I Want to Become a Minimalist

[Signalstar]

I recently read a book on minimalist living called Goodbye Things by Fumio Sasaki.

I am trying to throw away or get rid of most of my useless possessions. I like clean open spaces.

My most recent big purchases were a used Macbook Pro and a DSLR camera so I can work on film projects.

I have not had a car for about 4 years. I prefer public transportation and it is better for the environment.

I have not bought a new game all year. If I buy any new game I believe it would be digital to save physical space plus you have to download and install so much data even with the disc anyway.

I generally care more about experiences and education. I like to travel. I visited two countries this year.

I like to be presentable and put care into my appearance but I do not own a lot of clothes or keep up with fashion. I actually need a new pair of jeans but I can't bring myself to pay those prices.

The one area I think I will fail at being a minimalist is at buying physical books. I recently had to pack up my book collection and was astonished by many books I had and how I have read about 90% of them. It would probably be for the best to switch to e-books, I read Goodbye Things as an e-book in fact, but I prefer physical books. I go back to them from time to time to reference in things I write. I genuinely want to pass them onto my children some day as well.

The only "thing" I really want is to move out and have a space of my own. I actually had my own apartment in Tokyo for 2 years. Even then I furnished it with as little as possible. I had no TV or game console. I did not even have a bed at first, but slept on a foldable futon. Those were some of the happiest years of my life.

Anyway, how do you feel about minimalist living? Do you want to keep buying more and more? Do you care about keeping up with the latest and greatest? If you had to could you live with 50% or even 75% less stuff?