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Becoming a Minimalist (极简主义者)

I have too many things. My bedroom is often in a mess. I have shelves with dirty books I never read and CDs I don’t listen to. My drawers are filled with clothes I never wear. I was getting upset (心烦意乱的) that I never had any space in my bedroom. Then I read about minimalist. Minimalist suggests that you only keep the most necessary and important things and get rid of (处理掉) everything else. After reading about minimalism, I felt encouraged to solve my problem.

I started clearing out a lot of the things which I didn’t use. I collected bags of clothes to give to charity (慈善机构). I sold some of the CDs and books online. Although I knew that I would never need these things again, I still found it very difficult to get rid of them. My brain tried to stop me from letting them go. I said to myself “I might need that in the future!” or “Won’t I be sad if I lose that?” But the thing was, I knew I couldn’t keep everything.

After getting lots of things out of my room, I actually became quite excited to see the tidy room with some fresh space. And a tidy room also makes me have a clear mind! The main idea behind minimalism is to cut down what you own and really value the things you have. It’s not easy to be a minimalist. We are often told that it is better to have more things. Advertisements try to make us believe that we will only be happy by spending more money buying more things. Of course, I’m not a perfect minimalist — I’ve only just started. I still own a lot of things which I don’t really need, but I think this was a good start. In the future, I will be more mindful of what I buy. And I will continue to make an effort to get rid of what I don’t need.