My minimalism

I own more than I can possibly use in a finite amount of time. I’m not extremely strict about what I own, meaning there are certainly people who intentionally have less than I do.

Moving has always been a good opportunity for me to get rid of things I don’t even use anymore. Especially my big move to Hamburg let me get rid of quite a few things. Then after I moved to Portugal for a year and a half, I really just pared down to the essentials. I sold or gave away my furniture, cleaned out my clothes and donated them. I ended up moving to Portugal with a big backpack, a cardboard box, my bike and my monitor. The first few weeks I had only my backpack. I only lived in already furnished apartments and at the end of my time abroad I even came back with less than I got there (my bike was stolen, the other guy must have used it more than I did). 🙂

I’ve been back in Germany for four years now and I’m of the opinion that I have (almost) nothing that I don’t use regularly.

The maximalism of others

We live in a society that allows us to have everything we can imagine and through a well-organized advertising machinery even things we didn’t even know we “needed”. Our neighbors show us what we don’t have and envy drives us to add one more on top. The new cell phone, the bigger car and the cupboards that are already overflowing and demand a bigger apartment to accommodate everything. All our consumption then drives us to a new neighborhood with a bigger apartment. In the new neighborhood, the game starts all over again – the neighbors now have even bigger cars and an even more extravagant lifestyle, which of course you don’t want to be inferior to. Where does all this “luxury” come from? How do our neighbors actually finance it? I don’t think they saved up for the new SUV for 10 years. ‘Saved’ is via the loan and the higher installments are paid off.

How much does the world cost when measured in time?

How many hours must one spend with work, in order to be able to allow itself the alleged luxury. If one writes down times for which one spends then in a week how much time, it is nevertheless amazingly how little one of the waking hours still remains, in order to arrange it after own conception.

Example:

If we assume that we sleep 7-9 hours per day, we still have 105-119 waking hours.

If we assume that we need more time for the general things in life than we have waking time available, then the question remains when we use all the things we buy at all. Somewhere you have to cut back, in my opinion, on the things that just sit in the closet

Where does minimalism come from?

The minimalism movement actually comes from art. Here, people do without everything that is not absolutely necessary. As with material minimalism, what is perceived can at first seem alienating. If you are not presented with a complete picture, you first have to deal with your own thoughts instead of having everything chewed out. It is required to focus the thoughts on a few elements, on just the most important.

Analogously, one can also draw a line to Material Minimalism, if we don’t have so many things that can distract us, we have the opportunity to deal more intensively with what remains to us. It’s not about doing without new purchases, but enjoying what we already have to the fullest.

In our consumer-driven society, this seems to be a contradiction. Of course, more is always better, right?

So why minimalism? What exactly is behind it?

Has the thought ever crossed your mind to spend more time on something, say reading? What keeps you from doing so?

Have you ever stood in front of your closet and wondered what to wear? Yes? But certainly not for lack of clothes.

As we saw earlier, we only have a limited amount of free time at our disposal. The more you own, the less of that limited time you can spend on each item

This means that the value of individual possessions increases directly with every item you own less of.

How do you find items you no longer need?

Pick up an item and consider if you have used it in the last 3 months, if not, chances are you won’t use it in the next 3 months either.

How do you manage to reduce your possessions?

There are several creative ways to do this

The minimalism game, or 30 days of getting rid of stuff

Every day for thirty days, you part with one more item than you did the day before. One item the first day, two the second, and so on.

Packing Party

A much more radical way to get rid of things you no longer need is to simulate a move. Everything, and I do mean everything, is either packed up, or in the case of large items, at least packed, just like a move. Unlike a real move, everything stays in the apartment

When you want to use an item you unpack it. You can decide for yourself how long you will give yourself, 30-60 days is a good measure. Everything you have not unpacked you can dispose of

Where to put the things you don’t need anymore?

Sell them

Give away

Throw away

And if I find out at some point that I do need an item?

Then there are neighbors and friends who are willing to borrow something. If you really realize that you are missing an item on a regular basis, you can always buy it (again). But only after a thorough evaluation.

Enclosed you will find the presentation I gave on 12.04.2018.

PDF: Minimalism

PowerPoint: Minimalism