What is minimalism?
Is it the absence of things?
Or is it the ability to give up luxuries and wants willingly?
Perhaps it could be a variation of both, depending on where someone currently stands.
Minimalism, in my definition, is the ability to be in tune with yourself and your relationship to the environment, people, food, health, and just simple things. In which you determine the best possible use of all things with the greatest ethical view point with all persons, animals, and spaces in mind. Just having less could be minimalism, but something will happen to any consumer who has become more conscious of their impact on others. Like any bit of information learned, humans tend to want to go deeper and expand their learning.
Minimalism may start off at one point and lead down to another, than another. For example, I became a minimalist when I learned the ethical practices of some of my previously used products. I realized the way things were marketed to the general public was to entice the consumer to purchase and not ask questions. Too many ingredients in products means most people stop reading labels or just check out completely because they don’t understand. I quickly noticed that the more simplified the product labels and ingredients the safer it was for my family.
Then, I took it a step further and made every product used in our home for years from scratch. From all cleaning products, skin care products, hair care products, and make up. But as my life became busier, as the girls got older with more activities and interest, finding products with the same ingredients I was using became a mission. After more research, I began to look into labels, sources, and even overseas employment standards. So what was just about limiting chemicals from head to toe, turned into my growth in a consumer responsibility.
See every day we vote. Yes, every single day. Every time you make a purchase, pull out debit or credit card for a transaction, you voted. Yes, we have so much power! It’s not just some revolutionary idea. It’s real. See, when we don’t ask questions we are essentially checking boxes to “political candidates” we have never researched. I’m just going to assume no one would ever just vote for anyone they haven’t researched the background of for themselves. Even for a job you wouldn’t hire someone without knowing some history about the person. Here say would not be enough, you would test their skills, ask questions, do a back ground check, and cross reference all references.
Not that it’s not extremely time consuming to do a little research – but you’ll save money because it will slow down your spending (wink, wink). Plus, you can learn the chain of actions and cycles of consumerism. And once you do, you have a few options. Like when there is a mess in your home, you could one, throw a blanket over it and walk around it pretending the house is clean. Or you could put away a few things now, a few later, and get bins to organize until the house is clean. Or you could just do nothing and never clean because you assume things will just get messing again later. See it’s all a mindset and what works for you. Not that one way is better, it’s just what works. When we shy away from knowledge it’s like throwing a blanket over it. And with it comes some consequences that we are just now starting to correlate to our health outcomes. My mom know it intuitively. Thank goodness for my mom! She seriously just knew to teach us to stay away from certain things and chemicals.
Minimalism isn’t just about the absence of things in your home, but knowing what to have and stopping between purchasing to reflect on the why. Why are you purchasing this item? Who is involved in creating this item? Where does this item and the materials come from? How is this item manufactured? What would be a better alternative?
This is not something you would do once you get into the store, otherwise you would be in there forever. You can walk your home and write a list.
Start with the kitchen – look at the labels in your home before you give it a go in the store. If you don’t know an ingredient, it’s probably not known to your body.
Another good space to start is the bathroom – Many people are good at switching to healthy eating, but use toxic chemicals in their hair care products, nail care, skin care, dental care, cleaning products, and supplements everyday.
After you write a list of five things researching alternatives, then switch. If you get comfortable with doing this, do it once a week or once a month and before you know it, your home will be voting for ethically sourced and organic ingredients.
So to sum it up:
Minimalism is not just about having less stuff, but also less chemicals, less ingredients, less unethically sources goods, etc.
Knowing more about what you consume will naturally lead you to understand your power in making an impact.
And switch five things in your home each week or month until you are satisfied. Every bit counts!
Minimalism is a conscious decision to give yourself the gift of knowledge everyday.
Healthy Happy Mama 