Koyama Keiichiro 小山慶一郎 NEWS RING Jweb -RING ♥ 467- 30 December 2020

467
『umassuー』→す (su)


I am Keiichiro.

su→sukkiri toshita ie (My home that’s become refreshed)

“Minimalism”, something that I’ve always been curious about. Something like living with only the necessary items pertaining to my own lifestyle, I think. This year, I read a few books on this, watched a few movies, and I will write about the “happiness” I got from actually starting to do it. It’s also the end of the year, I hope it will be helpful in providing you with some tips for spring cleaning! It’s going to be long so I hope you can read it when you have the time.

In the first place, talking about how I started having an interest in minimalism, it’s because I’ve been at home a lot this year, and I somehow started hating the large amount of things I have, going, “I have too many things!!” I searched the web and found a lot of people with the same thoughts. I was a bit shocked, “I see, minimising so that life becoming richer is a thing.” Naturally, I thought that I am a person without many things, but I’ve come to realise that some clothes, shoes, furniture, facial tools, miscellaneous items, etc, are some of the things in the house that I own but don’t use. Honestly, do I need them? For example, clothes, how many pieces do I have to own to be satisfied? Can I wear all of them? When wearing nice clothes, one’s desire to look good and vanity is on display, or everyone’s got it so one also buys it because of others’ views, and stuff like that happen. When one actually buys it, one is soaked in satisfaction at that moment, but is it being worn now? I haven’t been wearing it. The towels on my sink, I don’t need so many pieces of them. Shoes, I have so many pairs that begs the question of the amount of family members I have living here. The lesser I have, the lesser time I spend on agonising over the choice of shoes when I go out. For furniture, I have a dining table and also a low table in front of my sofa. I don’t need 2 tables. They’re only there to fill up the space. And, somehow, I have 2 pairs of scissors and cutters each, and many ballpoint pens. 1 is enough. In my fridge, I have seasonings that have mysteriously expired. Perfumes that I don’t use anymore. When I face the things I have at home again, I can indeed find things that I can live without. I continued, for about a month, the habit of gradually minimising the things I have. I think that deleting 1 thing per day is good enough. When things start becoming much lesser, it becomes more difficult to even delete 1 thing per day. But with this I realise, the things I really need. When there are nothing to delete, that’s when I can try living my lifestyle in that condition. Incredibly, I have things to delete again.

I think that there are probably quite a few things in everyone’s houses like, make-up or miscellaneous items that you don’t use anymore, clothes you don’t wear anymore, chairs you don’t sit on anymore (ah, I did have chairs I don’t sit on anymore.) and etc. If there’s a drawer in front of you, I wonder how many items in there are things you can’t live without.

For me, after starting minimalism, I unfortunately realised that a lot of my good feelings come from being filled up with “stuff”. Like, being satisfied with the desire of owning things. When I think about it, I realised I am being manipulated by things. I have to buy that. I want that. If I have that. Really? No, I can live more simply.

I have actually started life with much lesser things, and it’s been soooo comfortable. As the things in my house are things I carefully selected to stay on, there is no stress. They are things I love to use, that’s it. In my closet too, I know where everything is. Shoes, I no longer fret about which pair to wear. I think I can reduce further though. I don’t fret about which cup to drink from too. “How many cups do I own?!” I thought as I was tidying them up. There’s one thing I don’t want you to misunderstand about minimalism, and that is the fact that minimalism is not just an action of reducing things. Things that you are passionate about, are things that you carefully selected and own and that’s good enough. Be it clothes, books, make-up items, soft toys, for me, my camping goods are properly stored. My golf bag too. Because they are items necessary in my lifestyle. Interestingly, as I looked at the things in my lifestyle, I started feeling concerned about the things inside my smartphone. Do I use this app? What do I do with all these photos that I’ve accumulated? My phone now only has apps that I use. One page of homescreen is enough to fit all of them. I saved the photos in my hard disk, and deleted them all from my smartphone. This, felt super good. With this, the time spend on looking at the phone per day is greatly reduced. Recently, friends are telling me that messages sent to me haven’t been read. I haven’t been really touching my phone when I’m at home so, soooorry. Well well, so how did I reduce my stuff, that’s easy. Selling, giving, donating to places depending on what types of items are needed. Other than that, throwing. Do it according to your own style is good enough. Inspecting each and every item in the house on your own is tough but, do it with scrutiny. It becomes so fun after getting hooked on doing it. Though aiming for “minimalism”, I do shop too, of course. I will buy clothes. It’s just that the way I choose them is totally different from the past. Will I really use this, or not, am I only wanting this for now? I’ve trained my inspection skills on things, so at the shops, I’m only sharpening my inspection skills. Incredibly, I’ve come to think, “If I buy this piece of clothing, then I have to delete 2 items from the closet!” As I’ve grasped what I have at home, it won’t become an addition, rather, it will become subtraction even if I’m doing some shopping. I’m only halfway on the path to minimalism, I’m very happy that I have such skills. It is because up until now, I’ve always thought that buying things and increasing the amount of things I own is happiness, so now, I’m being released from things. Doing meaningful shopping for myself.

I’ve written such a drawn-out post of my values, but I think there are people who this post doesn’t strike a chord with. Lol
But that’s okay. Please think in your own perspective. For me, it’s just that I have this thought coming to me clearly. Think simply and live simply.
Please look for the happiness that belongs to you, everyone.
So, byecha.


小山慶一郎『sukkiri toshita ie (My home that’s become refreshed)』→