Minimalism

I love the idea.

To rely on only few things, not be disturbed by too much stuffs around you, be able to live with the very strict minimum. It makes life easier for sure! Not to mention avoiding buying, wasting, belonging to this one-time-use society.

However, I am sure I can’t live in an empty environment. I need warmth, colors, textiles, memories. These are carpets bargained in Turquey as a student, bowls found as we moved from Barcelona, drawings made by my children, photos taken when traveling around the world, objects collected on the way, little boxes from my grandmother, cards from friends and family, well, you name it, mostly things that I didn’t bought in a shop.

In fact, owning less right now is not my priority. I wish I could get rid of creating new needs, I only want to “not own more”. So I’ll keep things, what keeps me warm, but I am also working on bying the strict necessary from now on. As I didn’t bring much with me from Singapore, I could basically refurnish an entire home, completely new… So I made few rules to myself: (i) try to live with what I brought, (ii) borrow or swap (I just registered to the local library last Saturday! And I am a member of the local swap facebook community),(iii) if I need one thing more than 5 times, then I’ll see how I can get it (a hand blender!), (iv) do it myself (shelves, posters, decoration), (v) purchase it in a second hand shop (furnitures, glassware, clothes), (vi) or I‘ll study the best deal – I am quite good at looking for ages before bying, so that’s ok.

I am glad I could post this thought. I surely feel better with my approach; I think I felt guilty not to adhere to minimalism, taking into account my anti-consumerism and my wish to save the world (oh lala, what for a task!).

Of course, like many of us I’ve got another big resolution: I will minimalize the shopping for Xmas! Lets see how I’ll manage, this may be another post…