Do fridge or car magnets count?

[JayPee]

Hallo!

To anyone with 534 or 537 possessions it certainly doesn't matter. After all, that person is a maximalist. But to someone who would have either 150 or 153 possessions depending on the answer to the question then yes, it would matter a great deal.

I always thought minimalism was about keeping the things/activities/relationships you need and the things/activities/relationships that add value to your life. And let go of the rest.

If you reduce minimalism just to the number of things someone has, you miss out some great aspects of minimalism. But each as he likes.

But what I would really like to know: How much things are you "allowed" to have as a minimalist? Who set this number, and who allowed him to set the frontier?

I am definitely a minimalist, although I am quite sure I have more than 537 possessions (never counted them). 8 fridge magnets, all holding drawings from the kids. I case someone thinks I am not - what does it matter?

Regards
Jay

[jp1]

Hallo!



I always thought minimalism was about keeping the things/activities/relationships you need and the things/activities/relationships that add value to your life. And let go of the rest.

If you reduce minimalism just to the number of things someone has, you miss out some great aspects of minimalism. But each as he likes.

But what I would really like to know: How much things are you "allowed" to have as a minimalist? Who set this number, and who allowed him to set the frontier?

I am definitely a minimalist, although I am quite sure I have more than 537 possessions (never counted them). 8 fridge magnets, all holding drawings from the kids. I case someone thinks I am not - what does it matter?

Regards
Jay

I suppose you're right. Just as I mostly leave it up to any particular category of people to decide how to classify themselves I'll leave it to minimalists to define what makes a minimalist. I'm definitely not one so it's probably not my place to say who is or isn't. Ultralight would probably call me a maximalist since I do still have some things from hobbies long abandoned that I don't especially want to give up. As long as he doesn't call me a hoarder I'm good. (and I don't think I am. We have room for everything we have, and everything we have is either currently used or loved or was heavily used at some point in the past. And we don't acquire much of anything beyond replacement of things that get depleted such as worn out clothes that get donated.)