kinderzimmer wand
okay. today a more "serious" minimalism video ;-) i think i'll talk about how i found this minimalistic lifestyle and what that did for me. i was about age 17, 18 about 2 weeks before my 18th birthday. and out of nowhere one day i was simply fed up to a point of being totally annoyed by all the stuff i had in my room.
so i ordered a container and basically threw everything in it and then it was gone. und then my room was empty. why? well. as a teenager i was kind of a hoarder. my room looked like trash. stuff everywhere, the kindyou wouldn't want in any room... moldy bread...
things from school i didn't look at. i didn't like school very much. that's why i put all my notes on some pile. this pile was not ordered in any way. and i basically never looked at it. and those kinds of "piles" i had like a lot... i mean, you're in school for 12 years... ...and i never really liked it. however
that's what my room looked like. full. full of stuff. and then i also kind of went through my hippie phase and put fabric and scarves everywhere. and behind all of those scarves i put all the stuff i did not want to see. with the consequence that eventuallymy room was very very full. with no space for anything else.
such that you couldn't really walk on the floor without stepping onto something. oh. and i had a lot of plants as well. they were standing everywhere. eeeh, i didn't kill the plants by the way! i gave most of them away. it was the most horrible kid's room you can imagine. okay. what did i do then? well i don't know.
honestly, i don't really know how it happened. i just know that from one day to another i had enough. enough from what it looked like. it was so very cluttered. and it simply weighed me down, i couldn't stand to see all this trash anymore. and that was the reason why i didn't even look at many of the things i threw away.
i didn't sort through them a lot. i just took this whole big pile and simply put it in bags and boxes and brought it outside. in the dumpster. yeah, and i can just say: at that time that was one of my best decisions. i most certainly didn't regret it. and the by far greatest advantage was to have so much free space after.
and to illustrate this a little bit i went downstairs for you guys. here are some pictures from 2002. on the left, that's me with short hair. that was 2 weeks after tidying up. i also cut my hair. i just wanted to get rid of everything. on the right you can see my big shelf. the weird black thing is paper (carton). behind that there were my painting tools.
and then i tidied up a second time. after that the shelf was gone as well. and only this little side table was left. with my musical notes and stand. that's the opposite side of the room. there you can see my bookshelf. this was cleared out a bit more later. such that there were only 2 full rows left. you can see what i mean in the first picture.
yup, and the corner over there behind the bed... the lowest compartment that is hidden behind the bed... basically everything went in there meaning school things i didn't like to look at. and they were not to be heard of again. in the middle of the room i also had a big desk. a huge thing. and on the lower right side there is a radio,
on which i listened to tocotronic. all of that dosn't exist anymore. well, i think, tocotronic are still there. but... whatever. at the wall there's a postcard and a broken mirror and the picture "the kiss" from klimt. but the best thing in this room was the floor. on which there was all of a sudden so much space. i think, space still means quite a lot to me. i find that space is not only free room but "space to think".
after [cleaning up] i just had the feeling: i can "feel" this free space. not in a spiritual or weird way. just like that. to know: there is a whole lot of space now! when i move, i won't stumble into something. and that felt so good. however,
cleaning up... i think i wouldn't be that radical again today. because i believe, sometimes it is also important especially if you're not 18 or 19 years old anymore... i mean i'm 32 now i would also want to say goodbye to my things today when i let go of something,i do it differently today. most of the time i take a picture of the thing with my camera.
also to remind me that i threw it away or gave it away. and that therefore it's gone. i am super forgetful. so i take a picture and then i sell it of give it away. and that's kind of a nice goodbye. helps... and apart from that... i can really only recommend
to get rid of things in an ordered process but nonetheless of all of the stuff at once. [like at one day, and not piece by piece over weeks.] just basically not to let too many emotions come up. i know, some people will say: but all of this meant so much to mee! :-( but then maybe then you're just not ready to get rid of things.
for me , i just reached a point where all of this was too much. and for me that was not a lifestyle decision. it was more a decision of desperation. therefore, minimalism is not a lifestyle for me, still. for me it is a way to keep my freedom. i have a completely different angle on that. i am not interested in the aspect of design. or at least not like that.
of course, i like something clean and simple. for that reason i put this minimalistic candle here for you. mood! okay, but... this whole style aspect... black and white clean, simple colors okay, for those who need that. but for me this was never the point.
the point for me was to have freedom. to have space. space to think and move. and to feel better and less tied to things. all this materialistic stuff. but i still think that minimalism is not in contradiction to materialism. i am really a materialistic person. i mean, life itself is material.
your brain, your thoughts = matter! and to tell yourself i just live in my head and all those things around me... i don't need anything. [i'm an island.] that's just not my thing. that's... yeah, that's kind of ridiculous to mee... especially with people who source out like everything then. i mean like: no, i don't have an oven - i eat at the restaurant every day! okay. that might be super efficient.
but for me that also seems super boring. just not my thing. you may do as you please ;-) if minimalism for you is making yourself completely dependent from the outside world... me. i just can't relate to that. for me, minimalism means to be more independent. and the greatest thing about this for me
is that therefore you gain so much well-being. i can recommend this to anyone. even if you're not planning on becoming a minimalist. tidying up is a cleaning process,for one's mind as well. well i think that's it. if you like to hear more about minimalism, just let me know. i can talk quite a bit about this topic.
and apart from that.. well: see you!
