"The Minimalists: Less Is Now" Documentary on Netflix

No, I won't be watching. I watched a couple of their YouTube videos and it wasn't compelling enough, IMO.

As I get older, I’m becoming a minimalist.

I like my surroundings neat and the easiest way to Keep things neat is to have few things

I just got an email from Matt D'Avella saying this is now available on Netflix to watch for anyone who is interested.

After 2020 and spending so much time at home I have come to the conclusion that I have far too much stuff that I don't need or use or wear. I'm really interested to hear what this documentary has to say and to make some changes in my life. Life has become too complicated and needs to be more simple for me.

I like the idea of minimalism, but I don't like the "throw away and buy it again later" of many minimalists. Or, perhaps, people who are becoming minimalists. Seems very wasteful and consumerist to me, underneath it all.

I meant to say =""throw away and buy it again later" MANTRA of many minimalists."

Yes that's why I'm interested to see what the documentary has to say R4/R5. Obviously there has to be a reasonable balance between having enough and not having too much stuff you just don't need. You certainly don't want to throw it away and then have to replace something. That's even worse I think!

But I'm definitely in the too much category at the moment. I could furnish two houses and dress 3 men nicely. All the wasted money too!

R6 I definitely think there's a balance to be had. I always try to think of: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

I've been helping my mother de-clutter her house, mostly getting rid of stuff that belonged to my father but neither one of us have use for. It's interesting to consider what we've both found worth keeping (I'm hanging onto his record collection) versus what we're getting rid of. Lots of the stuff we're getting rid of was stuff of his that was... junk already before he died! He was very into computers and had a file cabinet filled with all types of components and wires. I bet half that shit stayed in that file cabinet for 10+ years. He certainly wasn't using it while he was alive.

I think it's important to make sure we get rid of the stuff WE don't even find useful, but I'm skeptical of people who want to "own nothing" because someone will have to go through their belongings one day and deal with them. One day most of our belongings will be in a landfill someday, it doesn't bother me. Going through all this stuff has even made me LESS worried about that.

Great post R7.

I love getting rid of junk and being amazed what I used to think of indispensable but, years later, consider junk

Can you make an entire series out of this? Sounds like an interesting Twilight Zone episode only.

I live in 800 square feet with one closet and under-bed storage. Absolutely have to keep it as minimal as possible. About twice a year I (and my partner before he died) go through everything and throw away anything not used since the last time.

Two advantages: I don't accumulate a lot of stuff and I have a fairly clear idea of what I do have.

Minimalism as a lifestyle sounds heavenly. Fewer things to clean and manage. More order and control over your own life. Fewer condition to be anxious and frightened about.

But the core issue is that most people are drawn to mess and drama, because they believe that's what they deserve in their lives. And that also includes me, I'm afraid.

Watched the first half and couldn’t sit through rest of it. Nothing new and they make it sound like a huge revelation. If you are vaguely well educated and self aware, you realize the getting and spending game is a pointless life goal that simply exists to perpetuate capitalism and feed the enrichment of the 1%. But you also need to support yourself. These stories of young guys dropping out was naive and simplistic. The reality is we need to work to live and most of us don’t have the choice or desire to live in a tent and dumpster dive for food. Maybe it’s informative for younger kids who are still caught up in the myth of purchased glamour - but I think anyone over 40 should be well aware of this “philosophy”.

You're spot on R13. I am the OP and hadn't actually watched it at the time of posting.

I watched it and then found that it is really just a remake of a previous documentary with some of the same scripting in it! One thing that was clear is that those guys were very wealthy and able. However, I'm not 100% sure about the over 40 crowd being aware of the myth of purchased glamour. I would say they are one of the worst "stuff" collecting demographics and a target audience for marketing given their age and ability to purchase. Certainly the ones I know.

For 2021, my goal is to buy less and use up what I already have. I did really like the 30 day throw out rule. It is; throw out/donate 1 thing on the first day, 2 things on the second day, 3 things on the third day etc. until you get to 30 days. I am several weeks into this and I am surprised at how much STUFF I have that I never use and never will use. Much of it is unused and brand new. What a crime. I have been giving things away to friends and getting rid of the stuff no-one would want. That has been very cathartic - especially after 2020.

[quote] Can you make an entire series out of this? Sounds like an interesting Twilight Zone episode only.

It's not a series. It's only one episode.

[quote] But the core issue is that most people are drawn to mess and drama, because they believe that's what they deserve in their lives.

You just described my partner. I haven't would love to be minimal.

Any conflict that we do have has to do with this.

I was raised in a 2 bedroom 750 sw ft house so we just couldn't buy a lot of stuff because we had no room for it. It was even a great weight maintenance lifestyle because we didn't have space for a large refrigerator or pantry to store food. I live in the US now and Americans have so much STUFF. Sometimes I drive along the freeway and every few miles there's a gigantic strip mall with Walmart or Target and 15 food outlets. How al of these places make money astounds me. People buy waaay too much shit, eat way too many calories and outside of a few cities have large vehicles and large houses to hold it all. I have a friend who has been working as a UPS driver since last April. He serves a very affluent neighborhood on his route and he told me he sometimes has more than 10 boxes for one house!! Madness.

So I was forced to be a minimalist by circumstance but I have remained one because I get sort of overwhelmed by lots of 'stuff' and I don't have the money for for it. Everything looks cheap at a Target but when you throw a dozen bits of crap in your basket it all adds up.

You see by the crazy mobs during Christmas sales that Americans just love cheap shit.

Really, do you need a 5th TV, even if you have to wake up at 3 am and wrestle other shoppers to get one for $100?

More stuff doesn't make anyone happier but it gives us all a short sugar high. Americans are addicts.

That preview irritated me. Sorry but I bought my hand mixer because I need a hand mixer. Why the fuck would I throw it away? Same goes for my wooden spatula. I bought it because I needed it and I use it. Don't buy shit if you don't need it, it's really pretty simple.

Minimalism wasn't invented yesterday. To a large extent we in the Western World have the famously cluttery and richly ornamented Victorians to thank for the concept. The endlessly dusted off advice of William Morris "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful" is from a lecture of 1882. Mies van der Rohe's "less is more" repeats a line in a Browning poem of 1855.

Morris, though, was not advising to own few things, but rather to reject tawdry objects of industrial production and instead to develop an appreciation of the craft and aesthetics of well made, well selected furnishings, objects, and art. The linked image shows two views of the sparsely furnished but anything but plain hall of 1877-1879 in the studio/house of his friend and fellow advocate of this ideology Frederick Lord Leighton: this is what Morris meant in his advice, not to live like a Buddhist monk but like a rich man with informed taste.

The idea that throwing out all of our shit will make us better and happier people seems to miss the mark. It just replaces the urge to buy needless ugly shit with the need to throw it all out and feel better about oneself. For me, the better thing is to select things with care, with an eye to aesthetics and utility (whether fresh flowers that may last a few days or a table that you may see every day for years or perhaps decades.)

A generation of two has been ruined by episodes of "Hoarders" to think that stuff itself is the disease and avoiding stuff makes us better and healthier. They mistake being ball's deep in food encrusted Burger King styrofoam clamshell boxes and cat shit and magazines and advertising flyers as the same as having a collection of a dozen Italian Renaissance bronzes in a large house. The one thing is shit and the product of a diseased mind, the other is the expression of someone with some money and a highly specific taste (whether good or bad in the selection.)

Trimming down a wardrobe to the bare essentials of a college student backpacking the world for two years doesn't make you a better person, it just makes you a person with few clothes. If you use the clothes, why not have many? Why should the rest of us care and scold?

I would be bored as fuck with everything painted white or French gray and rooms furnished with Barcelona chairs and one large painting on one wall in each room, with a lamp or two, and a ceramic bowl of jet black river stones. My life isn't so hectic and mad that I need that kind of design lobotomy lab at home; I can appreciate the qualities of the space for people who appreciate and understand and enjoy that look, but I need more chaos and color and control of another sort. I might even need a few kinds of kitchen spatulas.

It's not *things* that are anyone's problem unless the things are *stupid shit* without any beauty or any purpose, even if that purpose is only to delight. Advising people who don't have a clue as to why they bought the shit in the first place to just chuck it all out and feel morally superior to their old self seems some very half-assed feel-good advice.

R20, you could use some minimalism in your writing

Less is not more.

We can always count on you for wise words Darfur Orphan...