Looking for Help from Minimalists

Any minimalists here?

I’ve been on a spiritual journey for the past several months. Part of my spiritual growth has me leaning into my ascetical tendencies. This has led me to read about minimalism.

I’ve been familiar with minimalism for some time. I began, almost twenty years ago, trying to pursue a simpler life. I took up simple hobbies, tried to restrict the amount of new stuff I bought, and tempered my desires for big houses and fast cars.

But minimalism was never something I could take too seriously. I wanted to declutter (and did at times), but I found minimalism very restrictive, with people celebrating living with less than 100 things or posting pictures of a living with a futon in it. (One futon wouldn’t even sit my whole family.)

Yet, I find myself continuing to circle back to minimalism.

I’m intrigued by the idea of not letting “stuff” own or control me. I was inspired by Fumio Sasaki’s book, “Goodbye, Things,” to break the hold consumerism had over me.

And, to this day, I think I’m doing well with my goals. We are a one vehicle family, and it’s definitely not a sports car! We have a small house that suits our family well. We homeschool our kids and get to spend lots of time together as a family. We have a lot in a community garden where we grow some of our own food. We are conscious about waste.

But my real problem is my hobbies. #Nerdculture requires you to accumulate some things. I play Magic the Gathering and Pokemon and I read comics. I also read books. This all means that I have accumulated a lot of…stuff.

I’ve been able to part ways with some of my books–mostly by donation, some by selling. But the rest…well, they take up space.

What I *need* to do is go through the rest of my books, DVDs, and comics and pare down…significantly.

What I *want* to do is ignore it and hope it all goes away.

What are some of your tips (minimalists, especially) for not bringing more stuff in?

#minimalism #minimalist #declutter #pokemon #magicthegathering

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