Minimalism primary is an aesthetic not simply a "decluttered lifestyle". It's a fashion. There isn't a bunch of stuff tucked carefully in boxes perfectly Marie Kondoed out of the way. With minimalism if you end up with spares of anything you get rid of the spares because the idea is that you are removing psychological noise for a clean look. Things that are infrequently used are looked at as the enemy of the aesthetic.

What you are thinking of is not the aesthetic movement it is the idea of having slightly less stuff. Low or Zero-waste lifestyles are a very optional part of minimalism and arguably more of a separate sustainable eco movement ...but it is really hard to do those lifestyles in isolation because while you might not bring new single use things it does mean finding them elsewhere which requires someone else to have stuff or outside resources.

[–] whereisk@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You do need to be living in a highly interconnected and "just-in-time" society to pull off the extreme version of minimalism.

Any disruption of your perfect delivery schedule means that you've gone from aesthetic minimalism to lacking necessities in an instant.

Having said that, I don't personally know anyone pulling off the extreme minimalism lifestyle.

In my experience, hoarding is much more common. I know a lot of people that have multiple cubic meters of stuff (their children's old clothes, toys, nice boxes, magazines etc) they will never use (they don't even know what they have) that they refuse to sell or throw away. That also seems very unhealthy.

[–] Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

It is more of a rich trendy thing. I have seen it particularly in mansions and high end apartments and things that I have been given access to via my work but I don't think I have ever seen anybody who is strictly working class pull it off.

Hoarding is more common but with hoarding there's more of a psychological element where they are anxious about removing objects from their places. Sometimes it's from a place of having experienced traumatic scarcity but it seems to me more often it's more about believing there is a larger connection between memory and stuff than actually exists. Like "I can't throw out this half melted kettle or I might forget the day it boiled dry on the stove and everybody laughed about it! " - there is a lack of trust that they will remember it without the item or that all memories are worth clinging to to the extent of impacting their physical space. The Archive of memory hoarder is also the worst to try and help because after the fact if they ever feel the need to revisit something they let go for any reason they will blame the people who tried to help them with their total consent to cut down on their stuff and some of them never get over that resentment.