The Silent To-Do List

Day 247 / 365

I just finished the book “Goodbye Things” today. It’s a book on Minimalism, a concept that had caught my interest recently. While the general human tendency is to buy more and more stuff, trying to find happiness from material things, Minimalism focuses on living with fewer things. It’s all about reducing the clutter in your life, and instead of just getting everything you want, learning to be happy with just the stuff that you need.

The Silent To-Do list

Some of the benefits of Minimalism are obvious. If you have less stuff, you need less space to store it and therefore you might save a lot on rent. A Library card might be way cheaper than just buying every book you want to read. More simply put, the less stuff you have lying around, the less effort it will take physically and financially to maintain everything.

But there is another disadvantage of having things lying around. All this clutter not only takes physical space, but it occupies your mental space as well. As you walk around your house looking at the things just lying around, those things will send messages to you. The author called this — “The Silent To-Do List”.

You look at the guitar you purchased on a whim and haven’t touched since, and it screams at you “If you don’t spend time and play me, all the money you spent would be a waste!”. You look at a sketchbook that you bought, and you are again reminded that you haven’t used it in a long time. You look at all the books you never read. You look at the new cupboard that you bought cause you think you needed more storage space, and you can see it’s collecting dust and needs cleaning.

You will surely be overwhelmed by all your possessions. Do you really think all this will make you happier?

I seriously think everyone can do with a little bit of minimalism in their lives. It doesn’t have to be extreme, and I am not saying everyone should have just 2 pairs of clothes and live out of a suitcase. But If you picked up a trash bag right now, I am sure you will be able to fill it up with things from your room that you want to throw away. With that knowledge, do you still want to live with all that clutter?

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — Saturn’s rings