Less is More
Being raised in a Hispanic culture has inspired me to take part in a minimalistic lifestyle, which has led me to create a habit of emptying out "declutter" my space regularly. This habit has changed my life, I learned how to save money, have fewer distractions, maximize my time, and become more spiritual.
I was born and raised in Long Beach, California as part of the Hispanic culture. My parents are immigrants from Mexico, with little education, and they have always worked low-income jobs. This low-income has never been enough for a family of six. However, we remained resourceful. I grew up living in a two-bedroom apartment, sharing a room with my three brothers; we had two sets of bunk beds. I remember barely having enough closet space for our clothes because we had our bikes crammed inside along with boxes of our collected school work. I know what you are thinking, bikes inside a closet? Yes, according to our father they would look tacky in our living room space. Also, we had nowhere else to put the bikes because if we left the bikes chained outside overnight, there would be nothing but chains the next morning. We had to be resourceful and utilize our closet as storage. We did have extra drawers next to our beds to fit all our clothes, and our shoes would go under our beds. With the bit of space left over, we had a television and game console in our room. Despite the small living space, we deep cleaned our apartment every Saturday morning. I grew up with a strict father; he worked as a janitor, so he made sure our home was kept clean. We knew when it was time to clean when we would hear him play his cumbias and corridos music, a genre of music which is commonly listened to by Hispanics. Anyways, he taught us that no matter how "poor" we were that it did not mean we should have a messy home, he engraved it in us to never think of ourselves as being poor. He would tell us that other people have it worst and to remain humble.
My Hispanic culture likes to collect memories which caused our family not necessarily to become hoarders, but we just held down to a lot of stuff. As a Hispanic, it is in our culture to have a party for almost any occasion like baby showers, birthdays, weddings, quinceañera. In these events, it is common for the host to make centerpieces for each table. I remember thinking there was a competition to see who could collect the most centerpieces because in our living room we had a shelf dedicated to these centerpieces, but we never won first place. We also had a lot of random decorations all over the walls, like ceramic art from Mexico that made the apartment feel even more cluttered. Also, my younger brother and I were the athletes in the family; we play soccer. Throughout the years we have played for different teams and won a variety of trophies, these trophies were showcased in our small living room. I guess we just wanted to keep the memories alive.
As the years went by, we accumulated a lot of memories. By the year 2015, my parents divorced, and my younger brother and I along with our mom decided to move into a new home. As we were getting ready to pack our belongings, I realized that there was so much stuff. I said to myself; I need to simplify my life. Being raised in a Hispanic culture has inspired me to seek a minimalistic lifestyle. Minimalism is about living life as pure as possible. To be simple. Some may think there is a strict guideline, but there is no right or wrong way. It is about "...making decisions based on what you need instead of getting everything you want"(Gardner, 2017). It amazes me to see how little I need. As I stood there in the old bedroom, I realized more than half the clothes I owned had not been worn in years like those pants saved for "when I lose weight." I spent a few days donating almost everything, shoes included. I came across three boxes of school work and pictures; I decided to digitalize my photos by scanning them and placing them on a flash drive. As for the school work, I shredded it and tossed it in a recycling bin. All those trophies my brother and I had earned throughout the years had collected dust, we realized the memories were in our head not in this golden plastic object. We decided to give back to the community and share our passion. We hosted a soccer tournament at a local park within the younger crowd of kids in our community. We gifted our biggest trophies to the winning team and still gave out participation trophies to the rest. My mother, on the other hand, had trouble letting go of her collection of centerpieces, she only kept a few. That day, I learned the meaning of value and that there is more to life than our possessions, like happiness and relationships.
Taking part in living a minimalistic lifestyle has led me to generate a specific ritual of emptying out my space regularly. I am off work every Monday, so this day dedicates to cleaning. I start by playing my favorite music. Usually, it is instrumental soft beats with no lyrics. I guess I kept this idea from my father when he used to play his cumbias on Saturdays. Well, I wash all my bed sheets covers, and clothes. I dust off my only furniture, my desk, and the small bookshelf. I do the vacuum and detail clean the blinds and moldings. I guess you can say I am an obsessively clean individual, but I do this ritual to create an environment that is less distracting. Minimalism has enhanced, for me, an attraction to interior art. Since I perform this ritual on a weekly basis, I maximize my time because I can now get this done within an hour since I do not own a lot of things, like clothes or furniture. My wardrobe is simple. "The key to building a minimalist wardrobe is versatility"(Dang, 2012). I usually just mix and match to keep my outfit interesting. I could care less about the latest fashion trend, which has led me to save money. What I value is intelligence, and how a person carries themselves with integrity, not their clothes. I recently got rid of my television and decided to purchase a laptop; I feel that is essential especially since I now started my journey to completing my bachelor's degree. Now that I have a laptop I also declutter my mail, this helps me be less stressful and avoid procrastination.
Overall, the benefits of my ritual, decluttering, have led me to save money, have fewer distractions, maximize my time, and become more spiritual. All of these benefits of decluttering and asking myself, what is truly important in my life? Have helped me reach a level of maturity, that even my loved ones have noticed and mentioned it. My father would be very proud of me that his tradition of cleaning and our family orientated culture, has created this ritual that has ultimately led me to be humble.
References:
Gardner, Brian. “Why Minimalism Is a Better Way of Life.” No Sidebar, Simplify Magazine, 5 Jan. 2017, nosidebar.com/why-minimalism/.
Dang, Jessica. “My Minimalist Wardrobe.” Minimal Student, 2 Apr. 2012, www.minimalstudent.com/my-minimalist-wardrobe/.
I was born and raised in Long Beach, California as part of the Hispanic culture. My parents are immigrants from Mexico, with little education, and they have always worked low-income jobs. This low-income has never been enough for a family of six. However, we remained resourceful. I grew up living in a two-bedroom apartment, sharing a room with my three brothers; we had two sets of bunk beds. I remember barely having enough closet space for our clothes because we had our bikes crammed inside along with boxes of our collected school work. I know what you are thinking, bikes inside a closet? Yes, according to our father they would look tacky in our living room space. Also, we had nowhere else to put the bikes because if we left the bikes chained outside overnight, there would be nothing but chains the next morning. We had to be resourceful and utilize our closet as storage. We did have extra drawers next to our beds to fit all our clothes, and our shoes would go under our beds. With the bit of space left over, we had a television and game console in our room. Despite the small living space, we deep cleaned our apartment every Saturday morning. I grew up with a strict father; he worked as a janitor, so he made sure our home was kept clean. We knew when it was time to clean when we would hear him play his cumbias and corridos music, a genre of music which is commonly listened to by Hispanics. Anyways, he taught us that no matter how "poor" we were that it did not mean we should have a messy home, he engraved it in us to never think of ourselves as being poor. He would tell us that other people have it worst and to remain humble.
My Hispanic culture likes to collect memories which caused our family not necessarily to become hoarders, but we just held down to a lot of stuff. As a Hispanic, it is in our culture to have a party for almost any occasion like baby showers, birthdays, weddings, quinceañera. In these events, it is common for the host to make centerpieces for each table. I remember thinking there was a competition to see who could collect the most centerpieces because in our living room we had a shelf dedicated to these centerpieces, but we never won first place. We also had a lot of random decorations all over the walls, like ceramic art from Mexico that made the apartment feel even more cluttered. Also, my younger brother and I were the athletes in the family; we play soccer. Throughout the years we have played for different teams and won a variety of trophies, these trophies were showcased in our small living room. I guess we just wanted to keep the memories alive.
As the years went by, we accumulated a lot of memories. By the year 2015, my parents divorced, and my younger brother and I along with our mom decided to move into a new home. As we were getting ready to pack our belongings, I realized that there was so much stuff. I said to myself; I need to simplify my life. Being raised in a Hispanic culture has inspired me to seek a minimalistic lifestyle. Minimalism is about living life as pure as possible. To be simple. Some may think there is a strict guideline, but there is no right or wrong way. It is about "...making decisions based on what you need instead of getting everything you want"(Gardner, 2017). It amazes me to see how little I need. As I stood there in the old bedroom, I realized more than half the clothes I owned had not been worn in years like those pants saved for "when I lose weight." I spent a few days donating almost everything, shoes included. I came across three boxes of school work and pictures; I decided to digitalize my photos by scanning them and placing them on a flash drive. As for the school work, I shredded it and tossed it in a recycling bin. All those trophies my brother and I had earned throughout the years had collected dust, we realized the memories were in our head not in this golden plastic object. We decided to give back to the community and share our passion. We hosted a soccer tournament at a local park within the younger crowd of kids in our community. We gifted our biggest trophies to the winning team and still gave out participation trophies to the rest. My mother, on the other hand, had trouble letting go of her collection of centerpieces, she only kept a few. That day, I learned the meaning of value and that there is more to life than our possessions, like happiness and relationships.
Taking part in living a minimalistic lifestyle has led me to generate a specific ritual of emptying out my space regularly. I am off work every Monday, so this day dedicates to cleaning. I start by playing my favorite music. Usually, it is instrumental soft beats with no lyrics. I guess I kept this idea from my father when he used to play his cumbias on Saturdays. Well, I wash all my bed sheets covers, and clothes. I dust off my only furniture, my desk, and the small bookshelf. I do the vacuum and detail clean the blinds and moldings. I guess you can say I am an obsessively clean individual, but I do this ritual to create an environment that is less distracting. Minimalism has enhanced, for me, an attraction to interior art. Since I perform this ritual on a weekly basis, I maximize my time because I can now get this done within an hour since I do not own a lot of things, like clothes or furniture. My wardrobe is simple. "The key to building a minimalist wardrobe is versatility"(Dang, 2012). I usually just mix and match to keep my outfit interesting. I could care less about the latest fashion trend, which has led me to save money. What I value is intelligence, and how a person carries themselves with integrity, not their clothes. I recently got rid of my television and decided to purchase a laptop; I feel that is essential especially since I now started my journey to completing my bachelor's degree. Now that I have a laptop I also declutter my mail, this helps me be less stressful and avoid procrastination.
Overall, the benefits of my ritual, decluttering, have led me to save money, have fewer distractions, maximize my time, and become more spiritual. All of these benefits of decluttering and asking myself, what is truly important in my life? Have helped me reach a level of maturity, that even my loved ones have noticed and mentioned it. My father would be very proud of me that his tradition of cleaning and our family orientated culture, has created this ritual that has ultimately led me to be humble.
References:
Gardner, Brian. “Why Minimalism Is a Better Way of Life.” No Sidebar, Simplify Magazine, 5 Jan. 2017, nosidebar.com/why-minimalism/.
Dang, Jessica. “My Minimalist Wardrobe.” Minimal Student, 2 Apr. 2012, www.minimalstudent.com/my-minimalist-wardrobe/.