Clear A Place To Meet Yourself - Society

Five plastic boxes and two square meters of floor. Anything that does not fit on this patch, you will never see again. Children sadly look at their favorite toys, confused parents froze between a heap of clothes and a TV. The family hugs, someone starts to cry. In a minute, everyone is crying, even the presenters - and you can look at it endlessly.

Shows about decluttering and cleaning up the homes of hapless junk accumulators have incredible ratings from American viewers. European channels are launching TV shows about sorting garbage and washing toilets with a toothbrush. Japanese bookstores are filled with bestsellers about magic cleaning and intelligent organization of life, and millions of viewers watch videos about the correct folding of the five remaining T-shirts after this cleaning.

The turn has come

The minimalist movement is gaining momentum all over the world, and there is nothing strange about it. The change of generations of accumulators and minimalists in the process of development of the industrial society was every time quite noticeable, albeit forced. After the lean war years, another flourishing of production and a period of organized life began. Russian NEP and the American Great Depression. A single suit for five years of war and a well-fed fifties with new refrigerators, banking crises of the nineties and a rush of shopaholics in the 2000s - every turn from consumption to minimalism (and vice versa) was due to an economic crisis or heyday and was encouraged by the state.

But now the experiment "minimalism to the masses" is becoming quite interesting and conscious. The Internet and television, social media and YouTube are calling for deliberately giving up in order to save the planet and clean up their own lives; get rid of chaos and meaningless work; realize your own value and exclusivity - regardless of what you are wearing and where you live. It is worth taking the first step in this direction - and you will find yourself in the good company of a person who needed one barrel to be happy.

Dump of illusions

A free person, said minimalists at all times, should not spend his life on endless consumption and maintenance of unnecessary things. Only the most necessary, only that which you really cannot do without (although Diogenes thought it was too much). Unused things steal not only your time, place, energy, but also your dreams. When you buy a basketball, you buy the illusion that every morning you will go out into the yard and score three-pointers. Have they scored?

Russian constructivist architects in the twenties planned the most simplified way of life so that the new Soviet proletarian would not waste time airing mattresses. In the communal houses of Nikolaev and Ginzburg there were personal "sleeping cabins for sleeping", but everything else was in common: dining rooms, showers, libraries. The main value was proclaimed free time, which can be spent on great achievements. Modern minimalism is more humane. You can have any number of things as long as each of them brings joy. You are allowed to spend your time on anything if it makes you happy. You can be the mistress of a large house or a technology hermit with one laptop. The main thing is not how much, but why.

Minimalist manifesto

• Time is more important than things.
• Excess destroys, simplicity heals.
• External order creates internal.
• Do not store anything that you can rent.
• Use what you have 100%.
• Take care of the planet.
• Make a list of free things to do outside the home.
• Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
• Choose the most important.

spring-cleaning

Modern minimalists have largely grown up on eco-principles: less consumption = less production = less waste = a healthier planet. Household minimalism is gaining momentum most quickly, and especially the “clean up and throw away” movement.

Quiet Japanese woman Marie Kondo has been called the idol of control freaks and people with OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). At home, she started out as one of the many experts in organizing space, but it was her book “Magic Cleaning. The Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life”suddenly became popular in 30 countries, and now it has been translated into Russian. Marie Kondo's video tutorials on folding things right have millions of views. For the Japanese themselves, this is not strange - on the islands, where at any moment you can become a victim of an earthquake or tsunami, even children know how to put everything they need in an emergency backpack.

The American fly-lady system, on the other hand, was originally focused on exhausted housewives. Fly Lady is especially suitable for starting a long journey in homes with children and animals. Small steps system, work only 15 minutes a day. First, you get used to a clean sink and a good mood in the morning, and after a few months you find yourself in the middle of a well-established economy.

Protecting uniqueness

Despite the immense popularity of the minimalist movement, many modern thinkers still find flaws in it. For example, the loss of uniqueness with extreme asceticism. “Underneath that just do not“underlay”a psychological foundation! So it came to cleaning things up, - comments Andrey Gusev, candidate of psychological sciences. - It is interesting that the “minimalists” use the same motivation as the sellers of exclusive things: “Be unique!”

And if it is hard and senseless to compete in the uniqueness of purchases (there will always be someone who will buy something “cooler” than yours), then showing your uniqueness through refusal and “ordering” is just a godsend! But there is one catch in this noble impulse - after all, if you don't have to save something, then you have the opportunity to buy it at any time.

So minimalism is a sign that society has reached such a high level of material well-being, security and livability that one can afford to play with “anti-accumulation”. Think about it, is this so in our country?

By the way, American researchers argue that the disorder in the house indicates that its owner is at least a brave and creative person. So take a look around before you start tidying up your house on someone's orders. Perhaps you are going to destroy your own uniqueness."

Total detox

Cleaning is just one way to simplify your life. Of course, this is the most popular option - an inspiring result is immediately visible and you want to move on. But before you start moving, re-read the minimalist manifesto, written by one of the most advanced modern ascetics, Leo Babauta - especially the points “Simplify. Simplify. Simplify”and“Choose the Most Important”.

Today, some minimalists also practice digital detox - giving up social networks, reading news and surfing the web, removing messengers from laptop and phone, strictly set time for checking mail and work calls. They believe that information noise is depressing, therefore, you need to start not with cleaning, but with turning off the TV and phone.

Having calmed down a bit in silence, move on to the "three things a day" rule. So you can get rid of endless lists and reminders and learn to work little, quickly and well. The next stage is the rejection of unnecessary relationships and unnecessary communication, and then there is time to really take care of your life and your plans.

In addition to dividing minimalists into household and digital, there are also humanists and ascetics, strategists and tacticians.

Humanists talk about the benefits of slowly and gradually getting rid of unnecessary things in order to have time to listen to yourself and avoid breakdowns. They allow you to start by packing all the excess into boxes that can be put off for six months. It is easy and pleasant to throw away faceless boxes of things that you have not even remembered, humanists gently convince.

Minimalist ascetics advocate immediate and radical deliverance from everything that is not used on a daily basis; introduce the “rule of one hundred things” that you can get by with (yes, a toothbrush and a sofa count as well) and conduct “zero waste” and “365 days in one dress” experiments.

Minimalist tacticians insist on immediate action, arguing that spontaneous introspection will still arise in the cleaning process and there will be answers to the questions that tormented you. Well, or not there, but there will be cleanliness and order around. Strategists recommend that you first draw up an action plan and work with the causes of excess consumption, because the euphoria from decisive action will pass, but the problems will remain.

The more decluttering and simplifying options you want to try right now, the closer you are to minimalism. So you can turn off your phone, buy trash bags and write a list of important things that you do not mind spending your life on.

And remember, easier is not always easier. Perhaps soon you will decide to complicate your life again, but now not with things and people, but with new tasks and new challenges. In the meantime, learn to create emptiness in order to meet face to face with your true Self in it.

EXPERT OPINION

The main thing is order in the house?

Not so long ago I happened to be in a house, where I was immediately fascinated by the amazing atmosphere of harmony between Home and family. This House was alive. All members of this family have filled the space of the house with their energy, emotions, feelings, memories and objects. Grandma's coffee grinder, photographs on the walls, the bicycle of the youngest son … "The boy" is already forty years old, but looking at this bicycle, he recalls what miracles of acrobatics he performed on it. Was this house in order? I didn't pay attention. But what was, in my opinion, more important than order - is that people were able to transfer their inner harmony to the outer plane.

Ask yourself: what is home to you? A fortress, or a meeting place, or something else? How do you want to see it? There will be few or many objects in it, whether it will be in order or not, it does not matter. It is important that the house gives a sense of security and … Here everyone can put their own version. Until the beginning of the 20th century, there were two words for "peace" in Russian. Mir is not a war. And mip - everything that surrounds a person. In other words, it depends only on us what our mission will be.

Olga Dyachuk,

consultant psychologist, gestalt therapist, member of the Professional Psychotherapeutic League, psychologist at the "Paracelsus" center