How can I start living a more minimal lifestyle?
How can I start living a more minimal lifestyle?
user
In the US, one definition of minimalism is:
assistant
I just wanted some simple suggestions about being more minimalistic around the house and in life in general.
user
You’ve changed the conversation, but I think that there are some commonalities in my earlier response.  If I’m understanding correctly, you’re thinking of getting rid of things, and I think we should talk about the difference between things that are necessary and things that aren’t.  If we look at some things that are necessary to life, we can see that we need food and air to survive.  However, we can see that “luxury” items also matter to our happiness.  With your more minimalist approach, the point is to make sure that you’re able to get all of the necessities, while leaving the luxury items behind.
assistant
I don't want to take it to the extreme, but I would like to make a few changes.
user
If you want to get rid of luxury items, I think we should talk about how to do this in an optimal way, since life is not zero sum.  One problem is, some luxuries aren’t in an optimal package.  For example, if you own many TVs, you may only watch one of them, but that one TV is an optimal use of your time and resources.  The point is, there are many tradeoffs, and if we want to minimize materialism, we need to think about it more than in terms of “luxury”.  To go a bit deeper:  I think that you’re wondering if there’s a minimum number of things we need.  The answer is that there’s a minimum number of things, but we also have to live our lives in a way that is truly human, or we will harm our happiness.
assistant
Thanks, this gives me a lot to think about.
user