I've noticed minimalism people always have big houses to make their stuff look even smaller. I realized this because I'm sitting on my twin bed where I can reach my arm out and touch my dresser wall ( one faces me and the other my roommate) and at the foot of my bed I have 16 inches of space. I know this because I have a 16 inch wide shelf that cost me 10$ and some splinters. Realistically I have way less than these people but my space gets pretty crowded. It's also got some personality, I've got my books, my yarn, dead bulbs I'm waiting to store, red wine thats surprisingly good at fighting sore throats and more stuff. People I know who fall into the minimalist category don't really have much personality and neither do their spaces. It's all very cookie cutter. People I know who've grown out of needing to project their personality all over the walls to sort out who they are still have more personality in their spaces. I always loved one of my friends houses growing up, the place was dripping with personal touches and little things they collected. I think minamilism can have personality but the version going on currently looks very sanitized.
The issue is we're talking about aesthetic choice and blending it with circumstance. If you had the stuff you have now and an 1800sqft loft, you'd be a damn minimalist. Shit, I became a minimalist the moment my ex moved out and took everything. Space, for its part, has been a luxury since we invented roofs - and don't knock it 'til you try it. I had 1400sqft of open plan on top of a convenience store, a good 1000sqft of which was living room. It was awesome. My buddy used to share a 6,000sqft loft space among four friends and the fact that the quickest way to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night was to hop on a razor was not a downside. Look at it this way - you have a tiny amount of stuff in a tiny space. You're cluttered. A tiny amount of stuff in a normal space is "minimalist" but a lot of stuff in a normal space is "normal." A lot of stuff in a big space becomes "minimalist" again but a lot of stuff in a small space and you're "cluttered" again. To get to "normal" in a big space you have to take it all the way to "hoarder" in a normal space. There's some signaling going on. Yours is not the opinion that matters. Here - I think we can all agree that this is something cheap: Odds are, you might be able to twig to this being more expensive without knowing names: But to the untrained eye, this is effectively the same: The first one is $80 off Amazon and will do most of what anybody wants it to do. The second one is a bargain at $700; Outlaw makes great stuff but chances are good you don't need what they make. The third one? It's $7500. The previous generation was $15k. Nobody who is in the market for a $70 stereo is looking at a $700 stereo. They might be impressed by it but a $7k stereo is obscene. It offends them. Meanwhile, anybody who is looking for a $700 stereo won't be buying a $70 stereo and wishes they could afford a $7k stereo. That's just the thing - the guys with the $7k stereo don't really consider the guys with the $70 stereo to be "human" the way their friends at the club are. I mean, yes, obviously they're not apes but they aren't "our people." They love impressing the people with the $700 stereos but really, they all wish they had $20k stereos. And the more you pay, the fewer buttons you get. And if you can pick out the crap $70 stereo without knowing anything about stereos, imagine all the signals you're not picking up on when you look at wealth.I think minamilism can have personality but the version going on currently looks very sanitized.
You cannot choose to “declutter” if you are already living in a sparse home you cannot afford to furnish. "The Poor can't afford MSRP, so they must not have anything! How sad!" is a sentiment well meaning but naive. It's clean cut. Easy to imagine, easy to relate to. It lacks creativity. "Don't step in that corner, the floor joists are rotted through. The City came by threatening to condem the house, but I painted some test swatches on the porch to show 'em how we're fixing it up... you see the new show HBO's got? I taped it. Hang on, I'll give you a copy." I've been in that house. Sometimes the walls aren't bare. Sometimes they're missing the plaster and covered in roach shit.
The Everlane link: This caption is below an Instagram shot of a backsplash literally home-made out of black-painted plywood. Projection ain't just a river in egypt.I also hate it as an aesthetic: your white-on-white-on-white life and meticulously crafted wardrobe of only the most wispy products Everlane and Aritzia have to offer are, frankly, a saltine cracker’s idea of what a Cool Girl would wear.
Can Everlane Really Become the Next J.Crew?
Being minimalist in this way – “Stop wasting money on all that IKEA nonsense! With this $4,000 dining table hand-whittled by a failed novelist in Scandinavia, you will never need another piece of furniture!”
They all imply that they are in some way a moral upgrade from the life of “mindless consumerism”, and as a bonus, allow you to take on some of the desirable aesthetics and morality of poverty without ever having to be poor. You’re not homeless, you’re on the road, doing some chic van-living and following the good weather!
You’re not unable to afford basic home goods, you’re choosing to pare everything down to a single cardboard box!