Practical Minimalism

The beauty of minimalism is that there aren't any guidelines. It's not a one size fits all solution.

After watching the documentary, The Minimalists, we came to a greater understanding of how this lifestyle can be made our own. (By the way...go watch the documentary, available on Netflix, and then come back here.)

This all started with art...not for us, but the minimalism movement started with artists throwing one color of paint at a canvas and calling it art. It started with an artist stacking some bricks in an art gallery and calling it art. Who says it's art? Who makes this determination...this distinction?

What was the last thing you looked at and thought, "that's beautiful"? Is that not art? Take photography for example - just a few short years ago people would only GO to the studio to have a family portrait taken. Now lifestyle photography is a thing. You hire a photographer to come to your home and take pictures of your family doing the ordinary. But is it just ordinary? Is life where you live ordinary? Are the memories you're making ordinary? The most life is lived in what we ashamedly call the ordinary.

How does this look for us?  We're not going to sell everything and live out of what we can carry on our backs.  We want to live with what is enough. We don't need closets filled to the brim with clothing.  We don't need enough plates to feed the army of guests we will never invite over. As Americans, we seem to have a problem with blank - blank space, blank walls, blank...blank...blank...

So what is enough? We are asking ourselves, does this add any value to our lives?

"Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of lives excess in favor of focusing on

what's important - so you can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom." 
-The Minimalists

It's the excess that tends to collect the most dust. Have you ever stood in your closet searching for something to wear only to notice that you have clothing that has collected dust? I'm not proud to admit it, but I'm guilty. What I thought I needed and wanted at one moment in time had fallen victim to my desire for more. Turns out, I didn't need that shirt - I didn't need the 5 of them that hung there with dusty shoulders. I hadn't found enough value in them to let them serve their purpose.

In a world of "more, more, more," we are repeatedly finding out it's not enough. We begin here...the idea of ridding the excess and finding the value in what we have.