For those who appreciate simplicity in any form.

I am a fully recovered impulsive shopper. I’ve reached a point where I am happy with my life. I bought a house a couple of years ago and spent a lot of time and money getting it to where I’d like. Deep down I know that there is no next best thing and I am happy with what I have. I still have some pairing down to do, but I am set on not making any more unnecessary purchases.

I also recently went through a phase of social maximalism. Lots of travel and over committing to social engagements. To the point where I was stressed and exhausted. I am looking to live a more simple lifestyle so that I can feel relaxed and grounded.

Now that I have moved on from this phase of life, I am finding that I have a lot more time to fill! I like to golf, ski, travel, cook, exercising, etc. I like these hobbies, but I would say they all tend to require a long time commitment or traveling to get to.

I am looking for activities that are smaller and I can do to fill downtime at work or after work. Hobbies that I can pick up or put down. I’m also looking for hobbies that don’t require a lot of materials, so no crafts like knitting and sewing. I really would love to find a virtual hobby if possible.

My question is, what activities do you fill your time with that are not focused on consumption?

Success in minimalsm is defined for me as removing myself from civilization, from the cities and, carving out my own lifestyle without needing this matrix. Sometimes I wish to go 100% bushman. I wanna be in the wilderness all day everyday, as long as I have the essentials in order to survive. I really don't need much, but food, water, a vehicle, toiletries, and my peace.

I saw a lot of these posts lately of those who I'd call "extreme minimalists" - and I absolutely admire your ability to live that way. It is eco friendly and you can do so much good with your money instead.

Still, I ask myself 3 questions about your lifestyle:

Do you never invite anyone to your home? And also plan to keep it this way? Lately I saw someone post "I only have a rug instead of a chair and table" - well you can have guests sit on your rug of course, but how would you serve them at least a drink and snack if you own only one plate and cup? I am aware that one can have deep relationships with people without being at one's home, but to my experience it makes it so much more likely and easier to become friends and maintain a friendship through hanging out at each other's homes.

Second: What do you pass your time with, except working, screen time and body weight workouts? Are you always going out, like for drinks or movies? For context: I work full time and have a small child, and still somehow find a bit of time to pursue sewing, gardening, painting and the like of hobbies where you need thing sfor. And especially inviting others and being invited, see above. I understand that this way of life is not pursued by most of you, but what do you do instead?

Third: How do you clean your home? If you for example own neither a broom, not a vacuum cleaner or a mop, ... (I have seen these lists of "this is what I own, it fits in a suitcase" and hardly anyone mentionnes these supplies) Are you crawling on all fours every few days to clean your floor with a towel?

Hi!

I’m looking to downsize my wardrobe, and I want to have just a few items that work for multiple occasions.

I usually wear linen, wool and such, and I’m not the biggest fan of tech wear in terms of the fabric (I appreciate their functionality though).

However linen is too thin for winter and colder months and wool is super bulky and difficult to travel with if I use only carry on.

So I thought I’d ask what works for you!

What are your go to pants, tops, shoes and jackets that operate for multiple occasions and seasons.

I live in Kashmir, India. Does anybody know if/where I may find a loofah plant around here? Also, is it possible to grow one with seeds bought online?

As we are all moving towards a more minimal lifestyle or are already there, what’s one thing you have never been minimal with/maximalist?

I think it will be interesting to see what people allow themselves to not be minimal with.

34, single, no kids, never married, no pets or animals of any kind. I own 4 businesses, all of which are remote, and I can run them anywhere as long as I have internet. Everything I own fits in the trunk of my Crown Victoria with room to spare. I have a hard shell guitar case, a carry-on backpack, a carry-on suitcase, two laptop bags, and a toolbox.

I've owned homes, and I've also lived the Airbnb/hotel lifestyle. I've been doing the hotel thing the last few months, but obviously, it's rather pricey. I'd like to live a different way that is cheaper. Not interested in buying a home right now, and cheap apartments are difficult to come by, especially in my area. They're also much too big, and I do not wish to buy any furniture or feel tied down to a long-term lease. When I had a house, I had one fork, one spoon, one knife, etc. and the only furniture I had was a fold up cot to sleep, folding table for a desk, steel chair for a seat.

I have my passport and have considered living outside the US. I've also considered the full time RV lifestyle. While it is buying and more long-term, I've also considered buying a small lot and building a well-built tiny home on it, but find many lots/land have minimum square footage restrictions.

Are there any other options I should consider? Are you in a similar boat, and if so, what did you decide? Thank you for reading this.

What do you guys do when you get the random urge to spend money?💸💸💸💸 Like i don’t want or need things …

I am by no means a minimalist and recently posted here with a question roughly equating to where minimalists get their clothes from. I did get some answers that seemed to me, someone who knows nothing about this sort of stuff, sustainable and of high quality. Like Patagonia. But I also got more than I would have expected for Costco. Even a link to some site selling T-shirts at below 3$ a piece.
My question is, sure these places allow you to buy simple necessities in bulk but would a minimalist not want to also minimise the amount of things they buy not only the things they own? Say the turnaround time for a Costco T-shirt is one year. One can limit oneself to only owning 5 T-shirts whilst still having to buy 5 T-shirts every year. I myself own 10-15 T-shirts but have not bought a new one in at least 3 years and would feel like at least in the wardrobe I am more minimalist than someone who goes through their only 5 T-shirts every year.
(If anyone is about to tell me that their Costco T-shirts last longer than a year. That is beside the point. If I can buy 6 of them at less than 30$ it is and stays a low quality item that will not last as long as any high quality counterpart. Also this has been very T-shirt focused this idea goes for any household item)

EDIT because people keep commenting the same stuff:

• You buy bad quality (which often but does not always overlap with cheap price) you buy twice
• There appears to be freedom of religion for minimalism where you can make it mean whatever you want for yourself
• My ideas about how diverse the range of Costco is are a bit uneducated

Just put low effort responses if u down ily all <3

https://forms.office.com/r/fPuh7AbS4H

Vreau mereu sa iau mai multe sortimente din ceva, mai multe culori la haine (sa am din toate). Pe de o parte tanjesc dupa minimalism, iar in realitate sunt maximalista.

If a minimalist owns a stocked fish tank. Do they own a fish tank? Or a fish tank with gravel, fish, tank, filter etc.

I am slowly making my life more minimal.

As things break I am replacing them with items that potentially combine multiple gadgets or items into one thing.

Are there any great combos you have discovered?

I think a lot of billionaires will be angry

There are places out there - usually apartments - which have walls or large partitions which move on tracks or rails, usually so that a given area of floor space can be assigned to one room or another depending on what's needed at the time, and allowing smaller homes to appear to have bigger (effectively) rooms, even if only one at a time.

What are your thoughts on this technique? Is it more minimalist because it takes up less overall floor space, or more maximalist because it stuffs more rooms/functions into a given volume? Or would you count it as something else entirely?

Some examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB2-2j9e4co
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1MVqwvOqvY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYV0qATsyts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3AJOT4VwSE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3a54G4Hwko

I have just destroyed most of the T-shirts in my very small wardrobe in an incident involving a fountain pen and a washing machine. I have been toying with the idea of exclusively owning like 5-7 identical white T-Shirts for a while but never followed through because I still had T-shirts that were perfectly wearable. Now that I have a reason to switch I don’t actually know where to look. If you haven’t guessed already I’m not much of a clothes person. I‘m looking for a company producing sustainable decent quality white T-shirts with absolutely no branding on the outside that will most likely exist for the next couple years so that I can definitely get replacements.

How do family experiences and family dynamics shape the attitudes and behaviour of a person who wants to become a minimalist consumer or a minimalist person? Do you think the family aspect has an influence on this topic?

I just want to live in a really small apartment.

I'm talking anything smaller than a studio apartment. I'm incredibly low-maintenance as a person and I want to find ways to rent really small spaces, even if I can afford something better. Less stuff means less to take care of. I've been thinking about vanlife but right now it's not for me. Any other suggestions?

i want a projector for the van when going for trips, can anyone give me any advice on the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro?

Hi guys. So i have a bit of a dilemma and need a bit of support. i have a large luggage suitcase's worth of fabric that I'm having trouble getting rid of. I've had it for a few years now, maybe like 3 or 4 and it's just been sitting there. i have a sewing machine that i use very frequently to fix things, but i keep the fabrics just in case when really they hardly get used at all. some of the fabrics are brand new, and i don't have any issue with the lost money spent if i donated it. but my main issue is the 'just in case' mentality where I'm worried I'll need to repair something eventually, and need a piece of fabric, and considering it's super expensive here to buy fabrics in general im too scared of letting them go. additionally i keep saying to myself that I'll sew something eventually but never do... could someone give me some words of advice on how to tackle this situation.

thanks all.

Hello to my fellow minimalists.
I need your suggestions on how to declutter my home from a ton of books. I am not sure If I live in a home or a library.

i bought two bikes last year: a folding bike and a road bike. after a few months i found that i don't have that much time to ride them and the folding bike isn't that convenient as i think.

i bought a folding bike is mainly for commute but i found that when commuting, bike isn't a good way because i can do nothing but only riding . and if i commute by bus or subway i can do my things while commuting such like reading books, watching videos , etc. and riding bike in winter is cold and influenced by weather.

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the road bike i bought just for riding. and after i ride few times i found it cost me a lot of time. mostly 2 hours riding is not enough. often 3 - 6 hours depends on the distance i ride (under 100KM).and during work day i don't have time to ride. so lets say i ride 2 times a week, i can only ride 72 times a year.(excluding winter). I do enjoying riding, but I really don't ride a lot.

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and as a minimalist, i really don't like to own too many stuff. i wish i can put all my stuff in a 90L bag, a 35L backbag and a 24inch luggage. i'm working on it. but i've been hesitated for months and i don't know why i can't make my mind. so could you guys give me some advice to do that ?

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• where your art style isn’t minimal but your home/life is? how do you balance the two?

and do you have a difficult time explaining it with your friends/family when they have a certain perception of you based on your non-minimalistic art - especially when they want to get you quirky gifts (that youll probably declutter later)?

idk i feel like those sides of me are somewhat clashing, more frequently when im at an art show and convention. i want to support other artists the way id want them to support me but i dont want to start a collection (and that makes me feel very hypocritical).

would appreciate some perspective and/or advice!

I hate having too much stuff. I have a bunch of clothes, shoes, office supplies, hair products, etc. that I RARELY use but I always think what if I end up needing it?? I’m tempted to get rid of everything and just buy it again if I ever happen to need it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBQBKseozuY

I saw this video, and I was surprised by how efficient he is. I don't see myself doing anything similar, but I can notice the effort he put into it. The t-shirt, the projector setup, etc., are just amazing.

Minimalism applies to writing, too: lesser words, grander meaning. Glass-sharp prose, tight as a tooth. It’s fun, actually. To me there is nothing more satisfying. Any literary minimalists here too?

Small List of Famed Literary Minimalists:

• Gordon Lish (Editor)
• Raymond Carver (Author of Cathedral)
• Ernest Hemingway (Author of The Sun Also Rises)
• Chuck Palahniuk (Author of Fight Club)
• F. Scott Fitzgerald (Author of The Great Gatsby)

I am looking to have a more minimalist digital life. I am getting into a bad habit of scrolling social media only to be met with tonnes of adverts and the nonsense of fools.

I am well aware that to exist in this life and keep in contact with friends and family I need to keep some social media. They aren’t trying to become more minimal.

In your opinion what are the essential social media platforms to keep?

hi there! i've been ready to get a flip phone rather than iPhone for a couple months now and have been thinking about it for longer. As many do, I love music and value a portable way to listen to music. I came upon this reddit bc i saw a post about flip phones with spotify https://www.reddit.com/r/minimalism/comments/k7twvg/flip_phones_and_spotify/

I got a lot of info from it and found some stuff. The only thing I'm questioning is if these flip phones with spotify are easy to use, does the spotify crash more easily? And because of that should i just get a solid flip phone and then some type of mp3 player on the side? which option would be more reliable?

Thank you very much

My parent moved from Florida to an apartment near us because of their health. Now I’m down in Florida packing the last of their things before the house closing. It’s amazing what my mother is asking me to pack. No one wants this crystal and porcelain anymore. Why am I packing clothes that no longer fit. When they get these boxes into their apartment they will have all the stress of figuring out what to do with these useless possessions with much less space.

The buyer just said leave anything you want and he will take care of it. What a business. A whole house of high end furniture just being left behind. But thank goodness for these buyers who know they are making it easier for people like me. Near end of life you just walk away from everything you collected. Who knows where it will end up.

I love home decor and thrifting seems better option than buying new stuff. But I heard a lot that the things can have a lot weird vibes. They can make an impact on your home. Do you guys believe in this?

Edit: guys please dont hate me. I personally love old vintage things and don't believe in the bad vibes coming from them. But I constantly hear that a lot of people do believe in them.