Decluttering

This was around the time I went deep into Stoicism philosophies. Also, I wanted to make minimalism a part of this blog’s identity.

The dilemma

However there was a problem… What exactly did minimalism really mean?! A bit of backstory, prior to opening this us I had a good idea of stoicism, responsibility and the idea of challenging myself. It was all through the consistent exposure in the last two years of high successful, influential, yet genuine and down to earth individuals.

Growing up in a first generation immigrant family I observed my parents and extended family living quite under their means.

Ok, being cheap.

There I said it.

I can tell those stories at a later date. The essential part was that their frugal habits have been instilled upon me. I called myself a minimalist without really knowing what it really was. Most likely I wasn’t really a minimalist.

Prior to learning of the community and idea of Minimalism. Hearing the term this is what I would think:

Being content with your life with less.
Very simplistic dressed individuals
Having less junk, only having the essentials.
Being free from society, away from this consumerist/capitalistic bandwagon

I feel that as a younger person my idea of minimalism would be drastically different from let’s say… a person in their forties or fifties that have a family to take care of. This current definition comes from a narrow and selfish point of view.

So, a spark of curiosity ignited in my brain.

Educating myself on Minimalism

I did some digging I came across some interesting resources and people who follow and preach Minimalism:

For example, a huge youtuber Matt D’Avella bloggers/writers: theminimalists, KonMari method for organization your items from Japanese lifestyle consultant Marie Kondo*, and other sources such as blogs and youtube channels.

At a general consensus Minimalism is questioning yourself of what adds value to your life. Part of that journey is to tidy and declutter things in your life that will make clear vision to a more deliberate meaningful life. To live a more meaningful is the sole purpose of Matt’s Youtube channel.

theminimalists urge us to ask ourselves: How might your life be better if you owned less possessions?

Ever since I started working I began to question our society. We are so privileged. We believe that happiness comes from the things that we own or what we spend our money on. Therefore we get into the cycle of earning more just to spend on more. I definitely was not a minimalist at the start of my career when I spent each pay check eating out in various hip downtown cafes and restaurants. Yet skimping out on things that were much more important and lasting, like my essential expenses, quality time with friends and family. Jokes on me, haha

Therefore after a week and a half of studying this whole idea and community I wanted to try the simplest and easiest step that is the physical manifestation of minimalism. Decluttering.

That is, to audit my possessions.

How can I go about cleaning up all my sh*!?

There were two methods I came upon for decluttering:

I read Marie Kondo’s book: the life-changing magic of tidying up. That is basically a book course of her method as to how to clean and declutter her room. It starts off my figuring out your lifestyle and how tidying would help. Then it comes with simple organizational method. Those are practical and straightforward steps I could follow as a technical person.

Next was the 30 day challenge from the minimalists, game. Each day, from 1 to 30 you would depart with that number of possessions. This is also straightforward, but there is a catch. This challenge gets progressively harder and you will notice it by the second week, around day 15.

I have always been a person in a rush for quick results. I did not put either of the two in practice. Instead opted for a clean-up spree over the weekend. However in the future if or when I need to declutter again I would like to combine the two. Gamifying my decluttering being mindful with the KonMari Method.

I would implement Marie’s method to categorize and organize items based on their function and its huge amount of sentiment it brings while I look for items to discard with on each day of the challenge.

How I felt after decluttering

There were two rooms that I can call my own, thus two rooms of decluttering. My bedroom, my work/computer room. The rule imposed on myself was to declutter only items that were mine.

Of course it would be easy throwing away my parent’s stuff. Though rude and disrespectful. Before this I would say I was a pretty organized and clean guy.

Well was I ever wrong…. In fact, In the two days of cleaning up I threw away many things, such as empty boxes of electronics, clothing, misc papers, stationary, old unused toys from my childhood and DVD’s.

During the process of cleaning there were some mental frustrations when coming upon some items of sentimental value and items that I justified myself of one time/just in case usage. It was significantly easier to start with items that KonMari method suggested. I was quick enough to hijack my thoughts of hoarding and keeping items and threw away as much as I could going over the mental model of the inherent value the item provided in my life.

At the end of it all:

1. I organized all the clothing in my drawers with the KonMari method.
2. Filled up 6 garbage bags worth of stuff.
3. Sorted out separate bags to donate my toys, books and clothing
4. I did away with an entire cabinet in my bedroom

I felt the process of decluttering physical also was a remedy to declutter my headspace. The week prior I was feeling stressed and overwhelmed with other aspects of my life, but after this…. I felt clear. I felt instantly happier, especially after seeing the results of my cleaning.

Tidying is one of the things where you put in the effort and you can see the results immediately! All it took was probably 4/5 hours of my time in total over the course of two days.

Now that this challenge is done it reinforces the idea of minimalism of how much of the stuff that we own actually owns us. How much of the stuff we have, is actually useful in our life?

This is a necessary step to living my life deliberately.

Notes:

1. Marie Kondo is not a proponent of minimalism, but her methods for tidying and finding value with your items coincide with minimalism.