“Any half-awake materialist well knows – that which you hold holds you.” –Tom Robbins, 1936.
A little over three years ago, before the pandemic hits, I was working at this company that is interesting and fun, but stressful and chaotic at the same time. I was the Financial Controller of the company and it was almost a one-man show on all the financial functions.
I also started working from home during the office move, which later became an ongoing thing as the pandemic started.
One day, out of stress and frustration, and boredom I decided to start a beauty page on Instagram.
Why a beauty page, you ask?
Frankly, the reasoning behind that was a blur. But I remember seeing other beauty pages on IG and thought to myself: I can do that too.
It turned out, being a beauty influencer is a roller coaster ride. There's a fun part in learning to take nice photos, connecting with like-minded people, and getting free stuff from brands; But there's a not-so-fun part in exposing all my insecurities, and having imposter syndromes.
And one of the biggest problems that I found myself in, as you can see in the before photo above, is that I have accumulated WAY TO MANY beauty products.
Mind you, it's not like I didn't see that problem earlier, but I had to tell myself that it's just what happens when you become a beauty influencer. You have to test out new products constantly or you have no use.
I tried to keep them organized as much as I can. But came more products and more. Granted I am not great at letting things go either. So I had to buy more shelves, organizers, and baskets just to hold them.
Fast forward to Summer 2022, I finally reached a point where I know that this cannot go on. IT HAS TO STOP!
One Friday afternoon, I decided to start decluttering, starting from my shelf. I spent the next two days going over all the products in my room. I had reorganized them a couple of times before, but this time I am determined to deep dive and clear out the space.
I ended up clearing out three full boxes of products, over 60% of what I had been hoarding. It was exhausting and therapeutic at the same time.
And this is the weekend when I decided that I will no longer be a beauty influencer and I am going to pursue Minimalism.
As I was decluttering, I realized these five things:
1. Material stuff really doesn't bring happiness
On the contrary, it's a burden.
Sure, we get excited when we get packages, but the excitement usually lasts a day or two, then we are left with emptiness.
Also, nothing in the world is free. Even if we don't have to pay money for it, we pay for it with our physical space and mental space. In the last two years, I had to buy more and more organizers, carts, and shelves to hold all the products, not to mention my time organizing them, and now decluttering them. These are the money and time that I could have spent on more meaningful things, such as books, or mini-trips with my family.
2. We need a lot fewer things than we thought we need
When I was going through all the products in my room, I realized that the number of products that I actually use on a regular basis is really limited.
Take skincare products, for example, I have established a pretty steady routine of five products both in the morning and in the evening. Let's say I use completely different products in either routine, I only need 10 products in total. I definitely don't need all 50 serums that are sitting on my shelf collecting dust.
We tend to talk ourselves into holding on to things even though in the back of our minds we know we don't need them.
"Oh, this cream is pretty expensive, I'd better save it till I finish it."
"I should probably have a couple of different shades of this lipstick so that I can alternate them. Don't wanna wear the same shade every day."
"I should keep this dress for when I lose the belly."
After all, these are just self-talk to avoid putting in the action to get rid of them. That expensive cream will be sitting on the shelf untouched until it expires; You still only use that one shade of lipstick almost every day because that's the one that looks the best on you; You end up never wearing that dress even after you do lose the belly.
3. It's easier to let things go when you have the right attitude
I've never considered myself a hoarder because, in my mind, hoarding would be collecting junk until there's no room to walk in the house. But I confess that I do romanticize collecting products just to show off to my friends that I am a "beauty influencer".
Other influencers also have shelves full of products, I told myself. So I need to have that too to meet the standard. Even though the word "wasteful" flashes in the back of my mind constantly, I chose to just ignore it.
But on the day that I decided to stop being a beauty influencer and start fresh, my attitude just flipped 180 degrees. When I looked at my shelf that day all I see is a bunch of things taking up my space, a wall blocking my mind from finding happiness.
I don't feel that I am missing anything when I threw the untouched products in the box. All I see is the light at the end of the tunnel.
4. Decluttering is not about throwing things away
Throwing things away is easy. It's just a release of responsibilities to the things that you throw away.
But decluttering is not about how many things you throw away or how many you keep. It's about developing mindfulness about the things that we own.
When I declutter, I pick up each item that I have and actually think about why I bought it, whether I like it, and going to use it again. It's very time-consuming but the result is incredible because I know that all the things I remove from my space have been properly evaluated and deserve to go or stay. I have no regret for the decisions I made and I will not look back once they are gone.
5. Minimalism is a practice and a journey
It's easy to say that I want to become a minimalist, but I realized that decluttering is only a tiny part of it. Just because I remove over half of my stuff today doesn't make me a minimalist.
Minimalism is a lifestyle, a practice, and a journey. It takes commitment and determination. I am happy to take the first step today, and I don't know how my journey will go. But in my heart I know it's the right path to take and I am excited to walk down that path.
If you got here so far
I appreciate you joining my journey to become a minimalist, to live intentionally. Check out my other posts. Leave a comment.
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