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Why Do I Own So Much Stuff?
My closets are stuffed, my drawers don’t close properly. Things are getting full of dust, and my house just looks like a mess. Like many people, I have too much stuff.
Those were my exact thoughts one year ago when i decided to find out and become part of this movement.
But are there negative consequences of having too much stuff, besides the unaesthetic looks of my cluttered desk and disorganized house?
After trying minimalism for 365 days, my conclusion is that I am not a minimalist, and that minimalism is not for me. But I am what I call an intentionalist.
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Why do I own so much stuff
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My closets are stuff, my drawers don't close properly, things are getting full of
0:07
dust and my house just looks like a mess. Like many people, I have too much stuff
0:13
Those were my exact thoughts one year ago when I decided to find out more and join this movement
0:20
Are there negative consequences of having too much stuff besides the anaesthetic looks
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of my cluttered desk and disorganized house? I first heard of this movement through Netflix
0:31
There was this documentary called The Minimalists, filmed by a YouTuber, that was a big hype
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on the platform. After watching it, I felt both hyped and bad about myself
0:44
While these people were living out of a suitcase, I was just living with too much stuff
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I mean, they even lived with things that would fit in just a backpack
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I found that crazy. I then went online and started reading more about what Minimalism was and what it entailed
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In short, Minimalism is a tool, a movement that promotes freedom, with the slogan Less
1:07
is More. They intend to live with the essential things you need in life, things that make you fulfilled
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As the Minimalists themselves put it, Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom
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Freedom from fear, freedom from worry, freedom from overwhelm, freedom from guilt, freedom
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from depression, freedom from the trapping of the consumer culture we've built ourselves around
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I got extremely curious and, of course, I wanted to be part of this movement
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So I went onto YouTube and started researching what other people had to say about it
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To my surprise, I ended up finding an extremely cluttered platform full of self-proclaimed
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Minimalists that were talking and promoting being part of the movement with clearly the
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intention of making money, because they were even promoting Amazon hauls or items that
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they only buy or didn't buy with an affiliate link to it
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And I'm actually guilty of this as well, because in an attempt to feel part of it and
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be included, I ended up making some of these videos of what I don't buy, what I buy
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I didn't put an affiliate link, I think, but in the end these videos actually performed
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well, so my goal was just to get views and get money and I just felt the crowd and followed
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the crowd and did what they were doing, because it clearly worked. When starting or joining this movement, I first decided to count every single little
2:35
item I had in my house, whether they belonged to me, my girlfriend, or both
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A little fun experiment, I called. 1,550 items. That was the amount of items we owned in this house, from which 310 were exclusively mine
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And to be honest, I'm quite proud of that number, because considering everything I have
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and what the average household owns in the US, that it's like a hundred thousand items
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we managed to get 1,5% out of that, and only 310 were mine
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That's even less, that's 0,3% of what the average household owns. So with that in mind, I decided to start getting rid of things
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I decided to divide and conquer in six days and try to get rid of as many items as I possibly could
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I took the biggest to smallest approach. Day 1, I went through the living room, got rid of books, panels, cables, old candles
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and just clutter in general. For day 2, I moved to my bedroom, where I got rid of clothing items I no longer used
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Day 3 was all about the kitchen. You cannot imagine how many expired things you can find on an unorganized kitchen
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Day 4, 5, and 6 was bathroom, study room, and my digital clutter, respectively
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Day 5 was mainly about tangible objects, those things that you can actually throw away
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The last day, day 6, I got rid of an incredible amount of files and pictures I no longer needed
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If I could, I would probably do it different this time, the sort of becoming a minimalist
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part of it. Perhaps a good video idea. As for my experience, I honestly thought that getting rid of items will help me, actually
4:23
and will make me part of this movement. I so wanted to belong to a group of people, and I just didn't know how, and I thought
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that this will make me part of it. I started uploading videos, things that I no longer buy and what I do different, you
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name it. I just wanted to belong. That was the thing, I wanted to belong
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And the more time that passed, the longer I did it, the more as an imposter I felt
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I felt like I was trying to sell an idea, sell something that perhaps it was not in
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me, perhaps it was not my lifestyle. And the only reason I can think of why I did it is because it was easy
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There was another problem. How much longer can you make videos about minimalism
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Like, I do get that you can get rid of this and that, but people overly exploit the concept
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and just upload 15 videos of them just getting rid of stuff
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At one point, you either have no more items to get rid of or you're actually buying items
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and that's again what the movement stands for. So then, are you actually a minimalist or are you just faking it to get money out of it
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As for me, I discovered that I was not per se a minimalist, but what I call an intentionalist
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sort of like an essentialist. An intentionalist is someone who strives, lives for and helps others, living an intentional life
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That goes from doing sports to walking and talking. Everything actually has an intention, a purpose and a reason on why you do things
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Just as an example, I don't per se enjoy consuming social media that much
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But as a creator, it's true that you might need to have social media in order to grow
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more, to grow a personal brand. So what I'm going to be doing is downloading social media pretty soon, but I will be having
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a set of rules for myself and using it with intention and purpose
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So how that's going to happen, I'm going to make a whole video about it, but it's basically
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not following people, not getting distracted, setting a time limit of how much you want
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to use it. You get it. Basically I'll be using the platform as a creator, not as a consumer, and that way I
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have a purpose and an intention on the way I use it. And that's why I think I failed at being a minimalist
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I simply tried to jump on a train that perhaps was not for me, a moment that I thought I
7:00
would belong. Yet, in the end, I discovered I didn't. On the hand side, I discovered where I belong
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I learned that while minimalism is about owning less, doing less with the results of actually
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getting more. It's all about intentionality and while some things from this movement I actually enjoy
7:21
and agree with, a lot of them I just don't. I also failed because I didn't stick to my minimalist lifestyle in terms of spending money
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I did end up saving, but I also went on holidays, bought clothes because I like how they look
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bought two bottles of wine instead of one just because I could
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I spent more than I should. But I did it with intention, with a purpose, and not with any other reason
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Yet, I still failed. And while minimalism is great, I think the extreme of minimalism, the extreme of everyday
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things basically, it's not that healthy. You can be a minimalist, call yourself a minimalist, and you don't need to count every item you
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have and select only to live with 30 or 100 or how many you want
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Or you don't need to tell the whole world you are a minimalist
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You can just do it by yourself. I can understand that you're probably proud that you own 30 things
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In the end, how I think of it, it's if you make videos out of it, your intention is to
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make money from it. So perhaps you're not actually living with 30 items
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And I mean, if you are, I kind of find it nasty to be honest
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Do you really only have 2 pairs of underwears or something like that
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Because that's already 28 items left. Are you really washing your clothes everyday that's not sustainable or healthy for the environment
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I think at least. But well, each to their own, right? Seriously speaking, after this one year experiment, I got to understand and learn a lot about
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myself, about what I want and what I don't want. I learned to enjoy the little things in life like showering without music or even lifting
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without music or your phone. How the water tastes different throughout the day, in the morning or in the evening
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How dressing a certain way actually impacts the way that you feel that day
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If I put the jogging pants, I feel lazy. If I put jeans, I feel a little bit more productive
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If I've put on a suit, I feel super classy. I never really noticed these kind of things and I think that's thankfully to minimalism
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in a certain way. And it was actually nice to notice these small things in my life, these small changes, these
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small appreciations and actually start doing things more with intention, with purpose and
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just because I like them sometimes. I also learned to take only the necessary pictures and be more present in the moment
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While it may have been a failed experiment, I do take positive things from this past year
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Things that probably I wouldn't have learned any other way. I'm being extremely honest, I don't miss anything of the over 100 items that I threw away from
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this house. Thank you for watching, if you enjoyed it don't forget to leave a comment down below
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give a like and I think you might actually end up enjoying this video here
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I enjoy making it so probably you will enjoy watching it as well
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I'll see you in the next one
Finance
Home Storage & Shelving
Self-Help & Motivational