Hi !minimalism@lemmy.world

Let's bring back the posting and get more activity in the community.

My question: What is your most prized possession?

I'll start with mine. It's a watch. More specifically it's the Casio AE1500WH-1AV digital watch.

Why you ask? It simply limits my phone-use and allows me to be present. I can check the clock and date (full auto-calendar till 2099), no phone needed. I can start a timer, no phone needed. Has orange backlight on a button, without always on light, which allows me to see the clock in the middle of the night without ruining my sleep.

These are the features I use the most, however it has other useful functions a freaking 10 year battery (which is neat when you hate charging), 100m water resistance, 5 alarms, split times,

Also the price is 30$, which means it doesn't matter if it gets destroyed, lost or otherwise, it's pretty cheap to get a new one. However it hasnt happened yet, even though I'm pretty careless with it.

I've shown you mine, now show and tell us about yours.

Recently, I've been really watching the YT videos of a certain Rajiv Surendra and feeling somewhat conflicted. (Love the videos by the way, recommend)

I'm a minimalist, by all accounts; I don't buy things I don't need and I only buy what I need and when I need it. I do have a hard time throwing things away (I'm working on it) but, generally speaking, I live a very minimal, intentional life of few but meaningful possessions.

Rajiv, though, isn't like that. He does so many things: candlemaking, soapmaking, he plays music, he's a caligrapher, videographer, writer, public speaker... He's amazing, he's incredible, really. His apartment is relatively small, but it's so full of things. Yet, I can't help but feel he follows a philosophy very similar to my own. He mentions stuff like "only add it if it serves a function" when talking about gift-wrapping and I'm just taken aback by the dichotomy of owning a bunch of gift-wrapping stuff---a thousand rolls of yarn and string---but following a minimalist wrapping philosophy.

I guess the point of this post is to ask a bit of an open-ended question.

Why are you a minimalist and what could make you change?

I'm a minimalist because I hate waste and clutter. I don't like having a bunch of stuff I don't need and I don't like buying disposable things, it bothers me. Thing is, when I see Rajiv write beautiful letters I can't help but wish I had someone to write letters to. I wish my room was filled with paper and bottled ink. I just feel that, despite going against what's really at the core of how I live my life, I could accept it regardless.

Sorry if I'm not making any sense, but I'm curious what you guys think.

xoxo

Okay.

I had a good long think. I was doing the ADHD thing to try to fix the ADHD thing.

I was searching online for an alternative and I found a free launcher for android (I have a pixel 6a) called Olauncher. (Olauncher is FOSS btw)

Long story short - my phone is now a Light Phone Pro

Here's what I did:

1: install Olauncher.

2: color correct my phone to grayscale.

3: delete all of superfluous apps (ie things I can get to from the browser- duckduckgo)

4: use Olauncher to hide all the baked in apps and duplicate apps (apps that show on the home screen/pull-down shortcut and in the applist (mostly system apps))

5: turn off ALL my notifications save for txt and phone (and Instagram - my wife sends me things there, I don't use it, but I like to see the things she sends me.)

6: installed a matte screen protector

7: Turned on Night Light and Extra Dim, and keep them on always.

After all of that... I have gone from a phone trying to grab my attention from 100 different apps to a distraction free phone black and White eye safe phone with 20 total apps between the home screen and launcher.

So I canceled my Light phone pre-order and bought a new synth module instead.

If this sounds cool or helpful or you want a more detailed write up with screenshots, I'd be happy to detail it further.

Okay bye!

So, I preordered the Light Phone 3? I considered the 2 for a while but it is just to clunky with its eink screen, texting would be a nightmare.

What are y'all's thoughts on the new design? Do you think minimalist phones are worth it?

My TV died today and at first I was upset. Upon further reflection, I am okay with it. I'm not going to replace it. Perhaps this is the way?

Posting this in the Simple Living community a well, but thought I might a different perspective and additional input here.

Christmas is coming and I have a two year old and a five year old. My wife and I are pretty stumped about what to get our kids for Christmas. The two year old is easy; he doesn't care, will be thrilled with a ball, and just happy to be included.

The five year old is very down to earth and grateful for anything, but he already has everything he needs because up to now we've tried to be smart about buying him things that will last and give him good enjoyment mileage. He has plenty of Legos, an assortment of figurines (farm animals, fantasy creatures, little play houses, action figures, cars.), plenty of outside balls and whatnot. He also doesn't need consumable stuff (has plenty of candy from Halloween, crayons, coloring books, crafty supplies)

He doesn't need more stuff, but we still want Christmas morning to feel special and exciting and we want him to have a good "Santa came!!!" experience. I like the idea of giving experiences like tickets to Disney on Ice or a voucher to an ice cream shop, but that just doesn't have the same effect for a five year old, cause he can't hold it and it's really just a promise for the future.

Any advice or suggestions would be really appreciated!

Thank you all and much love from me to you!

Hello! I have an issue:

TLDR: I live in E Europe and would just like a site or app where I can shop for good quality, consistent, reliable, brandless, fashionless, timeless, standard, printless, good material, fairly priced clothes.

I usually like to buy bulk (2 long house jogger pants, 5 t-shirts of the same brand and form, just different basic colours, 2 black jeans, 7 pairs of socks of the same kind, 7 pairs of undies for example) and get it over with.

The closest i have found are C&A and H&M so far. I'd like even more simplicity and a bit better build quality.

"Fashion" conglomerate apps both second hand and new, contain the opposite of what i want in clothes: overpriced, varying quality, brand heavy, print/logo heavy, exotic cuts, weird colors, dated, impractical clothes.

I dont like needing to visit many generic online shops and flip the coin on build quality, and i dont like going to many online stores and finding the simple, honest clothing i like scattered one-three items on each brand.

I specifically want to avoid popular labels because that costs extra and the price is high for the label, not for the actual item of clothing.

Is there one app to unify this for me, or is there a company that just has fair prices and no fuss? And by no fuss, I also mean, i don't want some brand that sells me a white plain t-shirt for 100$ and makes this precious pageantry out of minimalism.

Sorry if i come off as bitter, but it's really difficult for me to just find simple stuff, and i am already fed up with it being such a chore after half a life. Simply because i have such simple requirements, its very difficult to find what i want.

Thank you in advance.

Hello fellow minimalists,

I recently stumbled across a channel on youtube that I wanted to share with you. Maybe some of you already know it, it's NEVER TOO SMALL.

In a world of ever increasing population, rising sea levels and ever increasing urbanisation, the question of good affordable housing is becoming more and more important. It pushes us to find solutions how we can use the existing space better and more efficiently to ensure a comfortable and space-saving home for the growing world population at the same time.

This is the theme of the NEVER TOO SMALL collective, which presents projects by architects and planners from all over the world, whose work presents specific solutions to this challenge.

It is not only the convincing content that stands out, but also the minimalist way in which this channel presents it. You can find them through the following links:

• YT-Channel: www.yewtu.be/channel/UC_zQ777U6YTyatP3P1wi3xw
• Website: www.nevertoosmall.com
• Store: www.nts-store.com

We've all heard the labels – vegan, city dwelling, young affluent, anti-capitalist hippies... the list goes on. But beyond the rage-baiting media's depictions, what's the funniest, most surprising, or common misconception someone has had about your minimalist lifestyle?

So this is not something that's very often discussed in minimalism communities, but I've recently gone through the process of minimizing the merchants that I interact with. A lot of mental clutter is bureaucratic, and anyone who tracks their spending rigorously knows how often things get messed up. Cards getting charged mistakenly, companies trying to pull sketchy shit, deliveries not showing up, etc. A side effect of minimizing initially was that I just spent less time working out issues with underpaid and therefore lazy customer service reps, and I found that to be a huge unexpected relief, but not a fully effective one, so two months ago I just went through all of my cards and made a list of every single company I give money to every month and stripped out what I could. I was OK with spending a bit of extra money to pare down that list, but actually ended up saving money on net - sometimes you spend more money than you save trying to take advantage of deals and such, and the more companies you interact with the more you're going to get screwed over.

I tried to get rid of the following:

1. Any companies I don't jive with ethically. Loblaw (in Canada) is horrid, and I was really only still buying from them because of the brief inconvenience of having to find an alternative (they're virtually monopolizing the grocery and toiletry sector at this point). I also took a couple of hours and contacted EVERY company I give significant money to to make sure they don't support Russia. Fuck you Proctor & Gamble. It's a huge moral weight off of my shoulders to know that, at bare minimum, I'm not making that situation worse. I only realized afterwards that I was SO SICK of walking into stores that just made my skin crawl, and how much it was weighing on me to support disgusting practices because convenience. This was, unexpectedly, by far the biggest plus.

2. Any companies that had given me issues in the past. If you charge me a bullshit fee or don't make every effort to fix your mistakes, it's not worth my time. Banks were the biggest culprit here, followed by anything that Uber has ever touched. Also fuck you, Uber.

3. Anything redundant. For example, there were some places I was just going to because they had the best price on one or two products. Not really worth my time. It's great that your toothpaste or whatever is 50 cents cheaper than the next cheapest one, but the mental energy it takes to go out of my way to go to that store just isn't worth it at this point. I also don't need to get certain categories of stuff at five different places - it cuts down on decision fatigue to just have one place where you get all of your [fill in the blank].

4. Anything that I didn't feel good spending money on and was a headache. For example, while I love ordering delivery every once in a while, uber/doordash's customer support is just so, so insultingly bad and things go wrong too often, and in the end it's just too expensive. For that price I can invest in "my future" or "an experience", which is just worth more than that temporary comfort.

5. Any random subscriptions or anything coming off of my card that I didn't really need. I had an annual subscription for a website that lets you make animated christmas cards. And the subscription renews in... April. WTF??? So yeah, that needed to go. Also cancelled spotify, had already cancelled netflix before I started.

I tried to find and add:

1. Ethically "better" merchants. I found restaurants that offer in-house delivery so that I don't need to use food delivery apps. They. Are. So. Much. Cheaper. You can't beat $20 chinese food that lasts for two days. Credit unions are something that have been on my mind for a while. I also tried to find non-chain stores. I'm ok with the fact that I won't be ethically perfect as a consumer, but in that area too many people let perfect be the enemy of good.

2. Things that I wanted to spend more money on, usually to align with desired behaviors. A thrift store with good prices, healthy fast food, and place to get books. I tend to respond really well to habitual behaviors, so I find that if I just plunk it into my schedule it grows on me.

End results:

• Savings of $220 in first full billing cycle.

• Cut out over half of merchants, weirdly. A lot of these were stores for everyday stuff - groceries, food delivery, drugstores, netflix and other digital subscription services, etc.

• Deleted so many apps. BYE UBER AND FUCK YOU FOREVER.

• Just feel a lot more free and better, because a lot of places are out of my mind, completely, especially things that had been nagging at me forever.

• MUCH better customer service. Goddamn, these "small businesses" that everyone talks about. They actually treat you like a human. Now I understand the hype.

Food is my #1 time suck and I'm honestly dying to get a consistent plan down, but it's terribly hard to make a plan that allows you to buy the same things every week and use up all the perishables.

What do you think about the practice of taking photos and keeping souvenirs? Is it a good idea, considering the need to manage, sort, and maintain them, and the fact that they often evoke feelings of nostalgia and melancholia. Should we stop taking photos at all? How do you manage this side of your life?

So I am not a minimalist - I own tons of stuff. Books, records, clothes. I also have a baby and all the attendant material nonsense that comes with one.

I do, however, have minimalist aspirations to an extent. And never do I hate literally everything I own more than when I am preparing to move house, as I am now doing for the second time within a year.

No questions here, but if fellow parents could give me some hope or pointers on anything, I would appreciate it!

It is interesting to me that very few people want clutter in their life (both tangible and intangible), yet it tends to manifest insidiously even for vigilant minimalists and requires the periodic clean-out to bring a space back into the desired state.

What is your insidious clutter that constantly tries to creep in? How do you manage it?

For me it's papers (bills and stuff waiting to be scanned) and children's toys (family just loves to buy my kids more and more junk). For my wife, it's stuff like lotions, shampoo, soaps, etc.

Our basic strategy is to give all this kind of stuff a designated amount of space they are allowed to take up, and once that space is full, stuff must leave before new can come in. We have a folder for mail/papers, bins for the kids toys (that have to be put away each day), and a basket for my wife's products.

So I grew up poor-ish, and my parents were always looking for a way to get us a bit of fun because most of our money went towards essentials. A childhood staple of mine was take it or leave it bins in various forms. One was at the garbage collection place (we had to take our own garbage because it costs money to have a garbage collector come in some places). People would put anything there that was still usable. We got furniture, electronics, and one time even one of those children's outdoor playground sets that would have sold for hundreds new. My mom would drive me to the local swimming pool (random place right?) where there was a take one leave one book place, and I would get a new book and drop off an old one.

Now I live in an apartment building that has an informal system like this. There's a basket/shelf thingy, and people leave stuff there, and someone else scoops it up. It gets cleaned at the end of every month, but most things get taken. I got most of my kitchen supplies that way, and have also given tons of stuff (the other day I saw someone wearing a dress that I gave away). I would honestly consider this one of the #1 selling points of my building.

Where can I go to find more of these? I'd love to trade in something I don't need for something that I'll use, or that I want to try out to see if it's useful. They are so in line with minimalism - rehome what you can't use, take what brings joy and utility. It's a shame that they aren't everywhere.

!digitalnomadsoflemmy@lemmy.world

and

https://lemmy.world/c/digitalnomadsoflemmy

PS - anyone else have some other minimalism-related subs going? Or long-term travel related? Looking to fill the reddit void.

Our society today is strongly based on the free-market assumption that prosperity and a higher quality of life go hand in hand with strong consumption.

What drives you to buck this trend and consciously consume less? What are your guiding principles that help you make decisions in everyday life?

A lot of people are turning to 'extreme' minimalism, and there are some great content online. Here's a list of YouTubers I previously posted elsewhere, please add to it.

• 🇬🇧 Lost Yet Free - old series of videos about 'bum bag travel', thought-provoking but limited, definitely a gateway to zero bagging.
• 🇳🇱 Anja's Art World - Really interesting videos with nice music
• 🇯🇵 Aki (Samurai Matcha)- A minimalist who is a school teacher living in a small village in Japan
• 🇳🇬 Mayo Uruk - Inspiring vlogger living in a small village in Nigeria
• 🇯🇵One Minimal Life - London based vlogger, calming music, not very extreme but very inspiring
• 🇺🇸 Timothy Ward - American guy marching to his own beat, very engaging with viewers
• 🇷🇺 Victoria Terekhina - Started as a vlog about Minimalism, now more general but very interesting
• 🇰🇪 Simply Fatima Amiri- Kenyan rural minimalist, really interesting videos, different culture but many similarities, particularly in outlook
• 🇬🇧 Sage Life Minimalism - British lady that seems to be starting out on her extreme minimalism journey
• 🇺🇦 Victoria Vlasenko - Some nice videos, generally self-improvement based but some interesting thoughts on Minimalism
• 🇩🇪 Undine Almani - Long term minimalist from Germany, occasionally discusses Extreme Minimalism
• 🇺🇸 Rob Greenfield - Eco-conscious activist, has a few videos (mainly outside his channel, but linked) about his Extreme Minimalist, Homesteading lifestyle
• 🇺🇸 Crystalline - More a wellness channel but with some nice walkthroughs and extreme declutters
• 🌍Trying Hard Minimalist Extreme Minimalist, based in the UK, former hoarder. Really nice walk-throughs.
• 🇦🇺Shireen - Aussie extreme minimalist, focuses on simple living and finances.
• 🇺🇸 Minimally Michele - Online journal, focus is on wellness and living light.
• 🇵🇹 Lusa Silva - Interesting videos, zero-bag travelling extreme minimalist lady from Portugal.

I feel like computers have gotten 1000x more powerful and still somehow slower and more annoying to use in the last 40 years.

the good old commodore 64 booted in 2 seconds. as soon as it was up, you could start writing commands; no login, no updates, no popups..

This absolute treasure is for you.

I love Shannon Torrens. She has such an easygoing style, and seems like a genuinely nice person.

Who do you like to watch?