Lifestyle minimalism

I love minimalism. Both visual one, the minimalism of the form, minimalism in the art and the lifestyle minimalism - the one that is about having less, putting experiences and other values over physical items. Ever since I remember I wasn't able to stick to minimalism in my writing, often I create long sentences so my writing is not minimalist :) And that's fine, I think that there is nothing wrong with not being 100% minimalist, because it's not possible and because being a minimalist is not like being in some kind of cult. It is about living by general ideas that everyone can tailor to himself. Despite that, some internet communities related to minimalism have among them people who seem to think that it is a cult and a set of rigid rules. There are bloggers who count how many items they own, they participate in challenges like "try to live with less than 100 items", there are people that ask their guru if they should or should not get rid of certain item and finally there are critics, that claim that minimalism is terrifying because they could not live in an empty room with just a mattress and empty bed, without even a proper space to put books on.

I admit I am quite irritated by that. Because minimalism is only a direction, not a set of rigid rules. How often we will go in that direction, it depends only on us. So counting your items can be fun - but half-jokingly, as an experiment that forces us to think do, I really need this item? When was the last time I used it?. This is not a tool that should give us remorse, because we own 150 more items and our favorite minimalist fancy blogger. Same goes with challenges like "try to live owning less than 100 items". Minimalism is a direction that says to us "limit unnecessary items, keep essentials and enjoy the free space". Both physical free space and a mental one. It does not say to us what does it mean "unnecessary", it does not say to us how many "essential" items you should own, does not say how many space is enough. We are defining this thing. You love photos of rooms with light walls, two items of furniture from Ikea and empty space, that you see on Instagram? Cool, then go in that direction, check if it's practical for you. Maybe you are collecting something, some collectibles but despite that, you want to have free space, be a minimalist? Just check if you matured to abandon something that has only sentimental value to you, those collectibles. If not - don't force yourself, keep them and find other elements that for you, on your present stage of life are unnecessary. But remember that sometimes it's worth to hide something from our life, some item, to make sure if maybe it would be better to live without it, maybe you would gain physical and mental space, and you will be better off financially too (but please don't mistake minimalism with asceticism or frugality, those are different things and they can but don't have to go side by side)

Maybe it is not for you and you like "maximalism"? Maybe you like to own many things, trivial things, souvenirs, tickets to the cinema, shells from the beach that you went to last year? Things branded by you "SomeDayItMightBeUseful™"? Ok. I am not saying that minimalism is better or that everyone would like it, it's just "you don't know it yet that you would like it". No. Everything has its pros and cons, there are different people, different preferences, different stages in life that people are at. For example, if you're a creative type, then maybe it's good for you to have a little "creative disorder" in your space, I don't judge. Let's not create another internet war, it is enough that we have Android vs iPhone, left vs right, Mac vs PC, (or Amiga vs Atari for those that are into old things).

For me, minimalism, this "personal", "lifestyle" one, is a process. Every now and then you check and think what is essential for you and what is not, and you remove things that are not essential (without intentional thinking "is this item essential for me" the item rarely will tell you by itself "hey, I am not needed, throw me away" ;) ). Then you keep what is essential and valuable for you. Eventually, you try to move the boundary of what is "unnecessary" a little further, as long as you are comfortable with that, or a little beyond the point of being comfortable. Step by step, because no one should go and throw away half of the things that he owns, without thinking if it's good for him and if he will need those items, just because he read a post on a minimalist blog.

^{I know, it might be a hipocrisy, because I am also some kind of blogger. Just not a fancy one ;)}

Visual minimalism

Often I met people who say that minimalism (the visual one) is faint, boring and not for them. It is too "hipster-like" and heartless, without a soul. Because they can not stand looking at empty white rooms, this is impractical, it looks like in a hospital. And sometimes I agree because it is boring to look at white, idealistic rooms that instantly make you think "is it possible to live in such a place? Where does he keep all his clothes?"

^{I hope that no one fainted because of all that whiteness yet}

And again when it comes to visual minimalism I think that too many people forget that it is only a direction, a trend. Things that we see on the Internet are often exaggerated, just concepts, artist's visions. We need to distinguish minimalism in the art from everyday minimalism. Often we see a work of art, but the average Joe looks at it and think that it's created to be used, so he is disgusted and begins to criticize that it is impractical. Furthermore, I believe that true visual minimalism that we see every day can be achieved just like every other style, without going to the extremes.

Same as in lifestyle minimalism, here, in visual one, everything depends on where is a boundary of usefulness, attractiveness, and our other preferences. We can buy a minimalist table and remove some knick-knacks from our shelves that look like they should belong to some old lady, and voila! It could be a very minimalistic change for us. No one forces us to remove shelves altogether and repaint the whole apartment to white - from the floor to the ceiling. Because what is going on with this whiteness anyway? Can't there be a dark minimalistic room, wouldn't it be attractive too? The picture that you can see on the left, traditional Japanese place - it is not minimalistic? For me, it is very minimalistic, yet it doesn't need to be perfectly white and it even have wooden elements instead of glass (yes, I am a little ironic). The picture that you can see on the right, it contains some minimalistic elements, isn't it? But yet it doesn't make us feel like we are living in a hospital. So it can be done, without ubiquitous whiteness.

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Anyway, the same as with lifestyle minimalism, here I don't know why some people think that it is the only right style. Some people like knick-knacks, and places "rich" in ornaments. I could not live in such a place permanently, but if I am invited to one, I enjoy staying there. It's the style of that person. I don't see the need to force everyone to The One And Only Style.

Maybe in the future, I will write something more about minimalism. It turns out, that I managed to keep it quite short. Hope you like it, feel free to discuss the topic in the comments! BTW, I hope it's okay to use "art" tag when I am not really showing my own art, just talking about art. If not, then please let me know!

^{source of images: main on, separator, 3 points list made by me, white room, japan, last room}