Minimalism. Have you heard about it? It’s a seductive idea. The promise of less surfaces accumulating soot-dust (a local NYC variety) beckons me like a siren call. As a New Yorker, for whom each quarter inch of apartment space costs dollars in rent, the idea of living joyfully with less stuff sounds like getting a promotion or raise without having to talk to your boss (!!!). And being a greedy slurpy sort of eater of self-help books (picture me as one of those african chimpanzees plucking dripping ripe anonymous fruits off a swaying tree branch and plopping it whole in her mouth, juices running down. ) I’ve sampled quite an array of minimalist blogs, essays and books.
Now let me start by saying that I’ve already benefitted from an initial purge this past spring. I used two books hold my hand while I did it, both of which I highly recommend: The Tidy Closet by Marie-Anne Lecoeur and The life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. The magical key to doing this properly seems to be to – get this – EMPTY your closet. I know – hair raising isn’t it? I’ll post a picture of my bedroom after I emptied my walk-in closet as soon as I perform the hostage raid necessary to deliver it from iPhoto.
In spite of the grim scene of horror in my bedroom after I disemboweled my closet, I had a lot of fun doing this and I ended up with a manageable wardrobe where before I had had several cubic feet of hanging clothes packed so close together they were actually wrinkling ON the hanger. And the big discovery? The reason I have so many clothes and nothing to wear to work is because… drum roll… 80% of my work wardrobe is gray or black.
Geographical hazard of living in NYC – where the official uniform is – black. Black, pants, black skirt, black jacket, black coat, black shoes. So then you vary it with gray. Gray skirt, black top, black and gray checked socks. The Uniform often looks chic and sexy on the store hangers. Also, colors have to be just right for me to buy them. I mean – it’s easy to design tops in 43 shades of the WRONG kind of green. But there’s no such thing as the wrong black or the wrong gray. I didn’t get rid of any of them – they’re still in good shape and in style – I tend towards classic urban chic, and I like variety in cut and style if not in color. But now when I start unconsciously walking toward a cute little gray tweed skirt or a really smart little black dress, I can stop the zombie crawl before I end up adding yet ANOTHER monochrome item to my wardrobe.
(As an aside, the fashion chains seem to understand the benefits of selling non-color. The other day I walked by an Ann Taylor and the slogan was “Back to Neutral”. I was like ‘BACK’?!!! We just LEFT! Why are we going BACK!?!!)
So anyway, having done the initial purge, including my clothing closet, and draining the swamp-like loft space above my closet ( this was apparently meant to be a sleeping area – only in NYC would an adult person be reduced to having to climb down and up a ladder to pee in the middle of the night ) to the point where I could actually crawl to the back to bring down my extra champagne flutes (Ahem – brunch mimosas) when needed, I breathed more freely for a few months.
But now I’m feeling the need to lose some more materialistic fat. Especially since I’ve recently taken up a new hobby (watercolor painting – and drawing and sketching by association) that is apparently an equipment sport – at least the way I do it – and is fast draining all the Blick Art stores in NYC and filling up every nook and cranny I so painstakingly created in the last purge.
So — Back I go (chittering and salivating) to the literature available on minimalism. There’s a lot of good stuff out there. But though many of them are quick to reassure me that minimalism does not mean I have to have a wardrobe of one(1) monk’s robe and one(1) rope to tie it, and sleep on a mat, they do often seem to assume I’m a rabid slave to the American Dream and have a twitchy need to accumulate every new trend in gadgets and clothes on the market, and that I’ve filled my space with the latest iteration of all of these in order to look cool and impress the neighbors, and fill the emptiness of a soul that has never been searched.
Now this is not to say that for many readers this ISN’T the case – or that it is not a helpful angle from which to describe the spirit and benefit of minimalism. And, it seems that it is in fact often the experience of the writer. For example, Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus (The Minimalists) who have an amazing blog on the topic that is both illuminating and entertaining. But here’s the thing – though I do want to minimize, I’m an introspective 46 year old and I’ve done PLENTY of soul searching. Also, I spend much of my money not on useless crap, but on books on my Kindle, people who help me soul search, enriching travel experiences, and learning new things (like watercolor painting) and a good part of my ‘stuff’ is beautiful and imbues my daily life with soul soothing benefits – and ‘joy’ as Marie Kondoe would put it.
And yet, I believe I can benefit from going more minimalist. BUT!!! — Who’s going to hold my hand?!!! Who’s going to press it reassuringly and say “Anne, I know that you are not interested in donating the Louis XIV chairs that you inherited from your french grandparents and that you keep barking your shins on as you cross your NYC bedroom. I know you have new hobbies that give you joy and are now providing new, sharp, obstacles for you to trip over in your closet. I know that though there’s no room in a NYC apartment for a large purple inflated stability ball, that you use it regularly and that it strengthens your core and gives you joy. Anne, I know. I understand. And we’re going to de-clutter you anyway – TOGETHER!” Who’s going to say that? Nobody, that’s who. Well perhaps YOU, dear reader. So I’m going to go for it and post it to my blog. Thank YOU for holding my hand, and tune in soon for the first practical step in “Minimalism for the girl (or boy) who likes nice things”