The concept of minimalism is pretty simple.

“What labels me, negates me.”

-Søren Kierkegaard

It’s about living within your means.

Finding out what your needs are gives you an incredible perpetual state of freedom. Then, you have the time to focus on who you are and what things (tangible and non-tangible) are worth your time and money.

It’s about pursuing the things that provide benefit to your life.

When you identify as a minimalist you look for an absolute term of value of benefit, something that your fellow minimalists agree on. Of course, it’s impossible because that does not exist.

I cannot recall the amount of times I’ve browsed through different websites and forums and read posts written by people who identify as “minimalists” debating whether they should declutter and remove their guitar or two jackets from their lives.

And that’s exactly what’s so wrong about it in the first place.

Minimalism isn’t about removing specific number of items from your house.

It isn’t about specific practices, steps or measurements you have to follow.

It isn’t about a specific set of rights and wrongs. It’s not a clear guidebook.

Treating it as such is missing the whole point of finding your basic needs and defining what’s important to you.

If you believe that the concept of living within your means will improve your life then you have to find a way to make it happen on your own.

That’s the beauty of it.

We are all individuals. We have different needs. We are passionate about different things. We find value in such a variety of stuff — from books and playing the piano to video games and movies.

There is no right or wrong here.