I Failed at Minimalism
A compromise for pseudo-minimalists
Minimalism is getting out of hand. In a quest to own less than 100 items, some will find that it’s difficult to complete daily tasks without the right tools.
In the last year I wanted to go minimalist — or at least give it a try. So I made an attempt to declutter my life.
I wanted it to go well, I really did. Inspired by YouTube minimalist Matt D’Avella I envisioned a big trip to the dumpster with everything but the essentials. It started with my dresser.
I looked at each item and asked myself:
“What do I really need?”
After careful consideration, it turns out I needed almost all of it. Before my minimalist adventure, here’s how my dresser looked.
Overall, it’s not too bad.There a few things I could ditch: the lotion, Claritin, hockey pucks, my membership cards for the APTA, my cycling body glide (don’t ask what that’s for), and the black knee brace.
A true minimalist would recommend I purge some of these items, but I can’t really do that.
I use the body lotion daily in the winter due to the dry air. I pop a Claritin daily during the spring and fall, and I use the cycling bodyglide for my indoor and outdoor bike rides four days a week. The black knee brace is a project for work, which will be gone soon.
The membership cards need a better home, and I’m not totally sure why the hockey pucks are here.
I came to the realization thatI do need all of these things, but they don’t belong on my dresser.
- The black knee brace should probably go in my work bag
- I can put the Claritin away for the winter
- The bodyglide can go with my cycling gear
- My APTA membership card can go in a folder with my PT license
Here’s the finished product:
In every area of the house I run into the same issue: I use most of my items regularly. It feels like I’m already down the essentials — but why do I still have so much clutter?
I tend to leave things out if I use them regularly. This usually works well, until I no longer am using the items. Typically there’s a seasonal cycle with my items.
To fix my problem, I compromised with storage compartments. When purging is not an option, organization is the next best step. Each item should have a proper home to decrease cluttered surface.
Excited with my new organization project, I continued to other areas. I bought some nice looking storage bins to organize my life.
Now my desk, closet, and dresser are all looking tidy. I took all my clutter and grouped similar items in each drawer. When new items turn up, I need to make sure they get filtered back into the appropriate drawer.
The bins look nice from the outside, but beneath the surface is organized chaos. I’ll probably have to revisit each drawer yearly to see what items I can truly get rid of, but that’s a compromise I’m willing to make.
Careful purchases are a key to organization
In the last ten years, I have moved eight times. When I have to pack each item into a box, it showed me how much one can accumulate in a year. Now that I’m out of school and not moving as much, I don’t get this yearly evaluation of unnecessary items.
I’ve advocated for purposeful spending in the past and it has helped me tremendously in the quest for less clutter. Each item I purchase needs a purpose.
When I lived with my fiancé in a tiny shoebox apartment, we had a rule that if we bought something that takes up space, we’d have to get rid of something we don’t use. This rule helped to de-clutter, and decreased spending on items we didn’t need.
Now that we have more space, I still try to purchase with purpose. Sometimes I purchase items with the purpose of organizing my life. I recently purchased a desktop charging station to limit the wires on my nightstand and it has worked wonderfully.
I don’t think I can go full minimalist
I can’t live out of a backpack or a tiny house. It just doesn’t fit my lifestyle. I have a lot of different interests and hobbies, all of which require material items.
Sorry, Marie Kondo, not every item I own gives me joy — but I do use most of them pretty frequently. Though I won’t be purging anytime soon, I do believe I can stay committed to organization.
If purging is not an option for you, head over the container store to find creative ways to hide all your junk. You’ll leave your house feeling much less cluttered by the time it’s all done.
