Published on July 3, 2025 5:03 AM GMT
Epistemic status: low effort musings. Thinking out loud. Moderate confidence.
I have a hunch that minimalism is "correct". Not in some sort of normative sense. I mean this in a descriptive sense. I predict that something along the lines of minimalism is likely to make most people happier than the standard alternative.
Let's make this more concrete. What sort of things would a minimalist get rid of that a normal person would hold on to?
- ClothesShoesKitchen stuffFurnitureBooksOffice suppliesBoard gamesArt suppliesSports equipmentBeauty and personal care
To be even more concrete, let's suppose that a normal person has 30 t-shirts and a minimalist only keeps 10 and use that as a running example.
What value does the extra 20 t-shirts provide? Well, part of the value is that you might actually wear them and you value being able to do so. Instead of wearing t-shirt #7 again, you get to wear t-shirt #23.
I suspect that for most people, this value is quite low. Here's something I have in mind. There's this technique that people in minimalism circles talk about where you pack up all your stuff as if you were moving. So like in this case, you'd put all 30 of your t-shirts in a suitcase. Then when you want to wear a t-shirt, you are forced to take a few minutes and unpack.
When people do things like this, they often end up leaving a lot of their stuff packed up. This indicates a sort of revealed preference: they'd prefer avoiding the few minutes of effort to wearing the t-shirt. I know revealed preferences aren't perfect, but I think it speaks to the ballpark value that the extra t-shirts provide.
Another argument is that even if you don't wear the extra 20 t-shirts, it feels good to know that they're available. It's comforting. Put differently, only having 10 t-shirts feels kinda restrictive.
Maybe something like board games is a better example here. It feels nice knowing that you have 'em available, even if you only play once or twice a year. I buy that this is something people feel a lot more strongly than I do, but I am skeptical that it is adding much value to their life.
I've been arguing that the benefits of minimalism are low, but that's only one side of the coin. What about the costs?
Well, if you have the space for extra stuff, the costs are probably pretty low. It doesn't add much clutter to your space, and the upfront financial costs of buying many of the items is often relatively low. Think: t-shirts, books, art supplies.
In this scenario I don't feel particularly strongly about minimalism being too helpful. I think the benefits of the extra "stuff" is likely pretty small, but if you have the space, the costs are also small, so ultimately it's no big deal.
However, in reality, space is expensive. Housing in general is expensive, but going from eg. a 1-bedroom to a 2-bedroom is a big step up in price. Where I live in Portland, Oregon, a 1-bedroom place is around $300k-500k whereas a 2-bedroom is maybe $450k-700k. So an extra $150k-200k, about. Going from 2 to 3 is probably more like a $100k-150k jump. And it's smaller as you continue to add bedrooms.
Thinking about the fact that extra space is expensive, the calculus starts to change. The price of not being a minimalist starts to look a little intimidating. The cost of having that extra stuff, qualitatively, we can perhaps call it "moderate-to-high". Given this cost, I have a moderately strong hunch that for most people, the benefits aren't worth it.
This is just some off-the-cuff reflections though. It's not something I've thought about too deeply or am particularly confident in. I'd love to hear what others think.
Discuss
