Goodbye, Things: On Minimalist Living

by Fumio Sasaki

Discard it if you’ve thought about doing so five times.

I’ve lowered my bar for happiness simply by switching to a tenugui. When even a regular bath towel can make you happy, you’ll be able to find happiness almost anywhere.

only look at souvenirs, no matter how tempting they are. This has allowed me to focus more on the journey itself. And what is life if not a journey? Be brave and let go of things that spark joy—what you gain can be tremendous.

When you’re surrounded by a lot of things, getting rid of your cherished items may seem like you’re tearing away pieces of yourself. But remember, those things aren’t you; your close connection to them is entirely a creation in your mind. You won’t become less of a person by doing away with those things. In fact, you may actually be pleasantly surprised to find that with all those extraneous possessions out of the way, the true you will begin to come alive.

Become ALIVE!

Minimalism is not a competition. Don’t boast about how little you have. Don’t judge someone who has more than you.

For a minimalist, the objective isn’t to reduce, it’s to eliminate distractions so they can focus on the things that are truly important. Minimalism is just the beginning. It’s a tool. Once you’ve gone ahead and minimized, it’s time to find out what those important things are.

Listen, life is short. It’s a shame to waste it because of some material object.

Conversely, if we’re constantly thinking that we’re missing something in our lives, we’ll feel as if all those messages are directed straight at us. If we start to contemplate every one of those messages, we’ll never have enough time to do anything. Minimalism is built around the idea that there’s nothing that you’re lacking. You’ll spend less time being pushed around by something that you think you may be missing.

The qualities I look for in the things I buy are (1) the item has a minimalist type of shape, and is easy to clean; (2) its color isn’t too loud; (3) I’ll be able to use it for a long time; (4) it has a simple structure; (5) it’s lightweight and compact; and (6) it has multiple uses.

twenty of these sculptures at home.

When we let go of our possessions, our ability to concentrate improves. Why might this be? Things don’t just sit there. They send us silent messages. And the more the item has been neglected, the stronger its message will be. Maybe there’s an English textbook that I gave

When a desk is cluttered with unorganized business cards, papers that need to be filed, and reference materials that need to be thrown away, it’s essentially a huge silent to-do-list pile that saps our concentration.

When we have fewer possessions, these silent messages will, quite naturally, become fewer as well.

As McCandless taught us, what’s important in life is to have relationships with people with whom happiness can be shared. It’s also known that happy people live longer lives.

There’s a favorite quote of mine from Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living that really sums up what was wrong with me: “I was trying to wash today’s dishes, yesterday’s dishes and dishes that weren’t even dirty yet.” The dishes that need to be washed today are those that were used during the course of a single day. Anyone would collapse in despair if they started thinking about washing the dishes tomorrow, the day after, and every day over the course of a year. They wouldn’t even be able to catch up with the dishes that need to be washed today. Future unemployment, marriage, having kids, getting old and getting sick, and dying alone—these were the dishes in my future that weren’t even dirty yet.

By asking myself if I need something now, I’ve been able to discard the things that used to be important to the old me. I don’t have the things I used to believe were a part of me. Now, I’m just a human being who no longer owns anything that is tied up with my identity.

By parting with my possessions, I’m no longer stuck with the old me.

threw away everything I thought would be needed for some day in the future, as well as the things I thought I needed in the past. I was left with what truly matters: the present.

They’ll put up with things and frown if only for the sake of their glorious future. But it’s only in the present that they can experience something, which means that those grumpy-looking souls frowning today will probably continue to be sullen no matter what they do.

I feel true gratitude. There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is. —attributed

Through gratitude, we can trigger sustainable stimulation, which gives us much more peace than the stimulation that we get by buying something new or increasing our stockpile.

We can accumulate as much as we like, but without gratitude we’ll only end up being bored with everything we’ve obtained. Conversely, we can achieve true contentment with few possessions, just so long as we treat them with gratitude.