You can ask any of my friends: I’m about as minimalist as they come. Rather than being an active choice, it’s a lifestyle that comes very naturally to me, and one that I enjoy a lot. I don’t think of minimalism as being the only “correct” way of living by any means, and it certainly has its own set of shortcomings. That said, I wanted to highlight some of the reasons I think being a minimalist really appeals to me, and if any of these reasons resonate with you, maybe you’ll want to give it a try, too.
Makes moving easier
Being a college student who has to move in and out of dorms every year, this one is very pertinent to my own life. I’ve found that the less I have in my dorm, the easier it is to move as and when necessary. This becomes especially important if you’re an international student like me, having to often rely on friends and family to transport and store items. Beyond that, there’s personally no greater feeling than knowing that I can pack my room up in an hour at the end of the semester, not only saving me an organizational headache but also allowing me to spend more time with friends or on last-minute work.
Learning to become satisfied with less
Reducing the number of comforts you own may allow you to start becoming satisfied with less. This lesson really hit home for me during my semester abroad in Nepal; due to not having hot water for long stretches of time, I became very content with taking showers in ice-cold water, even if it wasn’t hot outside. No longer needing the comfort of hot water proved to be an empowering feeling, and when I eventually returned to the US, showering in hot water felt like a luxury (until I got used to it again!)
Creates adventure
Being a minimalist should never mean depriving yourself of things you need, but from time to time you may find yourself in this situation. Somewhat paradoxically, I’ve come to enjoy this adventure; I’ll occasionally find myself out of certain ingredients in the kitchen, for example, and in this case I get a thrill out of improvising substitutes that taste as good. Earlier this summer I’d run out of oat milk to eat with my granola, and seeing that I had a lot of peanut butter, decided to try granola and peanut butter for breakfast. I liked it so much that I continued the same combination through to the end of the summer.
May be more budget & environmentally friendly
It’s likely that a minimalist lifestyle will benefit both the environment and your wallet. Making the conscious decision of not consuming too much more than you need means that you’ll be buying less; this will free up some money which can be saved for other adventures or emergencies. Additionally, you will also be throwing away and wasting fewer items, since you didn’t have those many to begin with. Again – important not to take this to an extreme, and I’m certainly guilty of being stingy with my money from time to time. If you can live comfortably with what you need and indulge every now and then in a luxury, you’re probably in the sweet spot.
Great, that wraps up my thoughts on this post. As my friends often tell me, some of these ideas are quite unconventional so whether you agree or disagree with me I’d love to hear what you guys think. See you on the next post as always – only this time there’s a >0% chance I’ll be consistent with it 😉
-Dvij
Featured Image: Photo by Phil on Unsplash
