You Don’t Have To Be A Minimalist To Live Simply
The Marie Kondo movement is starting to drive me a little nuts.
I ran into Susan, an old colleague, last year at the grocery store. She told me she had stripped her home down to the basics because of what she’d learned from Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizational and minimalism guru.
“In my kitchen I am down to 4 plates; one pot and one frying pan; and one wooden spoon,” she said with a smug smile.
It’s not often that I’m speechless but I was in that moment.
I thought about how much my husband and I love cooking and well — one wooden spoon could cause a divorce.
And I’ve been living a simpler lifestyle for over 20 years. (I have seven wooden spoons, but who is counting?)
Now for the record, I think Marie Kondo has done many good things to encourage people not to be impulsive consumers and hoarders. People are decluttering their closets and linen cupboards and overstuffed garages.
For now. Until the majority of people fill up their houses and garages again. I bet someone is guiltily stuffing a bag from Walmart in their basement as I write this.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the minimalist movement will last.
There’s too much confusion about minimalism and it feels extreme to most.
Most people don’t want to live with all their belongings in one backpack. Try doing that with two kids, a husband, and a dog. Where the hell do you keep the Christmas tree lights?
Most people don’t want every room in their home painted white with one book displayed, an uncomfortable sofa in the living room, and a freaking aloe vera plant.
What looks great on Instagram doesn’t necessarily prove realistic, useful and sustainable in day-to-day life.
Most people don’t want to dump all of their belongings in the middle of the floor and look at each individual item and ask,
“Toilet brush — do you bring me joy?”
Who has the time for that? I give myself a gold star if I clean out my junk drawer.
Minimalism, as we’re seeing it on television and books, doesn't get to the heart of why people have so much shit in the first place.
Or why it is important to rethink the big picture of what the true costs of constantly spending money on products do to our lives and to the planet.
People (maybe you) bought into the concept of more is better. (I used to brag about it in my 20s.)
That somehow it is important to display wealth whether you have it or not.
Simple living isn’t about that. And minimalism — well — it is just one component of simple living.
Simple living, you say? What the hell is that?
Simpler living is a lifestyle where you focus on how to:
- live richly with less (hello, some-form-of-minimalism)
- recycle and repurpose
- cook from home more and eat out less
- buy quality over quantity (good-bye Dollar Store filled with cheap crap)
- eat local as much as possible
- grow something — from a garden to a few herbs in your window sill
- live in a smaller to medium-ish home
- volunteer
- fix first instead of replacing
- be a steward of Nature
- buy second-hand most of the time
- get creative with the resources you have
- save money consistently
- have time for hobbies and other pursuits like travel.
I know many people who live simply and they are not living with one wooden spoon. They have piles of beautiful books. Art hangs on their walls and they have cozy and comfortable furniture. They eat good food. They travel and wear nice clothes.
They have found the middle ground of living on the planet and taking care of it. It is a sustainable lifestyle that doesn’t focus on extremes.
Remember. Simple living isn’t a fad for millions of people around the world. It is a chosen way of life.
Hey, listen. Simple living and minimalism isn’t a new concept. But perhaps it does feel new to people who are used to living on impulse.
Authors like Sarah ban Breathnach, Alexandria Stoddard, Duane Elgin and one of my old favorites — Henry Thoreau, author of Walden — have written about simple living for years. (Not to mention practically every religion in the world has written about simple living.)
They would agree with Marie Kondo that you should enjoy and/or have a purpose for what you bring into your home.
But what they’d really want to know is what your values are.
Activist and writer, Annie Leonard, launched The Story of Stuff several years ago and it went viral.
She asks you to think deeper about what you’re doing when you buy disposable stuff without a second thought.
And so am I.
If people understand on a deep level WHY the small step of minimalism — and the bigger picture of simple living —can help them have a richer life?
Then, and only then, will Walmart need to worry.
Weirdly — I ran into one-wooden-spoon-Susan a few weeks ago, at the same grocery store. Her grocery cart was filled with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and meat.
I asked her if she was still living the Marie Kondo life.
She laughed, well — snorted actually, and said,
“No — I realized I had taken it to extremes. I got tired of my one joyful wooden spoon and two towels. I’ve met someone who loves to garden and cook so now I have five wooden spoons!“
She’d accidentally shifted from extreme minimalism to simple living. I guess you’d call that kicking Kondo-ism to the curb.