What makes you happy? Enjoying a wonderfully prepared meal with family and friends or shopping for stuff, especially for stuff that goes on sale? We are inundated by social media and advertisements on consumerism and a lifestyle around spending and materialism. It gives the impression that by having -- new car, fancy clothes, exotic vacations, stuff on sale -- we will be happy.
Minimalism's basic premise is to only keep things that we need to live purposefully. For example, how many blouses or dress shirts do you really need? Working in a business office, you may need blouses or dress shirts for each day of the week. Count how many blouses or shirts you have in your closet. As well, how many pairs of shoes do you really need? Also, take a look in your kitchen -- count the number of kitchen utensils in the drawers. Do you really need 12 serving spoons and 20 cups?
Watch this video "Benefits of Minimalism" by Sadia of "Pick Up Limes." She shares her insightful thoughts on the benefits of minimalism and a common mistake on minimalism. She makes really good points on clutter and that "organized clutter" is still clutter, and she emphasizes spending more time on meaningful things in life rather than stressing over where and how to store all your stuff.