I just watched a video by Matt D’Avella. His channel is not new to me, some time ago I already dealt with the topic of minimalism more deeply. But the video made me think about it again.

Minimalism is really not a characteristic in the sense of “I only have one t-shirt and one pair of trousers”, “all my stuff fits in one backpack”. It is a way of thinking. It is about thinking better about what is really important to you and what is just ballast and unnecessary. To think more consciously about what you let into your life and what you would rather remove.

And while I have actually thought less and less about minimalism in the last two and a half years, the minimalist mindset has somehow become established. You only have to look at my blog: Only the features that I myself consider useful and important, only the design that I find necessary and everything as resource-saving as possible.

I have also reduced my social media usage over time. No more Facebook, no more Snapchat and no more Twitter. With Instagram just one unused account whose days are numbered until it is deleted. Instead I read blogs with Miniflux and for news I watch Tagesschau once a day.

But despite minimalism I still bought new things: A new monitor, new keyboards and mice, a new phone, last year a new computer and a new notebook. But these are things that either made my life easier or gave me pleasure. And joy not in the sense of consumerism, but in the sense of satisfying curiosity and nerd enthusiasm.

Since I started to think about minimalism it is much easier for me to get rid of things I don’t need anymore. I regularly find corners in my apartment and start mucking them out (even if it takes a little motivation), but it’s not hard for me to throw things away or give them away. If something is garbage and I dispose of it, then it is one less thing I have to worry about when cleaning. If it’s still something useful, then maybe someone else will find pleasure in it.

I think I am a minimalist.