Every Monday I post Real Life Minimalists, a profile of one of my readers in their own words. If you’d like to participate, click here for details.
This week, I’m pleased to feature Miss HK. She’s been a long-time commenter here, and I’m so glad she’s decided to share her story! If you’d like to read more about her minimalist lifestyle, please be sure to check out her blog.
Miss HK writes:
I can remember when I first discovered minimalism. I was 11 years old, playing with my sister and our Barbie dolls. My sister’s doll had a lavish home and tons of clothing and accessories. Mine lived in a cozy apartment I made from a large shoebox. My doll was an aspiring actress (of course), so she was always moving from place to place, carrying her entire life in her little convertible. It was always this way; my doll never inherited a mansion or went on shopping sprees. At that age, I obviously didn’t know what minimalism was, I just liked the idea of being able to live your life simply and in the moment. You could leave at the drop of a hat, and not worry about lugging years worth of possessions with you.
Now, over fifteen years later, I’ve learned what minimalism is, and I continue to embrace the lifestyle. I am constantly looking for ways to free up my life; whether it’s a weekly shredding of personal documents, donating old clothing, or replacing a book with its electronic twin on my Kindle. I am in college, so I’m still living at home, which certainly makes minimalistic living a breeze. Everything I own is in my bedroom; I have nothing stored in the basement, garage, or spare closet. I have to admit, I fear the day I move into my own place. I don’t want to end up buying tons of things to furnish the place, and then later regret it.
I used to accumulate a lot of things when I was a teenager, but I think cds were my guiltiest pleasure. My boyfriend at the time ran a mix cd store, and so I would get complementary copies of every cd he picked up for his shop. Before I knew it, I had three large cd storage books full. I listened to a handful of them on a daily basis, but otherwise, they just sat in those books, like big, ugly anchors on my bedroom floor.
I finally decided to rip them all to my computer. I can’t tell you how good it felt to finish a cd book off, and then return them to my ex. I also have about a 30 DVDs that I’d like to rip to my computer, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I’ve eliminated 98% percent of my books in physical form, and replaced them with electronic versions. I then resold the physical formats to a second hand book shop, or donated to friends or my library. The only books I still keep around are ones that are not available for the Kindle (yet), and my legal school books, which I occasionally reference. I think once I am comfortable in my career someday, I will do away with them.
Becoming a minimalist can be a struggle, but the end result is so rewarding. You have more time for yourself, and spend less time worrying about “stuff” in your life.
{If you’d like to learn more about minimalist living, please consider reading my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or joining my email list.}
Hey MK — thanks for sharing your story with everybody. From reading different backgrounds of how people got into minimalism, I am noticing there seems to be two different camps. Those who NEVER thought about minimizing what they had in an effort to go towards excess and then those who have always held a minimalist philosophy even if they didn’t exactly realize it.
I definitely agree with your statement that minimalism can be a struggle but the results are rewarding.
*HK!, not MK, my apologies!
I’ve always been pretty frugal, but CDs were also my guilty pleasure throughout college. During those years, I probably ended up with about 200 CDs, which were stored in a couple of those huge CD folders. For years now, they have been sitting in a dusty box in the basement. I no longer have a stereo, and when I want to hear a particular song I just go to YouTube on the computer. So I finally ripped all those CDs to my computer this summer and donated them to the library. They were thrilled to have them, and I love the fact that the dusty box of CDs is no longer in the basement!
…thanks for inspiring me! I will now store my CDs on the computer. I was hesitant, just in case the iPod crashed and, as you noted, can easily find them again on-line. This really IS useful, as spouse and I are relocating from Australia to USA in 2011, and we really want to pare down the ‘acquisitions’. Cheers!
I enjoyed your story Miss HK and look forward to following more of your story on your blog. I agree that being a minimalist can be a struggle, especially when so few in our culture support it, but it is very rewarding in the end. Hopefully more and more people will embrace this lifestyle.
Hi Miss HK–Thank you for sharing your story! I really like how you are dealing with your cds and dvds–I have a lot of cds and didn’t want to just give them away. Now I know what to do with them.
You’re welcome, Beth! Good luck with your media decluttering!
Thanks for the comments all. I actually got rid of the physical cd’s two weeks ago, and I can’t describe how much lighter I feel. Eventually, I’ll do the same with DVD’s, but I’m not ready to take that step just yet. ;)
hi hk,
i really love hearing the perspective of younger people embracing minimalism. when my husband and i first started our life together over 30 years ago, it was the best time of our lives. we had a tiny house and very few possessions. and no responsibilities. then we started a family and stuff just grew out of nowhere. 3 boys later and we needed a big house to store them and their stuff and all the friends they had that chose our house to hang out at. now they are all grown and gone and we are trying to get back to that stage. we are in a small house again but we have a lot more in it. our new aim is simplicity rather than minimalism. we have very few responsibilities and a little bit of money and a tiny bit of wisdom. so my advice to young people would be to be very careful during the childhood raising years. possessions can compound quickly and needs and wants can get confusing with children.
janet
Wow HK, your story reminds me a lot of myself when I was little! I loved my barbies and my favorite scenario to act out with them was when they all had to pile their stuff into one bag each and hit the road because they were a group of runaway orphans…kind of like older versions of the “boxcar children” (did anyone else love those books?). Isn’t it funny to look back and see that even at such a young age we were drawn to fantasies that involved simplifying down to the essentials? Thanks for sharing your story!
Hey, I like your site! Cheers from an aspiring minimalist in Romania, Teo
I remember wanting to be in my favorite tv shows (dating myself here- Little House on the Prairie, Gilligan’s Island)- and knowing
(sorry hit enter too soon) and I knew I could only take a small amount of belongings so I would spend hours listing them, then revising my lists. My only hangup was books, and if the Kindle had been around then I wouldn’t have struggled at all. Too funny to see the ways it would pop out in our childhoods.
strictly speaking, it’s illegal to make copies of your CD’s and then sell them – regardless of whether you sell the originals or the copies. you cannot copy copyrighted material and then sell either the copies or the originals. i believe current law allows you to make a copy for personal use or to give to a friend (a la a custom-made mix tape), but you may not profit from it. i know people don’t want to believe it, but it’s true.
FYI- I’m in law school. I am perfectly aware of the laws regarding copyrights.
I didn’t sell them for profit. I didn’t sell them back to my ex boyfriend. He has them for his own personal use; what he does with them now is his choice and I could care less what happens to them.
Interesting story! I do wonder, though, what happens if your Kindle dies, or you lose it, or your computer dies and you lose your music files or movies? That is what keeps me hanging on to the hard copies of things – I can appreciate the freedom of not having them, but what will your plan be in case of electronic loss or death?
Steph-
I actually DID lose all my music files about 8 months ago, so I was pretty bummed out. (Hence the reason I gave the CDs back to my ex- no copyright infringement if I don’t have the mp3 files anymore! Had the files remained in tact, I would have diposed of the hard copies in the trash after physically rendering them unusable).
I haven’t lost any DVDs because I haven’t put them on my new laptop yet; I’m not quite ready to reach that point.
With my Kindle, I have yet to misplace it. It’s always in my purse, and if it’s not, it is charging via USB connection.
It still worries me though, especially since I’ve already lost everything in a crash once. I guess it’s just a risk you’ve got to be willing to take. (I did go out and buy a 1 TB external harddrive that I use for backing things up now).
Thanks for taking the time to read my story!
Thanks for the reply!
There are some who would argue that you are exchanging physical clutter for electronic clutter – I realize the world is going digital at a huge rate, but I’m just not ready to go there yet. Books as a tactile pleasure is something I’m not willing to give up.
Another concern I have about buying electronic copies of my books for a Kindle or other e-reader is that there’s no guarantee those books won’t disappear (as famously happened to ‘1984’ last year: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html?_r=1).
Glad you’re backing things up – that would give me some real piece of mind!
Oh this sounds exactly like myself! I’m 20 now and although I was never ‘minimalistic’ at 11, I can totally relate. I live at home, and I will admit I do have a small glory box of things I know I will use when I eventually move out. I accumulated a lot during my teenage years. And my mum insisted on keeping all my childhood toys, books, clothes etc (she carries the clothes but I think I’m starting to convince her to let go of some of these). I’m so glad I discovered minimalism before moving out, otherwise it would of been quite difficult selling and deciding about furniture etc. Hopefully my boyfriend will follow on with my own values =D Good story.
Question about the DVD’s: so many of them are “protected” so that you can’t burn them to your computer. What do you do about that?
When I went to law school at age 27, I moved across country and only owned what could fit in my car. During law school, the only acquisitions were texts. Decades and 2 adult kids later our possessions fill several residences. I am now decluttering, but the rest of my packrat family is not.
I’ve read lots of books on simplicity, minimizing, and organizing, but only your books have really moved me. As a lawyer who is also a caretaker to 4 elderly parents, a child, and a husband, I was drowning in things. After implimenting your philosophies into our lives, I feel more free and less stressed. While I’m not ready to filter out 80perc’t of our things, my goal by the endof the year is to reduce down to 50 perc’t. Thank you for writing your books.
What a wonderful goal, Caretaker! Thanks so much for the kind words about my books. :)
Legally, you are supposed to have the CDs that you rip to your computer as ‘proof’ that you own the music. It is perfectly legal to rip to to your computer for your personal use, but you shouldn’t dispose of your hard copy of your CDs for copyright reasons, because the CD is proof that you have the legal right to copy it to your computer. (My hubby is a copyright attorney.) If you buy it from iTunes there’s no CD to hang onto, but you should hang onto your iTunes receipt – AND make a backup CD/DVD of all your music. :)
I am still finding things to get rid of. As I dig deeper into my closet, I find more craft items to pass on. My husband is now getting rid of some piles of books and papers. Even my daughter has started bringing things over so we can give them away. I took some pictures down when we had our condo painted recently. I may give those away, too.
I was watching a show about hoarders today. Everything the husband or children threw out, the woman retrieved from the garbage. I have two drawers I haven’t looked in for a while, those will be next.
I’m filling another big bag for GoodWill. I found 2 more pairs of earrings I haven’t worn in years to give away. I used to get stuffed animals for my birthday and for Valentine’s Day, I put them all in a big bag to give away. I still have a collection of fancy cards I’ve gotten over 43 years of marriage.
Another bag is full for Goodwill. Then I will start the next one. My bookshelves are full of my mother’s romances. I own very few books because we live next to a large public library. I put the date she read the book inside and don’t bring it back for at least 6 months. Meanwhile, I look for more of her kind of romances wherever they have secondhand paperbacks.