Is minimalism just about stuff?

I remember years ago, I was introduced to the idea of minimalism. I must say, it didn't quite appeal to me initially because I thought it was like having very little possessions for the sake of having little possessions without any purpose. Later on, I learned that some people's definition of minimalism was more like to focus mainly on the stuff that matters to them. Which in fact means that if somebody, say, values shoes a lot, it could be possible to still own 20 pairs of shoes but only one single cup or plate. That didn't quite sit right with me. That's not a good balance. 

I know that "maximalism" (whether that's an existing word or I just made it up, lol) certainly doesn't sit right with me either. It goes so, so against my values of simple and frugal living, of how to treat the earth and its precious resources. The "maximalist" industry makes big profits by selling and inventing new organisations tools and systems. I can't really understand how they succeed in leading to believe most people that they actually need all those boxes. If you've ever been to an IKEA or even a dollar store kind of shop, you defenitely know what I mean. It's ridiculous to have that much stuff to need entire rooms to store all kind of "nifty" boxes and drawers and containers full of stuff you don't use and likely are never be going to use, in my opinion. A lot of people who aren't well off financially could be benefiting from all those stuff people don't use, so even find this a bit selfish too. That's why and how I kind of embraced minimalism, but certainly in my own way and not the "trendy" kind of minimalism where you have a completely empty counter because you're afraid that your kitchen actually will look like a kitchen. Walking into our home you'll notice that there isn't a lot of trinkets on shelves etc. That's defenitely the "minimalist look" I guess. What parts me from other minimalists is that I'm not afraid to have an actual functioning kitchen where a lot of stuff is going on, so I'm defenitely not having a spotless, empty counter all the time. I'm also not afraid to reuse things like food containers and put them on shelves instead of hiding them because they don't quite match. And I really don't care that my mismatched reused jars in which I store my herbs in, don't make my kitchen look like a museum or laboratory- in fact, I'm even proud of that! It means that I have a fully functional kitchen full of activities going on, and that I'm not against reusing things, even if they're not the best aesthetically, which I really like. 

But- when it comes to minimalism, I've noticed that it's usually only about stuff and clothes. Even when people are really into that, I guess after a while you're done with minimizing your stuff and clothes. After all, you can't minimize possessions you don't have anymore. When I read about other people's minimalism, they proudly tell that they just own two jumpers and three plates. While I can understand that makes life a little less complicated, I also wonder what's it with this focus on stuff. A while ago, I began to wonder how I'm not your average kind of minimalist (in the traditional sense), yet I'm really a minimalist in so many other ways. 

For example, I don't have a lot of friends and acquaintances. I do have friends who live in another country, and I've never bothered to start new friendships after we immigrated (being autistic doesn't quite help with this of course). I enjoy my alone time and I've never felt lonely. Unlike many neurotypical people, I guess being alone for me is something different from being lonely. Being alone isn't something I do a lot, having a family. My husband doesnt work outside the home, so he's home a lot, which I really don't mind though- but this means I actually value my alone time even more when I get to enjoy some alone time! I must add that I'm not against friends or socialization in moderation. I just don't really feel the need to. 

Another thing that I minimized which wouldn't fall in the stuff/things category, I think, are our meals. In the past I really felt the pressure to try out new meals at least every so often. This had probably something to do with all these nutritional advices; eating as balanced as possible is a must, or that's what some nutritionists make us believe so. I don't think we should eat THAT balanced- in the past, people would just eat what was available in their country and people would only eat seasonal produce. And they only had a few staple foods. I was also afraid that my husband would find it boring if I'd serve certain meals regularly. Turns out it was the other way around; he actually complained a few times that there were dishes I'd only made once and he never saw them again. :') It took quite a while to figure out what our favourite dishes were, and how often we were willing to eat those etc. But now that I'm not experimenting that much anymore, I feel like we're enjoying the food that we do eat even more! And I still do try out new things every so often- just not as often as I used to. I also don't really go on vacations a lot. The other day I read this phrase: I want to a create a life in which I don't need to go on vacation, and I really liked that! I'm very much a homebody so being comfortable and cozy at home just makes sense. 

Ok, this one does have to do a bit with stuff, but I still found it worth to mention. We lived without television for a lot of years, and only recently own our very first TV. That doesn't mean it gets used a lot though, there's only 3 channels - educational/religious ones. And we don't have streaming services at all. If we feel like watching a documentary there's always the free optio of YouTube. So I guess we're quite minimalist in this aspect. 

When it comes to cleaning products, we're also quite minimalist- right now I use plain household soap (solid for cleaning random things/stains on clothes/the sink etc, and a liquid one for the laundry), washing up liquid, and vinegar. (And the occasional bleach but please don't tell anyone! Lol) I hate scented stuff anyway and it's much easier if you can't choose between 16 products. 

We defenitely minimize our outings: because we try not to use our car a lot (for environmental reasons, as well as financial reasons), and because of the weather- there's not a long period of really nice weather where we live, it's either very hot or very cold. Right now we're in a very nice month, but it won't be long until it's getting cold. Plus, we're just homebodies, all of us genuinely enjoy relaxing at home. Especially on days when the children don't go to school, because their school is quite demanding. A few months ago, we went on a small vacation to the coastal area of our country. It was the first time in at least 4 years. Can't say we didn't enjoy it, but I wouldn't care if we didn't go, honestly. So that's an area in our lives in which we're quite minimalistic too. And the same goes for eating out. It's sometimes a bit hard to understand for me why people enjoy that. We enjoy having a delicious home cooked meal rather than waiting for your food to come, not even knowing how nice it'll taste, and then of course paying a whole lot of money for that!

So in what areas ARE we minimalist when it comes to stuff? That's an interesting question because we're drowning in some stuff (who said it's a bad thing to collect empty glass jars? 😉), whereas of other areas, we don't have a lot. Let me start with appliances that most people do have, but we don't! We don't own a dryer, dishwasher, microwave, slowcooker, instant pot, standmixer, coffee maker, boiling water tap, and my hair dryer is 23 years old and is closer to not working than to working and I'm not planning on replacing one, just to name a few things. And oh, I really hate single purpose appliances, like egg boilers or electric pancake makers. It takes up so much space and it's just pointless in my opinion (we do have a waffle iron though... And even though you can technically use it for other things than waffles, we usually don't. But we just really like waffles, and fortunately it doesn't take up that much space). That's when it comes to appliances, but the interesting thing is that we don't own a lot of stuff that I see in homes of people who typically call themselves minimalist, which I think is rather interesting. We don't have a ironing board, knife block, "fancy" china (my grandmother used to have two sets of China- one for daily use and one for special occasions, but I just see that as needles space occupation), a wok, grill pan, Dutch oven, multiple chopping boards, tape holders, an attic full of camping stuff -which is common with so many people I now, and thankfully I don't have hobbies that require lots of things, like puzzles or crafting. Oh, and believe it or not, but as a family of four, we recently bought our first laundry hamper in a few years! Living without one is doable but it just began to irritate me, as I'm typically not the kind of person who is good at being on top of tasks such as doing laundry. Speaking of laundry hampers, as I mentioned earlier how I dislike all the so called organisation tools/stuff and the marketing around it, this is probably why it took me so long to buy that new laundry hamper- we had one, but my husband used it to make a grocery shopping trolley, and then I decided to do without a laundry helper for as long as I could... It reminded me of how needless all of those boxes, baskets and "nifty" organisation stuff really are (of most of them anyhow). 

So all in all, I would probably fit in the image of a minimalist but I'd rather not call myself one.