Minimalism Fail.

I always end up accumulating more than I need. This is never more evident than whenever I move from place to place, and each time it's a surprise that I've somehow amassed all this ... stuff. It's happened again this week: as you might know, I'm gearing up to move back to Seattle with my little girl Veronica with nothing more than what I can fit in my car. In theory this seems fairly straightforward: clothes, some books and electronics. You know, the essentials. But no.

As I go through the boxes in my bedroom and the storage area in the basement, I keep finding more things that I think I should bring: different bags, mementos, various documents and assorted paraphernalia that I've been lugging around to each residence. I thought I'd done a good job in streamlining my possessions over the years. Looking at the pile of boxes and totes stacked up in a corner though, there's no doubt right now that I won't be able to bring everything that I've packed. I'll have to mail much of it separately, and the best thing to do would be to keep minimizing the load.

my life goes here

In times past I've viewed moving as a chance to purge unnecessary material objects out of my life with successful results. There are a few certain things that hold sentimental value to me, and I'll definitely hold onto those. Continuing to prune my possessions this time shouldn't be any different. We'll see. After all:

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

- Antoine de Saint-Exupe

The Essentials.

I found this passage recently and thought it was worth sharing:

Stop buying unnecessary things.
Toss half your stuff. Learn contentedness.
Reduce half again.
List four essential things in your life;
stop doing non-essential things.
Do these essentials first each day.
Clear distractions; focus on each moment.
Let go of attachment to doing, having more.
Fall in love with less.
- [via mnmlist]

This seems like a good and simply way to declutter both physical and mental spaces, so I filtered this mantra of sorts through my day-to-day life to gauge myself. For a post about minimalism, lots of words ahead :)

• Stop buying unnecessary things. I'm currently renting a room with family acquaintances for three months. My living quarters consist of a small-ish bedroom with a desk, twin-size daybed, closet and just enough floor space to exercise in. This setup prevents me from bringing much else into the room, so I've been reduced into only buying grocery items. I don't really need new clothes (I wear scrubs 40 hours a week), and the only thing(s) I'm planning over the next few weeks are travel- or school-related. Obviously, the fact that I don't get paid at my preceptorship helps out a lot with me not buying things.
  
  
• Toss half your stuff. This has virtually been done, with me being forced to live with much less. Over the past year I've donated tons of clothes, mostly shipping them back to needy people in the Philippines. I've also been in the process of digitizing my music collection -- a slow, painful but necessary process. My living, dining and bedroom furniture now lives at our condo in Columbia.
  
  
• Learn contentedness. Actually I'm pretty happy with having to live with less. It should be no surprise that I love sparsely-decorated areas.
  
  
• Reduce half again. Before I move back to the West Coast this autumn, I plan on pruning my possessions even more to make my transition as easy as possible.
  
  
• List four essential things in your life; stop doing non-essential things. Here's where I had to take a moment to think about what I really considered "essential.". Admittedly, I have more than those listed below, but here are four in no particular order:
  
  
  1. A calm qi. This is especially important for me as I've had great trouble with negative energy and impulse control in the past, resulting in regrettable damage to myself and the people around me.
     
     
  2. Music. No surprises here. I'm always on the hunt for great music, and it's become a massive part of how I self-identify.
     
     
  3. Physical health. I've always wanted to live a healthier lifestyle, and finally seriously took steps in achieving this with much more regular exercise and a restricted diet. I suppose getting work experience in a clinical health setting didn't hurt either.
     
     
  4. Positive relationships with others. Unfortunately it took me a LONG time to really understand this, but I've found that healthy, happy relationships with family and loved ones have just as much (if not more!) benefit for my personal well-being and growth than just having to rely on myself. I'm not saying I use my family and friends as crutches, but it's a great comfort to know that people really are there when I need them -- to either lift me up or kick my ass, whichever is appropriate.
  
  
• Do these essentials first each day. Clear distractions; focus on each moment. Interestingly enough, I say a little prayer on my way to work each day that covers most of these essentials. (I should probably do this when I first wake up to minimize the distraction.) I don't really think of myself as a "religious" person, but I believe I am getting more in touch with my spiritual, introspective side as I grow older.
  
  
• Let go of attachment to doing, having more. Fall in love with less. I cannot say that I don't wish for luxury items. Who am I kidding; I'd love to own stuff in high-end retail catalogs. But I know the line between simple possession and excessive consumption. As for "doing more," I am consciously trying to achieve this [discussed in this post], purely for the life experiences.

simple equals good

So I guess I'm doing okay so far. I suppose any lifestyle change is easy to implement. It's successfully maintaining that change that's difficult. But since I've already "fall[en] in love with less," I hope the rest falls into place sooner rather than later.

Minimalist Typographic & Packaging Style.

I have a funky habit of removing labels from stuff. No, not clothing labels -- but bottles, jars and miscellaneous containers. I like the packages in my house to be "clean" and uncluttered with unnecessary text and noise (if I can help it). Most often it's the objects in my bathroom and kitchen that are stripped down to the essence -- including bottles for shampoo, conditioner and body wash, soap/lotion dispenser pumps, and even miscellaneous hair/skin products. One of my friends called it "Zen" which I thought was appropriate and cool, but most people end up confused for a few seconds until I point out which container holds what stuff.

What can I say? Blame it on my inner minimalist.

So you can pretty much imagine that this Bittbox article on package design held my attention for more than a few minutes. Some sample images:

These are gorgeous.

There's a debate going on in the comments section of the BittBox article: Some commenters argue that a few of the packages looked "generic" owing to the simplicity of their designs, but I contend that one needs to look at the subtle typographical details (as well as the design of the package itself) in order to appreciate the difference.

One can split effective design into two halves, good and great. Good package design conveys just enough information to relay the contents of the wrapper; great package design adds humor or cleverness to the mix and elevates the entire idea. They're probably not appropriate for every dining occasion, but you can't tell me the salt & pepper batteries aren't awesome.