Japanese Minimalist Lifestyle – “55 Rules to Throw Away”
Rule 1: First of all, “throw away” the thought:
“Can’t get rid of it”
No one in this world has the mentality of “can’t throw things away”,
those are just thoughts in our heads.
In psychology, there is a term called “Acquired helplessness”.
It means that in reality,
you have the ability to improve the situation,
but after experiencing a few “can’t throw it away” failures,
you no longer want to change this situation.
If you are aware of why you cannot throw it away,
then gradually you will be able to do it
and the decision to throw it away no longer depends on your personality.
The reality is that there is no such thing as a person
who cannot throw things away, nor does such a personality exist.
Just because you can’t throw it away doesn’t mean you’re a bad person,
it simply means you haven’t practiced the “throwing skill” yet.
Or in other words,
you have only created for yourself the “habit of not throwing away”
but have not yet acquired the habit of throwing away.
I myself have gone from being a person who only knew how to live in a messy room
to living a minimalist lifestyle.
That change is not my personality,
but I have learned the habits and techniques to be able to throw things away.
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Rule 2: Discarding is a technique
If you don’t practice speaking French,
you cannot talk to French people.
Likewise, if you don’t practice now,
you can’t become an expert at throwing things away.
It’s been more than 5 years since I started throwing things away.
Of course you can shorten this time.
Throwing things away itself is not time-consuming.
The first day you throw out the trash,
the second day you sell all the books and CDs,
the third day you clean out all the electrical appliances,
the fourth day you deal with the appliances in the house…
It only takes a week for you to clean up to run out of furniture
no matter how bulky it is.
So, the waste of time is not when you throw things away,
but when you decide to throw something away.
Just like learning a foreign language,
the more you speak,
the better you become;
the more you throw things away,
the more proficient you become.
Once you create the habit of throwing things away,
the time between deciding and actually throwing things away will be shortened.
Finally, you can feel free to throw things away.
Actually, throwing things away is precisely a technique.
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Rule 3: Throwing things away doesn’t mean you’re “losing”,
it means you’re “gaining”
When you throw away things, you often just feel a sense of loss
when you have to let go of something.
But please say hello to that thought.
Because what you get is more than you imagine.
It’s time,
it’s space,
it’s easy cleaning, it’s freedom or energy for yourself…
I will introduce these benefits to you in more detail in chapter four,
but what do you really know?
What you get after throwing away stuff is immeasurable.
Therefore, when throwing something away,
don’t think about it anymore,
but think about the benefits it brings you.
I was able to resolve to throw away my belongings thanks to realizing such benefits.
On the contrary,
if you don’t see the good side in this,
it will be difficult to form the habit of reducing furniture.
And actually,
the benefits you don’t see are much greater than the things you throw away.
So, when throwing away things,
think about the good things you have.
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Rule 4: Determine the reason why it cannot be thrown away
Surely there are not many people who can become a minimalist overnight.
As I said above, throwing things away is a technique.
That’s why even I,
from someone who didn’t dare to throw things away,
to what I am now,
have many things I can’t bear to throw away.
Not daring to throw things away is not something to be ashamed of,
but first you need to clarify the reason
why you don’t want to throw things away like that.
In this first stage,
even if you can’t throw anything away, it’s okay.
I have asked myself many times
why I can’t throw these items away.
And I also saw many reasons:
Because these things are very expensive,
because it would be a sin to throw them away,
because I feel sorry for not using them all.
Or maybe it’s because I feel like I’m throwing away precious memories,
or every time I see them I can’t throw them away.
Even the simple reason is just that throwing things away is annoying.
In short, at the beginning,
you may not be able to throw anything away,
but you must clearly determine the reason why you cannot throw it away.
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Rule 5: There is no such thing as not being able to throw it away,
just simply not liking it
Philosopher Spinoza said:
“When people say they can’t do it,
they don’t want to do it.”
When you think you want to cut down on the things in your house,
at the same time you also have the thought in your mind
that you don’t want to throw them away.
Therefore, it is very important to clearly identify the real reason
why you don’t want to do it.
If you say it’s just your feelings,
it’s hard to believe.
Or you can give some very good reasons such as:
these items are full of memories or this is a gift
I received from a very important person…
But behind those beautiful reasons,
it’s actually just a reason.
You’re afraid that throwing things away is a waste of effort or too much trouble.
People always have a tendency to like to maintain balance moody and fond of pleasure.
If you have to choose between having to be active
when throwing things away and having peace of mind
when leaving things in their place,
surely everyone wants to choose the latter.
However, if you just want the comfort of “leaving your belongings in place”,
you will soon be buried in a huge pile of belongings.
So, think about that feeling every time you want to throw things away.
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Rule 6: Our memory, energy and time are all limited things
I gathered all my bank accounts and got rid of unnecessary cards.
In terms of weight,
cash cards or credit cards are just thin cards.
But if there are too many tags,
they will take up a large amount of your memory.
You will have to remember how much money you have on your cards,
what day you withdraw money,
and also have to guard against theft,
or when you lose your wallet,
reporting the card as lost is already a waste of time.
That’s why these thin cards can take up a large part of your mind,
taking up all your energy and time.
In human memory,
hard drives were programmed five thousand years ago
and have not been improved until now,
there is no place to put such useless things.
I even want to delete redundant data
and applications to speed up my actions.
Only then will I have free space to reflect on what is important to me.
Otherwise, even if I put those tasks in front of me,
I still won’t be able to complete them with programs running this slow.
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Rule 7: Throw it away now.
Throwing away is the beginning of everything
When I have time,
I will throw away some things.
After careful consideration,
I will throw things away at some point.
Let me tell you that when you are still immersed in your belongings,
“sometime” is forever.
It’s not that when you calmly think about it,
you can throw something away.
On the contrary, after throwing things away,
you can calmly think about many things.
It’s not because you have time that you can throw things away,
but after throwing things away,
you have time for yourself.
So, throw away your stuff now.
Getting rid of stuff is your top priority.
Throwing things away is a technique,
but not only after mastering that technique can you throw things away.
It’s not like reading this book means you can get rid of anything.
Only throwing things away
and practicing your own techniques is the best path for you.
Right now you can close this book
and take out the trash bag to practice.
If you don’t throw things away now,
you’ll never know what to throw away.
Wait until you think carefully,
wait until you have time,
and you will never be able to clean things in the house.
Throwing things away is the start of everything.
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Rule 8: After throwing away,
there is nothing you will regret
From the time I started clearing things until now,
the amount of furniture in my house has been reduced to about 5%.
That means if I had 1000 items,
I would have thrown away 950 items.
Actually, out of those 950 items,
there wasn’t a single item I regretted after throwing it away.
There are even things that I can’t remember anymore.
In my heart I felt:
“It’s really good to be able to throw them away.”
Really, there isn’t a single item that makes me hug the blanket with regret.
In fact, the annoying feeling
when having to throw something away is your worry about what
to do after throwing it away,
if you need to use it, or actually,
after throwing it away,
it will be more comfortable. but…
I very much understand your concern.
Anyone would worry about such things.
If you’re worried,
listen to this quote:
After throwing it away,
there wasn’t a single item I regretted.
For the items you throw away,
tell them:
It’s great that you can throw them away.
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Rule 9: Throw away obvious trash first
To practice the habit of throwing things away,
you need to know how to apply the methodology of creating habits for yourself.
For example, when you want to get into the habit of running,
it’s best to do the following:
On the first day, set a goal of “going to the front steps.”
Day two, the goal is to “wear running shoes on the front porch.”
Just like that, you just need to set small goals for yourself.
When you achieve that goal,
you will feel a small sense of success.
And if you accumulate enough of those small successes,
you can go on to greater success.
Player Ichiro once said:
“Accumulating small things is a path that takes you to surprise.”
And throwing things away is the same,
you should gather for yourself small joys when you “have thrown away”.
First of all,
start by throwing away waste that anyone can see.
These are empty bottles or empty lunch boxes…
If they are lying around in your house, throw them away.
After that, check the refrigerator and remember to throw away expired food.
Continue, throw away torn clothes,
broken or damaged household electrical appliances…
That is the waste that anyone can clearly see.
Throwing away your belongings also starts from this stage.
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Rule 10: Throw away a lot of things
There is a type of item that is very easy to throw away,
which is the items that are found in abundance in the house.
Utensils and tools of all kinds,
just one is enough.
Why are there two or three scissors in the house?
Why are there five or six ballpoint pens that never write,
and then there are two brush pens that rarely write?
You cannot remember all the locations of the items in the house
because there are many of the same item.
They have no place to be fixed,
so of course they will lie around in your house.
You don’t even know how many of these items you have in your house.
If you have three scissors,
you are not required to keep only one.
Out of three,
you can throw away one.
Choosing is also very simple,
just throw away the ugliest one,
the one you don’t use or the bluntest one.
Just because you reduce the number of scissors in your house doesn’t mean
you can’t cut anymore.
Just because you throw away your pen doesn’t mean you can’t write anymore.
Gradually reduce the number of items you have a lot of,
so that in the end you only need to keep one.
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Rule 11: Throw away things that haven’t been used in a year
Our criterion now is to throw away unused things.
This is the golden rule to reduce furniture.
Also throw away items you don’t plan to use.
As for items such as:
cotton blankets for this winter,
coats you wear every year or swimsuits you use for next summer,
you cannot get rid of them.
With items that you don’t use all year,
you won’t use them later.
If you don’t use it this year,
next year you won’t have it.
You shouldn’t keep those items,
it’s best to throw them away.
However, emergency supplies such as fires,
natural disasters… are different.
Dust is a hateful thing,
no matter how many times we clean it, it will still stick.
But at the same time,
it is also a sign of what we should throw away.
Dusty items are definitely unused items.
What we don’t use this year we won’t need next year,
and the year after that.
Stop spending money,
energy and time to preserve them.
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Rule 12: Throw away items that were only purchased
according to other people’s eyes
As I said in chapter two,
people with means often express their “self-worth” through their belongings.
So we should also look again to see:
Are these items really what we like?
Or are they just items so we can express ourselves to people around us?
Most people probably pay attention to how others view them.
If you have such items, it’s best to throw them away.
Everyone, no matter how big or small,
must strive for some purpose.
Maybe you want to buy your favorite utensils and cooking utensils,
or you want to become a gentleman with a luxury car,
watch, and fountain pen.
It could also be
because you want to take care of yourself with luxury high-end products or aim
for a dream life in harmony with nature…
If you don’t need to spend any effort to maintain an item
but can use all its features and feel happy every time you use it,
then that is the item you need.
On the contrary,
if those items are bought just to gain recognition from others,
you should throw them away immediately.
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Rule 13: Classify necessary items and desired items
I will give a specific example.
You dress lightly and go up the mountain bare-handed.
You are lost somewhere you don’t know.
Then the weather turned bad, cold and wet.
No food or drinks.
Luckily you found a small shack and a warm blanket.
That blanket is an essential item for you.
Nowadays, just by stepping out of your house,
you will be attracted by countless goods sold everywhere.
The latest electronics,
convenient tools for life,
sparkling decorations, trendy clothes…
Just by looking at it,
everyone will desire to have it.
When it’s cold, you only need one blanket,
but you also want the second one to have beautiful patterns,
the third one to have soft material…
When you think about wanting an item,
if you ask yourself repeatedly whether it is really necessary,
you will probably ignore most of the items.
Zen master Koike Ryunosuke said:
Try placing your hand on your chest.
If you feel miserable,
it’s not what you need,
it’s just what you want.
When you feel “miserable”
it means you are thinking you are lacking something
when you are already very full.
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Rule 14: Take photos of items you can hardly throw away
This method has helped me a lot
when I want to throw away items that I can’t bear to throw away.
I also have many things I can’t bear to throw away, so until now,
I still take pictures of the things I plan to throw away.
I even once took a photo of a nail clipper before throwing it away.
In fact, what makes us reluctant
to throw something away is not the value of that item,
but the memories surrounding that item.
However, remember that
throwing things away is completely different
from throwing things throw away those memories.
There are people who know that but still can’t bear to throw it away.
Perhaps that is the kindness of people.
The photos are to remind you of those memorable memories.
Whether it’s an essay your child did at school,
a souvenir from a trip, or a gift from someone…
If you take pictures of them,
it will be easier to throw them away.
In my experience,
you don’t often look at those photos again.
I took thousands of photos but now that I think about it,
I think it’s okay to delete them.
The more you throw away,
the more you only pay attention to your “present”.
But until you can comfortably throw things away without taking pictures,
just take pictures of them first.
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Rule 15: Converting memories into data will make it easier for you
to review your memories
I used to love film cameras.
Up to now I still can’t calculate how much money I spent on film and photo printing.
I always carry my favorite pocket camera with me every time I go out.
I love taking photos,
but I never know how to organize the photos I take.
Printed photos, negatives…
all were stuffed in the bag after I developed the photos at the store.
So sometimes I don’t remember where
or when I took these photos.
Besides, every photo I take is stored in the photo cabinet,
so it takes a long time for me to take it out and review it.
In short, I’m a person who only likes to take photos and never look at them again.
I scanned all the photos
and letters I received using Scan Snap and converted them into data files.
And now I can easily review them at any time.
You just need to name the file with the date and place it was taken,
and you can recall the memories associated with those photos.
You can even store it in two places.
If you save them to Cloud Storage,
you can review your albums anywhere.
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Rule 16: You don’t even pay the house rent,
your roommate doesn’t even pay the rent
It is said that when we sit,
we only take up half of the tatami mat,
and when we lie down, we take up the entire mat.
And the space necessary for our lives is just that.
Even if someone moves in with us,
they will only take the same amount of space.
So, even if there is another person living with you,
the rent is not significant.
However, nowadays, anyone,
even if they live alone, has a roommate.
That’s the furniture guy.
And the space for this guy to lie down,
sleep… is not just half,
or a tatami mat like everyone else.
Perhaps all of us wish:
“I wish I could live in a big, beautiful house.”
But actually, it’s not a wish for ourselves,
it’s just this furniture guy’s wish to live in a spacious place.
This guy never does any housework to live a more neat and tidy life,
and even causes us many other troublesome housework.
In such cases,
we can’t just comfortably pay his rent,
let him leave the house,
or let the guys who are too fat have to lose weight.
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Rule 17: Immediately abandon the idea of “cleaning” and “renovating”.
During the year-end general cleaning,
everyone will probably keep their house neat and tidy.
And you will also throw away a few things in the house
and rearrange some miscellaneous items scattered around the house.
But, just think,
next year you will do the same thing again.
You just try to keep these items from getting out of their original fixed position.
You just clean up the items scattered around the house,
or try to stuff them somewhere.
This will only waste your time,
make you busier,
and cause everything to return to its original state.
Just by cleaning and renovating the house,
you will have to repeat it over and over again.
What’s more important than cleaning
and renovating is reducing the amount of furniture in the house.
If you reduce the amount of furniture,
you will naturally reduce the amount of stuff scattered around the room.
Now, I don’t have much furniture in my room,
so there’s no need for things to be left haphazardly.
And I have no concept of this problem anymore.
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Rule 18: Throw away the nest called “cleaning up”
This is an important point in the process of getting rid of your belongings.
Often people will think that in the process of cleaning the house,
they will also throw away some things and gradually get rid of all the excess items.
However, let’s look at a similar example in the case of worm extermination as follows.
After you kill one bird after another,
will its nest be clean of all the worms?
Even if you kill them one by one, at some point,
the worms in the nest will increase.
Similarly, if you have a nest called cleaning,
even if you reduce the amount of furniture in your house,
at some point, the items will “multiply” more and more.
Therefore, right from the beginning,
you need to remove this nest,
remove the hiding place of these items.
When you remove this cleaning step,
all furniture will lie haphazardly,
scattered throughout the house.
Anyone looking at it cannot leave it like that.
And naturally,
you will gradually reduce the amount of stuff you have.
Without cleaning,
these items are like weak worms without a nest,
at some point they will disappear on their own.
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Rule 19: Maintain dead space in the house
When it comes to cleaning,
it is impossible not to mention the concept of “dead space”.
Often with empty spaces in the house,
we often make the most of it to fill them with things.
For example, you set up a washing machine
and above that washing machine is empty,
so you hang an additional shelf to store towels or washing powder…
If that’s just it, it’s still very normal.
But if you take full advantage of the space in the house,
stretch all the hanging cords or add shelves to store things,
your cleaning will last day after day.
At that time, you cannot enjoy a comfortable life
because you never stop cleaning.
Just like when you get on a bus packed with people,
when you see piles of stuff crammed into every corner
you will also feel frustrated and uncomfortable.
Plus, cleaning up all that stuff takes a lot more effort than you might think.
There is a saying: The effect of useless things.
This sentence means that there are things that seem useless at first glance
but in fact have a great effect.
And it is these empty spaces
that seem to be “dead space” that help you feel more comfortable in life.
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Rule 20: Throw away the idea of “some time” that never comes
When I went to buy electrical appliances,
I brought back a bunch of extra accessories.
When I buy a vacuum cleaner,
I also buy accompanying equipment that I have never used.
There are screws that I don’t understand why I bought them.
Or I still have a lot of cables in my house
that I have saved in case I need them,
but I don’t know where to install them.
Now, I realize that such items that are needed at a certain time will never be used.
I even forgot I had them in the house,
so when I needed them I didn’t use them.
I also threw away the warranty card in case the item was damaged
because I never opened it.
I often have a house full of empty candy boxes
and beautiful bags in case I will use them “sometime”.
Then there’s the English book I plan to study in my free time
or the set of toys I’m in the middle of playing with.
But in reality, that “sometime” moment will never appear.
So throw them all away, just keep the necessary items for the present.
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Rule 21: Let go of attachment for a while
The important thing when getting rid of stuff is whether
it’s important to you “right now” or not.
Just like how
even if you prepare things for some time in the future, it will eventually go to waste,
if you keep holding on to things from the past,
these things will continue to increase. nope.
The textbooks from our student days,
the books that helped us become more mature when we were children,
our old wardrobes,
our past hobbies,
or our lover’s anniversary gifts…
If we keep getting stuck in the past,
you can never recognize your “present”.
By only caring about the past,
you have also created an attitude of contempt for yourself in the present.
If you really want to change,
you should only keep the necessary things for “now”.
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Rule 22: Throw away forgotten items
An ideal minimalist is someone who can give away all of their belongings.
If you only keep frequently used items
and things that are absolutely necessary for you,
you will definitely be able to remember all the items you have.
Or to put it the other way around,
the items you’ve forgotten aren’t really important to you.
When cleaning your room and getting rid of things,
you will encounter things that make you say,
“I have this too!”
If they could talk, they would probably answer:
‘Yes, yes, you do, it’s you.’
For example, clothes lying in the corner of the closet.
You can combine it with other accessories,
but up until now,
you haven’t touched it,
so it’s not necessary for you.
Because if it were necessary,
it wouldn’t stay still like that.
Then even the small objects that fall into the gap between the TV
and the wall are no longer necessary.
If you needed it, you would have turned the whole house upside down to find it.
Or if you have boxes of paper
that are moved back and forth every time you move house but never opened,
then frankly you won’t need them in the future.
Or if you have cardboard boxes
and you don’t remember what you put in them,
you can just throw them away.
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Rule 23: Don’t be a creative when throwing things away
Every time we throw things away,
we can come up with amazingly creative ideas that we would never normally think of.
“Slow down now.
This empty candy box looks like it can be used for something.
What if we use it as a medicine box?”
“As expected, this Tote bag is no longer usable,
let’s throw it away tomorrow.
Oh no, you can use it to hold paper bags.”
This perfume bottle is really beautiful,
but I don’t use it anymore,
or just throw it away.
Oh no! (When I have time) I will buy the wire at Tokyu Hands
and turn it into a beautiful lamp.”
Perhaps, you will never finish making that lamp.
Actually, you just come up with these weird ideas
to avoid having to throw things away.
No matter how feasible these ideas seem,
they are not believable.
Every time we throw things away,
we can transform ourselves into a world-leading creator.
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Rule 24: Abandon the idea of “getting your capital back”
One of the main reasons why we feel “What a pity!”
Every time you throw away items,
those items are very expensive.
And in our minds we always have the thought:
“It’s so expensive and I haven’t gotten all my capital back yet.”
However, in the future you will not be able to get your capital back.
I can give you an example:
“You have a shirt that has a great design and color,
but the size doesn’t fit so you can’t wear it.
And since you spent a lot of money to buy it,
you can’t bear to throw it away.
But, think a little more.
If you don’t throw it away,
this shirt will take up space in your house,
and every time you see it,
your mood drops even more:
“Oh, I don’t use it. I bought it at a loss…”
If you convert these losses into money,
this shirt is silently taking away from you a few dozen to a few hundred yen every day.
The same goes for other items.
With stocks that are constantly falling in price,
it’s best to get rid of them.
You should also throw away the idea of “getting your capital back”.
To protect your future wallet and mood,
you should ignore this capital loss as quickly as possible.
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Rule 25: Throw away “stock”
If daily necessities such as toilet paper,
paper towels, etc. are not available,
it will be very inconvenient when needed.
That’s why I will buy a lot and keep it in the house.
Now on sale, buy more…
Say goodbye to these ideas today
if you really want to reduce the amount of furniture in your home.
Items purchased more than necessary will also take up more space than necessary.
You will also have to arrange and clean up these stored items.
Therefore, if there are too many items stored in the house,
you will not be able to know how much is stored.
“Do I still have cotton swabs left?
If it’s this cheap,
I’ll just buy it.”
And so on the way home you buy some more to take home.
If you often have items in your house,
initially just buy one more.
After you run out of stock, buy another one.
Then gradually reduce it to zero.
If you run out of items at home, you can go out and buy more.
In emergencies,
it would be shameful to only buy things for yourself
without thinking about others.
Stop buying and hoarding goods at home!
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Rule 26: Feel the vibration of your heart
There is a famous saying in Marie Kondo’s best-selling book The Art of Japanese Decoration:
“The heart is pounding.”
This is the secret when sorting your belongings,
you should touch each item and only keep the items
that really make you feel emotional.
And actually, this simple method of choosing clothes is also extremely convenient.
Items that are expensive but not trendy so you never use them,
items that you don’t use but take effort to preserve…
these items definitely won’t make you feel nostalgic.
Believe in the “thrilling” feeling from your heart.
This throbbing feeling is in the present,
not in the past, nor in the future.
So, you can focus on the necessary items right now.
And because you only decide based on your heart’s feelings,
you can minimize your decision time.
If you do it this way,
you will see that making your heart flutter is actually much more difficult than you imagine.
Therefore, items that you do not want
to throw away can also be put on the throw away list.
Every time you want to throw away an item,
you need to ask yourself:
“Why can’t I throw it away?”
Furthermore, this is also an effective way for you
to train yourself to have a more sensitive feeling with furniture.
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Rule 27: Take advantage of auctions to reduce items
I have personally thrown away a lot of things thanks to auction sites.
The clothes I don’t wear, the electrical appliances I don’t use,
the camera collection…
Among them, the thing I can’t forget is the film developer.
Previously, I had to borrow 150,000 yen from a friend to buy it,
but in the end I never used it.
Every time I thought about bringing the machine to auction,
I only had 100,000 yen, so I kept it in my house forever.
In the end, I threw it in the recycling area.
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Rule 28: Take advantage of auctions to look at items again
I’ve gotten a lot of items down thanks to the auctions I mentioned above.
At auctions like Yahoo Auction,
you have to take photos of each item
and write down information about each item,
so it will take a lot of time.
According to Mr. Itou Kota,
the person I introduced at the beginning of the end books,
although it takes a lot of time,
these auctions are the best way to reduce furniture.
Mr. Itou originally had a lot of musical instruments and equipment
and it was said that he used these auction services to reduce them.
The reason I recommend using auctions is that the process takes quite a while.
You will have to take a good photo,
and summarize the characteristics and features of that item.
Thanks to that, you will partly remember the feeling when you first bought it.
And you also have time to look at the item again,
thinking about why you don’t need it.
Because it takes a lot of time and effort,
you will be more certain with the thought:
If you buy again,
you will not buy something like this.
This is the benefit of using the auction service.
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Rule 29: Home selling service
When selling goods through the auction floor,
you will spend a lot of effort moving the items.
You will have to use paper boxes or foam boxes
to pack carefully before shipping.
Through the auction floor,
the price of the item is also somewhat cheaper.
So you can use the service to sell things at home.
You will not have to waste time packing or shipping,
the buyer will come to your home to pick up the items.
The service I often use is Takaku Ureru Dot Com.
This service allows me to sell many different items.
When I sold my 42 inch TV,
I used this service.
At that time, all I did was wrap it.
After that,
I also sold the PS3 and the home cinema equipment.
Then when the whole shelf of books was sold,
people from the used book store in Jinbocho came to the place to buy them.
He calculated the price of each book for me,
but the total was only 20 thousand yen.
The important thing is
that if you only have to put in a little effort to get rid of things,
getting rid of things will be much easier.
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Rule 30: Don’t think forever about “price at purchase”
When I bought a 42-inch Plasma TV,
the purchase price at that time was 80 thousand yen.
When it came time to sell the TV,
I could only sell it for 18 thousand yen.
The price of an indoor movie theater was 40,000 yen when I bought it,
but it was only 5,000 yen when I sold it.
Honestly, I thought it would cost a little more.
Because these are all three-year-old goods,
when put up for auction,
the price may vary slightly.
However, at that time we only thought about the price when buying them.
Therefore, it is even more difficult for us to sell them.
Whether it’s a new car or a new house,
the second day it will become old.
Day by day, the value of that item will gradually decrease compared
to the price when purchased.
But because it is ours,
we always think of it with the highest value.
When giving something to someone else,
try standing from their position to see the value of this item,
maybe you will easily give it away.
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Rule 31: The store is the “storage room” in your home
Author Yosumi Daisuke introduced in one of his works the idea:
“Consider the store as a storage room in your home.”
This idea plays an important role in reducing home storage.
According to this idea,
stores are warehouses that can ensure the storage of items
as well as always carefully preserve those items in case we need them.
And convenience stores are warehouses that are always open 24 hours for us.
Every time we go to the store,
we don’t come to buy things, we come to pick up things.
Thanks to these warehouses,
we no longer need to save space to make a storage room in the house,
and we don’t have to spend money every month to preserve things in there.
Or we don’t have to bother stuffing things into the room.
In Japan there are many stores.
These are also warehouses that are always full of goods
and always welcome us warmly.
If you go there,
you will be greeted with friendly smiles.
If talking about online stores,
Amazon is also a giant warehouse.
You already have this much storage space,
so there’s no need to add more storage space in your house.
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Rule 32: The street is your living room
I understand those who want to put a large sofa in their home
so that guests can sit comfortably when they come over.
However, I don’t think it’s necessary for you to have a living room in your house.
You can leave it in your neighborhood.
To me, my living room is a family restaurant down the street,
where I can sit as long as I want and have extremely comfortable sofas.
It’s also a classic coffee shop,
where you just order a cup of coffee and can sit and talk for as long as you want.
I also understand that everyone wants to invite friends home,
eat a hot pot meal, make desserts together or organize family parties.
However, you need to know the number of tools to serve those rare occasions
that take up a lot of space in the house.
Now, if my friends want to come to my house for hot pot,
I will say: Hot pot, that’s a good idea.
But I don’t have anything to cook hot pot in my house.
Sorry. In return, I know a very delicious and cheap restaurant.
Let’s go there. Then you can go home and I’ll have another drink.
If you think of this entire neighborhood as your living room,
you can do a lot of things.
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Rule 33: Throw away things you don’t understand
This is a famous quote from Yosumi Daisuke’s works.
The more you love that item,
the more you know the history or brand context of that item.
In every truly good item,
or in items that are filled with sincere affection and love,
there is always a story that goes along with it.
And among countless items, why did you choose this item?
Understanding it well means you have reasons to choose
from today’s rich world of furniture.
It doesn’t have to be any other item,
it has to be this item,
without it it won’t work.
Items with such clear reasons are always perfect items for us.
As for the items that you don’t know why you chose,
throw them away or change them to something else.
Items that don’t have a clear reason don’t give you a feeling of satisfaction.
If you own things that you understand,
you will no longer desire things that you don’t have.
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Rule 34: Throw away items you don’t think you’ll buy again
Another effective way to decide whether this item is really necessary
for you or not is to ask yourself:
“If I lost this item, would I buy an identical one for the same price?
” Is that so?”
Imagine you lost it, or someone took it away,
or used it for too long so it was broken… in that case,
if you still want to buy an identical one for the same price,
you can confirm.
Definitely, it’s an item that you really love and find truly necessary.
Or on the contrary, if you think:
No, I definitely won’t buy it again…
then those are the items that you never use for their intended function,
or are not worth the money that you spent.
So throw them away.
If you think:
Next time I will buy another one.
That means you don’t like the item at some point,
and you might as well throw it away.
If you really love and really need something,
one way or another, you will have it in hand.
Even if you lose it or break it,
you’ll still buy the same one.
And it is such items that can bring you a feeling of satisfaction.
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Rule 35: Do you remember all the gifts you gave?
There is one thing that makes it very difficult to let it go.
Those are the gifts you receive.
Because people often feel that if they throw away those gifts,
it is no different than throwing away the giver’s feelings
and they will become a cold person.
However, think a little more.
Even if you remember all the gifts you were given,
can you remember who gave those gifts?
When giving gifts,
I never ask questions like:
Will you use it later?
The gifts I gave,
I even felt like it would bother the other person.
Even though they didn’t need it,
they didn’t dare throw it away,
so everyone probably hated it.
So I also want everyone to quickly throw away those gifts.
If you receive an unnecessary gift from someone,
if you’re still looking at it and sighing,
it’s best to throw it away.
That is also how you respect the giver.
Suppose someone is angry with you for throwing away a gift he gave you before,
I think you should keep a distance from that person,
who never values your “present”.
I also don’t want to be someone who only knows
how to express my feelings through material things.
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Rule 36: Try to put yourself in the shoes of the deceased and feel
If there’s something harder to throw away than gifts,
it’s probably the remains of the deceased.
We always want to cherish their last memories,
so even though we never use them,
we still keep their mementos in the house.
Those are beautiful feelings,
our respect for them.
However, try to put yourself in the deceased person’s shoes.
Would you be happy
if the items you left behind caused trouble to your loved ones?
Do you want your loved ones to live happily
and happily without always worrying about these items?
It’s great if you know how to appreciate your loved ones’ relics.
However, if you have to spend too much time and effort on them
and then you yourself feel tired,
then that is not what your loved one wants.
In my opinion,
instead of spending time
and effort to preserve the items left behind by your loved ones,
you should spend more time recalling the words they said and the things they did.
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Rule 37: Throw things away, the remaining things are important
Nakazaki Tatsuya, manga artist,
author of Jimi Hendrix is a minimalist to the core.
Here I would like to quote a quote from his work The Proletarian Man: Photographs,
films or diaries, even my past have nothing to do with me.
Even if I throw away photos filled with memories,
those memories are still imprinted in my mind.
Throwing away things,
or even throwing away your past,
is not a big deal.
If I accidentally forget any memory,
For me, those are things that should be forgotten.
Because important memories in life will naturally be imprinted in my mind.
After reading these lines,
I feel like I can throw away more.
After going through the filter of memory,
important things will naturally stay in your mind.
And even without the items that remind me of those memories,
I can still remember them.
Furthermore, thanks to getting rid of things,
I am no longer bothered by them,
and can even remember important things more clearly.
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Rule 38: Cut off the root arising in the tool incremental chain
When you go from one phone to two,
the number of things increases beyond just one phone.
Also included is the space that this phone takes up,
which is an anti-fingerprint coating.
There are also headphones and hangers.
So at the same time you have to buy up to five more items.
If you buy a computer,
you also have to have a stand, printer, scanner,
USB, external hard drive, word processing software,
cleaning supplies…
Just like that,
when you buy another item That will include a number of accessories.
So on the contrary,
if you can throw away the item that started that chain,
you can throw away a lot of other things.
When I abandoned the
TV, I can add additional items connected to it such as:
home cinema equipment,
PS3 and external hard drive for filming.
I even threw away a bunch of device cables,
adapters or chargers…
When I quit playing video games,
I didn’t need to keep the monster battle diagrams,
wooden cards or trophies anymore.
In short, if your goal is to target large items,
the results you will get after cleaning are not small at all.
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Rule 39: If you don’t plan to build a museum, throw away the collections
Surely you have heard of the name Shigeru Kashima,
a famous writer who loves classic literary works
and always collects valuable French literary works.
Or you may also know designer Shin Sobue,
who has always collected Natsume Soseki’s Warm Boy works from time to time.
They are all greater collectors than we are,
and what they own is truly precious.
With precious collections that can be opened into such a museum,
they will certainly be preserved very carefully.
And in fact,
economist Takuro Morinaga opened a small museum about mini cars.
Of course, not every collection is the same.
There are collections that
you just need to patiently search for a little bit to get right away.
In my opinion,
such collections are only a burden for their owners.
Truly valuable collections are already carefully preserved somewhere.
So, if you just collect them for fun,
it’s best to throw them away.
Your home is not a museum.
If you want to admire precious items,
go to a museum and see them.
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Rule 40: Borrow items that anyone has
In the movie In My House There’s Nothing by author Yuurumai,
I was most impressed with the part where
she threw away her graduation photo album.
At that time,
I thought about the most important items in my memories that she also threw away,
what a person who is crazy about throwing things away.
However, looking back now,
I see that most people will keep their graduation album.
And something that was kept by hundreds of people like
that probably wasn’t anything precious.
Along with the feeling of “wanting to keep something for yourself”
is often the feeling of not wanting to bother or cause difficulties for others.
But if you really want to look at your graduation photos so much that you can’t sleep,
you can call a friend and borrow them to review.
Maybe doing so will be a bit annoying,
but if just
because of a favor like that,
he turns cold towards you,
then that person doesn’t deserve to be your friend.
If we don’t forget our friendship and respect for each other,
these troubles will never become real troubles.
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Rule 41: Rent what is rentable
Nowadays, through the Internet,
you can easily rent everything.
For items you only use once a year,
I recommend renting them.
During sports festivals, people often rent binoculars or people
who rarely travel can rent suitcases to free up space in the house.
You can also rent the scanner to those who want to scan books,
and once a year we can organize a book scanning contest.
That’s not a bad idea either.
If you have clothes in your house that
you will probably only wear once in your life on children’s holidays
or a high-powered vacuum cleaner that is only used for year-end cleaning,
you should rent them out.
There are even people who rent climbing gear and diving gear.
Then there is also the service of renting suits
that have been carefully matched by consultants.
If you are a renter,
you can first rent things to use.
If you really like or need it,
it’s not too late to buy it.
In the world there are also things like renting a bed or renting a lover,
but that’s it other stories.
If you are hesitant about the time,
money and effort to preserve your home appliances,
renting is a great idea.
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Rule 42: Post the items you threw away and your house on social media
In dieting, there is a quite effective method:
telling people that you are on a diet.
This method can also be applied to throwing things away.
If you diet alone,
you will probably come up with enough reasons not to follow the schedule.
However, as I said,
humans are very attentive to other people’s eyes,
so we can take advantage of this trait.
For example, you write your goal on social networks:
to cut your clothes in half.
Then you post pictures of the clothes you throw out along
with your wardrobe every time you throw something away.
This is completely different when you do it alone.
People’s reactions and comments can become your motivation.
I myself also post photos of my home on my blog.
After posting the photos,
I saw that the progress of cutting furniture was much faster.
Recently there has been a trend among people who live minimalist lives.
That is posting items you don’t need on social networks with a message:
Does anyone need this?
If you find someone who needs it,
you won’t have to throw the item away
and will reduce the feeling of regret when throwing it away.
You even feel happier when those items are used for their intended function.
It’s really killing two birds with one stone, isn’t it?
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Rule 43: What if you start from zero? If you get stolen?
If you move house?
There is an interesting documentary called 360 Days for a Simple Life.
One day, the main character put all his tools in storage and set a rule:
he could only take out one thing a day.
On the first day,
he had absolutely nothing on him,
so he just used newspaper to cover his important parts
and rushed down the street towards the warehouse.
And that first day he just took out a coat and slept on the hard floor.
This is an experiment to find important items for yourself.
Although you can’t do it like the main character in the movie,
you can do a similar experiment in your imagination.
Consider that you don’t have anything
and that you can only take one thing a day.
So where should these items rank in your clothing selection order?
If your item was stolen, would you want to buy it back at the same price?
You’re moving house next week, will you take it with you?
Perhaps most of the items you take do not have any special reason
but just take them unconsciously.
Asking questions about your own items is extremely important.
Asking about the things in your home is also asking yourself about their place in your life.
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Rule 44: “Pretend” to throw it away
When there are items that make you hesitate whether
to throw them away or not,
you should “pretend” to throw them away.
One way that minimalists often use is to collect all the things
they intend to throw away and stuff them into bins,
bags or hide them in cabinets.
The important thing in this method is
to put things in a place other than their designated place.
You can even put them in a trash bag,
ready to throw them away.
Even if you put them in a trash bag,
it doesn’t mean you have to actually throw them away.
Depending on the item,
hide it for a week or a month,
so you can try living without that item.
By doing this,
you will realize which items are not necessary for you.
During this time,
if something is necessary and requires you to take out an item,
you do not need to throw it away.
Because you really need to use it.
“Pretending” to throw away means you try to distance yourself
from your items and reconsider your relationship with them.
It’s just like in love,
but the other side is the object.
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Rule 45: Throw away items with stimulating colors
The furniture in my house is all white, beige, gray or wood.
They are all suitable colors for the eyes and easy
to combine with other colors.
If you use colors that are too bright or use other basic colors,
your eyes will have to work harder
and you won’t be able to relax at home.
The easiest example to imagine is probably a bleach bottle with a pink cap
and blue bottle body.
Toiletries often have flashy colors to make them look dangerous.
Creatures with strong toxicity often have flashy colors
to warn other creatures not to come too close and to be careful.
Objects that create a sense of relaxation have contrasting colors.
If you keep those items in the house,
they will help you relax your eyes,
whether you look at them or not,
you will feel comfortable.
Small items, if skillfully coordinated,
will be very cute,
but objects with strong stimulating colors will make
you more easily bored because of the stimulation itself.
In short, items with light colors and colors
that are good for the eyes are less boring and last longer.
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Rule 46: Buy one, get one less
This is also the golden rule in minimalist lifestyle.
Some people also call it.
One in, one out.
When you want to buy something,
throw it away first.
To implement this rule well,
there is a method called “regulating the number of hangers”.
First of all, determine the number of hangers for your clothes.
Then throw away all the extra clothes compared to the hangers,
whether they are new or old.
This way the number of clothes in your house will not increase anymore.
In the process of getting rid of things,
sometimes you need to buy new items.
If you have too many items in your house,
you can also buy one item and throw away two or three items.
Once your belongings are reduced to a certain level,
you can apply the buy one,
throw one away rule.
This way the number of items in your house will not increase.
This rule is like buying clothes,
if you buy a set of clothes,
you have to throw away a set of clothes.
Throw away an eraser,
buy a microwave.
In terms of volume,
it’s not very equivalent.
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Rule 47: “Concorde Efficiency”/ Know more about sunk costs
There is a phrase called “Concorde efficiency”.
It is said that the cost of developing the Concorde supersonic aircraft is up to 400 billion yen.
However, due to not bringing profits and persistent losses,
this aircraft business has turned into debt of up to trillions of yen.
If you think about the effort,
time and money that went into developing this aircraft line,
businessmen will definitely realize that this is a loss-making business.
However, they continued to operate Concorde aircraft.
This is similar to releasing investment capital,
but the capital will never be returned,
and is called a sunk cost.
Such things are appearing a lot in everyday life.
I bought a mountain bike for five thousand yen.
Since buying it, I’ve become interested in bicycles.
Buying another set of tools, repairing the frame…
I ended up spending 10 times the original car purchase.
This is probably similar to depositing money to play video games on the phone.
In order not to waste time and effort,
sometimes you also need to be brave and throw something away.
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Rule 48: Acknowledge failure immediately.
Think of it as tuition money
There are clothes that
when I try them on in the store I find them to be very suitable,
but when I bring them home I don’t like them at all.
So I rarely touch it.
Gradually I realized I bought this shirt at a loss,
and didn’t want to throw it away.
Before you plan to keep it to use up all the money you initially spent,
you should think again about why you bought it at such a loss.
Usually it will have the following causes:
Even though I tried it on,
I still bought that ugly shirt for some reason.
Seeing someone wearing that shirt looks beautiful,
I think I also wear it beautifully,
but actually it doesn’t suit me.
I thought it was cheap so I bought it.
I didn’t notice it when I was in the store,
but when other people looked at it, I saw it.
I still make the above mistakes to this day.
When you feel frustrated with an item,
I recommend throwing it away.
If you still try to keep it at home,
your mind will always revolve around it and think:
“Oh, what a mistake”…
And if this situation happens for a long time,
it will not be good for your health. Instead,
you should consider it a tuition for failure and remember carefully
why you failed.
So next time you will choose better.
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Rule 49: Treat purchased items as rentals
I have a friend who buys a lot of clothes,
but he never takes away the labels
and keeps them in separate bags.
Those labels will be collected and taken to auction markets.
Sometimes he even sells them for more money than
when he bought the clothes.
As he puts it, it feels like “renting clothes from a store.”
And instead of returning the store,
he rented it to someone else.
This idea is very interesting.
If you consider the things you buy as just rentals
and later rent them out to others,
you will take extremely good care of them.
You also won’t use them wastefully.
At that time, you will no longer think of “your own things”
but just “renting them for a while”.
This is not only a matter of owning property,
but also teaches you an attitude of humility.
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Rule 50: Don’t buy because it’s cheap, don’t accept because it’s free
Buying an item of five thousand yen for only two thousand yen,
people will feel like they have benefited by three thousand yen.
It gives you the feeling that just
by buying this item you will receive three thousand yen in cash.
However, remember we need to pay for storage space for things too.
Let’s do some simple math.
My house is 20 square meters wide,
the rent is 67 thousand yen.
So on average,
I have to pay three thousand yen per month per square meter.
Now what if the two thousand yen item from earlier takes up space in the 1m2 wardrobe?
In the end, you still don’t get any discount.
That is the consequence when you buy cheap things.
Don’t accept free items either,
because they also cause you a lot of loss.
Just the fact that you own that item takes away a part of your memory,
followed by the time and effort to preserve it.
Nothing is truly free.
Owning something doesn’t just mean you lose money to buy it,
but you also lose many other costs.
If you realize this,
you will be limited from buying things just for immediate gain.
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Rule 51: The moment you’re wondering
if you can throw it away is the moment you can throw it away
We often hesitate because we have to choose things of equal value.
No matter which one you choose,
it has its advantages and disadvantages.
You realize that and compare those points with each other,
the result is that you are only comparing and not doing anything.
In fact, the moment you feel hesitant when choosing,
for example,
whether to take 100 yen or 101 yen,
in reality only the process of receiving money is different.
If the situation you choose is the same,
it’s best to quickly decide on one for yourself.
When I feel tired or bothered,
I will choose to throw it away.
And I also advise you:
“If you find them annoying, throw them away.”
There is a saying that I really like:
“Absolutely yes, otherwise no.”
Applying to the case of throwing things away like us,
we should change it a bit:
“Absolutely is No,
otherwise is Yes.”
Besides the things you absolutely don’t want to throw away,
the rest you can throw away.
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Rule 52: Truly necessary items will come back to you
When throwing things away,
you often feel scared
because you don’t know if you’ll ever see it again after throwing it away.
That’s why you keep going over and over again
without throwing anything away.
Today, thanks to the Internet,
we can buy any item.
Suppose when you throw away an item,
then you keep thinking about it,
to the point of not being able to sleep,
to the point of having a headache…
then remember that you can have it back at any time.
If you want to read a book again,
you can read it.
Surely someone is keeping it.
And if you miss it so much that you can’t sleep,
then go see that person and borrow it again.
However, there aren’t many items that make you like that.
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Rule 53: Be grateful. Throw away things but don’t throw away feelings
Throw away the items you were given.
Throw away the items left behind by the deceased.
Throw away items that you don’t use to their full potential.
But remember to never throw away your gratitude.
Surely everyone has received gifts that they did not need.
Even though you don’t mean anything,
somewhere inside you feel uncomfortable.
If you keep holding on to that item and are upset with it,
it’s really unkind to the person who gave you the gift.
And above all,
you are also wasting your emotions on something that is not worth it.
Finally, before giving something away,
remember to be grateful.
Be grateful to the person who made that item,
be grateful to the person who received that item for you.
Instead of living forever in discomfort,
appreciation and gratitude will help you feel much more comfortable.
And that gratitude will forever remain in your memory.
In the end, what’s left with you is what matters most.
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Rule 54: Waste is really just your own feeling
Throwing away things that are still usable is a waste.
Or buying new items that have never been used
but have to be thrown away is also extremely wasteful.
However, you may not know,
that waste is simply your perception.
I also don’t want to throw things away while they’re still usable,
so I often give them to someone who needs them.
However, every time something leaves your side,
you can still feel a sense of waste.
Even though I don’t like it,
it’s a gift I received,
and if I throw it away,
it would be a shame for the giver.
Or things that are still in good use but thrown away are a waste.
That’s why today, tomorrow or forever later
you will still feel that way and cannot throw things away.
That is the truth behind “waste”.
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Rule 55: Throwing away is remembering forever
I scanned all the letters I received and threw them away.
Among those letters,
there are letters that even though I have thrown them away,
I will never forget them.
That is the letter “instructions for changing trains” that my mother wrote to me.
That was when I left Kagawa and went to Tokyo to study at university and started living alone.
Worried about me living in a strange place for the first time,
my mother wrote me a letter about
how to transfer the train from Haneda airport to the city.
Board the freight train, change to the Yamanote line,
then change to Seibushinshyuku…
That’s the letter my mother wrote to me,
a blind person who doesn’t even have a cell phone.
Mom was always worried every time I went to Tokyo alone.
However, when I kept this letter,
I didn’t remember that I had such a thing.
And when I threw it away, I began to appreciate it.
Because I will never see that letter again.
Throwing away does not always mean forgetting.
There are things that you will never forget because you throw them away.
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Added 15 rules for people who want to reduce items even more
Prescription for a disease that “wants to be thrown away”
Rule 1: Contentment is not the “quantity” of things
Poet Allen Ginsberg said:
If you think of yourself as having two rugs,
you will have two rugs.
Feeling satisfied with your belongings
or not is not related to the quantity of those belongings.
Owning an item means knowing that you have it in your hands.
That means we need to save them in memory.
These aren’t messy memories of a bunch of stuff
but thoughts of love for your items.
If you do that, you will feel two or three times more satisfied.
Instead of buying two or three coffee cups
and then not knowing where to put them in the house,
you only need one and can know where it is,
what it looks like…
If you think there are only so many New clothes are comfortable,
you just want more of them.
Even if you continuously buy more,
one by one,
you will never be satisfied.
And in the end, you can’t even remember
when you bought it or where you put it.
Reducing things doesn’t mean you reduce your sense of comfort.
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Rule 2: Uniform your daily clothes
Steve Jobs always wore the same clothes.
A black ISSEY MIYAKE turtleneck, Levi 501 pants,
and New Balance sneakers.
Even at media events,
he always dresses like that.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg always wears gray T-shirts.
Einstein always wore the same style of jacket.
Those great,
famous people always save time choosing clothes
or following trends every day to focus on important things.
For them, the amount of clothes enough for daily living is not much.
They only choose the clothes that suit them best
and always turn their clothes into uniforms.
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Rule 3: Fewer items express personality
The personality I want to talk about here is different from
the expressions of today’s youth such as:
dyeing their hair red and blue,
getting a tongue piercing,
being a boy but wearing a dress
or attaching too many things to the phone case.
The minimalists I have met,
whether they uniform their clothes or not,
whether their lives are very ordinary,
to me they are still very individual.
Perhaps you will have the feeling that
when you throw away things,
you also throw away your unique mark.
But the reality is the opposite.
For example with images of Europe in the past.
You see everyone wearing the same vest,
wearing the same hat and smoking the same cigarette.
Everyone mostly dresses or has the same furniture.
However, there are no works of literature
or art that they create that do not have their own mark.
If you think for a moment, you will see that what makes us human,
our mark is not objects but “experiences”.
And perhaps,
people who live minimalist lives
and value experiences over material things are always people with personality.
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Rule 4: After thinking five times, throw it away
We humans think up to 60 thousand times a day.
When I paid attention to my thoughts,
I realized I was thinking about useless things.
Every time I surf the net, while looking up my keywords,
I often wander to other sites.
The same goes for the thoughts in my head.
For example, I have a coffee cup.
When I drink it,
I will find myself touching my lips to it,
then I want to brush my teeth,
and if I want to brush my teeth,
I have to buy a toothbrush.
When I brush my teeth,
think about all the bad things.
Human instinct is to always develop from constant thoughts and reflections.
So in 60 thousand thoughts,
there is almost no thought
that we consciously have to think about.
Occasionally, you will see items that,
even if you don’t intend to throw them away, make you think:
Can you throw them away?
If you’ve had that thought five times,
it’s time to throw it away.
Because after that 100 times or 1000 times,
you’ll still be wondering the same thing.
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Rule 5: Throw away to check if the item is really necessary or not
For those who are still hesitant about whether to throw away or not,
I recommend that you do a throwing test once
to see how important the item is.
Before, I hesitated and couldn’t throw the TV away,
so I tried throwing it away once.
If I throw away the TV,
I may have some difficulties at work,
I won’t be able to grasp world news,
I won’t be able to find topics to talk about with friends,
so I may be shunned by everyone.
But luckily when I threw away the TV,
that didn’t happen to me.
Up to now, there is only one item that I bought back after I left it.
It is Omron’s MH23 foot massager.
I like it so much that I even remember its model number.
I once bought one for my mother and gave my brother the one I had.
But after that,
I could never forget the comfortable feeling on the soles of my feet when using this massager.
At that time, I had already given it to my brother
so I had to buy a new one.
Then I thought I could get rid of it so I sold it again.
After throwing it away and buying it again three times,
I’ll probably keep it in the house now.
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Rule 6: A little inconvenience is also a pleasure
Recently, I threw out all the towels in the house
and replaced them with washcloths.
And I realized the wipes are amazing.
It can be used in many places and dries faster than towels.
After using it,
just hang it up and it will be dry the next time you take it out.
In the laundry room,
after washing my hands I use a towel,
after washing my clothes I use a towel,
and after showering I also wipe my body with a towel.
Previously, towels and towels had to make up two-thirds of the daily laundry mine.
Now, without those thick towels, my laundry is much easier.
As I said in chapter two,
people always get used to different stimuli.
I use towels all the time, so for me it’s a natural part of everyday life.
I also forgot the appreciation and luck of using a towel every day.
Now, when I use a towel,
I realize that the feeling when touching my skin is not as good as a towel.
However, it must be said that people can adapt to inconvenience just
as they can adapt to convenience.
And when I had the opportunity to use a towel again,
I felt moved by that comfort.
I myself have shortened the distance from happiness and I feel happy about that.
You can try using washcloths instead of towels,
it will be a great experience.
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Rule 7: Throw out everything that makes your heart sing
If you are determined to be a minimalist,
one day you will have to throw away all the items that make you nostalgic.
I really like Croatia,
and I also really like the cross,
the souvenir I bought there.
The ceramic cross,
bright red in color,
was hand-carved by the craftsman with each decorative line.
Harmonious colors, smooth surface,
not too heavy…
I like every aspect of that cross.
I heard it was made by a local artist.
And you can’t find it in any souvenir shop.
So, it has become an irreplaceable item for me.
When I threw away that cross,
I felt extremely nostalgic.
But after throwing it away,
I felt so comfortable.
From now on, every time I travel,
I don’t have to waste time wondering what to buy as a gift.
Even if I see something I like,
I will follow the cartoon character Snufkin, just look at it.
Thus, all my time was focused on my trip itself.
Give up the things that make you nostalgic,
and in return you get a lot.
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Rule 8: Even if you are healthy, prepare everything for yourself in advance
Only we ourselves understand the value of the items we own,
such as travel souvenirs, a love novel we’ve read many times,
a letter we received from an important person,
or other letters commemorative photos…
The efforts and hardships to obtain the item or the memories
and stories hidden in that item are much higher than its market value.
Therefore, when we,
the owners of those memories,
lose, it means the value of the item is lost.
No matter how expensive or wonderful that item is,
if others look at it, they will only see something trivial.
After reducing a lot of things,
I also felt less relieved:
if something happened to me,
it would less trouble others.
Maybe I was thinking too far ahead,
but I really felt like I was “free”.
And I can spend more effort on other activities.
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Rule 9: Reducing stuff doesn’t mean reducing who you are
Even if you reduce all your belongings,
it doesn’t mean you become more mysterious,
or that overnight you can turn gray or your back will bend.
The fact that you don’t have belongings doesn’t lead to being shunned,
scolded, or stoned by children.
At best, you’ll just be considered too simple a person.
One thing is obvious:
whether you have furniture or not,
your body cannot change.
When your life is still surrounded by things,
you may feel that throwing things away is like throwing away yourself.
But in reality, furniture is not part of your body,
they are just external objects.
Things and you have nothing to do with each other,
so even if you reduce things, you won’t shrink.
Not only that, you will also find yourself much more active and comfortable than before.
Even if you reduce things, you will “increase” a lot as a person.
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Rule 10: Change your thinking about common uses of furniture
You probably remember Hiji I introduced at the beginning of the book.
He improved his sofa by adding a folding cushion
and placing it against the wall.
So you can lie on it,
get an extra pillow,
or an extra blanket.
With this idea, this is not a “sofa bed” but a “sofa bed”.
Perhaps it is more correct to call it a “cushion sofa”.
Although Hiji doesn’t have a TV in his house,
he can watch different programs with just a Head-mounted display.
He even uses bath soap or dishwashing oil instead of laundry detergent.
In Marie Kondo’s work,
she talks about “drying” cutting boards and dishrags.
Recently, I also started to follow her example,
drying my dishcloths and throwing away the wall hooks
that were used to hang dishcloths.
Marie Kondo did not follow conventional wisdom
such as not leaving cutting boards or dishrags on the porch.
Normally, this item is only used for this purpose,
every time we need to do something we need a suitable item specifically for it.
If you only take advantage of each benefit point only thing
that means there’s quite a lot of furniture in your house.
Instead, if you do not depend on the normal use of each item,
the furniture in your home will be greatly reduced.
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Rule 11: Don’t think anymore, just throw it away
In the movie Dragon and Tiger, Bruce Lee said:
Don’t think, feel.
If this sentence is changed to a minimalist,
it can turn into:
Don’t think about it anymore, just throw it away.
One day,
I felt uncomfortable with the savings books at home
and put them all in a paper cutter.
I even cut up those notebooks before asking Yahoo!
Q&A on whether it’s okay to throw away your savings book.
I just find my feelings more important than thinking.
After that,
I went to the bank to close the account and didn’t have any trouble.
The teller just looked at me in surprise:
“Your savings book… has been thrown away?”
There are even people who lose everything in fires,
natural disasters…
I just throw away a few things,
it’s no big deal.
If you think twice before throwing them away,
you will give yourself countless reasons or inconveniences if you don’t have them.
Better yet, listen to your feelings.
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Rule 12: Don’t worry too much about “must have a few things”.
Don’t criticize people who have a lot of things
One mistake that minimalists easily make is being complacent
because they have few things,
or it is always important to have few things.
Like I said in chapter one,
a minimalist is someone who knows what is necessary for themselves.
Someone who knows how to cut things down for important things.
And what’s important to each person is different.
So what people throw away is different.
Therefore, competing to see how to have the least amount of stuff is meaningless.
And you should also know that
even if you are surrounded by a bunch of things,
if they are all important things to you and make you happy in life,
then you don’t need to throw them away.
For that reason,
we have no reason to criticize people who have a lot of things.
We cannot force them to throw away things unreasonably
when they only have important things.
Minimalist living is not a torture we have to endure.
However, there are people who take on that torture themselves,
even writing in their profile that they are “practicing” to become minimalists.
To me, it doesn’t make any sense to have so few things.
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Rule 13: Wanting to throw things away
and wanting to keep things are the same diseases
Getting rid of stuff can make you feel excited.
This helps you feel comfortable.
When you are addicted to this feeling,
throwing things away becomes your “passion” job. At that time,
you had a disease called wanting to throw things away.
You may even feel uncomfortable with people who own a lot of stuff.
However, do you know that feeling:
“Oh, it’s still here!”
of a person who likes to throw things away is similar to the feeling:
“Oh, I don’t have it yet!”
of someone who wants to buy things.
Both “cutting stuff down”
and “buying more stuff” are stimulating
and make people feel comfortable.
Just like the advice for people addicted to shopping,
you should not depend on the stimulation that this disease of throwing things brings.
For someone who likes to shop,
before throwing away an item they should ask themselves:
Is it really important to me?
Similarly, for someone who likes to throw things away,
before throwing away,
you should ask yourself:
Should I throw this away?
Or should I just throw it away so I have less stuff in the house?
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Rule 14: Minimalist lifestyle is the means, the introduction
Many people have pointed out the dangers of following this lifestyle.
But for myself, I still support it.
Because modern society increasingly values material things
and too many people own more things than necessary.
Minimalist people are people who know how to cut down on things
that are important to them.
The purpose of this lifestyle is not to reduce stuff
but to prioritize the important things by reducing stuff.
A minimalist lifestyle is just a means and tool for you to achieve that goal.
And the important things
you find after trimming your furniture will vary from person to person.
The minimalist lifestyle is like the opening of a book,
but the content of the story depends on you to continue writing.
If you mistake this lifestyle for the goal you need to achieve,
then after completing it,
you will only feel empty.
What’s important is what you do next after throwing away things.
Write that story yourself.
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Rule 15: Think for yourself about the minimalist lifestyle
If you can’t fit all your belongings into one suitcase,
you’re not a minimalist.
If you don’t sleep in a sleeping bag,
you’re not a minimalist…
Actually, there have never been such rules about minimalist living.
There is also no common model for people who live minimalist lives.
I know a person who,
after cutting down all his furniture,
the only thing left in his house was a huge piano.
Because for him, music is a necessary thing in life.
The minimalist lifestyle is just
that means to help you realize what’s really important to you.
Mr. Numahata, who works on the website with me,
just bought a car.
But I think it’s still a minimalist way of living.
He simplifies his relationships and spends time alone in the car.
There is nothing in the car
and you can imagine the car like a minimalist mobile home.
This minimalist lifestyle is actually very broad depending on how you think.
