Well I forgot to imply that the decision comes down to a combination of the three answers. If you cook rice every day the answer to “how much use can I draw from this purchase?” will probably override the other answers.
The point of the questions is to take a step back and re-evaluate a purchase.
That said, how hard is it to cook rice? 
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I‘m doing the 333 challenge. 33 articles of acessoires and clothes (excluding workout clothes and underwear) for three months. The rest is packed up and in the cellar. Who‘s in?
You might think this is not a lot but I just laid it all out and it seems like I still have loads of options.
Details:
I decided to go with 36(already cheating dammit, I‘m to lazy to wash every week) here my list:
I intend on reading these books:
https://www.amazon.com/Soulful-Simplicity-Living-Less-Lead/dp/0143130684
https://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-More-Less-Revised-ebook/dp/B000TDGGVU
Anyone already read them?
You can easily cut those 12 shirts down and… Wash them?
And get under 33 even.
Plus I would assign the hiking shoes under “workout” and not count it, if you excluded the rest of the “active” stuff too.
I thought about this.
There‘s also a few things in there I rarely need, like my button shirts. Occasional for work, job interviews, weddings, funerals…
But these don‘t give me headaches for selection as (I think) I don‘t consider them.
So, the point is, that if “experiment” is successful, you’ll trash the stuff in the cellar in 3 moths? Or adjust the number 33, to your personal magic number?
Isn’t this number also dependent strongly on the climate where one lives? I mean in summer, I’m mainly in T-shirts & in winter there’s multiple layers.
Typical Summer outfit = 4-5 items on at one time
Typical Winter outfit >=7
“Leisure” in summer = 2 + flipflops
“Leisure” in winter >=9 + boots
(All my numbers incl. underwear)
But good that you made it with your list,even though winter. I assume summer will be easier then.
Whatsabout a hoodie and a wooly jersey and a roll-neck pullover? That’s kind of standard in my most common clothes. It seems you really always wearing a shirt?
That depends on the outcome of the experiment. I‘m pretty open on the end solution. The experiment should show how I feel about it, the advantages and disadvantages.
Sweaters are also Hoodies in my list. I don‘t use wooly or roll-necks. I don‘t even have winter boots and never had since my childhood. I don‘t tend to spend to much time outside in winter.
As a first layer yes. If it‘s cold I just use layers, but prefer not to be outside for too long.
Usually outfit for upper body
- shirt/polo
- sweater or softshell
- softshell or winter jacket
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Sorry, my bad, I totally “didn’t see” the Sweaters in your list.
Another thing I could consider after the 3 months
a) go back to as it was before and then see how overwhelmed I‘ll be (I‘d assume so) or being less creative/energetic due to „wasting“ my time on selecting the items
b) Decide on x items to wear the next 3 months (depending of season, change of style, etc)
I have a few shirts that are from experiences I‘ve had (events, locations) so these I don‘t wear a lot but don‘t want to throw away.
Just watched the second version of the originally linked documentary and it’s soo much better. The story telling and the call for action at the end.
I can recommend it:
https://www.netflix.com/title/81074662?s=a&trkid=13747225&t=cp
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It’s been over a month since I started living with less than 40 items of clothes as described earlier in the thread. So far I don’t miss anything. It’s difficult to measure how/if it improved my life as I did some other improvements in other regions.
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The demographic of this forum is probably not made of people succombing to all the new fashion trends and having a massive wordrobe turnover but, in anycase, adopting a minimalist wardrobe can be a massive money and time saver.
Since a few years, I adopted the Steve Jobs approach. My essentials are all tightly fit black clothes of good quality. I rarely have to buy new clothes, I never have to spend long putting an outfit together and I personally like the neat image I project.
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True meaning of minimalism is have less, by having less you can de clutter you life and make it simpler.
Here are some simple ways by which you can make your life simple
- Have less expectation with your life, set achievable goals. If you will over expect from your work and success, you will never gain mental peace.
- Own less stuff
- Speak less and control your emotions, specially when you are angry.
- Spend more time with your family and friends.
- Give up on alcohol.
I know these are not full proof ways of achieving your minimalist target, but you can try these tips at least for once.
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And you’ll never be able to achieve something truly exceptional. With this mindset you’ll never leave your comfort zone. You need to stretch yourself and dream big to achieve something big. I’m all for minimalism, but certainly not when it comes to setting goals.
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I believe we need to find a balance between pursuing challenging goals and be content with what we already are/have.
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I call that battle deployment: I have only so much energy I can allocate to reaching goals so I set up “battle lines” toward both my goals and what life throws at me, with various objectives. Some are “hold the line”, some are “dodge, deflect and redeploy”, some are “tactical push forward”, some are “all-in assault”, some are “tactical fall-back” and some are “give up and emergency fall-back”.
I need to supplement it with time where I can get my mental space out of the battlefield and simply think of my global strategy without short term stress. I call that my “battle bubble”. Battle bubbles must be crafted and defended and don’t happen by happenstance.
I find it allows me to focus on the “right” things while being content with “good enough” for the things that don’t warrant that much energy thrown into them. I’m still struggling to balance the number of battle lines I take on at the same time (I tend to open too many) but overall, I find it helps me.
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Tools are so cheap it is not worth the hassle of renting them when you need to use them a lot. Sometimes even a single use justifies purchase.
Other tools which are used rarely and are expensive are rented.
I watched this commentary about those two minimalist dudes. Pretty fun video
I think the idea of minimalism is not a bad one, it’s just those two are weird.
This forum is now a powerhouse. (MP will surely be happy 
)
This will also mean that from time to time people will find it and register just to post a link. The polite ones do post links in a good way and generate positive discussions. This is probably one of those examples.
Do we need a policy for first time users?
The forum tools already flag to moderation all the messages that have been created by a new user that did not read any message and posted right after his inscription.
In the case when the new user is indeed a spammer, the message is deleted, as well as the user and its IP address banned.
This happens now on a daily basis (and thank god these tools exist). So for the moment I don’t really need a policy for new users because i have the right moderation tools for abusers.
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