These days, we are surrounded by everything ‘WE THINK WE NEED”. But have we looked around and asked,
“How simple life can be?”
“What is truly essential in my life?”
“Who am I trying to impress?”
We end up spending based on our
- moods,
- presumptions,
- aesthetics,
- convenience level,
- excess money,
- temporary likings,
- sale opportunities,
- attraction to a particular thing,
- social buying,
- Unhealthy addictions and anything else you can think of.
Not denying that buying materialistic things can make us happy for some time, but the real satisfaction and utility is something that is long term and asks us to dig deeper and make healthy, helpful and good financial decisions. It will also lead to less financial distress, mindful decisions, less consumerism, and most importantly, less burden on the planet and its precious resources. The objective of this blog is not to buy less, curtail expenses, become stingy or to stop enjoying materialistic life, it is about diving deep into the things we really need to live a normal yet fulfilling life rather than getting consumed in the newness.
Hence, Minimalism as a growing concept, is about having minimal materialistic requirements that we feel are necessary for us. It boils down to what we truly value and cherish the most, while adding space for the better.
So, we will be tackling with
- Shelter and related expenses
- Nutrition
- Clothes, bags, shoes
- Technology
Shelter and related expenses
Whether you live in your own house or a rental apartment, much of the expenses are surrounding the furniture, utensils, appliances (television, heating/cooling appliances, refrigerator, mixer, fans, lights etc.) beds, entire kitchen set up, dining table, and other small pretty stackable stuffs that we buy to make it beautiful. These are all necessary to have a functional home. But have you wondered about
The stuffs people gift us while buying a new house like kitchen pans, crockery, tiffin boxes which are kept for guests or never used? For example
Show pieces that eat dust in closets
Too many art pieces, vases
Newspaper stacks
Old books that you planned to read but never read
Cardboard boxes
Old tech spare parts
Paper documents
“My sister got a guitar as a birthday gift which she always wanted. Now, it just lies there alone as a show piece.”
You see, a home is much more than a place to rest and reside. It has a lot of energy being stored in the form of things around us. Decluttering regularly will actually clean the house and also clear our mind to understand what we want.
Nutrition
This part of the blog depends on everyone’s food choices. We choose to have many food options that require certain utensils and methods of cooking. Deciding on a particular
Material i.e. steel, aluminum, glass, plastic, hematite
Types of food i.e. meal prep in the weekend, choosing a consistent lifestyle and nutritional requirement
And finally, stacking the food items that provide the utmost nutrition and wellbeing
Clothes, bags, shoes
This is the most important and talked about thing when we manage expenses and think what to buy. Almost all of us like shopping. We love to buy, do window shopping, deck ourselves with something new, and still wonder why we don’t have something good to wear.
Here, we definitely buy clothes, but not mindfully. We like what catches our eye and put them in the closet after wearing one or two times. That particular cloth stays there for years and again we head to shopping for something more. Not ignoring our likings, but we need to take a closer look at how many clothes we truly wear and what can be given to others or sold online.
A sample way to decide it here as follows
- Footwear- 1-2 pairs of sport shoes, socks, ballerinas, slippers, heels, sandals, juti
- Fitness- minimum 3-4 pairs of innerwear, track pants, t-shirts, yoga mat, towel, bottle
- Hair and Skin- essential oils of your choice, shampoo, conditioner, soaps, moisturizer, shaving/waxing kit, cosmetics and accessories (bare minimum), creams, nail cutter
- Bag- one handbag, school bag, 2-3 travel bags, laptop bag, wallet x2
- Clothes- Jeans, tops, hankies, sanitizer, formal pants and shirts, sarees, suit, dresses, inner wear.
“When we shop, we look for brands more than the quality of the product. Not that branded clothes are bad, but we choose the image of ourselves and become identity conscious instead of being quality conscious. We associate our worth with the brand that we use, but such things are just things, nothing more than that. The key is to go for quality and sustaining products.”
Technology
These days, technology has made our life convenient, but complex too. We are literally surrounded by tech devices that guide our daily lives. Right from the start, we check our phones and let it decide the course of our day. It is imperative that our life has more of social and less of media. On the other hand, it is necessary to have them because the world is online. Post COVID-19, it is now the new normal.
Latest and quality tech devices like laptops, mobile phones, smart watches, tabs, headsets are valuables that make our lives convenient. For example, investing well in a good quality earphone set is a must for those who love music. Also, there are many CDs, floppy disks, old wires, cables, chargers, cassette players, IPod that we have treasured to keep a memory, but asking ourselves again and again about what is important is key.
Artificial intelligence and Internet of Things are a real thing tomorrow and for the years coming. It is important that we choose a balance of online and offline world to truly connect with ourselves.
Miscellaneous
There are other things which are subjective to you that can be sorted. Some are based on my experiences, for example
- Not buying new but second hand books
- Similarly with cars, cycles, bikes, which are in good condition to be used if our main concern is to reach from point A to point B instead of the brand/specifications
- Having a good eye wear and other personal things
- Having a good back support while working/or anything that works for you
- A good journal and pen
- Accordion folder for all the important documents
- Selling our good conditioned clothes on online marketplaces
Thus, having a clean, well maintained and intentional life with necessary items is worth investing for your peace. On the other hand, a balance needed to be struck between mindlessly throwing and cleaning the house and storing everything we buy to assume a future use. We as humans definitely think that we are supposed to enjoy and accumulate material abundance like everyone else, but living a more sustainable, clutter free and intentional life where the purpose of living is defined and working towards a goal is important than just going behind consumerism and mere existence.