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Minimalism is not a practical matter; it's a principle, a culture, and a mindset.

If you observe the amount of things people throws away when moving to a new house, you'll realize that how many things are needlessly accumulated. You can bet that the same things were really needed before buying them.

I'd say that the most minimal application of minimalism (this is the idea of the post) is to recognize in advance that one don't really need them.

Expanding the concept of minimalism, I wouldn't say you don't need much of the stuff you're mentioning, rather that a minimalist "clone" of you could enjoy and/or perform (depending on the goals) the activities you've mentioned, with probably half of the equipment.

Besides, there are only the two extremes of having plenty of tools, and living only with a laptop and furnishing.




It's not so much a question of what you throw away when you move as it is a question of what you're using regularly. I'll be moving for work soon, and I'll be throwing away/donating/discarding quite a few things that I will then buy on the other end. It's just not economical to ship a mattress, unless you're packing things into a UHaul, and that's not the only example. I would happily rail against the concept of disposable goods, but that's not the same thing.


On the gripping hand: not owning a bunch of physical things is not the same as minimalism.


Minimalism in the sense of the web/hacker/milenial trend doesn't mean the same as minimalism in art or other domains. Not owning physical things is a big part of it.




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