My Minimalism Goals | Minimalist Home
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- Опубліковано 23 лип 2024
- I talk about goals a lot because I think they're really important. Defining goals can be useful for all sorts of things, including decluttering, because goals help us to understand our motivations and keep us on track towards achieving them. Today, I thought I would share my minimalism goals for my home to give you a little insight into what I hope to achieve through minimalism and what the end goal looks like for me.
Hope you enjoy it!
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“I don’t want to keep throwing away vacations” Yes girl!!! Love love love!!!
How do you only have 8,000 subscribers!? I love all of your content! I'm on my minimalist/essentialist journey and your ideas, declutter sessions, processes and anecdotes have been quite helpful. Your dry sense of humor is also right up my alley. 😊
Ha! I am a hidden gem in the youtube universe. But honestly, I'm amazed that 8,000 people have found me and want to hear what I have to say. I was blown away when I reached 100 subscribers, so I take it as a huge compliment that so many people want to follow me through this experience. Thanks for being one of them, and best of luck with your own journey!
The tone of your voice makes me feel calm, after I saw one of your videos, getting rid of things was way more easy. Now I'm looking forward to have a capsule wardrobe in the near future. Keep doing these great videos :)
Thanks! Best of luck with your capsule! Capsule wardrobes definitely were the gateway to helping me dramatically downsize my entire wardrobe.
I love the witty, snappy one-liners at the opening of a lot of the videos. "I have a zit on my eye and everything is crap" - I snort- laughed so hard my tea came out my nose.
These are some great goals. You did a good job of articulating goals that were vaguely floating around in my head but that I hadn't fully recognized yet! :-)
Great! I hope it helps!
Excellent, as always. Your videos are always a treat, always inspirational, and always make so much sense. Thank you!
I loved the point about letting our spaces how much they can hold! I recently downsized from a clothing rack and a large wardrobe to a small chest of drawers. Since they are pretty small I thought I would keep the clothing rack 'just in case' I get more clothes and they don't fit but I realise now that I don't need to keep it as I don't need to buy any more clothes.
Great video as usual! Thanks! :)
Thanks! Our spaces can not only tell us how much they want us to downsize but also help to reinforce that we don't exceed that limit again.
"Nagging feeling in the back of my mind" is exactly how I feel about my craft room. UGH! I have good intentions of doing the projects, but some of the items I have had for years and haven't gotten around to completing. You NAILED this so well in your description. Thanks for sharing. You put words to some of the feelings that I too have about clutter.
Thanks! I too have a few projects I haven't completed, so I can definitely sympathize and I'm trying to be better about it. I'm going to try to limit some of my known "time wasters" and actually wrap them up. Best of luck with your craft room!
Thoughtful and eye opening, as always. 💡👍🏻
Many of these are my goals too. I just never thought about putting it into such clear terms. Thanks!
Good! I think defining these goals--actually writing them down and saying them out loud--has helped me a lot. I hope they help you too!
I just love your videos and your general attitude. Always get some extra inspiration when I watch your content!! Thank you :)
Aww, thank you!
Throwing away vacations. YES!!!
I love all of these reasons for decluttering.
Be prepared for visitors!!
Nice one, I adopted it, I am not a wreck when I hear the doorbell 😊
Best video! Thanks so much, very inspiring.
I greatly appreciate this video, especially after watching your Home Tour video. This helps me put certain things into perspective regarding my home and possessions. Thanks for sharing with us.
I can't say that I've met all of those goals fully yet, but I've at least made headway into each of them. I'm glad you saw the connection!
I absolutely like your videos, your thought process and the clarity that comes through your words. One of the only very few channels on youtube that I have turned notifications ON. Thank you for sharing your journey here.
Aww, thank you! I'm glad you enjoy the videos!
Great sensible tips. Enjoyed this.
Good stuff here. Thanks!
you are very good at minimalism and in declutter
Your videos really help give me perspective! I think you’re awesome!
Aww, thanks! I hope they help! I can actually say now that I am aware of everything in my house (not counting the shed). It feels so good!
This was a great video, thank you so much for sharing your ideas. I think we have very different lifestyles (in live on a smallholding in northern England) but I share so many of your goals and ideals. I really enjoy your videos, please keep creating!
I'm glad you liked the video! Can we swap lives? I would love to live in England one day!
I've been watching your videos for the last few weeks but this is my first comment! As many people have said, you do such a great job expressing useful advice without being judgmental and also keeping the thoughts concise and simple. :) Thank you! I first started being more intentional about downsizing my items when I moved across the country and needed to fit everything into 2 suitcases. I started a spreadsheet of Everything I Own and have actually continued to keep it up pretty religiously since. My goal is to stay within 800 total items, haha! Another goal I have is "If my place was infested by bedbugs, would I be able to clean everything in one day?" You guessed it, I've gone through the bedbug horror and it really encouraged me to get rid of a ton of clothes and to only buy clothes that could go through some intense heat drying. Thinking in terms of bedbugs really helps give you perspective. Once you have to take ALL your clothes and fabrics to the laundromat, you have a whole new sense of what you truly need and what really just gets in the way.
I hope this was helpful or at least fun to read for anyone out there!
That's sounds great! Well, the 2 suitcases and spreadsheet of all possessions sounds great to the part of me that really appreciates numbers. Bedbugs not so much. Fortunately I've never had to deal with them, but it reminds me of an article I read recently essentially on how crappy laundry machines and detergent are at getting rid of bacteria (www.stopthestomachflu.com/does-clean-laundry-have-germs-1). Like the author, I know that some bacteria is good, so I probably won't do my laundry any differently in the future, but a small part of my mind fantasized about replacing all the fabrics I own with only white fabrics so I could bleach everything!
What a great goal and useful mental exercise, Alyssa! You've really got me thinking with that bedbug scenario. I've been through fleas with my cats before and have had to bomb my whole house. Not fun. But getting the situation under control would have been a lot easier if we'd had less stuff. I'll definitely keep this in mind as I go along with my own de-clutter goals.
I have two requests for videos: 1. A video included Mr. Vested, and what he thinks of what you're doing, and how much what you're doing is influencing him, etc. 2. A video about small wardrobes when you have work clothes and non-work clothes. My work clothes can't be my casual clothes.
1. Mr. Vested does not want to be in a video, but I asked him your questions and a few of my own and here are his responses. He said that he appreciates that I've been decluttering our house: "It's not even that it's more organized now; it's that there's less fat--there's less stuff to need to be organized in the first place." He also noted that our mornings are much less stressful now that I have a small wardrobe, and I don't spend ages getting dressed. My husband also doesn't have a ton of personal possessions of his own, though he definitely owns more clothing than I do at this point. I asked if he considers himself a minimalist. He replied, "No, I'm just cheap." He also read TLCMOTU and we did some of the decluttering together. He folds his shirts and keeps them standing in their drawer, just like Marie Kondo recommends. I asked if he has regretted any of the things that he/we have gotten rid of, and he said no very easily. I brought up our abundance of sleeping bags, and he said "sleeping bags are to me what face creams are to you," and noted that two sleeping bags are for warmer weather while two are for the cold, so I guess that's fair enough.
2. I think that's a great video idea, and I will think on it and add it to the list! I used to work in a department store, so I had to wear certain colors and certain layers, but there was a bit of flexibility beyond that. I'll try to think about different scenarios (e.g. scrubs, I-work-at-AT&T-and-here-is-my-blue-polo, heavy-duty work gear, I-am-a-lawyer-and-here-are-my-suits-but-on-weekends-I-wear-short-shorts-and-glitter, am I missing any?) and try to come up with something.
I concur with the video considering multiple wardrobes! I fall into the "business-casual/professional M-F, but jeans and graphic tees on the weekends" category. May I humbly suggest consideration for outdoor hobbies, such as hiking, camping, rock-climbing, or sports that require more technical clothing?
I very much enjoyed this video. Your goals have provided me with much food for thought. They are practical and inspiring at the same time. Thank you.
I'm glad you liked them!
We can have a clear idea of why are we minimalist by having a list of goals, thank you.
Thank you for sharing your ideas. I’ve found your channel really helpful!
Of course! I hope the videos help!
"4 sleeping bags for 2 people." We are evidently married (well, partnered) to the same man.
Thank you for sharing ur goals, very inspirational, im not maintaining a house of my own as im still living with my parents but this year i get to do a room makeover and im definitely going to apply some good rules for myself to better organize my own stuff
A room makeover sounds wonderful! Best of luck!
Enjoy living at home. It’s great to live in a home full of people. I lived at home until I was married and it’s so nice to see families living together and helping each other. I think I kept my grandmother young living there. She lived to almost 100. I wouldn’t trade those days for anything. My bedroom was so organized and clean. I miss decorating that room. Hope you have lots of happy memories too.
Organized Minimalist thank you for reminding that sharing a home is a thing to appreciate, thats very important and is an opportunity to affect others positively daily :) gonna make the best of it while it lasts :)
thank you for sharing this to us~ :) it's really helping me so much as i reference this vid to my personal life style goals, so again, thanks for sharing this~
That's great! Glad you're finding it useful!
This book sounds interesting I wanna look into reading it! It's always good to get some inspiration, thanks for sharing this!! 🙏
I wasn't much of a fan of the style in which it was written, but the content was good.
Thank you for your video. I don’t plan on ever moving out of my house either and I feel the house needs to embrace our lifestyle. I have a child with severe autism and an elderly Westie dog. I’m doing this minimalism lifestyle slowly to make sure I am on the right path. It’s about being present for the needs of my family. I’ve stopped shopping for unnecessary things. It’s amazing how much we zombie shop. I am accountable for everything that comes in and out of the house from now on. I do have slip ups from time to time but not as often I also have charity truck pickups twice a month to keep me focused.
Very nice! I like the idea of scheduled charity pick ups. That sounds super convenient and motivating.
As other comments have articulated, you have taken minimalist goals to another level with the “why” and the desired results. You have differentiated yourself in this space. Interestingly, even though I have achieved a reasonable level of minimalism and having a place for everything and visa versa, I could not find a particular attachment for my iPhone this morning. I was delayed in starting my day and got so frustrated. Finally found it and hence made an imprint on my brain as to where it lives.
It’s akin to putting something in a safe place and then not knowing where that safe place is 😵
Ha! Well I'm glad you did end up finding it eventually. Fortunately, with fewer possessions overall, if something does go missing, it usually doesn't take that long to find it!
I had a ton of word books from my years as a medical transcriptionist and I also had several transcription machines. I finally donated all of the books and sent the machines to an old coworker who was still doing the job. It was so freeing to let them go. I love this list.
That's great! It feels so nice to be able to give things to new homes where we know they will be used and appreciated. Congrats!
Omg! This was like talking to myself (lil angel vs lil devil style) and only hearing the cohesive part of me! 💕
Oh good! I think many of us have the same nebulous goals, but sometimes spending a little time articulating them and trying to pin them down can make them easier to strive for and achieve. Hope the video helps!
I know this is completely off topic but.... I LOVE the silver streaks in your hair!!! Oh, and the video is good too. 😀
My dad started going grey in middle school and was almost completely grey by the time he was 20. Me and my (younger) brother have always had grey hairs, since we were kids, but my brother has a lot more grey than me, including one very stylish grey streak in the middle of his hair line. I'm not so lucky--mine is just sprinkled throughout!
Thank you for this video! (not that I don't love the others ;-) ) But right now I'm mentaly loosing my main goals for my home...and this was so inspiring - and I think it hit a nerve in me. Yes! Thank you for sharing. Love to here your thoughts about decluttering/living etc.
Oh good! I hope the tips/goals help!
I know it will
i DO want to live in a van. my minimalist goals are a liiiiiitle different, but this is great inspiration to make my own list to really narrow it down as i do my final cullings
My best friend has downsized to a truck, which I'm a little jealous of, and I love watching #vanlife videos. At this point, I just don't think it would be best for my situation. If I didn't have the hubs and the cat, it might be a very different story! Best of luck with your downsizing and your upcoming travels! I will live vicariously through people like you!
Really enjoys your video from Australia 😊 thanks
Thank you!
Awesome video! As a minimalist, if I had to write down a list of home goals, I would use the same ones you mentioned. Those are exactly what I have been pursuing over the past two years and I am glad that my husband and I have already achieved almost all of those goals. However, there is always room for improvement and our biggest challenge right now is to fill the void after being clutter-free in material and non-material aspects, that means, how to live more intentionally from now on. Greetings from Brazil!
Congratulations on achieving your goals! That sounds wonderful. Regarding "filling the void," I personally want meeting these goals to give me more clarity of thought, more opportunities to spend quality time with my husband, and taking more time to travel would be great as well. Best of luck with your own intentional living!
Best of luck to you guys too during your journey! Thanks for replying!
As always, excellent video. There's plenty to think about, which is an aspect of your videos that I love.
I have a long-range goal (5 or so years, I would estimate) of designing my own home and moving to Oregon to live in it by myself. (I currently live with my elderly mom and my adult son.) In designing this future home, I came to realize one day that there were no bedroom closets, or really any closets anywhere. I currently do not use my closet, so in my new home, obviously, I won't need them. Many of the closets in my current home are under-utilized.
Then it occurred to me that at some point my son will be selling this home and it just might be that a family of four with a family-of-four's worth of belongings might want the house. I had to laugh at myself and then add closets to rooms, knowing full well they'd probably remain empty.
Anyway, rambling aside, it's interesting to think about areas in a future home, how to make them function efficiently for me, and then to think how they might be used by someone totally outside any kind of minimalist mindset. It's becoming a fun adventure in not only thinking outside the box for my needs, but thinking as a totally different person looking at the same space.
That is an interesting situation! I counter your rambling with my own rambling: I currently have things in my closets, but I am starting to wish I had fewer closets and fewer cabinets and fewer storage areas in general so I would be confronted by my things more often and actually have to deal with them, i.e. get rid of them and not buy more of them. Regarding your particular home-design situation, I kind of think the home you design for yourself should truly be for you and your needs. Most people never get that opportunity, so if you have the change to build your dream house, make it YOUR dream house. Also, minimalism is becoming more and more popular for a lot of socio-economic reasons that I'm sure you already understand, so it's entirely possible that, in the future, your son will be able to sell the house to a family whose needs are met perfectly by how it was designed in the first place. It's also possible that the future buyers would see it as an opportunity to customize the house to meet their own needs. I am currently obsessed with the BBC show "Escape to the Country" and I cannot count the number of times people have said "well, we can just take down this wall and put a dressing room there," so I think you're safe.
You sound like my son. "If you're paying for it, it should be you." I bow to your wisdom and his...lol. It's probably also a tad cheaper to not build things than to build them, so there's that.
I have walls that I intend to be easily taken down. I designed what would be a "library hallway" with just a long freestanding bookshelf facing a wall of windows, and a big comfy chair with a lamp at one end, and the front door at the other. (I somehow also see little kids riding trikes and such around and around it. Possibly grandkids??). It's a pure indulgence for me and utterly impractical, IMO, for almost anyone else. But if the wall's removed, the dining room gets bigger.
It's an interesting exercise though in learning what's important to me and what's not. The master bedroom is huge, as is the master bath--and the bedroom has a door that opens into the kitchen, where the nearest counter holds whatever I have that makes coffee :) It's also helping me realize what's important to me NOW and what I really do not need in my life. Since making the plans, I've gotten rid of another round of donation boxes.
I also intend to make the cross-country trip with my personal belongings tucked away in the trunk of my car--I've downsized from the previously envisioned pickup truck. There's little beyond clothing I'd ever take, and whatever I need I'm fairly confident is availble on the other end.
I think the library hallway sounds wonderful. I really hope there's a rolling ladder!
More things for the not-yet-in-existence-grandkids to play on! I'll have to add that to the plans.
These are so good; I’ve been trying to figure what’s next for me on my simplifying journey. I’d love to hear more specifics for how to downsize to make cleaning easier. Being company-ready and able to fit my possessions in the closets, cupboards and drawers my house came with sounds great.
My cleaning "routine," if we want to be generous and call it that, is still evolving, but here are some examples: I now keep my bathroom vanity almost entirely clear (save for a soap pump and a candle), and I'm working on removing more items from my kitchen countertops, so wiping those down more regularly is a lot easier because there are fewer things to move to get it done; in the guest room, I've made progress towards removing our own possessions, which means giving it a quick once over before guests come is loads easier; and vacuuming is and has been pretty easy for a while now because there aren't things cluttering up the floors.
Vested Interests I appreciate those examples - thank you!
Great Goals! I will steal some of them 😇 You caught me at crafting stuff I should use... there are so many projects in my head but so little time 🙈
I'm glad you enjoyed them! I saw a post on instagram recently that said something like "Why buy that thing, when I could make it myself for 6x the price?" 😂 I'm not at all trying to discourage creativity, but I do know, from experience, that it ain't cheap!
Vested Interests oh so true!! 😆 same with recipes. I never follow them exactely. Improvising till you end up somewhere completely else.😋
Love your video. I am back from 10 days in Israel with family and mainly regret the amount of sh*t I packed to cart around that I did not wear or use ... even after (what I thought was) carefully curated with lists & planning. I did not purchase excessive souvenirs or gifts. I packed suitcases to come home carefully with unworn & unused things segregated from worn & used things. I know this topic is completely unrelated to the topic of this video but it just goes to show how much clutter my life contains. I appreciate your channel & insights & advice.
Yay! You're home, and now the decluttering can begin! Re: packing: I think everyone tends to pack a little extra "just in case," so don't be too hard on yourself. I usually travel with whatever fits in my backpack, and I don't even always use all the things I bring. Best of luck as you start to declutter! I'm really excited for you to start your journey, and I will be living vicariously through you. (Also, for summer in Israel, I thought you only needed a bathing suit, flip flops, and maybe a pair of shorts.)
Vested Interests My mother-in-law was being honored by Hebrew University with a Honorary Fellowship with associated galas and dinners and teas with the President & Chancellor of HU so dressier clothes were necessary. However well-planned, I got very ill from an antibiotic prescribed by my doctor for an infection from a pedicure and could barely eat anything Israeli (fresh fruits & veggies) without dire consequences. I ended up in hotel room (quite elegant @ King David Hotel) in a pair of comfy shorts & oversize tshirt for the better part of the visit. Those items I added as an afterthought just before I zip closed my big 26 inch checked suitcase!!!!
Oh no, that sounds terrible! Hope you're feeling better!
I had to go back and re-play goal number 9, like three times, to really let it sink in! This is the lesson I most need to learn. I go through shopping binge-and-purge cycles, where I'll buy a ton of stuff thinking I'm being more true to what I really want, but a less than a year later, going "what was I thinking?! I'll never use that!" I have also given away $$$$ worth of stuff. And, while I usually always feel better about getting rid of items that aren't serving me anymore, I still feel hella-guilty for buying them in the first place. I'm currently on a shopping diet, where I have strict budgets for specific categories of stuff and am using an app to hold me accountable. That being said, I think I need to be more mindful and pay attention to the kinds of things that I bring into my home, just to turn around and get rid of it later. Lessons to be learned, there. Thanks again for the awesome content!
I haven't yet given myself a budget, but I am trying to be better about saving, which does affect my spending habits as I have less to play around with. Switching to a debit card for all but really large purchases has helped as well.
The only thing that sucks about the budget is that if I allot a specific amount of money for clothes each month, then spend it (right away), it takes an immense amount of discipline not to buy more later in the month. But I understand that my discomfort with limitations is the EXACT reason I need a budget. Clearly, my spending habits are out of control. Having the budget has really got me asking questions of myself as far as what I really need, and if it’s worth throwing off next month’s budget for the satisfaction of purchasing something right now.
Ahh, I see. No judgment, but I have a suggestion: try a shopping fast. If you shop a ton and you want to change your relationship to shopping, a monthly clothing budget might actually not be helpful right now. I'm making some assumptions here, but having a set amount of money that you allow yourself to spend on clothing each month **could** actually make you want to shop more, because you have this reminder of funds allocated specifically for clothing, and then, when you do go into a shop, it could be even more stressful because you have limited resources. Maybe the thing you want is outside your budget, so you blow the budget, or you may end up buying pieces you don't really want or need just because they're less expensive. If you truly want to spend less money long-term, you need to completely break the mindset that clothing is something you need to buy every month in the first place.
If you want to give up sugar, you don't let yourself still have a bowl of ice cream every night--your body will keep looking for and craving the sugar. If you want to stop your craving for shopping, in my experience, you have to cut it out completely.
It's a really great suggestion. And one that I will seriously consider. You are certainly right about it being more stressful trying to balance it out.
You are amazing! How do you do that? Every one of this goals is so thoughtful and relevant!
Ha! I've had a while to think about and refine them!
Thanks for the great video. Could you please do a video on dealing with guilt that comes with decluttering expensive items.TIA
I have a note on my phone to make a video on this topic, I just need to find the time to make a video! In the meantime, here are my thoughts: I've mentioned this concept before, but what you're dealing with is called "sunk cost fallacy." When we buy something, especially something expensive, we expect or hope that the utility we get from that item will be proportional to what we paid for it. When it turns out that we don't actually use the item and start to consider parting with it, we may feel guilty because we invested a lot of money into it and we don't feel that we got "our money's worth." BUT we already paid for it, a long time ago, in the past. The money is gone, but we'll continue to pay for it if we keep it around: we'll pay its rent to store it and we'll continue to pay out our mental energy every time we think about the item. I actually talk about guilt in my video on decluttering sentimental items (ua-cam.com/video/iD3D80lf9CM/v-deo.html). In a nutshell, if we are keeping items that make us feel guilty, the only effect that those items have on us is negative: we'll feel guilty that we want to get rid of it, and we'll feel bad every time we look at it because we know we don't need it and we're keeping it for negative reasons. I personally recommend getting rid of the item, even if you feel temporarily guilty about it. In a week, you'll completely forget you ever owned the item to begin with.
Great guidelines. Can you give an example of a “silent to-do”?
I'd love to hear about that too! I was waiting for an example.
I few examples that I will paraphrase from the author include stacks of dirty dishes that silently ask us to wash them, or a book to help us learn a new language that we started and never finished, or our bedsheets that would really like us to launder then again when we have time. The author essentially says that all of our possessions need attention and looking after--they're all asking for care and use--and the more things we have the more mental energy they take up. Some examples from my life include: two boxes of photos that pester me to declutter, scan, and organize them; an empty box that used to hold things in my closet that would really like me to find a use for it or let it go; and a dutch oven that I bought because a visiting friend said he needed it to cook a dish for us, we bought it, he never used it, and now it nags me every time I open the cabinet and look at it. I also get the nagging feeling from items that I want to declutter in theory but haven't gotten around to it, so every time I see them, I am reminded that I still haven't dealt with them. (The author of Goodbye, Things suggests getting rid of an item if we've thought about getting rid of it five times, which is also great advice.)
I have many silent to do 😟
You just HAD to go and bring up the dirty dishes :P lol. this category is one I have been dealing with, causes anxiety for me. thanks for the great videos!
Expensive yarn to knit socks!
Has been on my to do list for 7 years... not to knit socks (that was 20 years ago when I was a student) but to get rid of it !! 😆
Great video. The fantasy self thought is a good one. I think that’s where most of my excess comes in. Although, I wouldn’t say it’s just fantasy self... some things I used more before when I had more time and energy. My current situation is that we’ve moved cross country and take care of aging parents. So some things, like camping gear as one example, sits. We haven’t lost interest, but our current situation doesn’t allow it. Is that clutter? Another excess I’ve noticed in my life is, me allowing myself to experiment with interests or hobbies. Buying things to try it, and figure out what I like or don’t like. Is that better than not trying things at all in order to be minimalist or not wasteful? Sometimes it seems like a fine line to balance. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for sharing!
I was talking to a friend of mine about whether or not I should get rid of my violin. I don't play very well and I don't play often, but it's a hobby I come back to every now and then. She mentioned that, sometimes when we get rid of the clutter and noise in our lives, we may be more likely to take up those old hobbies or passion projects, because we have fewer distractions and more time on our hands. That may not be the case for everyone, but I thought it was an interesting point. Re: trying new things: I think we should all be open to trying new things. I personally have tried to develop hobbies and pastimes that don't require a lot of supplies, but I haven't been entire successful and I recently tried to take up painting. I was careful and intentional in what I bought though, in case it doesn't work out. Good luck!
I've been considering the fantasy self idea for awhile, and have seen that, while I do have a number of fantasy selves I need to watch out for, I also have the self that I need to start being in order to move towards wholeness and wellness and contentment in the world. I've been working so hard to be some other person, the real me got put away.
My house is messy and chaotic, and I am just beginning my road to the clarity of minimalism as I understand it, but, now that I'm not beating myself up for my state, I'm finding my clutter a really useful thing to pay attention to. It's an archeological trove, teaching me all kinds of things about myself, including who I need to start acting like. The real me is in there, and I'm discovering bits and pieces that are becoming more cohesive all the time.
Westerngull, thanks for your question. Not all 'fantasy selves' are just fantasy, and you point that out well.
Vested Interests, thanks for your response to westerngull's question: useful, considered, and grounded in reality, as are all of your videos. This video is particularly useful to me at this moment in time. You've given me ideas for formulating my own goals. I have begun with the timeless "Have nothing in your home that you not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful", and "A place for everything, and everything in it's place". I'll definitely hold to those while following your example and making goals that relate more specifically to the daily life I'd like to experience.
Cheers!
Oh - the silent to-do idea. I knew it was there, but never had a name for it. My home is almost completely exhausting just to be in, because of all the 'noise' my stuff makes at me.
Thanks for doing what you do.
Could you update these goals, how its going for you? X
Oh, hey. It's the middle of the year, but do you have things like holiday and seasonal ornaments? Not assuming your religious or holiday inclinations, do you have a stash of Christmas ornaments that might need purging? Asking simply because I just discovered a box of ancient (like 1970s ornaments) lurking in the unused loft in our home. It's been there five years and has yet to be opened.
And of course, it went away. ;)
I do have an embarrassing lot of seasonal decorations. Well, an "embarrassing lot" for me is two big, plastic bins--mostly full of Christmas ornaments because we have high ceilings and we always get massive trees, so it takes a lot to cover them. And then there's the big ass bag of outdoor Christmas lights. I've decluttered a few seasonal things here and there, but I do love Christmas, so I haven't seriously tackled it...
can you talk about the pros and cons for fantasy self items ?
Let's see... this will not be well-formulated, but I'll take a stab: If they're labeled as "fantasy self" items, it means that we already know that they aren't really useful or appropriate for our lives in reality. They're more like totems of what we aspire to, rather than items that serve any immediate purpose. Just by virtue of understanding that they are "fantasy self" items, we recognize that there is some dissonance between what they represent and what our actual lives are like, and that can be negative if we keep piling on and adding items that we continue to never actually make use of. I would imagine that, if we actively thought about it, being surrounded by fantasy items could serve to highlight the gap between what we are/have/want and what we aspire to and keep us from living in the present. At its worst, these items could cause us to become depressed if they only serve to remind us of what we are not. At its most benign, those items might just nag us and remind us that we haven't done or become the thing we wanted to be or do.
Fantasy self items could also be used more as a prop or a signal to others that we have a particular character or interests. For example, a large book collection or record collection that we don't really use could actually be a sort of "fantasy self signaler" if we only really keep them around to indicate to others that we are a particular kind of person.
On the other hand, if having certain items actually serves to motivate someone to make changes in their lives and reach whatever they're aspiring to achieve, they can be positive. For example, there's the old adage that you should "dress for the job you want, not the job you have," which I think can be helpful as clothing can make us feel more powerful and confident, so taking on that mantle could play a role in helping us achieve our goals. Or maybe we want to get in better shape, so we minimize our possessions but we keep that set of free weights that we haven't used in years. Maybe we put them right in the middle of our living room to remind us to work out, and that motivates us to actually do it. If the items actually motivate us to make positive change, they can be beneficial.
If we recognize that a particular item is misaligned with our current life, we can either do something about it (get rid of it or act on it) or let it linger (keep it) and do nothing to address the misalignment. I think it's the scenario where we do nothing to address the misalignment where it starts to become a bad thing.
@@risa-hq7vj thanks! i'm glad someone bothered to read the whole thing!
nothing to do with minimalism but..your eyes are stunning!
Ha! Thanks! They do look really dark in this video. They're plain ol' brown in real life!
noo.. brown eyes are so pretty! just remember how good Kristen Stewart looked with brown eyes in Twilight compared to with her natural ones haha
Good ideas some people just go too far😀
To each their own! I think it's worth mentioning though that we are constantly inundated by consumer culture, so we're conditioned to expect excess. Sometimes, when we see how some minimalists live, it can be surprising, but I personally wouldn't say that they've "gone too far." I see it as 1) evidence of different preferences and 2) a reminder of how I've been groomed to expect people to live, which isn't actually based on any kind of necessity. Think about the typical possessions owned a few hundred years ago. Project 333, if I remember correctly, was in part founded on the notion that women 100 years ago had, on average, 33 items of clothing. People owned less and they were fine. In fact, many people today live with considerably less--not by choice but due to socioeconomic factors. Dollar Street is a really cool app that lets you compare how people live around the globe at different income levels. It's definitely worth checking out if you haven't seen it! www.gapminder.org/dollar-street/matrix
🖐🏼🙃
9:19 “...I want my home to feel homely.” I think you mean ‘homey.’ Homely means... something else.... 😀
Nope! You're not the first to think this, but homely has several definitions, including the one I meant.
Your eyes. Wow. Huge.
Are they? Thanks!
I have to ask: Did you consciously practice not saying the word ''Umm,'' for speaking? I admire it about you. I'm so used to hearing ''Umm'' and ''like'' when people talk, that it's very noticeable.
Also, great video as always!
Not quite, but I do spend a lot of time preparing what I want to say before I make a video. I see you also (commented on and therefore) saw my bathroom tour video. The way I spoke during the actual tour part of that video is how I speak in real life. Those segments were not prepared in any way, and there are definitely a few umms in there. The "after" tour wasn't bad, but I cringed when I played the "before" clip back to myself. The tile people had just arrived and I was trying to film quickly before they took over the room. Soooo many umms and weird pauses there!
Ah, I see. Well, I think you speak well. Very articulate, clear and conscious.
Thanks!
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