Book: The Joy of less by Francine Jay | Why I turned Minimalist

More than a decade ago, one Saturday morning, my brother casually started to discuss with me about a documentary he saw. It was about the lifestyle of a person in Japan, who had very limited material possession - wardrobe with couple of formal pants and shirts in shades of grey, few t-shirts and shorts, couple of foot wear, a table, chair, bed and very few essential cookware to meet the needs in his daily life. Upon my brother's insistence, I too watched the video and his apartment (though very tiny) looked pristine and simple. 

But growing up in a society which believes more stuff = more joy (or power or status), and already living in a house full of items (2 sets of sofas, 3 beds, tonnes of clothes (in different sizes), dozens of footwear (mine alone) etc.), many of which we seldom use on a daily basis and most the items which we don't even remember exist, I simply laughed away saying "the minimalist lifestyle is a hoax" and doesn't work in the real time. That was just enough to trigger another sibling argument😆and as expected the main topic was totally forgotten the very next day.

A few years later, I moved to the US along with my husband. We rented an apartment and purchased the bare essentials (so start with), like anyother new immigrant. As days progressed, I didn't even realize how stuff creeped into our home. And boom.... we had a visa situation. We had to move out of the US at a very short notice. Apart from other formalities, we had the burden of getting rid of our belongings. Obviously, we couldn't carry the entire home with us - so we discarded almost everything - books, dresses, utensils, furniture and groceries. We donated as much as possible and the rest went straight into garbage. All our hard earned money and effort in buying, setting up and maintaining them went into drain. That's when I remembered the discussion on "Minimalist way of living" with my brother. 

That one incident changed my way of living to a greater extent. For now, I will reserve the discussion on how and what I do to lead a minimalist life, for later. Last month, out of nowhere, I suddenly had an impulse to read a book about minimalism and ended up picking "The Joy of Less", a minimalist living guide written by Francine Jay. 

Francine Jay is known as "Miss Minimalist". She leads a minimalist way of life and has written another book titled "Lightly" and lot of articles on minimalism on her website. If you want to know her experiences or advice or how to lead a minimalist way of life these books and website (www.missminimalist.com) are sure to help you.

If you want to call it a self help book - you may surely call it. But unlike other self help books, the author doesn't quote any examples from her life or others. She explains how to declutter, organize and simplify your life in a very simple and funny way. 

In this world overtaken by commercialization and media, we hoard our lives with stuff that is useful, beautiful and emotional. In this process, we not only clutter the places we live in but also our minds and lives. Francine in this book, explains in lay man terms how to achieve minimalism - first in our houses, the place where we wake up to every morning. She takes us through each and every room - living room, bedroom, kitchen, washroom, office room, even garage, attic and basements which often overflow with things that we even don't know they exist. 

Her philosophy is "we use 20 percent of our stuff 80 percent of the time. that means we could get by with just a fifth of our current possessions, and hardly notice a difference." She advices us to put limits to what we purchase, possess and treasure. "In a culture where we're conditioned to want more, buy more, and do more, they're a wonderful breath of relief. In fact, once you've discovered the joy of limits, you'll be inspired to apply them to other areas." And finally, she extends this concept of minimalism to our lifestyle and its impact on the environment and the future generations to come. 

If you are someone who are just inquisitive about minimalist way of living or dead serious in paring down the clutter around you and within, then you must definitely read this book. It is indeed a guide to minimalism.

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