I've been thinking about how minimalism seems to look all the same to me for the past few days, but when people talk about minimalism and what it means in their lives there are always different things that stand out to different people. Konmari works wonders and helps people declutter, but has some exceptions that people do not agree with (like folding clothes, etc.).
What I do not like, or understand, is the disconnect between philosophy and aesthetic when both of them should be consistent with a certain lifestyle. In my country some hunter-gatherers-turned-forest-horticulturalists live in tiny huts with no food storage because they live off the stuff they plant and stuff they hunt. Meanwhile also in my country are other groups of people who are fond of preserving food, fermenting it, or growing shitloads of it (well, also colonial and capitalist reasons, but anyway). My point is simple living is not just living without stuff. I think it is also not adhering to a certain culture because while that group could live without storage, I live in the city and love baking and I would be very sad if I can no longer have flour.
When I say cultural, of course this refers to the social, environmental, political, etc factors of a person's life, which means that every person in the world probably has their own best peak ""simple"" living.
I'm moving out soon and get to start from scratch (besides the stuff I had since I was a kid in my old house) and I will have to buy a lot of stuff but not just stuff that fits an aesthetic, I would get stuff that fits my understanding of a lifestyle where I don't want to own a lot of stuff, I want to be less harmful to the planet, and want as little clutter as possible. Of course, this comes from me and maybe not even my partner would understand or agree. Who knows?
I guess when people think about and do simple living, this aspect can't be ignored as well and I would love to hear your thoughts on how you could do this well, besides being attuned to your cultural identity and shit.
Other question: I just realized that maybe for some simple living is a belief of the counterculture. How does this change things?
Submitted July 05, 2018 at 01:40AM by emsads https://ift.tt/2u6ERcC
