Quiet Habits

In the world of minimalism blogs there is a lot of talk about decluttering your life and getting rid of your stuff. And while I fully support banishing excess clutter, I also think there is so much talk about getting rid of our physical items that we tend to see physical items as the villains keeping us from happiness and a simple life. This is simply not true. Nobody can thrive in a tiny one-room space with bare walls and only a few basic items necessary to live.

The fact is that not only do we need physical items to survive (cooking/eating utensils, clothing, hygiene products, and on and on) but we also require physical items to thrive in life. Things can make bring us joy. Things help us achieve our goals and dream. Things help us thrive.

We have a giant bean bag and a giant teddy bear in our playroom. They take up a lot of space and some might see them as unnecessary clutter. But our daughter loves playing with them. And I love falling onto the bean bag and relaxing after a long week or grabbing my daughter as she jumps onto the bean bag over and over. Both of these things take up a lot of space, but they're also tons of fun and we love having them around!

I could tell the same story about my laptop, the stack of notebooks and pens, my bicycle, and countless other items. They vastly improve my life in some way and I can hardly imagine life without them (yes, it would be possible, but it might not be my best life).

While you're on a minimalism journey, don't see physical things as the enemy. Physical things should improve, enable, or bring joy or beauty into your life (like an awesome pen, a beautiful painting, or a functional laptop). While physical things shouldn't be the focus of all your time and energy and I'm not advocating keeping every knick-knack and newspaper, we should see the beauty and functionality in our everyday items and enjoy our stuff.