To me it seems that there are three different conflicting things you're trying to attain. Minimalism, simplicity, and zen.
I travel a lot for work and one of the things I love about it is the simplicity and zen. I walk into a hotel room and everything is just there, all ready for me. No cleaning or chores. In the morning I leave to go do my work and in the afternoon I come back and the bed is made, the towels hung up, the trash emptied, etc. All I have to do is change into casual clothes, turn on the computer if I need to do work, whatever. When it's time for dinner I go to a nearby restaurant and food appears at my table 10-15 minutes later. Then I can go back to the hotel, read or whatever, and then go to bed. Plenty simple. Plenty zen. But nothing minimalist about it when one thinks about all the people working behind the scenes to make this all happen, not to mention the credit card charges on my corporate card.
Minimalism and simplicity can be achieved. But as Miss Cellane spelled out so well, there's nothing particularly zen about it. It's a lot of work. Perhaps for someone who doesn't work outside the home or have a small child it could feel zen to make minimizing and keeping things simple a core part of one's activities, but most people, like me, have lots of other commitments like work and everything that is done to keep house feels like a chore. I mean, really, after being away for work for 10-11 hours the last thing I want to do is come home and bake bread or watch clothes drying on a rack. What on earth am I working my butt off for if I can't at least splurge on the natural gas it takes to just toss the clothes in the dryer for an hour and be done with the laundry. Our gas and electric combined only runs $40/month. It would take a massive amount of willpower on my part to put up with the work required to not use the dryer. If I did those types of activities my life would be reduced to just work and house chores. Fine for some people, but for me, no thanks. Once I retire I will re-evaluate, but not now.
The closest I ever came to achieving all three, minimalism, zen and simplicity was when I lived alone in a tiny (250 sq foot) studio apartment in midtown manhattan from my early 20s to mid 30s. My job was a 15 minute walk from home and not terribly stressful. Nor did it require or expect much overtime. I could wake at 8am, be at work by 9, and be home by 5:15. That left me nearly 7 hours of evening free time. And since my apartment was so small my cleaning and laundry routine was basically 3 hours one evening every other week. I'd take the laundry to the laundromat, come back and clean the bathroom. Go back to the laundromat and move everything to a couple of dryers. Come home and clean the kitchen, mop the bathroom and kitchen floors. Go pick up the dry laundry, come home and fold it and put it away. Then I'd vacuum the living room rug and do a light dusting. And that was it. The next 13 days the only chore I had was cleaning the kitty litter box. With 7 hours of free time every evening I could focus on cooking stuff from scratch and it felt like fun, not a tiring chore. After all I still had time to go for a bike ride every evening (including on laundry/cleaning night), could spend hours reading books every day, go out to meet friends for a drink or movie, etc.