Becoming a minimalist has been a difficult transition for me because I’m thinking more about what I really need for stability.
This week I realized I did not need a closet for clothes at all. There are only three things in my closet now, a laundry bag and hamper, an ebike, and my DoorDash backpack cube. A wave of giddiness washed over me as I knew I wouldn’t have to look at the mountain of clothes in here anymore. I put all my clothes into two small cloth containers which I keep by my bed. Every day, I’m calm and not rushed as I pick out clothes when I wake up.
I was buying more stuff to accompany my minimalist lifestyle. That felt counterintuitive. When I bought things to make my lifestyle easier, I was also getting rid of the things from my previous life. For example, when I bought the cloth containers to put my clothes in, I threw away the hangers in my closet since I wouldn’t be hanging shirts anymore. I have closed this loop, and I can spend less time on what used to be recurring decisions.
The major way I have downsized in the past two weeks is my clothes. I was overwhelmed with clothing options but still didn’t have enough underwear to make it to next week. I spent five hundred dollars on an all new black wardrobe for all the clothes I would use for one week and threw out the clothes from my previous life entirely. To what end? Fewer decisions and greater mental clarity concerning what to wear. There’s a visual quiet about black that keeps me focused.
This kind of downsizing has given me a valuable lesson. Minimalism has an upfront cost. The cost was five hundred dollars to overhaul my wardrobe. The return was gaining more mental clarity for larger decisions.