I’ve never owned really nice things in my life. My family was not well off at all. My mother was excellent at making a dollar stretch and, together, my parents managed to raise four reasonably well adjusted children.

As an adult, I got into the bad habit of spending as much or more than I made, but most of it was not on nice stuff. I simply wasted it on restaurants, going out, entertainment, and coffee (lots of coffee). Even when I was making good money, more than most people in the country will ever make, it was going out as fast as it was coming in.

So, I never fell far into the trap of material possessions. But I also didn’t throw much away. I collected a lot of mostly useless things or stuff I no longer needed.

My first exposure to the idea of minimalism (also called essentialism) was when I read Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. It started me on the path to thinking about what I owned, why I owned it, and whether it was necessary. Some of her book gets a little weirdly spiritual but the first half was useful in providing a step-by-step method of going through my belongings and keeping only the important things.

I became more interested in this philosophy and watched a lot of YouTube videos on the subject. However, I didn’t want to become obsessed about it in the way it seemed many of those YouTubers were. So I picked and chose the changes I wanted to make in my life and, little by little, I got rid of clothes, books, electronics, papers, excess kitchen stuff, lots and lots of dog things, and so much more.

I’m probably down to 25% of what I originally owned, maybe even less. I’ll keep doing it with a gradual, unpressured approach and I’ll probably keep doing it my whole life.

It also helps to live in a 300 square foot apartment! Not much space to store stuff without tripping over it.

One of the side effects of all of this pruning and cleaning up is that I have become much more conscious of what I’m buying and why. I buy a lot less “stuff” than I used to.

One guy I read about decided he was only going to own 50 books (I think it was 50, might have been 20). So now, every time he wants to buy a new book, he has to decide which of his existing 50 he has to give away. I can see myself getting to that point with both clothes and books.

So what has been the net effect?

Well first, I now know where everything is! It’s not hard to find a place for everything when you don’t own more stuff than you have space for. All similar things are now in the same spot, which is helpful.

Second, I’m spending a lot less money because I’m not buying stupid things all the time, although admittedly the restaurants and coffee are still big parts of my life.

Third, I used to have this feeling of being pressured by clutter. I didn’t notice it very often, but sometimes it just felt like I couldn’t get away from the mess. It’s hard to explain but it was definitely there and, as soon as I had decluttered my place, I realized how much of that feeling had been with me every day and was now no longer bothering me.

I also decluttered my electronic life, but that’s a subject for a different post.

If you’re interested in this at all, I do recommend Marie Kondo’s book, although most people will probably find themselves disregarding at least half of it.

On YouTube, I highly recommend Nathaniel Drew and Matt D’Avella. Both of these guys talk about much more than just minimalism/essentialism (a lot of self improvement and time management subjects) but they are definitely living that type of life.

Matt also filmed the documentary Minimalism available on Netflix. I enjoyed it but, as mentioned above, I think people can get obsessive about it and maybe there was a touch of that in the movie. Still very enjoyable and thought-provoking.