I recently listened to a podcast episode in which Andy Ihnatko asked and ruminated about the question:

Who would you be if you had nothing?

That hits on contentment, minimalism, personality and consumption. Meaty topics.

Generally, I’m not that puristic and/or thoughtful about my consumption. When I clean up or rearrange things, though, I’m extremely happy to ged rid off a ton of useless stuff. I’m studying law, so I need a lot of books, but if I didn’t my desk would be absolutely empty I (would like to) think. So, minimalism definitely has something to it. Not as end in itself, but as… I want to say ‘tool’ that makes you consider what you really need and don’t and therefore are better off without. Because all that stuff really takes a lot of space, not just physically, hint hint. That being said, I really like cars, tech, gadgets and other nice and mostly expensive things.

All of that leads to the discussion of happiness vs. contentment which is really fertile. Thinking about that area of tension helps you finding out which level of minimalism is right for you. At that stage, it’s not really minimalism anymore but a state in which you can be content. And that’s the basis for real, long-term happiness as far as I’m concerned.