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.
Today we hear from Ali living in Dubai, who tells us how he’s pursuing a minimalist lifestyle in a very non-minimalist city.
Ali writes:
My name is Ali.
Living in one of the most advanced cities in the world can be daunting for anyone especially in keeping up with communication and information; you get so much clutter of “buy this”, “eat this”, “use this”, “drive this” – the list goes on. Ironically, this is where I find myself today.
I am a 30-year-old digital media advertiser working in an agency and living in Dubai. If you picture me, you would think – style over substance, too much social media time, shopping in the largest mall in the world and spending time on bright beautiful beaches on the Arabian Gulf.
On the contrary, my life itself is ironic as my best friend would describe it. I live in a city where you are judged based on your appearance but all I have to wear (shirts, pants, and shoes) are less than 30 items; a city where apartments are filled with the latest merchandise money can buy yet I have only a couch, a bed, a music box, my books (a lot of them because I read every day) and my TV (which I am about to get rid of). Oh, and I don’t have a Facebook account but I do have an Instagram handle where I have some posts (@trimisiyu).
My buddies think I am loco! That living in Dubai as I do does not highlight my status and/or success. As you enter my studio apartment, you see the huge space (where 3 years ago included a coffee table, leg stool, bar stools, video games and a host of other non-essential stuff). I was cluttered and always felt that I could not have space. My music box is always playing soul, jazz or sometimes hip-hop classics. My couch is only used when I come back from work to sit and declutter my head (I live in my head a lot as do most introverts). My dinner is mostly a healthy blend of vegetables and some chicken (I have reduced the amount of meat I consume).
My apartment used to be a tidy cluttered space. Indeed, I had to do something, and I did! It was a drastic make-over. Within a month about 90% of the stuff was gone. The funny thing was that I did not know people like me existed until the middle of 2017 when I actually came across the word minimalism. You guessed right – it was the Netflix documentary made by Joshua Fields and Ryan Nicodemus that made me understand I was not the only one that had this feeling.
This feeling that I am suffocating with so much stuff I never wanted or will never need. Since then I have read more books and did so much research on minimalism and was able to introduce one of my close friends to the way of life (she is still struggling with getting rid of her bunch of make-up stuff though).
One fundamental thing minimalism has improved me with is having so much time. Time which I now spend on reading to gain more knowledge and also the time in making new friends. I have always believed that having time and people on one’s side is the most essential for a healthy and fulfilled life.
As I have stripped my immediate physical environment to a bare minimum, I have been able to get some form of mental and phycological boost to learning more (especially about myself) and I appreciate my life much more than I used to.
{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.}
Enjoyed your article with one exception: I would hardly call Dubai “one of the most advanced cities in the world…” particularly as a woman!
Cringe. I see LA as a sexist place for a woman. So many double standards. But it is easy to see a hijab and say ‘they have less rights’ / ‘they are oppressed” while I cringe on TV seeing politicians trophy wives sitting in mini dresses, having to show off their beauty with waxed legs and high heels while their husbands sit in suits. And everything that came out of the Me too movement shows that Western countries aren’t the epitome of ‘female friendly’ while the Arab ‘world’ is usually deemed to be ‘backwards’. I’m not saying that Arab countries like UAE are perfect but I’m just sick of this black and white labelling. Many laws such as Arab women keeping their own stuff after marriage, not being a male’s possession and inheritance rights were established in the 7th century, which you couldn’t say for let’s say Western Christian England in the 18th century.
As I was reading I wondered if your friends preferred to spend time hanging out at your place than other places? I find a clutter-free environment soothing ;-)
I am giving away many items every day. My daughter moved in with us after a series of health problems. She had way too much of everything. She got rid of lots of stuff before she moved in here and her friends and her boyfriend continue to work with her on sorting and arranging what she has left. I have another bag of clothes and two boxes of dishes for Goodwill. I took a stack of books and craft magazines to the library. Since my grandsons spend Christmas with their other grandmother and her family I have put away all the gifts we got already. We get movie passes and gift cards for restaurants. My favorite is when everyone exchanges clothes that they don’t wear with the rest of the family. I got warm sweaters and sweatshirts. My husband got some T shirts. No environmental impact. And as always, even in our Chicago winters, we never turn on the heat.
“I live in my head” – made me laugh, same here. What a lovely story – it feels calm, relaxed and spacious.
As a woman who was born and raised in Abu Dhabi which is also in UAE (just like Dubai) I find that opinion so backward. I guess there are two sides to a coin, but for me UAE is a very safe place for women, where women work, drive, etc.
Your story reminded me of one room I kept “free” in the house I had in the States. I had my stereo in one corner, and a pile of large pillows I’d made in another. Other than that, “free.” I kept it that way because I didn’t like the feeling of how furniture “fixes” things. “Now it’s set and it’s ‘this’ way and ‘these’ things happen here.” it made me feel stifled, trapped.
So I had this one room of pure space and potential. Anything could happen there. It was flexible and open.
Thanks for the reminder and the story.
nice story!!!