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How To Do More and More With Less and Less, Until Finally You Can Do Everything With Nothing at All

(Note: This is the second post in a short series on minimalism.  You can view the first post here.)

Well, okay, I won’t claim that you can really do everything with nothing, but you can do an awful lot with surprisingly little — and you might be surprised at how much easier it is!  The solution to the burden of ownership is to embrace minimalism and unburden yourself of the unnecessary.

What is minimalism?

Minimalism is the conscious rejection of unnecessary complexity.  Best known in the art world, these days minimalism is making strides as a lifestyle principle.  There are different ways of applying this principle to your life, but the one that applies here is minimalism of possessions.  You can enjoy its benefits by owning only what you need and use regularly, the things that have the most value to you.  I’m reclaiming my space, time, money, attention, efficiency, and happiness by implementing minimalism in my own life.

There will always be things whose benefits outweigh their costs, and those things are truly owning.  For instance, the tools of your trade (in my case, my laptop and several reference books for programming and writing), basic necessities (a bed, a modest wardrobe, a reasonable amount of cookware, etc.), and the like probably offer a great deal of return on the resources you invest in them.  But when owning turns to hoarding (do I really need 50 t-shirts, or could I get by with a fraction of that number?), it’s time to turn to minimalism to help us maintain a nimble and efficient lifestyle.

Here’s a review of the six costs of ownership I identified in the first post in this series, and how minimalism addresses each:

• Space.  Minimalism frees up space so that we need not feel crowded, surfaces are clean and clear and ready for us to use, and the things we need are readily at hand and not buried under lots of other things that aren’t as necessary.
• Time.  Minimalism reduces the amount of housework that needs to be done.  Tidying up, washing, dusting, sweeping, and so forth go so much faster when we only have what we need.
• Money.  Every time you decide not to buy something you don’t need, that’s another dollar that you get to keep and use for something important.  You’ll save on upkeep and storage costs as well.
• Attention.  With less clutter consuming up your valuable attention, having fewer possessions can pay dividends in the form of greater focus.
• Efficiency.  When we’re not spending our valuable space, time, money, and attention on storing  and maintaining possessions, we have more resources to dedicate to the things that are really important.
• Happiness.  All these benefits add up to the conclusion that it is possible to be happier with less.  With a greater ability to focus on your most important work, your family and friends, and your personal life, you can find greater happiness with fewer possessions.

Now that I’ve established the costs of ownership and the benefits of minimalism, in my next couple of posts I will consider two approaches to simplifying your life by getting rid of the things you don’t need.