Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Re-orientation

It's been a time, that seems endless to me, since I wrote here the last time. I moved from Mainz to Berlin and I somehow needed to rearrange my whole life. It's completely different:
  • I used to cycle everywhere, now I take the subway - but I read on my way
  • I used to take naps several times a day, now I work in an office where I can't do that
  • I used to write this blog in the mornings at home, now I take pen and paper to a cafe and write to write my first book
  • I used to have a busy social life, now I have a busy working schedule
  • I used to have singing lessons three times a week, now I only sing when alone at home
  • I used to teach guitar, now I don't even have one
A lot of things changed. And I'm beginning to understand, that what enabled me to life my "old life" was precious. My bike, my freelance jobs, the projects I was involved in, my friends, my free time activities, my stuff. Yet I was longing for a fresh start. Now I need to build all these things anew. But I have the freedom to choose.

I think this is, what fascinates people about minimalism - the emptiness, the non-determination. What I'm experiencing right now is, that we need determination just as we need freedom. We need the daily grind, we need stuff. But we must not hold on to it.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Decluttering for beginners

My situation changes at the moment and I you want to let you know that I'm going to write less frequently here from now on. I want to focus on writing my book and an internship that starts soon. About once a week I will write a longer post on this blog. I hope you're as excited as I am about the book and that you'll stay tuned!

Minimalist living is like fixing a broken roof when it's raining. You can be busy carrying out water in buckets while the rain still keeps coming in. So what you've got to do first is to change your consumption behavior. My suggestion is: Do not buy anything except food and services until you've finished decluttering.

Since I first came up with the idea for my zero-thing-challenge I have been doing exactly that. I did not purchase a single thing. And I've got to admit that it's quite comfortable. Why should I pay money for something when I'm giving away my stuff anyway? What's interesting about it is that one might as well view life in general that way. We only own things for a lifetime. That seems long, but it's finite.

Anyways, after having stopped the inlet we need to take care of the clutter itself. I'd suggest you to minimize the effort and just watch out for opportunities:

"I like that dress you're wearing."
"It should be your size, you can have it."

I promise, it's going to be fun. You can also do that with CDs and books, it works really well:

"Do you know that song? It's The Doors, I love them."
"I've got L.A. Woman and Strange Days on CD, do you want them?"

"What are you reading at the moment?"
"I just finished Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda."
"I've heard Steve Jobs talk about that book. It was one of his favorites."
"It's great! Take it if you want to."

In a third step (after stopping to buy and seizing opportunities) you can occasionally sell stuff on ebay. I did that whenever I felt something was in my way and just taking up space. But then I did it right away. For me this worked better than trying to get rid of everything at once.