Defining Minimalism

I talk about minimalism from time to time on this blog. It feels like I'm living 'minimalist adjacent.' Decluttering works well for me but I wouldn't want someone to think of me as a minimalist.

So I thought I'd do a little wikipedia style research and come up with a working definition for what I mean by minimalism here on the blog.

The Wikipedia article on minimalism quotes the artist Ad Reinhardt "The more stuff in it, the busier the work of art, the worse it is. More is less. Less is more. The eye is a menace to clear sight. The laying bare of oneself is obscene. Art begins with the getting rid of nature."

I think we could easily take "Less is more" and drop the rest. I leave the rest of the quote in to show that his concerns may not be the same as our own.

I decided to look up 'minimal'  on google and got the following.

min·i·mal

adjective

adjective: minimal

1. 1.

   of a minimum amount, quantity, or degree; negligible.

   
   

   "a minimal amount of information"

   
   

   synonyms:

   very little, the least (possible);

2. 2.

   ART

   characterized by the use of simple or primary forms or structures, especially geometric or massive ones.

   • characterized by simplicity and lack of adornment or decoration.

     
     

     "minimal, simple evening dresses in luxurious fabrics"

   
   

But none of these speak to the home making aspect, which is my focus and main interest. I clicked on the disambiguation and found that lifestyle minimalism is a branch of  simple living. Simple living has a much longer history then the minimalist art movement. I'm not sure how simple living came to be known as minimalism, but it explains to me why I keep finding myself minimalist adjacent. I may not be interested in the minimalist aesthetic but I am interested in simple living. According the the wikipedia page the part called 'minimalism' is the possession reduciton, now called decluttering. I think it is linked to the 'less is more' value of Ad Reinhardt and other minimalists.

But simple living is broader then that. Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond did it before minimalist was a word in the dictionary. The Epicureans of the ancient world did it. As did monks of many world religions.

So what has minimalism added to this very old idea of simplicity or asceticism? Maybe nothing. Maybe it is just a new word for an old movement, a movement that has been around ever since we started to have possessions. It's simply the newest word for simple living.

Henry David Thoreau would probably appeal to any minimalist who read his book when he says, "I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust. "

my father, a minimalist

My father removes most all decorations from his house and only keeps a small collection of books. He often told me I had too many things. I thought he meant I needed to have only ten books, like he does. In the Spring I read Mary Kondo's Magic Art of Tidying Up. I called my father and told him, 'you were right. I do have too many things." Then I asked for a picture of him and the boys to put on the wall. Because that's something I love about his house. He has so little, but what he does have is beautiful photographs of the backyard in snow, of my brothers on mountain tops and in the ocean.

me, not terrified by dusty rocks.

Am I a minimalist? No. But I also don't identify as an ascetic. Nor am I horrified of dust. I have a feather duster and when I dust I say hello to each thing in my home, and even if I do not notice them throughout the week it gives me a chance to take joy from the objects I've surrounded myself with. So what shall I call myself then? Tidy, conscientious, a writer and an artist. These are hard things, but they are what I aim for. Decluttering makes it easier to be tidy. Being tidy makes it easier to be conscientious.

getting back to painting, a story

I decluttered the chest of drawers where we keep crafts when we were steam cleaning the den, and moved the drawers into the hallway closer to the games table where we keep other craft supplies. I threw away a massive quantity of paints, dried up and useless. I think I may have stopped painting when they tried up. They are probably ten years old. After that I found the single vermilian paint my wife had given me as a present. It reminded me of painting. I almost went out and bought another paint set but then I checked the drawers and found I had one for japanese water colour painting. I don't do that style, but the paints worked perfectly fine for what I needed. Once I started painting I realised I needed a new brush. So I bought a nice brush and three water soluble pencils.

I don't need empty rooms to do art. I just need less then I currently have. I need few enough art supplies that I can look at the drawer and know what is in it without opening it. My wife is an essentialist. She wants to have everything on hand that we need and avoid things that we don't need. Maybe I'll be an essentialist in a year or two, but right now I'm just a declutterer. I like having an abundance of things. I just need to limit myself to the amount of things I can reasonably manage.