A few years ago my friend started a small facebook page to share our “minsing” journey. I had recently watched a netflix documentary Becoming Minimalist and so the timing was right! Every day we would rehome, pass on something from our houses, take a wee picture and tell a story between us, before saying goodbye forever!
Becoming Minimalist
At first, this habit seemed a little strange but soon I grew to love the whole process! There was a lot of fun in the storytelling of the offending item, a feeling of clarity as areas around my home became free of clutter, I enjoyed cleaning more and I quickly realised there was weight behind that old phrase “clear house, clear mind”. Each item in your house has it’s own little thought/memory/obligation attached to it and scanning a cluttered room is mentally tiring!
Documenting our journey enabled us to review our progress. This was very powerful because I realised I felt no longing for any of the things I had passed on, I missed NOTHING and still don’t to this day. Why had I kept those items for so long?
Before I knew it when I was in shops I would handle items for a while before realising that actually, I didn’t need the item after all because I could see myself “minsing” the item in the near future. Not too long after I could barely be bothered with shops at all.
I realised my relationship with shopping, gifting, and receiving items had fundamentally changed.
Silver Linings of minifying your life
It was a year or so later that I really started my green journey in earnest and in hindsight I realise that this practice of evaluating items in my possession had given me a great green skill!
Reduce Your Use
Much of the world’s resources are wasted in creating clothes, toys, and a whole myriad of unnecessary items. We live in a “privileged” position of having more resources at our disposal than we need for survival and so we use shopping as a crutch, a hobby, a keeping up with the joneses tool to make us feel worthy. The cost of this is polluting the planet and is lubricating our headlong descent into climate chaos.
Think Before You Shop!
- Do I need this?
- Do I already have something else that will do the job?
- Will I get continued pleasure out of this item?
- Am I simply seeking some joy right now? Is there something else which could make me feel good instead?
- Why not start your own Minsing group and get your joy from the clearing process instead!
So how nice is my house now?
Despite personally buying very little, I admit this is a never-ending job, with 2 kids and a husband obsessed with charity shop bargains I’ll not be running out of items to “mins” anytime soon!
