Minimalism is a system that serves as a very useful tool for simplifying your life. But like any other tool, you must use it in the right way if you want a good result. It also helps if you have a good reason why you want that result.
Many people condemn minimalism for a variety of reasons. But what they criticize is not minimalism. Instead, it is something that they think is minimalism but is not.
I intend to point out some of these things that seem like minimalism. I also intend to explain why they are not. So, here are 8 ideas that seem like minimalism but are not:
1. Getting rid of all duplicates
Excessive redundancy is inefficient. It wastes a lot of space and it renders many things useless. It is very understandable to declutter some of these things. But some items are so crucial that it's wise to have a spare. In a case like this, the spare is useful. One example is something that you need for your income source. So if part of a work uniform gets damaged, then it makes sense to have a spare.
The point here is that minimalism is about getting rid of useless things. Spares for vital equipment are not useless and you don't need to discard all of them.
2. Having too few clothes or dishes
There are some items that you need to use every day. Also, some of these are things that you need to wash after you use them. For example, dishes and some clothes need washing after each use.
If you wash dishes by hand, then this is not an issue. But if you load them into a dishwasher after use, then it makes sense to have enough to fill a dishwasher. That way, you will save energy, time, and water by only running the dishwasher once per day.
Also, there are some clothes such as underwear where having too few is not efficient. It makes more sense to have enough to fill a washload. Otherwise, you would have to do laundry every day and waste a lot of time and water in the process.
Minimalism is a valuable tool for simplifying your life, and an important part of it is saving time. It is also about saving space by not keeping too many redundant things. But wasting a lot of time and energy to save a trivial amount of space is not minimalism. Minimalism is more than just about decluttering your space. It is also about decluttering your time.
3. Getting rid of things you know are useful
Some people claim to practice minimalism by getting rid of all their furniture. Few go to this extreme, but many people get rid of useful things in their attempt to be minimalist. These are often the same people who later complain about how much they hate minimalism. But this is like hating screwdrivers because you tried to use one the wrong way.
The purpose of minimalism is to make your life simpler and easier. It works by removing useless things from your life. But getting rid of useful things is not minimalism, it's deprivation (asceticism). Unlike minimalism which simplifies your life, deprivation complicates it.
What minimalism makes easy, deprivation makes difficult. For example, depriving yourself of somewhere to get a good night's sleep is a bad idea. It's not the same as removing clutter from your bedroom so that you can sleep better.
To further illustrate my point, aeronautical engineers have to think like minimalists. But none of them would remove a wing from an airplane design to save weight. Deprivation is closer to being opposite than to being like minimalism.
4. Decluttering to meet a quota
As I said, minimalism is about getting rid of useless things to make your life simpler and easier. It is not about meeting some quota that could end up depriving you of something you need.
This reminds me of a certain decluttering challenge. It is to discard one item on the first day, two items on the second day, and so forth. After 30 days, you should have discarded a total of 465 items. So if you had less than 400 useless items, then you would have discarded at least 66 useful items.
This can deprive you of many useful things. The result would be bad for the person who uses this process. It can cause resentment of the process which can cause you to dislike minimalism. Once more, minimalism is not deprivation.
5. Thinking you have to adhere to a color scheme
It's easy to think that minimalism requires a given color scheme. That is because many minimalists give that impression without thinking about it. I am also guilty of this in the design of my blog (but not my home decor). My reason is that I want a blog that is as simple and as easy to read as possible. Many like a clean and simple-looking decor, but there is no need for any particular color scheme. After all, minimizing useless things does not have a color preference. The most important thing is that you like the colors that you choose.
6. Treating minimalism like an ethical standard
As we know, minimalism is about minimizing useless things. But different people will find different things to be useless. So minimalism will look different based on your lifestyle. So it's an error to think less of others for not applying minimalism well enough. This is for two main reasons:
1. Minimalism can look different to two people who are both using it well.
2. Minimalism is a tool for people to use. It is not a moral code or ethical standard. Using it well or not does not make someone a good or bad person.
7. Trying to appear minimalist
There are many articles about how to create a minimalist look. Also, many people try to look minimalist. But like any other tool, how well minimalism works is more important than how it looks. There are also two important reasons why you shouldn't care about appearing minimalist:
1. Focusing on the appearance of minimalism would add complication to your life. This goes against the intent of minimalism which is to simplify your life.
2. As I said before, minimalism looks different for different people. So there is no point in trying to meet some non-existent standard.
To sum it up, a true minimalist doesn't care about appearing minimalist. It is for a similar reason why happy people don't care about appearing happy.
8. Treating minimalism like an end result
Minimalism is a very useful tool to simplify your life. But the tool is not the end result. Also, there needs to be a reason for wanting the end result. A good reason for wanting a simpler life is to have more time for the things that make you happy.
People who try to use minimalism as the end result wind up feeling empty. The emptiness comes from not doing things that add fulfillment or purpose. Simplifying their lives serves to expose that reality.
The fix is to start doing things that fulfill you. It is not to use minimalism for the sake of using it.
In summary, many things only seem like minimalism. Here are 8 such ideas that seem like minimalism but are not:
1. Getting rid of all duplicates2. Having too few clothes or dishes
3. Getting rid of things you know are useful
4. Decluttering to meet a quota
5. Thinking you have to adhere to a color scheme
6. Treating minimalism like an ethical standard
7. Trying to appear minimalist
8. Treating minimalism like an end result
The truth is that minimalism is an excellent tool for simplifying your life. But you have to know and use it for the tool which it is. Doing so will allow you to reap the benefits instead of disliking it for what it is not.