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?

Sounds like a normal guy to me. Welcome to the club.

I actually did that this year too. I broke it down to the minimal stuff. I moved to another country and had all my posessions in 2 big suitcases. One of which was filled with my desktop pc :D

if you feel happy its definately the right thing to do

https://youtu.be/g2aQ2e0ch8k

well... in that sense, my life is pratically minimalist. For example: I never buy a new piece of technology if the old one still fill my needs. I still don´t have a smart tv, my current laptop was bought 06 years ago, my current mobile phone was bought 03 years ago. I don´t subscribe any TV network. I don´t have many books at home, I never buy books for studies, instead, I borrow them at my local library (it´s free, after all)

Anyway, with my income, I couldn´t be a huge consumer either. I used to have a few collections when I lived with my family (comic books, board games etc.) After moving to my own apartment, I donated everything for schools and daycares. I also don´t have lots of gadgets in my kitchen, like eletric cookers of fryers, only basic ones as a blender and a microwave.

The only thing I still spent a reasonable amount of money are the games, but even so it´s been a long time since I last bought a brand new one. I mostly buy used ones or when they´re on a sale. Some time ago, when I used to join 3DS meetups, I felt somewhat "excluded" from the groups for not having/playing the latest big releases, but after some time I just discovered that I don´t really need them to enjoy gaming and to build a nice collection.

I think the point about being minimalist is not buying things when you really don´t need to. Why getting the latest fancy mobile if the one you have is working just fine? Or the latest big expensive AAA game if you can enjoy other similar titles for less than half the price? Besides, in my country, income is very low so living a minimalist life is the way to go.

Sounds like a normal single guy. Wait until you get married and your wife fills your house with as much useless expensive shit as she can find.

"I have not had a car for about 4 years. I prefer public transportation and it is better for the environment." and "I like to travel. I visited two countries this year."

Those 2 quotes are a bit contradictory, A car and road tripping around your own country would probably save more than a plane ticket and public transportation.

If you traveled to another country by plane, then that is not being minimalist to the environment. As a person seeking to travel a lot myself, I am well aware of just how harmful flying is to the environment. Using a car or public transportation pales in comparison. For example in my car, I filled it 5-10 times a year, which is about 50-100 gallons ( or 189 to 378 liters), a single round trip ticket to another country for me uses about 174 gallons ( or 660 liters). Of course the plane ticket has the advantage of being per person, so if I carpooled with anyone at any point I am already saving more gas then showed. And the numbers just get worse if I decide to take multiple trips in a year.

Indeed, the fuel consumption of a plane is measured in liters per second.

However - even better for the environment if you can buy and sell local. A single cargo ship can emit over a year as much pollution as 50 million cars do! So any minimalist should keep that in mind before buying a few cheap clothes from China while getting rid of everything else when you should do the opposite, for instance. Or when you are a vegan because of methane etc. but buy off-season vegetables and fruits imported from the other side of the planet...

OT - I feel you OP. I'm very minimalist myself though I'm very attached to my physical books. Maybe you can try to sell those who are less important of inspiring to you, and keep the goodies. That's what I do, at least.

Yep although cars often get attention, it really doesn't compare to planes and cargo ships.

Imo it is the same thing with plastic straws in the oceans. Most western countries dispose of plastic straws very efficiently, but it gets lots of attention when the focus should be elsewhere.

The plane is taking off with or without me. If I did not occupy my seat either someone else would have or it would have been empty. The plane uses the same amount of fuel regardless. Whereas if I have a car, every solo trip I take is completely on me and I responsible for that pollution. I also am willing to accept that I am not a perfect minimalist. Like physical books, travel is one of those things I want more of not less. I tried to join a ecological cruise ship that was sailing around the world that way I could see the world with minimal harm to the environment but it did not work out for me. If I am lucky I will travel to 3 countries next year.