Minimizing to my Maximum
Posted April 22nd, 2010 by Chris Gurney
As I continue to recycle, donate, give away, eradicate, eliminate, and trash things, I’m getting closer to that point where I wonder how far I can truly go.
So I asked myself a question, as I tend to do when I’m talking to myself: What is the bare minimum list of physical things that I really, truly need?
The key word, once again, is “need”.
At the same time, though, the word “comfort” comes into my mind.
I think the trick is to redefine what us North Americans think of as “comfortable”, and truly challenge what I think I need, in my day-to-day life. Really, shouldn’t four walls and a roof be enough? (This is probably a post in and of itself.)
And so, allow me to pick apart my daily activities, and propose an approach for living minimally that might work for me. To simplify things, I’ll leave out transient, consumable objects like food, cleaning supplies, and toiletries.
Let’s start with the most cluttered area of my home, and go from there.
The Kitchen
Unfortunately, eating requires time, effort, and instruments on hand to concoct, digest, and cleanup after a meal.
Preparing food.
I’m going to assume that any place that I choose to live in will come with a refrigerator, and a stove.
I own a microwave, but I very rarely have a need for it any more. And even in those circumstances, I do have other means of heating food. Hence, it’s not a necessity, and will probably go.
What else one needs to prepare a meal depends on the complexity of what’s being prepared.
Let’s think simple, here:
- pot (1 small, 1 big)
- frying pan
- knife
- kettle
- toaster oven
If I were to open my kitchen drawers at the moment, I would find a plethora of mono-purpose tools: gadgets that really only serve one purpose in the kitchen. I’m talking about lemon juicers, egg slicers, garlic presses, and so on.
The question is, does one need all that, when fundamental tools can accomplish the same thing (even if it requires a little extra effort)?
Eating.
As for vessels for serving meals on, and utensils for eating, not all that much is really necessary, when I stop and think about it:
- plates (2 max)
- bowls (2 max)
- cutlery/chopsticks
- cups (2 max)
- water bottle
Cleaning up.
While I have a dishwasher, I intentionally don’t use it because I feel it’s a waste of resources. Really, then, this should be enough:
- dish rag (reusable)
- scrub brush
- dish rack
- dish towel
The Living Room
The so-called “living” room is the epitome of comfort.
Personally, I prefer to do my living around other people, outside of my home.
My TV, DVD player, and video game things left the picture not too long ago. With the removal of all that stuff, so too goes the need for furniture to put said stuff in, or on: bookshelves, DVD shelves, entertainment units, baskets, and so on.
Now, what of my couch, and coffee table? These are truly staples of any North American household. But something obvious came to light when the main reason for their existence disappeared: I probably no longer need them, either!
I’m beginning to think that this leaves a simpler solution:
- cushions
That’s it. Cushions.
Really, all that’s necessary is something with back support, and something that’s easy to transport. Perhaps a bean bag chair? This is something I need to think about, first.
The Office
I do need a working area in which to earn a living. At a bare minimum, I would like a working surface for my computer. In addition, my current workflow for getting things done requires the use of a filing cabinet, to handle all of that dead tree business.
- table/desk
- chair
- filing cabinet
Technology-wise, I’m very happy the trend has been towards smaller and smaller devices, of which I currently use three:
- laptop
- BlackBerry
- router/hub
The Bedroom
Relatively speaking, the bedroom is pretty simple, stuff-wise:
- bed
- sheets/blankets
- pillow
When it comes to clothes, I really only own just enough. I’ve never had a problem collecting clothes or shoes, so I treat them more as a means to an end.
My closet is big enough for all of the clothing that I own, so no additional storage is really needed.
The Bathroom
Aside from toiletries, not much is really needed here:
- razor
- toilet brush
- towel
Transportation
Living in the city, all I really need to get around is:
- bike
- transit pass
My car — whose purpose at the moment is to collect dust in the parking garage — is a necessity to visit family and friends outside the city. My philosophy, in general, is that I don’t want to place a burden on them to transport me everywhere, just because I choose not to drive.
What’s Left?
A couple items cross my mind as relative necessities, at the moment:
- lighting
- vacuum
As for decorative objects, I think simple picture frames on my otherwise blank, white walls would do. These, of course, would feature photos of family and friends.
Is That It?
Now, I know some of you are going to say “Well Chris, you’ve just minimized any chance of having anybody over for dinner.” Or you’re going to wonder how I intend to live without an iPad.
Fair enough. I welcome any, and all criticisms. And I’m sure there are a couple glaring things I may have missed, and I’m sure there are further opportunities to minimize (do I really need a bed?). I welcome those, too.
But first, I encourage you to stop and think about what it is you truly need. If you were to lose all of your possessions, what would be the bare minimum that you would want to have back? What’s on your list?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Photo by ccharmon.
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See more posts tagged with: Minimizing
April 22nd, 2010 at 6:33 am
The dinner thing was the first thing that came to my mind. That might be a bit tricky.
As for the car, there are alternatives for inter-city travel. Unless your friends/family live in the middle of nowhere (and I admit, that is possible in this country) then a greyhound coupled with local mass transit will usually do the job. Heck, if they’re far enough away driving isn’t an option anyway, and you’d have to fly.
For the living room, I would definitely recommend a couple of those Sumo bean bags they had at PAX. Those were extremely comfy. However, if you already have a couch, why get rid of it if you have to buy something else to replace it?
Of course, there’s always this:
http://xkcd.com/150/
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:32 am
With the whole eating thing, I’m going to have to work on continually evaluating what I need there. It’s dependent on diet, to a large extent. At the same time I want to cut back on any dependences towards things like takeout, and frozen dinners.
As for transportation, my parents are almost in the middle of nowhere, though *relatively* close to bus and train stops. At this point they could come and pick me up, but my preference is that I would rather not burden them with that task. It’s worth a talk with them, at least.
I think with the couch I’m going to look for a time when that makes sense to sell it, rather than do that right away. The thought of moving across the city has crossed my mind, so that might make the most sense, timing-wise. Although, yes, filling my place up with plastic balls does have a great big sense of appeal to it.
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:34 am
Hi Chris,
Just to let you know, I think you definitely can minimize further than you’ve described, it just comes down to whether you WANT to.
For example, my wife’s parents in China do not have a microwave. Nor did they until about 4 years ago have a fridge. (Buy your food fresh, buy only what you need. And you’re vegetarian so almost everything you would want can be left a few days unrefridgerated anyway – no worries about meat)
The car – lose it. Really. You are right on the subway. You want to visit your family and friends? How often is this really. If once a week or less, you are almost certainly cheaper to just rent a car each weekend (or alternating weekends) than to pay car maintenance, insurance, annual license plate + toronto plate fees, driveclean (depending on the age of your car), etc.
Bed – if you are minimizing to have more space as well as less stuff – I liked the futon I slept on in Japan. The style there is to fold it up and put it in the closet when not being used – not put it on a couch frame like people do here. In fact, I’m not sure the futons we sell here are really the “authentic” kind like they sell in Japan – Japanese ones don’t have springs and are more like thick blankets than anything. Anyway, since rooms are a premium, the beds go away and then during the day the room can be used for something else.
Office: how feasible would it be to scan those deadtree docs to PDF then recyle the paper? If your office has a fancy MultiFunctionPrinter this is easy and fast.
It’s too bad you don’t live in China – otherwise really I’d tell you to lose everything in your kitchen :) Eating out for every meal is actually achievable when I was in China. Oh well. BTW you can boil water in a pot – you don’t need a special tool for that.
BTW, depending on how you do it , and making sure only to do it when full, but your dishwasher is more efficient than washing by hand. Then again, with your minimization, maybe you never fill it? Anyway, first hit on google: http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/dishwashers.htm
So, where to go from here? Are you approaching this from a sustainability standpoint? If so, living in an apartment will never make you sustainable. Have you considered homesteading somewhere? You can grow your own food, be “mostly” off the grid with solar/wind energy, and still work because you can get an internet connection almost everywhere these days. I guess a food for thought.
I’ll stop now before this is a novel. Good luck with your minimization quest. Your things don’t define you.
-Moof aka James
April 23rd, 2010 at 6:29 am
Hey James,
Thanks for the not-so-minimal comment!
The Fridge – I’m not sure I feel comfortable without having a buffer of food saved up, just in case. Keeping fresh food stay fresh longer also has a certain appeal to me. I’m really just going to assume it’s a default in any household I live in, in North America. But it *would* be quite interesting to see just how long I could live without one, without buying food constantly during the week.
The Car – I’d love to sell it tomorrow; I really would. You’re right, though: I should do the math on renting, versus maintaining the one I have.
The Bed – I like the idea of one I can tuck away when it’s not needed, but I’ll save this decision — along with the fate of the couch — until I move.
The Office – I also love the idea of digitizing everything. Perhaps it is time I looked at scanners, or getting one from somebody who no longer uses theirs. And personal document management systems, preferably cloud-based (Google Docs? Evernote?).
The Dishwasher – I never fill it. I really only use it when I have a lot of people over and there’s food involved, which isn’t very often (though I want to change this).
So in all this, where am I coming from? Environmentalism is a big driver. One of the ideas is about training myself to consume less, by having less. Part of this is about setting an example and causing people, like you, to think. You’re right, this can’t be about sustainability, but at least I’m lowering my footprint in the long run. I would like to ultimately move towards homesteading, but I don’t see that happening in the near future.
The unfortunate truth is that things do define people; I see it everyday. Consumerism is everywhere.
Things don’t define ME, though. That’s one of the points of all this.
Chris.
April 23rd, 2010 at 7:53 am
Re: the fridge, just to clarify, Sherry’s parents go to their local market EVERY DAY and buy their groceries.. Only real way to be able to do no fridge with meat (without meat i would bet you could go every 3 days or so)
You could also stock up dry goods for a buffer :) But yes, I would say losing the fridge would be the hardest thing to minimize away, at least in North America
April 27th, 2010 at 6:37 am
Chris –
If you are thinking about the environment, think twice before you get rid of the microwave. It is actually more efficient to heat food and even water in the microwave, rather than on the stove.
If your car is paid off, then it is probably cheaper to keep it than to rent one when you need it. But it makes sense to do the math to be sure.
April 29th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
You are doing lots of minimizing! No couch? Where will you take naps? I think it’s great that you are trying to reduce your footprint, but if you already have a couch, why get rid of it and buy a bean bag chair? You’ve still got to live a little. I mean.. in prison they just have a bed and a toilet. It’s good to minimize things in your life, since people tend to focus too much on “things” but there has to be a balance.. going from one extreme to the other may not necessarily be the answer.
Rob