clarity and purpose in life. and deliberately dedicating one’s life to them in particular Clarity and goals can mean family, work, hobbies, or even little things we enjoy. These things are not the same for each person. Therefore, we may not be able to use other people’s lifestyles to determine our lives.

The more we can understand our ‘want’ and ‘way of life’. It becomes easier to prioritize the things around us. Which would also mean that we could get closer to being minimalist as well.

But before we get into how to be minimalist, let’s take a look at the benefits of being minimalist.

Benefits of being minimalist?

Minimalist is creating ‘freedom’ for yourself.

if we can release ‘Unnecessary things’ can be removed from our lives. We will have space and freedom to spend time with the things we really love. We don’t have to be bound to the needs of society that we don’t want. We don’t have to waste time and money on things that are trivial and not necessary for us.

Creating space for the things we love means we save time, money, and focus that we spend on unnecessary things. This means that we will be able to focus more on the important people in our lives. Focus more on important tasks and focus on spending that really makes us happy

Doing things over and over without benefit is the opposite of being minimalist. Beneficial work with the main goal Or wasting time on things that we don’t really care about that much.

For example, the habit of ‘plowing Facebook’ or buying too many clothes that the wardrobe has no place to store. Things that seem small, but if they keep accumulating, our lives will have less space.

At this point, everyone probably understands the principles and basic advantages of being minimalist, but what are some ways that we can live like this? More ‘suits to us’…

how to be minimalist

These methods sound complicated, right? It’s always difficult to change everything. Human beings, when encountering difficult things, will ask ourselves, what are we remembering to change or endure for?

#1 Find Your Focus First

The first step to being a minimalist is choosing the part of your life that you want to be more ‘free’. or something great like managing some of your own bad habits

whatever your goal is The important thing at this stage is to choose what you can actually do or see that will improve your life.

#2 Create your own rules

The next step is to create your own rules. Everyone has the same meaning of freedom and the meaning of necessity. Therefore, in this section you need to draw a line which is the most important to you.

No matter what your minimal picture of life looks like Your rules must be able to get you to that picture.

Examples of minimalist rules might be ‘Wear more simple clothes’ or ‘Maximize work time by doing fewer non-value-added tasks’.

#3 Reduce what you have to repeat

The first thing you should reduce is non-essential repetition. There are two repetitions. Valuable duplication and non-value duplication. Value-creating repetition can be anything about your work. For example, answering customers or making snacks to sell.

What you should focus on first is reducing worthless repetition. For example, opening Line or opening Facebook every ten minutes…even though no one greeted me. If possible, you should set aside a limited time in your life to do these activities. For example, we can play Facebook for only 20 minutes, we can view emails for only 30 minutes, etc.

Actually repeating everything We can create a system to replace it. The more we understand the system and can make these systems ‘Easy for other people to do’ We have reduced the burden a lot.

#4 Minimize what you think is unimportant.

In addition to repetition We should also focus on the unimportant parts. Unimportant things may come in the form that you’ve been collecting for months and haven’t used yet, or tasks that aren’t necessary for your duties, for example.

Minimalist will not store unnecessary items. Because these items, in addition to taking up space that you should only give to important things. You still have to waste time. (Not in vain) to take care of these things too.

The treadmill or massager that we bought many years ago is never used. Or clothes that haven’t been worn for many years are examples of not being important. These items if we go to resell or donate. We will create more space in the house.

#5 Organize

After you’ve cut down on repetition and unnecessary stuff, The rest is what is necessary and important to you, right? But why does your life still feel chaotic?

That’s because some things have not been arranged neatly. Are you someone who likes to pile up clothes on the chair? Like to keep electrical cables tangle-free and messy? How do you arrange the documents at work?

Things that are important to us, if we don’t organize them well, they can get cluttered. Try to find an organization system that is easy for you to use.

#6 Find multipurpose items

The best example is ‘Multi-Purpose Knife’ Instead of storing knives, scissors, screwdrivers, we can only keep one utility knife. If you can find a lot of utility knives. When you want to do something, you don’t have to carry the whole house around.

#7 Start again with another part of your life.

If you can make it to this point, I’m sure your life will be quite minimalist. After this, just bring this way of life to apply to other parts as well. The more you apply Your life will be simpler and more comfortable.

The point of doing something new is to ‘Start small’, change too extreme or too fast No matter how good it is, it can make us feel uncomfortable or lose confidence. If we want to change ‘How to live’ really, we gradually do better.

What are we going to be minimalist for?

I have read this far. Some people may secretly think why being a minimalist has so many steps and it looks so chaotic. It matches the principle of reducing chaos at all.

which I agree with Humans are built to dislike change. and dislike the reduction of their own assets But what we really have to adjust is not the way of living? Another thing we have to adjust is our outlook on life.

reducing what we have (Only the things that we don’t need and we don’t like) doesn’t mean we’re less satisfied with our lives. Minimalist teaches us to appreciate the things we love more. And it’s a judgment that disturbs others around you. Reduce the mental pressure from things that we didn’t want in the first place. for example

• Comparing things that create happiness, values, goals and freedom to life and throw away all other unnecessary things. no matter what (such as clothes or documents) and things that we can’t touch (e.g. bad relationship feeling stressed or worried unprofitable habits and unimportant burden)
• Shift the focus of life to the things we can’t live without. Instead of worrying that we don’t have anything We choose to live with what makes us happier.
• Makes us more conscious of the things around us. Because living a minimalist lifestyle will make us question ourselves every day what is important. And what is valuable to us?

Signs that you should be more minimalist

I think everyone has these kinds of problems.

• Clothes that I bought many years ago that I never wore.
• Items that have been stored for many years and do not throw away because of regret
• A desk full of documents
• Shelves with books, unread magazines
• computer screen with more files than what is actually used
• The bathroom is full of unused bottles of soap, shampoo, conditioner.

Some things may not seem like a big problem in our lives so we don’t pay much attention to them. But when we look back on the days when we feel tired, we will feel that ‘Why is our life so messed up?’ Little problems will accumulate until the day you start to notice that ‘It’s too much’ that we have to find a solution.

Everyone has a corner in their life that feels cluttered, untidy, or unnecessary. If you see the benefits of being organized and organized You are more or less ready to accept the idea of ​​being minimalist.

What you should know about minimalist 

Although being minimalist is a principle that has been around for a long time. But there are still many things about minimalist that people don’t understand. Most of them are misunderstandings that make people not want to learn more about being a minimalist. ‘things to know’ about being minimalist that you don’t know yet

Less is More

Less is More or less but more principle Often heard in conjunction with the minimalist principle. Overall, the way of thinking is the same. You don’t have to use too much stuff. Do not do anything that we think is not important. Or some people may choose to move to a house that is even smaller than before. The more we reduce, the more space we have for something else.

Minimalist and creative

The less stuff we have, the next thing is creativity. which may conflict with the ideas of many people

Most people believe that the more stuff we have, the more ‘options’ and ‘factors’ we have, meaning we can do new things. Do something more creative But how true is it?

In fact, ‘limitation’ is the origin of creativity. The fewer options we have, the more we have to learn to always find new alternatives. Most world-changing innovations come from these limitations.

Minimalist doesn’t have to be frugal.

One of the biggest misconceptions people have about minimalists is that they think that life is unhappy. Because we didn’t spend anything.

We can use what we like. Choosing not to buy things we don’t want means that we can spend our time and money on things we really love. A big brand like Apple is known for being minimalist. The price of the product is not as light as ‘saving’ that people misunderstand.

Another case is the use of old or repetitive items. Saving is a good thing about being a minimalist, but saving too much to the point of not being happy in life is not a minimalist principle. we should also consider The ‘level of importance’ of things in one’s life

I think the most appropriate word is We just have to understand that each person’s ‘sufficiency’ is different. If we can accept that each person has different likes and dislikes We will be more open to minimalist ideas.

An example of a minimalist lifestyle

The minimalist lifestyle is linked to Japan. Which, to me, is possible for many reasons.

• Japan has a small area. make the advantages of ‘Store less’ is more
• Japanese people are highly disciplined people. It can be easily adapted into a minimalist daily routine.
• Japan is a country where people are highly stressed. cause the need for ‘Let go of unnecessary things’ out of life more.

Many people say that Japanese minimalist and Apple’s (or Steve Jobs’) minimalist come from the same place. which means that minimalist principles may actually be inspired by Zen Buddhism, more or less

Come back to look at the example of living life again. We can see many Japanese minimalist ways.

• use for bedding To save space, it can be folded during the day.
• The clothes and items in the closet are neatly folded. Put small boxes in the drawers to make it easy to organize the small items.
• dress with color tone control It doesn’t take a long time to choose clothes.
• find happiness from creating space in the house The more stuff, the less space to stretch.

And it’s no coincidence that their books ‘Reducing unnecessary things’ or ‘making rules for yourself’ These are the words that come from the majority of Japanese people. This country really is the king of organizing and regulating. Look at the creation of a ‘zero-waste’ production system like the Toyota plant.

Minimalist Some people like having a lot of space. Some people even don’t buy any furniture. because he likes the openness of the house

However, your minimalist lifestyle doesn’t always have to follow the Japanese minimalist lifestyle. Minimalist living is about ‘removing unnecessary things’ from around us. And the meaning of unnecessary things of each person may not be the same.

In Japan, the minimalist trend also has a negative effect on the country. The system has been reported that minimalist economies are ‘straining’ national economies as people stop spending extravagantly, resulting in lower overall expenditures per capita across the country.

Final Thoughts on Being a Minimalist

Minimalist is to enjoy being limited. We don’t need to do anything difficult. Don’t keep anything superfluous for yourself. The more we limit ourselves to simplicity happiness will come easier

To be a minimalist, start by organizing something simple. Big changes should start with small actions. Once we understand the benefits of being minimalist, we can begin to apply this principle to other areas of life later on. If organizing your home takes too much effort We may start with something simple, such as setting the table or setting the head of our bed first.

Finally, the most important thing is to do something consciously. Mindfulness will make us appreciate what we love and mindfulness will make us understand our needs more. If we are conscious, ranking the importance of everything in life will not be difficult anymore.