With technology, the world is moving to minimalism. Personally I am trying to adopt as much of it as I can. When we thank about it; there is no reason to have 50 different shirts, 50 different pants, 10 different jackets, 10 different pairs of shoes. I would much rather have 14 pairs of each; enough for two weeks, and just plain clothing. I dont need to dress odd; but I dont need to dress up. Maybe have a single suit for special occasions.
But think about it; as a single man; I dont need 1000 things when I live in a generation where 10 things can do more than the previous generations 1000 things could. Why do I need to spend $$$$ on pictures, when I can get a few cheap TV's and have a flash drive loaded with 1,000 pictures I could change at will on my wall? Why do I need endless bookshelves when I can store 1,000 books on a single Kindle? Why do I need 1,000 cd's, records, or tapes; when a single MP3 player or Ipod will hold more music than them all?
Why do I need a 5 bedroom home, when everything I could use or want fits into a single room and closet? Americas biggest goal for every baby is to make them consumers by the time they are employed. Its like Robert Duvall's THX 1138, where on his way home from work he stops and buys a cube, in a selection of similar cubes only different in color. Then, before he exits the store, he throws it away to be recycled.
There is no getting around that we will take nothing with us. There is also no getting around that we are stewards of the finances we have been blessed with. I have walked into some men's garages where you cannot even move really because there is just so much merchandise; from the floor to the ceiling.
Personally, I am trying even in my food to become a minimalist, though this should be used discretionary according to health. But do I need 3 whole plates; bacon, eggs, toast, hashbrowns for breakfast; potato soup and and sandwich for lunch, and chicken, peas, and mashed potatoes for dinner? Or could I suffice with a nutritious shake for two meals and have a single good meal?
Minimalism is the future. Not only because we no longer live in a generation the option for spaciousness and excess is viable for most; especially economically; but also because technology is minimizing the actual space needed for the same things we have previously enjoyed to date.
I, too, am an advocate for simple living and minimalism.
My wife caught the minimalism bug first, although I think I've always been inwardly prone to it. My first apartment I had a set of silverware with a plate and a bowl. There was an air mattress and a television, but no furniture. I think when we downsized to one vehicle (a van) in 2019, it helped to cement my outward embrace of minimalism. The showiness of the old man can still show up sometimes, but I think he was secure below the deck by the grace of God since then. We have a Baptist association nearby that has a warehouse of stuff where you can drop things off and we've been able to give away much of what we'd accumulated that way.
As we prepare for the move to South Carolina next month, we just had junk removal services come by and remove a TV from the wall along with some broken and unwieldy larger pieces of furniture that we didn't want to move and don't plan to replace. By the grace of God, I believe that TV will be the last one we ever give such a prominent place in our home. It had been broken for a while, but we weren't quite sure how to take it off. We had cut the cord from cable probably a decade ago, but unplugging from some of the many streaming services took longer. It became harder and harder to find anything wholesome to watch, and much of what was wholesome had 2CV's. For too long we'd sought entertainment, and from strangers at that. On the furniture front, we've tried to seek out second hand options on Nextdoor. Everything else has been sparse and from Ikea. Buying quality in the furniture department has been a challenge, but thankfully it's been one in the very back row of our minds. Too much energy spent on nest feathering can't be good for the soul.
It's a similar story with our wardrobes. The children's leggings wear out the most and need to be replaced, but everything else seems to hold up well enough. I've got one or two jackets, one or two suits, and three pairs of pants and shirts that get rotated out. It's enough to mix and match. I think the biggest enemy of minimalism in the wardrobe department at this point can be big weight fluctuations. Sometimes we box something up but hold onto it just in case. Keep it or give it away and risk having to buy it again? It's a question that comes up from time to time, and one that hoarder's probably ask themselves, too!
On the home front, in our case we bought a five bedroom home, but only because we homeschool and have four children. We look forward to downsizing when we're able, but that may be a while. Our dream is for the three girls to stay with us while they're in college and/or until they're married and the oldest is eight years old, so we've got some time. My wife is a wonderful homemaker, but managing the square footage can wear on her. We wish there were more people building in the United States as they do over in Europe, where smaller bedrooms and more efficient living space can provide a significant reduction of the square footage necessary for a family of six to get by. All of the innovations in repurposing rooms, hiding beds in walls, cabinets that descend on wires from the ceiling, etc., are interesting, but far too expensive to ever be something we could see ourselves investing in. We also respect and acknowledge that all of these are truly first world problems, and some families larger than ours live in a single room in some parts of the world.
It is deeply humbling for our family to have such privilege that we get to focus on minimalism because we have so much while others in other parts of the world have so little.
P.S. When I read and watched those kinds of things, I was a big fan of the dystopia (or negative utopia) as a genre. I read and watched just about everything I could get my hands on in that space. In many ways we're in one now. So it should come as no surprise that I loved THX-1138 back in the day. Neat film.
