Perhaps you’ve heard about this strange lifestyle before. Maybe you’ve read about it, or maybe you know someone who lives with this mantra.

Minimalist. Living with less. Downsizing. It’s this radical notion that we can all be happy without constantly buying new things. Seems simple, right? Yet in my experience, for all my good intentions, it isn’t always so easy.

Living in a consumerist society means everything around us keeps telling us we aren’t good enough as we are; we won’t be accepted without the newest gadget; we’ll make a bad impression if we wear the same outfit twice in a week. Even consciously recognizing that TV ads and marketing are bent to make us feel inadequate without such-and-such a product, it’s still so easy to fall victim to their techniques. Or, at least I do – too often.

People have been slowly catching on, though. Even John Lennon tried to stress this point:

“Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people, sharing all the world...”

Now I don’t want to age anyone, but this song was written in 1971 – 45 years ago. And our consumerism has only gotten worse since then. Lennon brought up the point that our consumerism doesn’t only hurt us, it hurts our society. If we all spent a little more of our efforts on bettering the world instead of growing our own world of possessions, the benefits could reach far and wide.

Admittedly, sometimes shopping sprees can be a pick-me-up after a hard week, and sometimes you just really really want that thing you saw in the catalog and you’ve saved up for it. Buying things is part of our society and creates jobs and provides necessary things we use in our daily lives. But the purpose of being a minimalist is to downsize. Figure out what we really actually need, and limiting the excess things we buy. If we look at a product in terms of if we really need it in our life as opposed to what marketing and advertising tells us, we begin to learn to distinguish between what we need and what will only sit around in the back of a closet after one use.

Let’s be honest – I can’t tell you how to live your life. I’m only trying to promote a lifestyle that I’m trying to adopt myself because I believe it is healthier for my own sanity and society as a whole. You know that age-old question about what you would grab if your house was on fire and you only had time for one trip in? Wouldn’t that decision be so much easier if you weren’t so attached to “stuff?” Don’t let your possessions take control over your life. They’re just things. They can be replaced. Place your value in people, not things. Memories don’t need upgrades or new batteries. With fewer “things” around to distract us, we can focus on a world much broader than our own gadgets.

If all that seemed a bit scatterbrained, here are a few key points to keep in mind!

5 Simplified Reasons Why You Should Be A Minimalist:

1. You appreciate what you have more because you actually know what you have and what purpose it serves.

2. So much less clutter. This means it’s easier to clean (not just because there’s less to clean, but you also don’t need as many storage bins and garage space that just tends to collect dust.) Plus, packing and moving becomes so much easier because you aren’t sitting there packing away clutter wondering why you still have it.

3. While you may have fewer things, since you’re buying less of them you can afford better quality. How could that ever be a bad thing?

4. When you buy quality items the first time around, you don’t have to replace them as often. In addition, in learning to shop around for the best quality, you find that you aren’t always tied to one brand. (Not to point fingers, but as much as I love Apple products, sometimes there are better products for cheaper. By all means, sometimes Apple does have the top product. But contrary to what they’d have you believe, that isn’t always the case. Please don’t hunt me down and hurt me for saying that. We’re all entitled to our opinions.)

5. Less guilt for the things you don’t use sitting in the back of the closet. You know, gifts and things or something you bought full price but don’t actually use so you keep it around hoping to someday get your money’s worth for it? Yeah, just let it go. Feel free to try and sell it, but if nobody is interested, just donate it. Don’t let your possessions hold you captive. Have more power over them then they have over you.