An Everyday Human with Minimalist Tendencies

Minimalist – n - A practitioner of minimalism.
adj. Being or providing a bare minimum of what is necessary.

I keep telling people I’m a minimalist. My fiancée, Leo, and I don’t keep much and we don’t have an emotional attachment to many of our things.

But then I started thinking: Am I really, or am I just a fairly neat and organized person?  I looked up the word on www.thefreedictionary.com and found the above definition.

A bare minimum. Hmmmm ... in that case, the overflowing bookshelf I love will have to go. His DVD collection must be tossed. And let’s not even think about shoes. I’m no clotheshorse, but between the two of us, we easily have dozens of pairs for various occasions and weather.

I began to wonder how much of our somewhat-minimalist attitude can be attributed to the size of our rented house – only about 860 square feet. For most people no longer living in college dorm rooms, that’s not much space for two people and their stuff. So we don’t keep much.

My other pondering: Life stage. When you’re single, don’t own property and don’t have children, it’s easy to keep the papers and things to a bare minimum. Leo and I pay most bills and manage our retirement plans online. We’re saving for a house right now, so our purchases have been very limited.

But we and I bought our first Christmas tree stand this year, along with the lights, ornaments, and other decorations. I realized we would have to find somewhere to keep it for the 340 days of the year.

Then it dawned on me: I’ve moved many times since leaving home for college. Each move brings with it a fresh purging of items. When Leo and I own a house someday, we will buy more things to put in that house and we will stay there for several years. We will have more storage space, and thus be more tempted to keep things. We will have children, and the toys, clothes, furniture and papers for them will appear out of thin air.

It turns out, I’m not so minimalist after all -- I’m just a fairly neat and organized human.

And really, there’s nothing wrong with that.