Does this sweater give me joy? No. Right to the trash. How about that pillowcase over there? Does it give me joy? No. Right to the trash. How about this arm? Is this arm giving me joy? No, I probably don't use it. Well, I guess it's time to go then. (indistinct chatter) Minimalism is a trend that I've jumped on, and it has resculpted my life in a way that I never thought possible. And the great thing about it, it's about more than just the stuff. When there's too much stuff around us, our minds can't think straight. When your mind can't think
straight, you can't create. When you can't create, when you can't contribute to the world, the world slows down a little bit. What if we only filled our lives with things that gave us real value and removed everything else? Steve Jobs was so passionate about the place he lived in, the environment, the things
that he put in his surroundings that he lived for eight
years without a couch. One particularly passionate,
minimalist, Andrew Hyde lived for an entire
year with only 15 items. Popularized by such people as
Marie Kondo and Fumio Sasaki, minimalism has become
a more popular thing, but I really think it can be
in fantastic way to break away from a cluttered life. And Japanese minimalism
focused on keeping a clean and simple life. But it's inspired by the unique culture and history of Japan. So in this video, we'll go
over seven key principles of Japanese minimalism. Let's get into it. (soft upbeat music) So tip number one is create space. Where can you create space? Where can you throw away
and get rid of things? And Marie Kondo says, "When people revert to clutter
no matter how much they tidy, it is not their room or their belongings, but their way of thinking
that is at fault." And she has an amazing and simplistic way of deciding whether or
not to keep anything. Step number one, pick up the thing. Ask yourself, does it spark joy? If it doesn't, discard it. And that is it. And she recommends getting rid of things in the following order. Clothing, books, miscellaneous items, and then sentimental items. (soft upbeat music) Tip number two is embrace space. Embrace this newfound clearness you have. Ideas and creations can't
thrive when cluttered, right? I have some plants, and
I know in the springtime or when they're growing a lot, I need to move them from a smaller pot to a bigger pot, right? Because they can't thrive. Their roots are too
tangled in the smaller pot and they stay in that smaller
pot for their whole lives. Have you ever had like a brilliant idea when you're in the shower with no music on or when you forget your
phone and you go for a walk, or maybe you're in the car
with no music or anything on, you're just driving alone, and a brilliant idea pops into your head? But this is because
when things have space, when things have openness, it's much more easier
for ideas and creations and things to grow. Space allows things to grow
and you wanna grow, right? And Seneca says, "It's not
the man who has too little, but the man who craves more who is poor." And we can embrace more physical space by removing unused items of clothing or furniture or random
junk across where we live. However, we can also embrace
more space within our mind. More space in our thoughts. In some ways, you can use this. If you can stop listening to
music or radio or podcasts in the car or the shower or when you're eating food
or when you're walking. Just kind of be in this space. Stop watching TV while eating dinner. Spend time in nature
with no specific purpose and no distractions. If you're working on something, work on a completely blank document. Maybe this is a Word
document or in your computer or a piece of paper in front of you with nothing open around it. Just the paper and the pen or
the paper and the keyboard. (soft upbeat music) Tip number three is to be purposeful with your space fillers. Okay, now that we've created some space and now that we're alike in this space, we wanna be careful with it, right? We don't want to fill
it up with more things. But maybe there are certain
things that still bring us joy that we do need to store away. So everything should have a place. And she says, "The reason every item must
have a designated place is because the existence
of an item without a home multiplies the chances that your space will
become cluttered again. And she recommends something
called vertical storage as the best way to store things. And again, this isn't
stacking cloth one another and this is hanging items up. It's actually, imagine
if you take a sweater, fold it like you normally would, and then stick it vertical in the air and then line them next to each other. And this actually is a
great way to store things because you can see each color of your sweater and pull it out. And it doesn't affect the
whole stack of things. I remember when I used to stack
my sweaters kinda like this, I'd pull one out, then the
top ones would fall over and the bottom ones would track with it and everything would become unfolded. And in my closet, before
I did a whole reworking, it was just a message junk. Of course, there was things
that require hangers, such as suits or dresses or long coats. And those things you can put on hangers, but maybe you organize them
from like heaviest to lightest. And books are the next point of pain. And Marie Kondo recommends
putting everything together getting every single thing
together in front of you, and categorizing it. And finally, good storage
should show everything in front of you in one space. So in one point. So for example, if you have a cabinet and you have tons of little cans, well, you should have
only the cans you need and only the cans you
use directly accessible when you first open that cabinet. Not a bunch of random things behind it. And what Marie Kondo does is
actually when she goes to cook, usually when you cook, maybe
you'll use some sort of oil and salt and pepper. She'll actually put that in a container and take it out before ever
use and then put it back done when she has done with ever use, 'cause she values space so
much, she values that openness. And then for these sentimental items, really take stock of what you have and focus on only keeping the select few that really spark the most
joy, the most happiness. And she puts the stuff
that gives her the most joy on one shelf on top of her bookcase. (soft upbeat music) Tip number four is to eliminate choices. Mark Zuckerberg and who's the other guy? Oh yeah, Steve Jobs wear
the same set of clothing or wore the same set of every clothing. In this case, of Steve
Jobs, every single day. They do this because they don't
wanna have the added choice of deciding on what to wear. Every day, they're confronted
with more impactful decisions than, "What am I gonna wear to work?" Why waste the brain energy on deciding what they're gonna wear? And importantly, this decision elimination can be applied to pretty
much everything in life. You could eat the same
breakfast every day. For example, you could
decide to only drink water and drink nothing else. You could decide to go to bed and wake up at the same time every single
day, even on the weekends. And you could also have a
morning and night routine. That doesn't change. When you eliminate decisions, you free your mind up
to focus on the things that are more important. When you eliminate decisions,
you create more time. Confucius said that,
"Life is really simple. We insist on making it complicated." And jumping back to the
stuff aspect, right? The great thing, when you
start to eliminate stuff, you also start to
eliminate choices, right? If you have only one t-shirt
that you wear every single day, you can only pick that
one t-shirt to wear. Or if you only have certain
food items in your cabinet, in your closet, in your fridge, you really can only choose
those certain food items. Fumio Sasaki only uses one
kind of soap to wash his hair, his body, his fruits and vegetables, his clothes, everything. And it seems in a lot
of cases, more choices paradoxically, make us more unhappy. Eliminate decision
fatigue, eliminate choices, free up mental space, free up time to focus on
things that have a real impact. Importantly, now that
you own fewer things, you might think it's time
to buy one perfect shirt or one perfect pair of jeans and spend a crazy amount
of money on that thing. Now, of course, in the
general theme of minimalism quality is more important than quantity. But at this point, you'd be
adding things to your life, which defeats the whole purpose of everything you may
have just done right? You don't wanna add more
things into your life. Just because you've eliminated a ton, be careful with the urge to
kind of buy that one more thing. And this comes to the important principle of Japanese minimalism of Wabi-sabi or kinda loving imperfection. And it translates, I think,
to appreciating imperfection and the transience in everything. Your table doesn't need to
be an exact perfect square. Your carpet doesn't need to be stain free and pristine white all the
way from one end to the other. Which bowl do you think is more beautiful? The teeth white perfect
bowl from the Amazon brand that you get 19 of, or in a row in a box, or the clay pot that was specially crafted by a local artist. Which one would you like to have more? Finally, in regards to transients, realize that nothing lasts forever. Things change. Things break. People die. But also, great things are created. Amazing advances are
made and people are born. (soft upbeat music) Tip number six is to think beyond stuff. And this final Japanese principle isn't exclusively Japanese, but
it's the principle of a zen. Zen is a diverse field of
thinking, a diverse practice, but it generally means simplifying things and not applying our thoughts to kind of everything that happens. Seeing things for what they are as opposed to what way we think they are. As in, do we think that's a
good thing or a bad thing? What about just thinking
it's just a thing? For example, when you meditate, right, thoughts come into your head. Maybe you're thinking, "I have to go to that doctor's appointment later in the day." But instead of thinking, "Okay, that's a good
thing, that's a bad thing. Here's what I'm gonna do to get ready for this
doctor's appointment." Maybe you like that thought
kinda go in one side and out the other. Appreciating the thought for what it is, but not locking it in your brain, not labeling it, just seeing it how it is. But more generally, why
practice minimalism at all? Why go through all the
effort of figuring out which items we wanna own and which items we want to get rid of? Donating tons of things, getting
rid of a bunch of things. I think the idea behind doing all of this is once you simplify the
stuff in your life, right? Maybe you can start to simplify your life and the thoughts and
actions you have in life. 'Cause the whole idea behind this is right because we want to take a more purposeful and direct attack on the
things that give us joy, the things that give us value. Maybe you can focus on the more difficult and more important task of simplifying and focusing your
thoughts and your actions. If your mind isn't clouded
by unnecessary things then this is the best season of your life. Of course, there are
many, many other facets to Japanese minimalism, but those are just the
points that stuck out to me that I found the most interesting. And here they are one more time. Create space by decluttering
your physical possessions. Does this item give me joy? Embrace space by having
as much physical space around you wherever you live. Organize all the things
in your life purposely. What is this drawer for? What is this cabinet for? Eliminate choices. Maybe you wear the same outfit every day maybe you eat the same
breakfast every day. Maybe you only drink water. Next, everything is transient. Nothing is perfect, and that's okay. And finally, can we apply
the idea of simple living to not only our stuff, but
our thoughts and our actions. But that is it. Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you on the next one.
