I decided that I had one too many large tables this week thats primary function just served to collect plates and trash.

I got rid of it and sort of had an existential moment of realization. I’m scraping the barrel on minimalism. Last year I moved into a small tent full time. Downsized my bed to a cot, made my own solar system, pump my water, and got rid of all my trinkets and toys.

I just don’t have much left to get rid of. Not much left to store or organize. No need for large tables, my smaller collapsable tables do what I need. All thats left is bare essential appliances, clothing, bedding, and daily use devices. just a little more I wouldn’t even need a shelf anymore.

I feel free. Like a weight is being lifted off of me. Possessing means maintenance and emotional attachment to objects. Each thing I get rid of feels like a win, like I’m letting go of something that I didn’t really need. The few things that stay I truly appreciate for what they provide me in life.

But I feel like I’m kind of weird for feeling these way. Its the societal norm to collect things, compare social status with objects, show off your ideaologoies and interest by decorations. The ‘dream’ for most people is a big home to fill with a spouce, kids, and things.

People get mad at the idea of ‘pod life’ and ‘owning nothing and being happy’, which I understand its about being g forced into poverty not minimalistic zen type letting go of attachment. But I personally feel like theres too much hoarding and consumerism in daily life.

I wish that nomadic minimal lifestyles were looked better upon by society and not equated to homelessness. I don’t have any stuff tying me down I want to explore my country without monthly apartment rents in an old van. Why is that wrong? Because I’m not making taxable property income or stimulating the economy with constant purchase?

  • zero_spelled_with_an_ecks@programming.dev
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    23 hours ago

    made my own solar system

    Without Pluto, I’m assuming, to fit the minimalist aesthetic. 🥁🥁🛎️

    I’ve soured a bit on minimalism once it become content for attention capitalism, but it sounds like it’s genuinely working for you and not something you “should” do without reflection.

  • courageousstep@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    I had the realization last night as I was struggling to do the dishes and fold my laundry that it is evolutionarily unnatural for humans to have so much stuff to take care of. Like, we spent most of our existence as humans living in highly mobile bands with the bare necessities for survival plus ceremonial items.

    It’s no wonder that I don’t want to spend time thinking about what I’m going to wear every morning and that I’m happy to wear the same comfortable outfit every day. Most humans in history had like a single outfit with optional modifications for weather and ceremony.

    It’s no wonder that I get overwhelmed with a ton of food in my fridge and that most of it ends up going bad because I can’t eat it all. I’m supposed to be cooking what’s immediately available and sharing that food with my band members so there are no leftovers.

    It’s no wonder that I don’t want to scrub toilets or vacuum. My brain evolved to have a one or two room tent or wooden structure to maintain.

    It’s no wonder that I don’t want to sit in a box all day and stare at a box that has shapes and colors on it, looking for meaning. I would rather listen to my friends tell stories and spend my days fixing a few tools as needed and finding food. I want to find meaning in relationships, in other people, not in screens and complex organizations.

    I could go on.

      • courageousstep@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        Thanks. Talking about this stuff has been getting me weird looks from other people. Modern civilization is so ingrained that people haven’t thought to recognize the water they’re swimming in, and forget that the lifestyle we have today is less than 200 years old, and that’s it’s all escalating in an unsustainable way….

        • Krudler@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          My friend, I take care of the people at the bus station near me, I have just decided they are my community and I show love for them

          I go every night with hot water, cold water, medical provisions, hygiene, and some food

          I make sure everybody’s okay, and I see what’s going on in their lives

          It has built an insane amount of support in my community, I couldn’t even see it coming, I did what I did because that’s me, and then the results were profound?!

          I walk down the street and people say hi and give me things. They know me as the guy with the rainbow hat.

          Whattttt

          I’m learning that everything you said in your comment is true

          Edit, oh and yes, I actually feel that when I show the “normal world” the way that I live, I actually get a form of quasi-abuse back. It’s so bizarre to me

  • Perhapsjustsniffit@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    I personally lived like this for decades. I had a big backpack 80L. If my stuff didn’t fit in I had too much. I lived outside a lot. Sometimes inside. I didn’t have furniture or a car. Just a bedroll and a backpack. It was amazing. I’m old now and have the comforts of stuff but that time in my 20’s and 30’s was some of the best of my life.

  • fakir@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    Anything you own ends up owning you or something like that.

    Btw, why do you care what others think? Aren’t you free? Didn’t you do this for yourself and not to impress anyone? You should be secure in your rationale for living your lifestyle.

    • SmokeyDope@lemmy.worldOP
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      22 hours ago

      Great question. Sometimes I feel like ive lost the plot of enjoying the human experience. When the majority of the members of my species exhibit a behavior or inpulse that I cant relate to or dont understand, I second guess whether its me missing something fundamental to enjoying my existence or whether Ive overcome a certain flaw most others haven’t or something else.

      You are correct though I should be a little more confident in the choices ive made and the rationals of why I made it.

  • Krudler@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I loved reading your experience, there’s a flip side that I’ve been experiencing in my life recently.

    I have always been a minimalist and an anti-materialist, never really attached to “things” very much.

    Late last year I decided to start getting into electronics and to do that, I would buy only broken things for the cheapest dollar, and then deduce and figure, and educate myself on how they work and how to repair them. It’s a great way to connect to the memory of my grandfather who grew up in the depression, and taught me how to make things from nothing.

    Anyways, a couple of critical things happened… I was out buying a $5 TV and as I was bringing it home, I saw the exact same TV in the dumpster next to my building. I took the one I purchased upstairs, and I couldn’t escape the thought that I just bought something that I could have dragged out of a garbage can. So I did something I hadn’t done before, and I went and picked it out of there.

    That was a very educational moment because it taught me immediately that even two very similar televisions, from the same year, from the same manufacturer, can have different inverter boards and connectors and pinouts and everything’s just a giant FU to hobbyists and the whole right to repair concept. It’s sort of blew my mind coming from a place where I built PCs for decades and really had the PC mindset not general electronics.

    That put me more into a salvage mindset, where I figured if I was going to learn how to cobble things together, I was going to have to get a variety of things, and deepen my understanding.

    And this sort of addiction, I can honestly say, started to form for salvaging and scrapping discards. I started to make a point of passing by dumpsters on my way back from grocery. I started to drag all manner of electronics and shit out! Record players, amplifiers, stereos, speakers, fans… What the hell I thought to myself, there’s just free junk everywhere?!!

    I started to repair and have so much fun, and I guess I succeeded with my plan of just gathering crap to learn the hobby! Most of the things I ended up working on and fixing and playing with weren’t even the stuff I planned on, but it expanded my horizons so much.

    On I go lol…

    Eventually I crossed the mental threshold of going from hard plastic and metal electronics that really couldn’t have pests on them, really just dirt…, to other types of materials and things I would never have considered even touching next to a dumpster. All of a sudden I started to realize so many things that I paid money for, were literally just sitting there like dressers, shelves, carpets, lamps, quality cookware, all kinds of stuff!!! And I am not talking about some beaten-to-rat-shit stained piece of garbage, I am talking about new items that you cannot literally understand why anyone would dispose of.

    Some items are notably filthy, like the brand new Xbox that had banana peels on it, guess they didn’t know you could fix an HDMI output. They live a block or two from me and they pay $4,000 per month rent for the exact same square footage I pay $1,000 so I guess there you go. My point is, not one thing enters my zone before being cleaned within an inch of its life because I’m aware of the potentials. I have other routines as well that are not germane to this comment. It needs to be said though, because if anybody’s taking inspiration, you need to be deadly serious about pests.

    I just got a $600 Dyson vacuum because they didn’t know you could clean the motor filter. $4,000 of solid wood furniture because the posts fell out of the shelving and they couldn’t be bothered to just stick them back in or glue the ones that were loose. A boombox that makes the new gen Bose SoundLinks sound like talking greeting cardaf rom Hallmark by comparison - by this point I’ve learned enough electronics that I added in a Bluetooth board from a salvaged shower speaker, powered by lithium ion batteries salvaged from disposable vapes, and now this thing rocks my block! It’s all garbage!!

    I found a painting that I’ve discovered was once “worth” $4,000. My apartment is filled with the most beautiful Italian glass, people pay for it on the local boards upwards of $80 per piece and it’s just laying in garbage cans. All the art on my wall is classic record covers and sleeves when people move out they just leave their collections and boxes. Today I got a fire extinguisher new in box and outer wrap, a NIB powered precision screwdriver set with tamper-proof torx bits, a NIB 1 lb camping propane tank full… It’s lunacy my friends.

    I started to just give things away. I collect things just to take them home, clean them, and give them to the next person so they can give me something cool back.

    I don’t ever feel the need to go out and buy anything other than food now.

    I have realized that literally every single thing that I need in the world can just be picked up by walking over and getting it. It requires a different mindset which means you have to have a continual mental list of things you need, and you just have to know that the lottery machine of life is going to pay off and you just mentally took them off as you grab them.

    So it’s been a way to have amazing stuff in my life for the first time ever, not feel attached to it and feel like I can throw it all away right now, and just get it all again tomorrow if I want. I never have to put my stuff in boxes and move again, it’s just going to go in a heap.

    No matter what I pick up and salvage, I find something better a week later. I now have a four 55-in televisions and I do not even watch TV. I literally do not ever turn them on. Unless I need to watch a video on how to fix a TV like the one I just turned on. An Xbox, a PlayStation, a Nintendo handheld, a Harman Kardon complete amplifier system, a complete surround sound set, a complete karaoke set. It’s an absolute embarrassment of riches from garbage. That’s not even half of it.

  • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Objects are a connection to the past that I am often unable to maintain without stimulus. I have many things that serve no purpose except to allow me to reexperience past events. I would like to digitize my mementos.

  • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I wholly support your goal here. Cutting loose the trappings of a culture you don’t agree with and dedicating to a lifestyle that fulfills you is almost the core of the human experience.

    Personally I’ve taken the opposite approach by embracing maximalism. I buy mostly used and practical decor and don’t let the pressure to maximize resale value control how my life looks. I want to make my mark on every part of my life until the boring beige and gray of the world can find no purchase in my hallowed halls.

  • 𝕮𝕬𝕭𝕭𝕬𝕲𝕰@feddit.uk
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    1 day ago

    Why did you downsize the bed - is it just a matter of space for you at that point?

    I used to be pretty big on minimalism as a younger man, around the time the Minimalists were blogging (and before they became a business in their own right). I was single, rented, and it made my life much easier. But I found after a while that the “purging” was sort of a way to avoid living with myself (or to obsess over the wrong stuff).

    I still like it but the collection of stuff and things around me are a way to connect with who I was, and the life I’ve lived, and am living. And it’s a nice way to share a space with my partner. Even if her coffee table is too big.

    • SmokeyDope@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 day ago

      I had planned on traveling in my minivan with a cot and bed for an extended period of time at some point so wanted to make sure I got something I could use in multiple scenarios. Also it was what I could afford at the time within budget. The space and ease of movement are big bonuses to me.

      Thanks for providing your perspective and personal insights!