Clean up, organise , de clutter

When I started taking baby steps towards being a minimalist, I realised that I was spending lots of time and energy on cleaning, sorting, organising etc. I started with the notion that being a minimalist would be liberating, like a breath of fresh air.  But for the past couple of months, it has been a series of dusting, cleaning, scarp dealers etc. It started resembling a spring cleaning exercise and made me wonder whether I was really doing it right. 

After thinking a lot about it I have realised that it is something like losing weight.  My trainer once said that it took me 10 years to accumulate all that fat and adipose and for sure it is not going to go away in 3 months. The same rules apply to our possessions and relationships. We have accumulated them over a long period of time, sometimes an entire life time. So it is practically and emotionally impossible to junk it all over a weekend. 

It still might be possible if one were to chuck it all and vanish into the distant horizon. But for most of us this might not be practical or possible. We have children, spouse, parents jobs and other responsibilities which tie us back. Does that mean that minimalism is not feasible ? 

I believe that it is possible. Just that to achieve it might be more challenging and might take a longer duration. 

It would mean a lot of cleaning, organising and de cluttering.  I have realised that once I have done this in a particular area, I am able to enjoy my possessions even more. I have fewer and excellent stuff to enjoy. This automatically prevents me from indulging in idle shopping, impulsive purchase or getting lured by hyper active marketing push. 

It's like this. Imagine that you have had a good three course meal with excellent wine and fine desserts, great music and company. You come back home and find a huge burger, fries and soda waiting. Would you be tempted to indulge ? Definitely not. In contrast if you have had a day cluttered with lots of stressful work, long journeys and have  just grabbed a few cookies and coffee - you would just attack the burger-fries- soda. 

The first step towards minimalism is to stop indulging in hyper consumerism and rampant shopping. It starts with stopping the additions to your clutter. This is possible only if you are able to resist the temptations doled out by wily marketing strategists. The only way to achieve this resistance is to ensure that you are deeply satiated by what you have ! So go ahead clean, organise and de- clutter. It makes for a slow but sure start !!!

Wardrobe owes...oops woes

Seldom in life do I contemplate on "if I were a man" scenarios.

Now I do, in this context. "If I were a man - with a job and family- what would my minimalist wardrobe be like?" The answer seems simple " a pair of jeans, 3 tees, 1 black trouser, 2 shirts, 1 tie and coat, 1 pair of black shoes and 1 pair of running/gym shoes , winter jacket and ... Uh...Mr. Bean like un....I mean inner wear"

Sounds quite simple and minimal for a guy with a full demanding life. Am sure this much would ensure that all the clothing I own would snugly fit into may carry on case !!

But sadly in this case, its not so easy. Like in most aspects of life - when one is a female, it's complicated. While ones own sense of vanity can lead to a severely heavy wardrobe, the expectations of the world can only add to  the burgeoning burden. One is expected to be suitable attired in formals, casuals, dressy, festive, sporty with loads of accessories, shoes, belts, watches, jewels, scarves, coats, bags.......the list is endless

To add to this burden, I am of Indian origin. So the requirement just doubles - Its Indian formals, Western formals, Indian casual, Western casual, Indian dressy (saree etc), Indian heavy jewels, simple ones for western wear, mojari shoes and pumps, sandals and heels......you can just do the math. Add to this the Indian approach or "never" discarding clothes as long as they are not ripped and ragged.

So now you can imagine all of this stuffed into an average four door wardrobe. The poor piece of furniture is bursting and overflowing. I look at it and feel short of breath. It gives me scary recurring dreams where I keep packing and packing my luggage and miss my flight/train !

What am I going to do about it ? I have really yet to figure it out. For now I am totally overwhelmed just thinking about this.

My mom says that any problem can be solved if it is broken into small chunks. So perhaps that is what I should do. Watch this space - maybe one day I will crack this. Till then I am going to move to other areas of my life to minimize !!

Pic for illustrative purpose only. Am thankful to the owner of the image !!

Electronic stuff ....

My love affair with gadgets began with my small cassette player. I would even hug it as I slept. With my first earning I purchased my coveted "Sony Walkman". Every spare money I had went in purchasing tapes an in the later years CDs. I have owned almost every music related gadget ever released - cd man , MP3 players, all versions of iPods, some in multiple colors, cube music players, speakers, Bose music systems, all varieties of head phones. My next obsession turned out to be mobiles. I change a mobile model every 6-8 months. I have been loyal to all brands- Motorola,Ericsson, Sony, Nokia , BB, Apple and various local indian brands. So you can imagine the number of chargers, adapters, ear phones that I would have accumulated over the years. 

Add to this the laptops, net books, tabs, music systems, modem, routers, handycam, video recorder, tapes, pen drives, storage disks, memory cards .... Phew !!! The list goes on and on.

When I start today,to clear ,I am looking at 3 big cardboard boxes full of outdated, obsolete electronic junk that I have no clue how to get rid of 

Of course when they mean so much to you, you would hardly pile them into a garbage can 

So this is the process that I went through to de- clutter and minimise my electronic accessories 

- categorised as adapters, wires, chargers, CDs, mobile phones, phone charger, av equipment etc etc

- binned the broken and damaged items

- kept aside the obsolete ones

- of the relevant items set aside the duplicates

- gave off the obsolete ones to collectors 

- put the spare stuff in a box - to be given off to charity

- made a list of what is relevant and put that in dust proof covers 

- arranged in a small sturdy box

The result ? From 3 huge cardboard cartons of junk - I have minimised to a small box of absolutely useful, relevant, sorted and labelled electronic accessories. I am still miles away from an ideal minimalist's list, but this is a good beginning. This is iterative and the next time, I will reduce this black box to a smaller black box !

What's in the box 

Watches....

The question is always - Where do I begin ? I did with my Watches. Rationale - I love watches. Like everything else I have plenty of watches collected over a period of 20 years. It also helped that I did a short stint at Swatch - the makers of Omega, Longines etc - which added to my love of watches and the collection.
Sadly, over the last few years, I have neglected my watches. Dead batteries, dysfunctional clockwork, broken straps, lost watches - even lost count of the number of watches.

Stuffed in a Ziplock bag in the back of my wardrobe lay waste a few Balmains, Longines, Tissots and some fun watches like CK, DKNY, Swatch and some Indian classics like a collectors edition of HMT, Tanishq Raga and an antique Favre Lueba !!  The entire month of Nov 2013, I scoured the city for a good watch maker/fixer and finally found one in a small suburb. Every two to three days I visited him and got one of the watches fixed and in a month's time had all of them top condition.

Watches are like little children, they want you to take them out often and enjoy their company. This cannot happen if they are stuffed at inaccessible placed at the back of your wardrobe in tacky plastic covers. Hence I invested in good leather Watch cases/Watch boxes. Yes, these are available and not too expensive. They have open display, so you can choose your watch for the day.

So at the end of the day I have 11 good watches. The others I have given away to folks who would enjoy them more than me. 11 watches is definitely not anyone's definition of minimal. But from 30 odd non working/not used watches, I have 11 excellent watches that are worn and enjoyed on a daily basis. Each watch is a collector's edition or has a personal relevance for me. 

A beginning...

Minimalism.The word conjures up an image of a person whose entire worldy belongings are packed neatly in a compact back pack which then enables him/her to take off to trot the globe - footloose and fancy free.

This perhaps is the Nirvana of Minimalism. I believe that between the present state of  absolute leech like hold over matertial possession to this state of minimalism Nirvana would be a long journey. This is the journey I aim to undertake

Minimalism is a way of life. Its not a scientific concept and hence has no particular definition it would seem. So I need to make up my own and improve on it as I go along
Minimalism for me is keeping just what I need, what I use, what I enjoy and what gives me happiness and no stress. Minimalism is about having a few but the best!

On a roll...