“Hey man, I don’t want anything, I am a minimalist!”

We all know people who are minimalists by fashion. It is trendy to consider oneself a minimalist. Minimalism is a sequential process and this is how I approach it. Before you start throwing things out of your life, please consider:

1. Reduce waste: this includes food, water and noise.
2. Something new replaces something old: only buy new things if you can justify them with getting rid of the thing you are replacing. Recycle, donate, or discard it completely.
3. Prioritize repair over replace: if something breaks, try to fix it, replace the broken part, or have it repaired. Of course it should make financial sense.
4. Wood over plastic: wood can easily be repurposed, needs basic tools to manipulate, beautiful, fun, and satisfying to work with.
5. Buy used over buy new: where it makes sense, buying used helps reduce waste, helps the seller, and puts more money in your pocket.
6. Sorting problem: how to know what you really need and what is just taking up space. This solution comes from computer programming. I can explain this with an example. Say you have about 10 pair of clothes in your wardrobe and you are not sure what to get rid of. Start by placing the clothes you use often on the right side of the wardrobe. Over time, you accumulate all the clothes you use on the right and you can safely get rid of the clothes on the left. If you haven’t used it, you don’t need it.
7. Now you can start throwing stuff out: this is the fun part. Consider donating and recycling.

So before you start throwing things out of your life, consider the first three steps I outlined above.