Less Mess Less Stress

This was me, the ultimate hoarder. I tell these half-funny and half-pitiful stories to let you know how far I was from being a minimalist. I had many things, many acquaintances, and many small, time-filling hobbies that I felt too guilty to stop doing.

One day, when I felt I’ll never be able to step out of my mental block. I went to my balcony where, weirdly enough, I only had one chair and a broom. My dad called it the landing station for tired witches. So, I sat at my landing station on a beautiful April afternoon, and I watched the neighbor’s two cherry trees bloom in front of my eyes. They were gorgeous. I felt like the most tired witch of all witches, so I just sat and watched those trees.

As I watched them, a thought squirmed into my head. Both cherry trees were beautiful, but they were different. One of them was tall, fully blooming, thick with flowers, and smelled just stunning! The other was smaller, thinner with fewer flowers, but somehow flourishing in a... minimalist beauty.

At that moment, I understood what minimalism was – to me at least. It is not a numbers game, as many people think. It is not about having less or more, but about being intentional about whatever you let into your life. Minimalism is the mindset that helps you realize what has value in your life now, and what will be important later. Once you know, you can let go of what doesn’t serve you anymore.

Those two cherry trees were both perfect: the full one and the sparser one too. If minimalism was a thing for cherry trees, the dense one would feel pretty overwhelmed. But it isn’t – its flowers are perfect and equally important. However, when the time comes, the cherry tree lets go of its flowers to make space for the next step, knowing that it will have flowers again when it needs them.

That is a roundabout way to explain what I discovered that day, so here’s a less abstract version. I knew my things were valuable, and some even had sentimental value, but I also understood that in my new life they would not be useful anymore. It was time to let them go and give them to someone who needed them. This was how I felt about the people I left behind too. I understood that to be beautiful, serve your purpose, and live happily. You don’t need to be a giant cherry tree. Being a small one with fewer flowers is equally beautiful. But maybe it is easier to be a small cherry tree. It may have less cherry, but those cherries will be bigger and tastier because the tree can nurture them. The cherry tree with the gazillion cherries might get overwhelmed. It won’t have enough energy to grow big and healthy cherries, just small, sour ones. Until now, I treated my stuff like a dense cherry tree treats its cherries: with my best intentions. My intentions, however, were stretched too thin.

Let me repeat my definition of minimalism: it is the mindset that helps you realize what has value in your life now and in the future so you can let go of what doesn’t. This doesn’t apply only to physical items. It applies to all the areas of your life: habits, beliefs, relationships, health, work, etc.

Minimalism is not about more or less. Therefore you can’t be minimalist enough. It is, rather, a mental crutch that helps you realize what has value in your life. The more values you discover, the easier it becomes to appreciate what you have. Add the feeling of gratitude for what you have and for what you’re about to let go of and be happy. That’s the ultimate goal of minimalism.

After those two cherry trees had outsmarted Google and YouTube, my decluttering mission took a 180-degree turn, and I successfully finished everything I needed to in the last month. Not only did I get rid of 75 percent of my stuff, but I also figured out all my dysfunctional relationships, past offenses, and let go of fears and inner mental blocks that resisted my lifestyle change and so on. But, I found an evergreen method to help me live my life in a more straightforward, free, and happy way even long after