I happened to read an online article on minimalism. Now, the notion of minimalism in design is that simplicity and clarity lead to good design. The art form is chiselled down to its most fundamental features, be it a chair or a skyscraper. Colloquially, minimalism is something that is stripped to its essentials .The minimalist lifestyle however is different than austerity or simplicity. It’s more to do with leaning of one’s material possessions to have a clutter-free, more lucid set of belongings.
Why do we really hold on to all that stuff that we can do away with? How many of us can walk off an airport with just our hand luggage without waiting to collect baggage at the carousel? How many of us have kept a possession so safely and so long before that we have forgotten about its existence? Many of us have so many things that it’s hard to keep track.
Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine posits that ‘more and more goods and services are being provided for free and that those businesses that fail to follow suit are likely to go to the wall’ .In every industry where the product can be made into a digital file, somebody is, or is going to be, offering you that product for free because the marginal cost of doing so online is heading towards zero.
In times when bandwidth is the new blackgold, why do we need to keep all CDs, DVDs and books? Why keep that 40 GB music folder when there are only about 200 songs that you really listen to? And all those songs are available on youtube with their official videos.
The question thus is; why are we still holding on to our huge collections, if everything can be digitised ? The minimalist line of thought does not urge you to burn your dog-eared books or crush your CDs from early 2000s. Instead just make digital files of them and take the physical objects to the charity. Not all of us can do that. And we cling on to materials possessions. If we happen to have a huge Calvin and Hobbes collection, we can’t possibly think of getting rid of them. Many of us can find it hard to put that philosophy into practice. But not anybody and everybody has such a collection. The rest of us can make a beginning.
And as for clothes, fashion is something that has no permanency.Of course except for the classics like a white shirt. So why keep a wardrobe, when you don’t wear it. And shoes? Would you rather not get a new one every 6 months and get rid of the out of trend kicks? Recycle them. I can pack all my belongings in a backpack and a suitcase. I know some people who have done perfectly fine with 2 pair of jeans- one Lee, one Hollister for one whole year. Agreed that it is easier for a single person to lead this kind of a lifestyle. Even easier if you travel a lot.
If you own your own place, take off everything that there is and is not of any significance to you.By all means have stuff that you need and even what is considered luxury. If you are honest you will strip off a lot of things which are not really essential. Send as much as you can to recycle. Or if you could make a ‘best out of waste’ project, out of the clutter, do it. You did it on your own, it’s worth keeping. A cleaner leaner place gives you a sense and appreciation for space.
This minimalistic purge does not mean that you have no emotional quotient left. Please…by all means keep your first love letter and the Shrek keychain or the baseball glove. Keep those earrings that were a gift on your 21st birthday or your first cell phone. But if your cell-phone can play songs and has decent storage capacity, then practically you don’t need to own an i-pod. If it can click 5megapixel images you do not need a digital camera. A 5mp photo clicked from it can be printed on an A3 size sheet with amazing clarity.
If you buy lesser things, you will buy multi-functional things; you will keep your world clutter free. Heck, you can move places in half an hour if need be. And even after you gave away all those things, chances are that you will possess and own items more than some people will own working a whole lifetime. And that is why it would give us a good feeling to contribute and donate and recycle.
We are not being a world saver, but we are making a contribution to making life better and simpler. Isn’t that a win-win?
Hey Rehaan!
ReplyDeleteInteresting observation.
Although as u rightly said, its easier to say then to do it. I would never ever thing of reading an e book.
There is no fun, if at every 2-3 hours of reading, we do not check and compare the width of the read and unread pages.
Nor can i ever understand most of the latest techno- stuff around. But i think its just me.
One of the products of the late doordarshan era.
Era where youngsters used to seek fun from getting out and playing gully cricket rather than competing online or against computer.
Besides that on minimalism - i myself live inside a suitcase.
The thing about e-books is very true . In fact you can't check the number of pages read because there is an option of font size and so you can't have a fixed page number because of that .
ReplyDeleteReading books is great..however i prefer the read and return method.Or give away to second hand book stalls, you make some money that ways.
Also its always better to play outdoors than stuck with FIFA game.