I have too much stuff. My bedroom is often very messy. I have shelves cluttered with dusty books I never read and CDs I don’t listen to. My drawers are crammed with clothes I never wear. I was getting frustrated that I never had any space in my bedroom. Then I read about minimalism. Minimalism is a style of living where you only keep the most important items and you get rid of everything else. After reading about minimalism I felt encouraged to tackle my problem.
Minimalism recommends that you only keep the bare essentials for living, so I started clearing out a lot of the things which I didn’t use. I collected bags of clothes to give to charity. I was able to sell some of my CDs and books online. Although I knew that I would never need these things again, I still found it very difficult to get rid of my stuff. My brain tried to stop me from letting go. I said to myself 'I might need that in the future!' or 'won’t I be sad if I get rid of that?' But the thing is, I know I couldn’t keep everything.
After a while of clearing through cupboards, drawers and shelves, it actually became quite exciting to get things out of my room and create some fresh space. Since I stared de-cluttering my bedroom, I’m no longer tripping over things on the floor. I also feel a bit better, too. They say that a clear, organised bedroom means you will have a clear and organised mind! The main idea behind minimalism is to reduce what you own, and by doing this you can really appreciate the things you have. It’s not easy living this lifestyle. We are often told that it is better to have more things. Advertisements try to convince us that we will only be happy by spending more money to buy more stuff. Of course, I’m not a perfect minimalist – I’ve only just started. I still own a lot of things which I don’t really need, but I think this was a positive start to owning less stuff. In the future, I will be more conscious of what I buy. And I will continue to make an effort to get rid of what I don’t need.
Do you think you own too much stuff?
