10 Lessons in Minimalism Matt D’Avella Learned in 10 Years
Now you can in 5 minutes — minimalist lifestyle for beginners
This is Matt D’Avella.
You may have spotted him on Youtube in his infamous grey t-shirt, which he’s admitted to wearing every day for 3 solid years.
Matt enjoys making videos, a good AeroPress coffee, and documenting his fascinating life as one of the modern movers of minimalism.
Adopting a minimalist lifestyle means identifying what’s essential in your life and having the courage to eliminate the rest. Founded on the idea that when you remove the unnecessary, you free up your time and capacity to focus on the things that truly matter.
Less is more.
It takes a certain breed of person to willingly give up their personal possessions. We want to know what it takes and if someone can really achieve a sense of abundance from a stripped-back life.
More importantly, we want proof.
To this day Matt has lived as a minimalist for almost 12 years. In honour of passing his decade mark, he upload a video called ‘10 lessons from 10 years as a minimalist’ which I have distilled into 5 minutes.
If you’re curious about giving the minimalist lifestyle a go, these are the 10 lessons of minimalism Matt D’Avella wants you to know first.
1. “The excitement fades but the value remains.”
Matt admits he was overly excited at the start.
Knowing minimalism existed changed the way he saw the world, his values and his idea of success. As if he was given a sharper lens that slotted so easily into his line of vision.
Over time, the caffeine buzz wore off and minimalism became his “new normal”.
When the novelty of new starts wears off, we too have the choice to carry on or take what we’ve learned from our experiments and end them.
For Matt, starting the minimalist lifestyle marked an irreversible shift.
“Even though I wasn’t waking up every day with a massive smile on my face, I was still seeing the benefits, seeing the value of minimalism.” — Matt D’Avella
We need to find this value for ourselves.
2. “You don’t have to marry a minimalist.”
What about relationships? Surely you can only date other minimalists?
A potential drawback of minimalism Matt D’Avella was also worried about. He dreaded the endless swipes and scrolls of dating apps to find these “6 people”.
He learned all that’s needed is for an open-minded person to grasp the basics of minimalism, and then you go from there. He found this in Natalie — though he’s convinced she once thought he was in a cult.
“It really wasn’t such an important part of what I was brining to that relationship. It was just a part of who I was and it was really in the background.” — Matt D’Avella
There’s a lot more to us than our lifestyle choices.
3. “Minimalism is not a religion.”
According to Matt, some people take minimalism way too seriously and can harbour ill judgement toward those who haven’t “woken up” yet.
We are all on different paths and at different stages in our lives. Some see minimalism as the end-all solution. Others might see greater value in consumption.
Seeing the minimalist lifestyle more like a philosophy we can expand and contract to fit our lives can help us improve understanding.
“We should never really force minimalism on people. We should never judge people for the decisions that they’re making. We need to do what’s right for us. We need to make decisions that are going to make us happy and then just be there to support our family and friends when they need us.” — Matt D’Avella
Some of us might never “wake up” to minimalism — and that’s 100% ok.
4. “You spend less time cleaning.”
It wowed me to learn that it takes Matt and Natalie 30 minutes maximum each week to clean their entire apartment.
Matt’s worked from home just as long as he’s been a minimalist, so saving extra time and having the peace of mind that comes with a clean, organised home is important.
The fewer things you own, the less time you spend tidying up.
Simple.
5. “We upgrade too often.”
In a world constantly churning out the “next big shiny thing” in tech, its minimalism Matt D’Avella attributes to cutting through the excess.
He admits how difficult that’s been as a professional filmmaker, but with his focused lens of minimalism, he’s able to filter out counter-intuitive spending and only buy gear that fulfils a sense of purpose.
The smartphone on the other hand is a device Matt’s seen negatively impact his well-being.
We shouldn’t invest in things designed to steal our time.
6. “It won’t solve all your problems.”
Despite what many people think, minimalism isn’t a fast track to solving all of life’s inevitable problems.
These are all a part of life and minimalism won’t protect you from them. That being said, Matt says it can help us see the bigger picture and prioritise what’s most important.
“When I was going through really bad anxiety I knew that I needed to slow down and focus on my mental health and I didn’t need to be so dedicated to achieving x, y and z.” — Matt D’Avella
7. “People overthink it.”
We tend to overthink when faced with decisions that can impact the people we care for the most. The biggest ones often being whether to throw away sentimental gifts we no longer need to align with the minimalist lifestyle.
Matt thinks these can be stalling tactics.
Each of us has the right to judge what we truly need from our belongings. Where possible, explain your process to the gift-givers.
Knowing if we can replace objects in the future can give us the perspective we need to let them go in the present.
8. “Minimalism makes gifting easier.”
Minimalism is all about making intentional purchases by honing our understanding as to what would provide the most value.
The perfect example of this could be opting for Secret Santa each Christmas. Buying a single gift for one person where there would have been many cuts excess waste.
It’s also a part of minimalism Matt D’Avella uses to help his family and friends understand each other on a deeper level and know what gifts they’d actually want.
9. “Detaching yourself from stuff makes you less of a tightass.”
Matt used to care so much about physical things in college, it would emotionally hurt him to break them.
Personally, I think this is more to do with Matt living in a scarcity mindset as a broke student. Who isn’t going to put more weight and value on the things they can’t afford to replace?
Matt’s values changed after adopting the minimalist lifestyle.
“Things aren’t as important to me as people.” — Matt D’Avella
Minimalism makes it easier to value people over things.
10. “Minimalism is a practice.”
Minimalism won’t always be the same.
As time changes, so will we — and the number of worldly possessions we need. Accepting this can help us keep to an intentional minimalist lifestyle.
There’s much more on minimalism Matt D’Avella will know in another 10 years. I’m sure his grey tee will still be online sharing the big impacts of minimal(ist) effort.
Are you a writer looking for your tribe? Love to read? Want full access to Medium? I’ve got you covered.
