Ejecting things

Sunday, November 3, 2024

The things.

It has recently come to my attention that a lot of the stuff in my office has dust on it. This isn’t because I fail to clean my house (I mean, in part it is. Who ‘dusts’?) but it is more that the things in my office are so infrequently used that dust builds up.

The last time I sat down and read a physical comic may have been almost two years ago. Yet, there are two full shelves of trade-paperback in my office.

The last time I read a physical book (other than those in the theology category) was… I hmm… I don’t know. I have had a Kindle for almost a decade and even when I have a physical book, I prefer e-books so usually end up reading the digital versions of things, despite owning the print copy. For reasons I don’t understand, I really like reading theology books in print. Outside of those… Nope, no idea. Yet still, there are books dripping from every shelf of my office.

The last time I played a game that wasn’t from the 90s was almost a year ago, but still, the steam deck sat there with its controllers, power adapters and network cable.

I never need to access my USB ports, but still, the USB dock sat on the desk, proudly at hand.

The butterflies.

I am a productivity enthusiast. I love to-do lists, task managers, calendars and notes. I optimise my workflow and review those optimisations regularly. I enjoy feeling like I am becoming a more optimal version of myself. It brings me great satisfaction. This is a mindset which I bring to my writing, more recently to my drawing, to my professional life and to my personal life. I love to feel that I am improving over time.

Recently, though, the word ‘minimalism’ has appeared on my radar more than once. Actually, it came up on YouTube a lot. I saw multiple videos about people depriving themselves of things to live simpler, save money, and they claimed, be happier. Mostly, I don’t believe them.

“A minimalist lifestyle is a philosophy that involves living with fewer possessions and commitments, and focusing on quality over quantity. It can be a way to reduce distractions, cut back on spending, and gain more clarity on what’s important.“

One example was the Nicholas Garofola channel. While I enjoy his videos a great deal, his way of life is not for me. Not at all. I also stumbled across a man who was trying to live his life from a single bag. I totally ignored that guy. There are plenty of people talking about the topic of living with less on Reddit’s Productivity pages.

I was recommended a book. The book was ‘Everything That Remains‘ which was written by podcasting duo, ‘The Minimalists.’ I try to, at least, have a look at books which are recommended to me more than once. This one looked interesting to me, so I grabbed it on sale (on Kindle) and let it simmer for a few weeks. It soon became the book I would slowly read through while eating my lunch at work. The book recounted one man’s journey from active businessman, and excessive consumer, to becoming one half of The Minimalists. It chronicled how his life and attitudes changed, and then he shared the story of the benefits he reaped.

I don’t want to write a book review right now, but it’s well worth reading, mostly because it’s so incredibly well written.

Since reading it, I think I have gained an insight into what these minimalist enthusiasts are talking about. And then it happened. I noticed all the things. The comics, the books, the technology and the objects.

I considered if the stuff on my shelves was really worth the space, given that a lot of the books had a layer of dust across them.

Within a few weeks, I had started to eject more and more from my house. Anything which didn’t serve a purpose began being donated, traded, sold or binned. I used the momentum the book gave me to spark a purge of sorts. Clean house, clean mind. Or at least that was the plan.

The issue is that the more I ejected from my home, the better I felt. My Bedroom is currently so organised that it feels like I just moved in, and instead of striking me as impersonal, the clarity of the spartan space has made its purpose more clear. I am sleeping better and generating less untidy things to clean up.

My office, however, has still got too much stuff, and this is in part a problem of practicality. I realised that I used to love comic books. The layer of dust on the top of them tells me that I don’t love them anymore. I don’t think I have for a long time. Many of them have enough value to make it worth an eBay listing, which takes time, so I am, slowly, ejecting them from their shelves and into the post office bag. The Steam Deck already went to CEX in exchange for a few hundred quid.

Not even the start

I doubt that the book, or ideology to which I was exposed on YouTube started something for me. In fact, I think I have been on this journey for a while now and hadn’t realised it. I wrote a post here a little while ago where I talked about value, time and productivity. I recounted my desire to play less games, do more fulfilling things and spend my time in ways which I felt that added to my life. I have always thought of myself as a utilitarian at heart, and perhaps he somewhat lapsed over the last few years. It it however loverly to feel once again that I am back on track with my time, my homeand my finances.

You may have raised an eyebrow when I said finances but honestly the more minimalist way of looking at things makes you trend towards purchasing less and purchasing better. Something which I have realised has happened organically.

Using less YouTube, playing less games and reaping more from my time has been wonderful and adding a minimalist inspired lens to that has really compounded the clarity and I feel like I am on the path to something rewarding.

A lesson?

As much as I don’t imagine I will ever be a minimalist, I do think that there are lessons to be learned from the ideology. The lesson is to think about what comes in hour home, and life, to consider how it will eventually leave.

Seeing the things I have moved on from lose all value to me has reminded me that things I may want in the future will also, one day, lose value to me. This has had made me more frugal, generally speaking, as well as making me consider if a purchase is worth the utility it offers over time. It has also made me think deeply about the environment and I have realised that most of the things around me are there because they were useful, or wanted. Not because they are useful, or wanted. The more stuff I eject from my home, the happier I have been, thus far, without exception.

I think taking the time to google all the people talking about minimalism on the internet is well worth the time. Thinking about things like a minimalist, even when you are not one (and don’t want to be one) has an impact and makes you reflect on what you do want out of the material items in your life.

I plan on coming back to this post in a few months and asking myself if the musings which were in my mind as I wrote it are still in there, and report back to see if it truly took hold.