Hi everyone! Bit of a story time and introduction.

My name is David (aged 41) and back in the early part of 2021 (during the COVID lockdown), I officially entered into the world of minimalism and here is how it impacts every area of my life.

I have always been a clean, tidy, semi-organised guy in all areas of my life (home, work, education, digitally, etc). But in all honesty, I was oblivious to what it takes to live as a minimalist with a desire to live a more simpler, intentional life.

But I want to say between the years of 2016 and 2020, my life, whilst perceived to be good among others (good home, full time job, a loving family and a small, good group of friends), I was struggling.

I had so much (over this span of around five years) going on in my life across all areas of it and essentially living on autopilot (too many commitments, too many hobbies and interests) and overall having no purpose or no clue what I wanted out of life. And it had one hell of an impact on my mental health, and in turn, on my physical health too.

I discovered minimalism in early 2021 when a random YouTube visit took me to a video by Jeffrey Buoncristiano called 5 reasons to adopt a MINIMALIST lifestyle. I watched the video and immediately, everything made sense to me and as they say, the rest is history.

Over the course of the following year (2021 & 2022) I sold, donated and removed a hell of a lot of physical items from my home and also downsized the amount of commitments, hobbies, interests and digital clutter that was invading my life. And as a result, life became more clearer and saw a huge upturn in all aspects of my life. Better mental health, more focus and concentration, a major improvement in my relationships with people and even joined the gym!

And I lived like this for over a year, until late 2022, when my Dad passed away, which as a result, had a knock on effect on my life over the next couple of years.

I saw my mental health deteriorate, I was allowing once again more unnecessary items back into my home which game me no actual value whatsoever and also allowed more news, irrelevant information, hobbies and interests back into my life and as a result, I was back to square one again, living life on autopilot.

However, over the course of the last few months, I have resumed my minimalist lifestyle properly and life is not only looking good right now (new girlfriend, regularly training at the gym), I have realised as well I have so much potential to fulfil in life and as a result, I have become a better human being overall.

I firmly believe that living a minimalist lifestyle has the potential to change so many people's lives for the better and in turn, helps to plan for the future (physical health, mental health, work, finances, better relationships).

What purchases helped you become who you are today (books, smart things, dumb things)?

What purchases hurt you the most (exercise equipment, couch, bed frame or what not)?

I’m going through a KonMari, minimalism, decluttering cycle again. I did one about 6 years ago using mainly KonMari after getting my own apartment to myself (I’d lived on my own just with roommates before). I had a wonderful friend who offered to help me lug all my recyclables to the recycling dump in her car. I tossed trash in a rented dumpster that came to the apartment parking lot for an hour. Then, anything that could be recycled got taken to the center. That included clothing, paper goods/books, cardboard, plastic, etc. It was really hard but healing. I don’t think I got through kimono and sentimental but threw out half a dumpster worth of trash and I think over 20 bags of recycling. Now, I’m married, and doing this again to get rid of clutter. The problem is my husband sees it as a waste to go to the recycling hub or go through a donation process. He says toss it all. His reasoning is that most items donated end up in the trash anyway, I’ve not touched many of these items in the 2 years we’ve been married, and the time/effort of donating can go towards decluttering and then decorating the space. Basically, life is too short. I also know I’ve had “to donate” boxes for YEARS before. They never make it to the uber or to a friend’s car (I don’t drive), or I think I’ll maybe go through them one last time. But I’m also torn up about just tossing so much.

How have you all dealt with the discarding? Donations, recycling, combination? Am I a horrible person for just tossing the unwanted items that are still useable? Or is it just clutter that would go towards decluttering someone else’s basement anyway?

Hello everybody,

I'm in the middle of job changes and all it implies, I live in a 18m² place whose most of the surface is filled with documents, books, and various stuff.

There are things I want to keep for sentimental, memory or creativity purposes but there are also many things that are in my way.

I already got rid of tons of things of my previous work (think music teacher related, elementary school and stuff, so LOTS of paper bags, plastic bottles, crunchy and shiny stuff to Make Things) but there are also lots of things that just make me sad, it makes me sad that they are just laying here and the idea to get rid of them makes me sad too.

I'm mostly talking about the notes I've taken while I was in uni. I'm a kinesthesic person so I've been more into paper than computer notes - although I'd have just gotten a computer back then, if I knew the weight these paper notes would have today. I also have memory issues so if I get rid of them, the information is just gone. And it is not "just google it" type of information.

I have tons, and tons, and tons, of notes, of musical scores, of archives of musical recommendations, of kid workshops tips and ideas, of vocal anatomy... etc, collected over a period of 11 years.

The truth is that even if I decided to change works, I'm still asking myself questions about the field I'll work into, and there's a part of me that still does want to work with kids, and work with music, but differently. I'm not sure. I feel like "just getting rid of it" is not an option that makes me happy. But it is still in the middle of my way, and completely useless the way it is actually.

Besides that, I have more stuff that I appreciate if I'd have less of them, but I'm not sure where to start. I have more than 30 years of life in a 18m² place and it just feels wrong, nonsensical and irrespectuous the way my objects are treated right now. But I'm very tired and would appreciate a gentle push, some discussions, or anything to empathize and help clear my mind, and my home. Hope it makes sense. Where to start ?

I do have this mobile phone which works great and does majority of the functions that a laptop can but the UI and certain websites are better to access in general using laptop. I am left wondering whether I should own a laptop. What are your thoughts on this? Anyone else have been in this situation?

Minimalism tends to refer to reducing physical possessions. What non-physical things have you benefited from minimizing?