What is the minimalist lifestyle of westerners?

There is much talk about the "design" of minimalism, but little talk about the "life" of minimalism. Admittedly, there are really few Chinese articles about minimalist lifestyle at present. The concept of minimalist lifestyle may be completely unheard of by most people.

In fact, although people don't realize it, the minimalist lifestyle has actually begun to slowly affect a small number of people in China. For example, many people know the phrase "Don't add entities unless necessary".

In the United States, books, blogs and articles about minimalismlifestyle have almost reached the point of "flooding". This should be related to the relatively developed economy and commercial market of the US imperialists for a long time. Americans are exposed to overwhelming advertisements every day, and when people tell you to buy this and that, they will be rebellious after a long time ... On the other hand, they really need this, because there are really a lot of junk in the average American family. ...

In an imprecise way, Google (USA) produced 7,880,000 results when searching for minimalist lifestyle, while Google (Hong Kong) produced only 2,965,438+00,000 results when searching for "minimalism" (note that "life" was not added).

I searched for "minimalism" in Baidu, and the first page 100% was about "design" and "product", while I searched for minimalism in Google, and most of the items on the first page were about lifestyle.

The minimalism mentioned below refers to life style, which is not directly related to minimalism in design, art and philosophy, although they are all expressed by the same word in both Chinese and English. Similarly, the following minimalists refer to people who practice a minimalist lifestyle, not people who like minimalist design styles.

1. What can minimalism do for us in life?

Minimalism may help you if you belong to one of the following types:

1. Discount shopaholic. Every time I see a discounted product, I have the urge to buy it. It feels cheap and not white. As a result, I bought a bunch of useless or rarely used gadgets, but I spent more money than "buy them when I need them (even if the original price is not discounted)". The "APP collection addiction" that has appeared in recent years also belongs to this category.

2. Shanzhai lovers. I bought a lot of inferior cottage products, and the result is often unhappy because things are broken. For example, a fake mobile phone died in 1 year, and a cheap jacket broke down in a quarter. What is more serious may be the combination with the garbage collection addiction in the next article, leaving these bodies at home, looking at them when they are free, and remembering sad memories. )

3. Garbage collectors. The room is full of all kinds of strange old things that are rare for a hundred years, which may be rags accumulated for many years or chicken ribs that have only been used once. In short, there are many things. No matter how you tidy up, it looks messy. It's comfortable to see a clean and tidy room (refer to the picture in this other answer about minimalist design), and it's annoying to see your home.

4. obsessive-compulsive disorder. The house is neat, but in fact, you spend at least half a day cleaning the house every week. You really want to spend half a day reading, playing ball, or eating delicious food in a farther place.

5. Busy people. Maybe you never think there is anything wrong with what you have, and you never worry about spending too much money, buying things that are broken, and making your home a mess. You just have so many more important things to deal with every day that you have no time to think about "complexity and simplicity".

I feel too poor.

Maybe you are not bored, busy or poor, but just want to have a try and see if it is possible to live a different life.

Minimalism can help you get rid of many unnecessary things in your life. These things are not actually an object itself, but are caused by an object. For example, I spend a lot of money on clothes I never wear, spend a lot of time cleaning my room, worry that my car is broken and needs repairing, or get upset when I see a messy table. These things may take time, money, take up your energy, bring you stress and so on. , but their benefits are extremely limited, or even no benefits at all.

Studies have shown that the pleasure of shopping is short-lived, but the regret after buying the wrong thing and the harm caused by the money spent are long-lasting.

Minimalism is to cut off some things in your life to reduce these things that obviously do more harm than good, so as to improve your life.

In other words, reducing things is just a means, and reducing these useless things in life, so as to free up time and energy to do more beneficial things, is the core of minimalism.

In the final analysis, minimalism can directly improve your life in three ways:

I saved you time.

Save your energy (including reducing your stress)

I'll save you money

You saved time, energy and money. As for what you want to do with them, wow, that's really infinite possibilities.

Second, is a minimalist life really feasible?

First of all, let me tell you the fact that whether your life is good or not has nothing to do with how many things you have.

Think about it. How many things do you think are necessary for survival in life? The answer is surprisingly few, almost zero.

The Biography of Jobs said that when Mr. Joe was young, he thought all kinds of furniture were ugly and lived in an empty room with nothing. Is old Joe having a bad time? No, he is doing things that change the world in his career, and he does not delay playing guitar and singing with his friends in his life. His life is very good, although there is nothing at home.

Today, everyone is used to crazy consumption. You may wonder how this "backward" minimalist life can make you live better than now. It seems that you can only live comfortably if you have four PDF reading apps installed in your mobile phone, five music players and six quilts and seven sets of utensils at home.

Secondly, minimalism does not mean asceticism. Quite a few minimalists still use their best mobile phones (such as iPhone) and wear shoes that may be expensive but absolutely durable. Moreover, if you save money on useless items, you can spend more money where you think it is worth it. Most minimalists advocate spending money to "buy experiences", and all kinds of travel and beneficial social activities are worth encouraging.

Maybe you think it's always good to save more things, so you like to collect all kinds of old and new things for a rainy day. The question is, does just in case really exist? Now the commodity market is too developed to buy anything for temporary use. The money spent on "on-demand" original price goods is far less than a lot of discounted goods that you "hoard while you are cheap". In addition, if it is really an emergency, the old and new garbage you hoard is likely to be useless.

Maybe you've figured everything out, and hoarding goods does do more harm than good, but you just think everyone else is living so well. Why do you want to be independent and engage in "minimalism"? It's strange what friends and neighbors think.

I have to say that such worries are easy to exist in China. At present, there are obvious "single values" and "single evaluation criteria" in China, and intangible "social pressure" will make it difficult for a lifestyle that does not conform to the mainstream of the public to survive. It's much better in America. Americans are used to a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society. Even though white Americans have various hobbies, everyone can respect each other and live in harmony. In China, if you see a vegetarian, people don't think too much: Is he sick? Is he showing superiority and despising us? Is he a fool who has been cheated by various health articles? In fact, you don't have to do this in America. For various reasons such as faith, health and tradition, vegetarianism is normal. And there are not only vegetarians, but also those who don't eat whole grains and vegetables. They live on chocolate and fruit all day. We've seen more and got used to it. You just need to know that this is his (or your own) choice of lifestyle, and it is not necessarily the best lifestyle, but his (or your own) choice. There are no advantages and disadvantages between various lives, and there is no contrast, only differences.

So, choose "minimalism" and don't despise those who have too many things. Everyone just chose a different lifestyle. What you like, people may not be used to it. What you feel comfortable, others may feel uncomfortable. In order to simplify life, everyone has his own comfort zone, just go to his favorite place. In western countries, quite a few people can benefit from proper "simplifying life".

Third, how can we calculate a minimalist lifestyle?

Whether you really find yourself dragged down by blind consumption and too many items, or just curious to start trying (or simply poor), it will be an interesting experience to experience a minimalist life. Unless you are a born super-optimist, it is hard for you to find its beauty unless you calm down and take the initiative to "experience" life. Even if you are a minimalist now, you can make new discoveries by stopping to experience life once in a while.

The first feature of a minimalist lifestyle is, of course, the lack of personal belongings. There are two ways to reduce the number of terms: closed source and increased flow. Close the source code, that is, many people are familiar with "Don't add entities if it is not necessary." It's a bit difficult to increase traffic. Maybe you need to secretly make up your mind to get rid of things you haven't used for years. The disposal method is nothing more than donation, resale or direct throwing. For minimalists, it's actually nothing difficult: I haven't touched this thing for a year, which means that even without it, my life is still normal or even better, because I have less things, more space and less pressure. So, if you want to start, see how many things you have that you never use. Perhaps "unused" does not mean "useless", but since it is not used, don't let it continue to occupy your space and your brain, and get rid of it decisively! As you take more and more things from your life and keep less and less, you will become more and more aware of what you really care about.

Minimalists can appreciate the beauty of "old things"-a film camera that has lost its paint, or a pair of leather boots that have almost been polished. As long as they are used normally, in the eyes of minimalists, those products that can maintain their complete functions after years of use are beautiful and good things. The older you get, the more beautiful you are. (Probably in awe of its exquisite craftsmanship and the efforts of the engineers behind it)

So the criteria for minimalists to buy new products are very clear. Durability and practicality are the first hard indicators. The first question to consider should be whether I will use this thing often (as I plan now) and how often it needs to be updated or broken. Minimalists don't really care whether your icon is flat or imitated, or whether the router looks like a touchpad. Whether I will use it after five years is the most important criterion. Minimalists don't care whether you are advanced now, but whether you are out of date in five years (except consumables, of course).

In addition to clothing, shoes and hats, even electronic products, five years is a very reliable number. I bought my MacBook in 2009, and now I have used it for almost five years. Everything is fine except editing HD video (but I have done a lot with it). It is estimated that it will last for another year or two.

Of course, if we catch up with the "five years of revolution" from Nokia N73 to iPhone 3GS, things will probably be eliminated more frequently. However, things that completely change the world will not happen very often.