Rules of minimalism

Yesterday I wrote a post titled “How many shoes do you need?” I shared it on Facebook and got a few interesting responses. Most of them were actual responses about actual shoes. While I’m glad people have reasons for specific shoes, that wasn’t quite my point. The shoes are a means to an end. You can insert anything for shoes and still have a question that only you can answer.

There has been a big push toward minimalism. But the interesting part of it is that there isn’t any specific “rules” that you must follow. If you want to have 20 shirts, you can. If you want to have 5 shirts, you can too. Really, the biggest rule is how you justify what you have and why you have it. And whether you consider yourself a minimalist or not, Justifying what you have and why you have it is practical and benefiical.

Whether it’s shoes and you having your reasons for 10 pairs of shoes, or CDs and your reasons for having 125 of them, or anything else you come up with, asking yourself the questions, “Why do I have this?”, as well as “Do I need this?” and “What purpose does this serve” will definitely help you to sort out the things that need to stay and the things that need to go.

So it’s not completely about shoes. It’s not about rules. It’s about your individual reasons for why you have what you have. I would guess that many of us, myself included, have plenty of things in our houses that we don’t have very strong reasons for why we have.