When you become a minimalist, you will notice some interesting things about minimalism. Some are easy to guess. But some will be surprising. Still, others will become obvious, but only in hindsight. They will allow you to grow as a minimalist and in other areas of your life. So, here are some of the things you will notice about minimalism:
Every useful possession is a tool.
Every useful thing you own is a tool for doing something. So, a cup is a tool for containing a beverage. Also, a decorative item is a tool for making your home look better. If something is not a tool, it’s because you have no use for it. In that case, you might as well get rid of it because it is as good as garbage.
You are left with your favorite things.
When you become a minimalist, you start by removing the things that you don’t value very much. What you have left are the things you really value. So, if you get rid of the shirts you don’t like very much, you are left with your favorites. This goes for just about anything else you have.
You have enough things.
When you started decluttering, it’s because you had too many things. As you declutter, you will notice your home and quality of life improving. It becomes easier to keep your home clean. It is easier to find places to put things and it is easier to find your things. You will even have more time and money. Eventually, you will reach the point where you have just enough. If you need to replace something, you replace it. Then you will be back to having enough things again. You will become less likely to covet what you don’t have or envy someone who has it. This will be a major milestone in your life.
The empty space is often worth more than what you put in it.
Often, you can do some of the best decorating to a place by removing things. Similarly, removing weeds will improve a garden’s looks by more than adding extra flowers. In both cases, the empty space improved the looks more than the stuff that filled it. The empty space also gives you the freedom to move around. It also adds a feeling of tranquility that you cannot get from crowding your space. These show that the empty space gives more value than useless things that you can put in it.
Experiences are what matter.
We now know that useful possessions are just tools. We should know that every tool exists to enhance an experience. This means making the experience easier, more fun, or better in some other way. For example, a lamp exists to make the experience of seeing at night easier. So a material thing only benefits you if you can use it to enhance some experience. This means that experiences have primary importance over material things.
Your stuff can degrade your quality of life.
The home of a hoarder is proof that stuff can degrade your quality of life. It can rob you of space, time, and energy among other things. Also, your stuff can be a liability if you use paid storage. Clutter has become the scourge of home interiors and can turn a tranquil home into a chaotic mess. It is why many people choose to become minimalists in the first place. Also, decluttering only confirms what they realized.
High performance and efficiency demand minimalism.
A sprinter wearing a heavy backpack in a race is destined to lose. When you seek high performance, you can’t afford to waste any of it on useless stuff. The same goes for high efficiency. Efficiency is the ability to conserve resources while performing. Useless things waste resources. So excluding them is a must if you want to conserve resources. Minimalism is all about excluding useless things. So it is included in any system that is designed for either high performance or efficiency. It is why an engineer must think like a minimalist when designing an airplane or formula racer. In your life, improved efficiency will show up as an easier life. Higher performance will allow you to achieve more of what matters to you.
Minimalism is a tool to be used.
People who treat minimalism like an end to achieve end up feeling empty. That is because minimalism is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. In fact, minimalism is a tool for making your life simpler and easier. This frees up resources for you to do what is really important to you. In reality, you use a tool to do a task, and you do that task for a reason. In this case, minimalism is the tool, and making your life easier is the task. The reason is so that you can do what is important to you.
In summary, if you become a minimalist, here are some of the things you will learn about minimalism:
Every useful possession is a tool.
You are left with your favorite things.
You have enough things.
The empty space is often worth more than what you put in it.
Experiences are what matter.
Your stuff can degrade your quality of life.
High performance and efficiency demand minimalism.
Minimalism is a tool to be used.
Some of these are obvious, some are surprising, and others are only obvious in hindsight.