Minimalists Ryan Nicodemus, left, and Joshua Fields Milburn. Picture: Adam Dressler
JOSHUA Fields Millburn can fit most of his belongings into a single duffel bag. He lives in a modest one-bedroom apartment, and estimates he has donated or sold more than 90 per cent of the possessions he used to own.
It’s in stark contrast to his life just five years ago, when he was working 80-hour weeks to earn a six-figure salary and spend even more. But the 32-year-old is now a poster child for a generation that’s sick of having a shopping problem. Millburn is a “minimalist”.
“I started to get rid of a lot of stuff and felt this weight removed and started to feel lighter and happier and freer,” he explains. “If I was honest with myself, I gave so much meaning to those possessions, so much meaning to these things that weren’t actually bringing any purpose or joy to my life.”
Call it a First World problem, peak consumerism, or affluenza. The buzzwords all point to the same problem — we have so many things that we’re “stuffocating”.
Millburn, a writer and blogger from Midwestern America, and his friend Ryan Nicodemus have tapped into the discontent with their popular blog, The Minimalists, which they started after turning their backs on the over-consumption that defined their 20s.
They’re bringing millions with them on their quest for a more meaningful life beyond the excess. The Minimalists has two million readers from around the world and has been featured in the likes of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Speaking to STM from his simple office in the picturesque mountain town of Missoula, Montana, Millburn says their message about a pared-down existence can confuse some.
“People often ask what minimalism is,” he says, “and I usually answer that question with a question. I say, ‘How might your life be better if you owned less stuff?’.”
For all the imagery the term conjures up of stark white walls and rooms devoid of furniture, he clarifies that minimalism isn’t about living like a monk.
“As a minimalist, everything I own serves a purpose or brings me joy. It’s not about deprivation,” Millburn says. “I don’t think minimalism is just about getting rid of all your stuff. Anyone could rent a gigantic dumpster and throw everything out and be miserable.
“Minimalism is about getting the excess out of the way so we can focus on what’s truly important, and that’s different for everyone.”
By the age of 27, Millburn was the director of operations for 150 retail stores. He pulled in a six-figure income and had a wardrobe full of expensive suits. But in 2009 his mother passed away and his marriage ended, prompting him to question whether he was truly happy.
In his recently released memoir, Everything That Remains, Millburn details how his life was changed after stumbling across the idea of “minimalism” on the internet. He was inspired to start clearing the clutter from his life, and downsized from his three-bedroom house to a small apartment.
“For a long time, I made really good money in the corporate world,” Millburn says. “But I had financial problems because even though I made good money, I spent even better money and I had massive amounts of debt. I was able to get that under control with minimalism.”
The new-found philosophy had a ripple effect on his life, with a more simple routine helping him to drop 36kg and find more time to follow his passion for writing.
“I don’t have that same overwhelming feeling of being trapped by stuff, taking care of all the things that were just excess,” he says. “It used to take me eight hours to clean my big house with more bedrooms than people, but it takes me 45 minutes now to clean my apartment top to bottom.
“My relationships have improved drastically. My favourite line from the book is ‘You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you’.
“What I meant by that was I realised I needed to surround myself with supportive people and once I did I was able to make all kinds of changes in my life and the people around me were supporting me.”
Millburn and Nicodemus focused full-time on their blog in 2010, daring to ask the question “What if having less stuff is a better way to live?” to a society steeped in consumerism.
The response was huge. The pair have been invited to speak at numerous conferences, including TEDx, and at the Harvard Business School. They receive constant feedback from fans eager to share their own stories. Millburn quotes the response of a Canadian man.
“We had to get rid of our bed because of you.
“My marriage was falling apart and we argued about money all the time and the only reason we were together was because our two teenage kids were still living at home.
“But then my wife found your website and started to get rid of some of the excess stuff we had. I started to do the same and saw how focused I had been on the accumulation of things. Getting the stuff out of the way brought us back together. We found that we really still loved each other, and then our kids started complaining that our bed was too loud because we were having so much sex, so we had to get rid of it. So I just really wanted to thank you for improving our sex life.”
Minimalists Ryan Nicodemus, front, and Joshua Fields Milburn.
“Our crowds are very diverse. We’ve had CEOs of major corporations show up at the same talk as (activist) folk from Occupy Wall Street,” Millburn says. “And they’re all asking the same underlying question, ‘How do I live a more meaningful life?’.”
Minimalism is just one facet of the current discourse around western society’s definition of success. The founder of The Huffington Post news website, Arianna Huffington, published a book earlier this year focusing on what she dubbed “the third metric” of success. In Thrive, Huffington argues that success goes beyond money and power, and should also be measured by our inner wellbeing, our compassion and generosity, and our ability to draw on intuition.
The wellness industry is booming, with a push towards nutrient-rich whole foods, meditation and self-love as a backlash to calorie restriction and size-0 idolisation. Even the fashion industry is having a turn, with “normcore” bringing no-brand mum jeans and daggy shoes back in vogue.
Millburn is the first to admit the idea’s not new.
“I’m not out here trying to say we’ve invented some new way of living,” he says.
“People think we’re Buddhist or Christian, or people will say Henry David Thoreau was the first minimalist or Mohammed was the first minimalist. But what I think is new is that this is a new reaction. We’re not trying to convert anyone to minimalism. We basically found a recipe that worked really well for Ryan and myself and we’re trying to share that in the hopes that people can tease out the ingredients and create their own recipe.”
For those wanting to dip their toe into minimalism, Millburn suggests trying the “30-Day Minimalism Game”, where players donate or get rid of one item from their house on the first day, two on the second day, and so on.
“The important thing is to get momentum,” he says. “And by the end of the month, you would have gotten rid of more than 500 items.”
Millburn’s business partner Nicodemus was more extreme in his first foray into de-cluttering his life. He had a “packing party”.
“Ryan packed up all his stuff as if he was moving and then unpacked only the items he needed for the next 21 days to figure out what was adding value to his life,” Millburn says. “It was amazing — at the end of those three weeks, 80 per cent of his stuff was still in boxes.”
The Minimalists will release a documentary next year, parts of which were shot on tour.
“We interviewed minimalist families, musicians, designers, and architects,” Millburn says. “I think people hear minimalism and they get scared. It sounds radical and extreme.
“We’re trying show what minimalism looks like for all of these different people. None of these people have the same recipe, but they all have the same results — a more purposeful life and they are all a lot happier.”
For Millburn, life is simpler now. He has pursued his passion as a writer, and teaches a writing class to make some income. He says he has adjusted his lifestyle so he doesn’t need the same income he had before.
“I have all the everyday creature comforts of the consumer life, but I spend my money with intentionality,” he says.
And the minimalist journey is a continuing one. Millburn says his time on the road for the past eight months with just one piece of luggage made him realise he needs even less than he thought.
When he returned home, he donated to charity anything else he felt he didn’t need.
“I keep asking that question — does this thing add value to my life?” he says.
The Minimalists’ Everything That Remains tour hits Perth on November 19. Tickets are free. For more information, visit www.theminimalists.com.
(From www.perthnow.com.au)
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