Every Monday I post Real Life Minimalists, a profile of one of my readers in their own words. If you’d like to participate, click here for details.
Today, we meet Magalie Linda, an aspiring “semi-minimalist.” She’s documenting her decluttering process on her Tumblr, so be sure to check it out.
Magalie Linda writes:
I am not a minimalist. I don’t want to be one. At least not the one that has 2 pairs of pants or 2 shirts and lives out of a suitcase. But I am turning into a “semi minimalist”. You see, I do like to dress up. I like to accessorize. I like some of my stuff. But it is not my life. I am not my stuff.
It took me a while to realize this. When I started yoga, boxing and meditation to get more focussed, and of course, for physical purposes, it struck me how efficient the techniques of yoga and boxing are. You don’t use what you don’t need in a pose or a movement. It started to reflect back into my behavior.
One day not too long ago I came home. I was tired. I sat down on my sofa and I looked around my very very tiny house (it’s 147 square feet). I love my very very tiny house, but it was full of crap. My grandmother had died a few years ago, her belongings were mixed with some old stuff I had managed to hold on to and new things I had bought in moments of shopping fevers. I sat on my sofa feeling so empty in a house full of so many objects. Objects that should make me feel better, but they didn’t. Not anymore.
So, I started to think about how my grandmother was dead and that I had thought about her in the train going home. Not even in the house where her belongings were. When I was in the train I felt happy with my memory of her. It dawned on me that these items of hers were not a representation of me and my grandmother’s relationship. It was merely an item that I had placed a lot of value upon, but now it had made me feel tired. It was time to let go of this way of being.
But it was hard! It was my grandmother’s stuff. My stuff. But also it made me so tired with myself that I had these emotional waves towards an object. I was done with being tied down and tired. I was done with being mastered by things that I now know I have control over. It is just an object. I looked around the web to find some contenders who shared their experiences with minimalism and thus letting go of personal items.
Lo and behold there was a plethora of advice, experiences and even people who wrote books on the subject. I was not alone! I took this new information and I started to digest it.
That was the start of a whole chain of events and thoughts that have now been turned me into a semi-minimalist. I carefully am reviewing every item. Drawer per drawer, cabinet per cabinet, box per box. I don’t need to throw everything out, but definitely 80% is going out. It’s a fascinating process which I am documenting in my Tumblr. You would be surprised at how I get rid of some things in a strange way.
I find myself in a new place, and yet again it is not new. It is more a place for me where I feel more natural. It had always had to be like this. You could say, I am finally me. I have become generous. I find that some reaction that I would make in some situation, are now unnecessary. I even have more silly fun, because now there is room for it. In my head, my soul and in the material realm.
Thank you, minimalism bloggers and contributors for sharing. You saved a person. You have made this girl very happy.
{If you’d like to learn more about minimalist living, please consider reading my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or subscribing to my RSS feed.}
Thanks for sharing! I have the same feeling, “but I like some of my stuff.” I have the same habit of getting emotionally attached to my things, especially if they were souvenirs, presents, etc., but what I try to tell myself is that I have no moral obligation to inanimate objects. Good luck with your journey! Your tiny house will feel soooo much better soon!
Thank you so much! I love the nickname you chose! Haha. It made me smile.
I hope you will follow me on my journey and that we might exchange thoughts!
Take care!
I do not tumble, tweet, facebook so I want to comment about about the sincere posts on ML site. Like you, I wonder about the “where’s the ‘what’s next’ or ‘wonderful'” after I shed the excess from my life. Like you, I feel some of the temporary negatives of searching for comfortable level of minimalism.
An obvious aha I had one night was “screw the voices in my head that say get rid of something that is just sentimental or aim toward a specific # of items”. I am NOT living those peoples’s lives. I am answerable only to myself, my dear husband, and God. All 3 of us happy with the # & type of what I have, then I’m done de-possesing.
The why and how I use the assets God has bountifully provided me is all that matters, not the #.
Gail! Right you are and can we add that God and it’s assets do not take up as much space as my ASS-ets even if it’s becoming less and and less.
Bless you and I hope you have an amazing journey!
Hey a dutchy! Same strugle here for four years ( also from the netherlands , but with kids ;-)).
It seems like almost everyone has a turning point when their lives are miserable. Tired, thinking about your life…
Hoi Zoe :D
Tony Robbins once mentioned: If you get disgusted enough with yourself and your life, you will change it. No one ever changes their life when it’s fine and well.
Hope you are well and that your kids are healthy!
Fijne dag!
So true
Magalie Linda, you have gotten the whole point of minimalism: recognizing that you are not your stuff. This is a huge mental burden relief. Even if you would call yourself a semi-minimalist, you have figured out the valuable lessons that come with less stuff, it doesn’t have to be a certain number to matter! Well done.
Thank you, sir.
I do feel like I had to have an amputation, though. I never had one (thank goodness), but it felt like an emotional amputation. Some healing went with it accordingly.
I appreciate your compliment!
I like the term “semi-minimalist”!
I should have made it “Seminimalist” if i was being super minimalist ;)
I like “essentialist” as well, but I believe that is something else in psychology terms.
This is exactly how I feel. I’ve been a “lurker” here and on other blogs for a couple years now, and I feel like I’m a non-minimal minimalist. I still have and buy “stuff”, but that stuff is very unimportant and does not define who I am. Every day I think about what I could do without, but it isn’t about less for the sake of less. Every adjustment I make is to give me more freedom or time or energy to do what I enjoy doing.
Hi Magalie Linda. Do you live in one of the tiny wood houses that can be attached to a truck? Did you build it yourself?
Hi lilly! No i live in a tiny pre war house in Holland. We dont usually have wooden houses.
We dont have much room here so usually the bigger houses are divided up into tinier independent living areas.
Hey Lilly!
No, I don’t actually live in a wood house! I don’t think it’s allowed in my country. I live in a pre-war ground floor apartment. It used to be a huge convent, but they divided it into tiny independent houses so we all had more places to live. It happens often in Holland.
Hope that it answers your question :)
Hi Magalie ~ I must admit that I, too, am fascinated with your tiny home. I can’t wrap my mind around a person having “too much” of anything if it can all fit in 147 square feet!!! But then, that’s the beauty of the idea of minimalism :)
I have lived in an 1,123 square foot home for the last 20 years. While others were buying bigger and renting storage sheds, I vowed to keep my footprint small. Not because I’m not attracted to bigger and more on the surface, but because I always wanted my monthly outlay to be minimal. That drives me more than anything…being debt free and knowing I can live on less is a freedom that those with debt can never fully appreciate.
I could use with downsizing some of my stuff, but the truth is that if it all burned down tomorrow, I know I would be okay.
Thank you for sharing your story. You’ll live a happy life at an earlier age than most…go enjoy!
Ree
That is so ironic that you would say that, because I just turned 36 today! So yay haha.
I am fascinated to by my tiny home. I managed to fit it all in though! It was stacked and packed away! I have so much less now. Round two of the decluttering is starting, because I still feel I have too much. I guess we can drop the “semi” now, right? Where is my button?
Could you explain, or rather, define to me what you mean “I vowed to keep my footprint small”? I am fascinated by this phrase! But I just need some context as to why I am fascinated by it.
Thank you so much for your thoughts! Very insightful.
I think Ree means carbon footprint.
Hi Magalie :)
What I meant when I said I “vowed to keep my footprint small” is really more about keeping my “stuff” contained to a small area. The real motivation for me is to keep my monthly financial obligations low. People who choose to live in large houses, furnish those houses, drive new cars every two years, store lots of toys in storage units, etc., pay for that privilege. If that’s what they want, great…it’s just not for me.
Bigger roofs cost more to replace, carpet for 1,000 sq ft is much less expensive than a 3,000 sp ft home, property taxes are a heavier burden, insurance is more…the list goes on…
I want freedom and to me that means having less stuff holding me down and robbing me of my money. When you keep your footprint small (think amount of sq ft needed to contain your life), you gain freedom because all your money isn’t tied up in a bigger footprint.
I hope that helped to explain!
Ree
Ah thank you!
Yes, I totally relate to that. That is what I do now. I save up more money because I haven’t got more expensive. It also means I don’t have to work 5 days a week, I work 4 days a week. I am thinking about working 3 days a week. Just so I can enjoy life more. Also I freelance on the side and this feels like play to me. Very enjoyable.
Plus, I am trying to hold off to buying a car too because it’s just really not very necessary in my life. I have no kids to drive to ballet or soccer, and pretty much all i need to do is done by bike (Yay Holland) or public transport (which yes, is not so yay all the time). We have these websites in Holland, where you can rent someone else’s car for a day or an hour. It’s like the AirBnB concept, but then with cars. I do that when I REALLY need to use a car. But so far i’ve been fine.
The part you talk about, with the replacing, carpets insurance….it made me tired when I read it ;)
Haha.
I hope we can keep in touch! Have an amazing day.
Oh, and Happy Birthday :)
Yup – a fellow cloggie – the Dutch Passport and the AH logo gave it away!
I don’t Tumblr either but I clicked on your link and could read it just fine.
I’ll checki it out more zodra ik effe tijd heb. ;-)
I’m like you in that there are things I refuse to part with.
How big is your house in vierkante meter? I live in 48 square metres so still masstive decluttering going in when I moved all my stuff from my 25 square metres previous apartment. (or should it be M3 not M2?).
Your English is very, very good.
Hallo daar :D
Yeah, I read on the blog of “The Minimalists” that they also have some items that they just really love. So that gave me permission to keep at least one or two items. I must admit I have really been more minimalist than I expected to be and I did part with some of those things too.
Yes I live in about 45m2. That’s about the same as you.
Thank you for the english compliment :)
I hope I will see you on my tumblr, you don’t need to have tumblr to follow it. Maybe you can drop a message some time to let me know how you are getting along.
Happy birthday!
Dank je wel! Taartje?
En een Ranja met twee rietjes!
I calculated ,147 square feet is about 13,6 square meter ?
As another fellow Dutchy I would like to let you know that I also enjoyed your perspective. I especially appreciate that you also cover the more realistic, now-what-moments of minimalism, to show that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows :-)
However, I’d like to point out that 45 m2 is actually 484 square feet, not 147. That may also partly explain the admiration for fitting all your stuff in ;-) Though it’s still small of course!
Groetjes :-)
Ahhh ok! It would still also explain why I had more coming into my house than going out of my house. My calculations have never been very smart! Thank you :)
I’m a semi-minimalist too! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to pare down my closet enough to call myself a true minimalist…I like fashion, design, etc. But, I think it’s all about finding a balance and what works for you. Cheers to semi-minimalists! Look forward to reading more on your blog :)
Thanks for sharing!
Items that we accumulated from people who had died, were among the most difficult for us to purge as well. We ended up just keeping 1-2 things from each loved one.
Yeah. I hear ya.
It’s kind of sad, huh?
But! I always hear my grandmother in my head when I want to buy something: “what the heck do you need THAT for now?”.
Now, that’s a good legacy :D
“Now other people’s clutter makes me tired. I want to clean up their house! I want them to be minimalists. I think that’s awful of me. How do I stop this?” Had to share this…I hope you don’t mind:)
You are not the only one. It’s like when you are in love- you want to shout it from the rooftops and let the whole world know what is making you *so* happy! I am definitely going to be bookmarking your site- you are a breath of fresh (real!) air.
Greeting from California
Hi Anna,
Yay I love California. Haha thanks for sharing.
Awesome story! I always envy my friends’ places in the city that are minimalist and hip while mine looks like a library, this was inspirational.
Oh Bill, If only I were hip. If only this made me popular and cool. Because you know…we all want to belong. I feel like I am not even a good minimalist haha.
But I am glad it was inspiring! Your stories all inspire me. So much.
I have been lurking around several minimalists’ websites for quite a few months now, even doing some decluttering and depossessing here and there myself. But what has been holding me back all that time was the thought that ‘I’m not there yet’ to live with nearly nothing, as some minimalists manage. I know that to get there, their processes probably have also been gradual, but since reading your definition of ‘semi-minimalism’ I feel enlightened. I don’t have to be as minimalist as some people out there. If one day, I find myself at that point, fine, but if not, also fine!
Thank you for sharing your story, it has inspired and encouraged me to make the changes I am comfortable making right now, instead of putting them off because I can’t do it all at once.
It’s interesting how, as minimalists or simple livers or whatever, we pride ourselves with “not keeping up with the Joneses”. However, it seems we try to “keep up with the minimalists”. I tell myself that this is not a competition where the one who owns the least wins. Sure, it would be nice to scale down so much that everything we own fits in the back of our car, but most people can’t live that way.
If you want to keep a collection of doorknobs, teacups, teddy bears, whatever, go ahead. It’s all about getting rid of what you don’t want or need and keeping the rest. Over time what is important may change, but life is full of change.
Lately I’ve been decluttering but it just doesn’t seem like I’ve gotten rid of enough stuff. Compared to who? Or what? Right now it’s enough; in a month more stuff may go. It’s a journey, not a destination.
That’s an excellent point, Nancy!
You’re not a firefighter if you don’t belong to a company, volunteer or get paid for fighting fires- you can fight fires in your kitchen, but you’re not a fire fighter. You’re not a doctor if you’re only looking up your ailments online to self-diagnose.
But the same isn’t true for minimalists. A minimalist can be a person who practices, appreciates or supports the art of less. In other words, you can be a minimalist-on-the-way and still be a minimalist. So don’t let anyone hinder you and tell you that you absolutely must run barefoot in order to feel inspired by minimalism, in order to call yourself minimalist. It’s an expression that we can all perform in our interpretation of the art. As a community, let’s be inspired, and supportive. =)
I probably won’t ever be a true minimalist. But I keep hoping to get rid of more things. No more extras of anything, and I got rid of a box of jewelry I hadn’t worn yesterday. Tomorrow is a canned food drive so I will go through my cupboard and give away some boxes and cans of food. I like art pottery and jewelry. There are some boxes of knickknacks I still need to go through, buried deep in my closet.
Hey all!
I have changed my URL to: http://minimalistic-maggie.tumblr.com/
Just thought i’d keep y’all updated.
Phew, thanks for updating!! I was so sad when it was gone, and came here to ask, and lo and behold, you had already written :)
I gave away 3 boxes of mismatched china. Then I gave away a pile of craft magazines. Next, I have some stuffed animals to give away. There is very little I need or want. I take books and magazines out of the library. I am trying to get my daughter to clean out her car but nothing I say or do makes any difference.
There is furniture I could get rid of eventually but I need it right now. I’m 65 and over the next 10 years I see myself gradually moving things from the top shelves down and from the backs of the cupboards towards the front. I won’t want to be climbing on a step stool or crawling on the floor in ten years.
My DH was going to buy a pair of gloves. I suggested he look in the glove box first. He found 2 pairs he forgot he bought. Being a minimalist means there is only one place something could be.
I was in my daughter’s car yesterday and handed her a bag to fill with trash. She recycled a lot of paper and plastic. I feel it is easy to clean a little bit at a time. Then she gave me a bag for Goodwill. Since I am usually there once a week it will go right in my car.