Minimalism and permissible clutter
One of the reasons my house is so much cleaner than it used to be is because I started reading a lot about minimalism. There were some other steps after that. I’ll explain.
I have said for years that it’s ludicrous that we collect books, CDs, DVDs, magazines etc. that we rarely have time to enjoy because we’re so busy:
earning the money to buy them
buying them
earning the money to store them (bigger bookcase, bigger house etc.)
dusting them
organising them
What I didn’t realise was that getting rid of the stuff would make life so much easier.
I can’t even remember what started me seriously thinking about minimalism as a possibility for me. I know that I happened upon a few high-profile minimalists (see my resources page) and at some point, inspired by them, I began to slowly reduce the stuff in my house.
I can’t tell you where I started. I just started somewhere and identified things I didn’t really need. I started looking at everything in my house through a different lens. I was looking for things to get rid of. I was looking for things that were not adding value. Over time, I started seeing things that were not only not adding value but were actually causing stress. That’s a turning point. I think it’s a common occurrence among declutterers - you get hooked on the process because every clear surface creates a little more headspace, is easier to keep clean, looks nicer etc.
Lots of minimalists indulge their addiction to the reduction of possessions and that’s fine for them, but some of their houses (judging by the house tours on their websites) are frankly, a bit bleak. Many declutterers and minimalists will introduce rules (yes rules!) about say, how many decorative items one may have on a dining table or a mantelpiece. To my mind, this is madness. They’re trying to be helpful but surely it’s just another source of stress?
In the minimalist context, William Morris is often quoted, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” and this is sound advice but I think that many of the more rabid minimalists have misunderstood. Some things are not beautiful on their own, but contribute to beauty as part of a group. I’m very fond of cacti and succulents. Many of them are odd-looking or even ugly in themselves, but they look great in a row - there’s a kind of structural beauty to the collection. If you took each item one by one and asked if it sparked joy or was beautiful or useful, it may not make the cut, but it could be part of a lovely vibe.
I’ve drastically reduced the amount of stuff on my horizontal surfaces. To be perfectly honest, I used to see those surfaces as storage locations. I had so much stuff that I couldn’t contain everything in the actual storage places like cupboards and bookcases. Now as look around my house I can truthfully state that I don’t use surfaces as storage. But I like to have a few things on my window sills. I’ve got plants on some of them, jars of pebbles on others. Stuff like that. I like it.
For me, the only rules to apply are:
that I should be able to clean my house easily
that my house should feel like a home