Don't Complicate Simplicity

My goal is not to own nothing, but to own only what contributes to the well being of myself and my family.

If you search the internet for articles about minimalism, you'll often come across people who define "minimalist" as a person who owns 100 possessions or less; that seems to be the general rule. I have my own ideas about what minimalism is. To me it means doing/owning/being only the minimum of what is essential for a happy life.

While I think counting your possessions is great if that's what works for you, personally, I prefer not to. For me, minimalism is about keeping my life as simple as possible. Setting rules (or worse, letting others set rules) about the number of items I'm allowed to own only complicates things, in my opinion, which defeats the purpose for me.

I want to eliminate as many of the "have to's" that I can, and replace them with "want to's." The more we own, the more we have to be responsible for. Of course having responsibilities can't be and shouldn't be completely avoided, but why be responsible for things that aren't necessary or contributing to my well being? On the flip side, there are certain possessions that make life simpler. Just ask the poorest person you can find if life would be easier if they could afford to own certain items or tools.

My goal is not to own nothing, but to own only what contributes to the well being of myself and my family.  It's all about priorities.  Decide what is important to you, keep things that contribute to that. Then decide what you can do without, and get rid of those things.  If setting rules and following them is important to you, then maybe only keeping a certain number of items will work well for you.

 For over a year we didn't own a couch, because we thought maybe we didn't need it. After testing it out, we ultimately decided to get one. We decided that having friends and family over is important to our happiness, and having a comfortable place to visit and relax with them was something we wanted to invest in. One thing we haven't owned for a really long time, and haven't missed, is a television.  It just isn't one of our priorities.  Someone once gave us a TV, and all it did was sit there and collect dust, so we gave it away and still haven't felt it to be essential for a full and happy life.

If someone wants to argue that I'm not a minimalist because I own more than 100 things, that's okay. Not a whole lot of my identity depends on that word, its just the only word that's been invented that best labels my lifestyle. If you want to be a stickler, go ahead and call me a "simplicityist" or an "efficiencyist." 

Complicating minimalism by making rules about what people can and cant own just feels contradictory to me. My only rule is that each possession should enrich my life.