What to you makes you happy? Or if you aren’t happy what changes, needs, or wants in your life would make you happy? It seems like every day for the past few years I’ve been asking myself that question. Days go by and I still feel a void in my soul that I’m lacking something. As I look around me I’m surrounded by stuff, things upon things that I once believed made me happy. In fact the more and more I acquired the more distant I felt.
Minimalism - “a preoccupation with or stress upon material rather than intellectual or spiritual things “ - Merriam-Webster
The Minimalist
As I revisit my love of minimalism, I began throwing most of my shit away. I start with things I rarely use or at all. Then I move on to things I used on occasion like clothes and tech, laptops, and other things that were once extremely vital to who I was. I first reduced what I owned by 20% and noticed how good it felt and just how much my life became more fruitful. Then I got rid of more and more while doing so it felt as if I’m relieving a huge boulder on my shoulder. It felt so good. I'm almost to a point where I can name everything I have. I believe I'm down to owning less than 700 things now. A far cry from the thousands I did own. I’ll do so below by separating personal items and ones owned by the business. And notice just how little furniture I have. There’s a lot on the list by my place looks fairly empty
Personal
Business
I’m sure there are a few nuances I’ve missed but this list currently represents everything I own. At least everything I have in my apartment that I can see and recall. So don’t get any ideas, everything is insured, heavily surveillance, and monitored. As for my business, It owns a hell of lot more assets, stocks, Crypto, bonds and casual offices (reselling) items like packing tape, tape guns, packing paper, scissors, pens, pencils, cables, wires, laptops, desk setups, and the list goes on. Even though I own the business* These things aren't personally owned by me.
The Materialist
And then there's the side that makes you believe more is better. In all honestly having more has made life a little more enjoyable for me. I understand some people prefer to have little few possessions as possible owning less than 100 things, exactly what they need. However, I find myself running back to a few indulgences. For instance, even though I don’t need or use TVs, I do have a 65” 4k OLED TV mounted to the wall. I justified this purchase for the rare occasions I game, invite “friends” over, or watch occasional movies. I have two desk setups and again justified for business purposes. A Mac-oriented setup and a Windows for software development and testing.
From time to time I think about having multiple cars, though it’s unnecessary. In fact, at this point in my life, I don’t want to own anything directly. Cars will get old, and outdated, racking up repair costs and millage. It’ll be an endless purist to sanity making myself happy chasing the approval of those who’ll never matter. So Leasing seems to be the better option for me. My apartment, and future high rises or condos, It’ll be rented or owned under my business name.
A car I’d like to lease is anything Tesla. From the Cybertruck to the Tesla Roadster 2. There simple electric, autonomous, and powerful. They’ll do more than enough of what I need them to do. When I get tired of the model I can return it and lease another one avoiding the issues of owning one long term.
Even though I consider myself a minimalist owning less than 700 things. These things that I do own have been justified and hold a purpose for either my personal or business life. What are some of the things you own? And have you reached a point of Nirvana as I have? Regardless for me, I believe I’m happy, with the list listed above. I have everything I need to be happy but a bit more than I need. And I’ve made it a rule to never own more than 50 garments of clothes, and 500 personal things total not including business items.
So I’ll be getting rid of a few more things and will revisit this list later.
