The minimalists are wrong

[ritaxis]

My roommate's pillow burst, and I had an extra one.

And that is why the minimalists are wrong.

Of course, from where I sit, the propagandizing minimalists all look to be people who don't have friends who can't afford to buy a pillow.

Comments

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

A genuine minimalist doesn't propagandize. It's extra effort.

trying again, logged in this time

[redbird]

I suspect there may also be different valuations of time: even if one doesn't have any friends who can't afford to buy a new pillow and live close enough that it makes sense to suggest that they come over and get mine, one extra pillow means if your pillow bursts at bedtime, you have something to sleep on that night, and don't have to rearrange your schedule to go pillow shopping the next day.

At some point, yes, the counterarguments that storage space isn't free and/or that you need to be able to find stuff come into play. But that's not when I have more mugs than I'll use in any given day; it's when I have more than I'll use in any given year and not enough space to keep them all. (We got rid of some mugs in our last move; a serious minimalist would be unlikely to guess that, looking at my cabinets now.)

Re: trying again, logged in this time

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Right, I'm not arguing with the people who say "we need less stuff than we think we need, and we'd benefit from p[aring down and living leaner."

I'm arguing with the people -- in my experience from reading about them online, uniformly wealthy by my standards -- who say that everybody should live in two hundred feet of highpriced penthouse with next to no objects for living or creating. The most recent ones I read about made prominent statements about growing up poor, but the lifestyle they advocated wouild not work for people who are currently poor.

Re: trying again, logged in this time

[redbird]

Agreed. I'm looking around and—aside from the penthouse part of it—thinking that this isn't a practical way to live with either one other person if you don't sleep on basically the same schedule. cattitude and I don't need 1200 square feet, though we're enjoying it, but we do need a home where one of us can be sitting in one room with a book or computer and a cup of tea or coffee while the other is asleep.

Re: trying again, logged in this time

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

also, since your other post was identical, I removed it so you don't have to look at both of them. In case you're wondering what happened!

Re: trying again, logged in this time

[redbird]

I was hoping you'd do that. (The wonders of copy and paste here.)