So what is this minimalism thing? It’s quite simple: to be a minimalist you must live with less than 100 things, you can’t own a car, a home or a cell phone, you can’t have a career, you cannot live in any of the exotic (hard-to-pronounce) places all over the world, you must start a blog, you can’t have children, and you must be a young white male from a privileged background.
OK, we’re obviously joking. But people who dismiss minimalism as some sort of fad or craze, usually mention any of the above “restrictions” as to why they could “never be a minimalist.”

Minimalism isn’t about any of these things, but it can help you accomplish them. If you desire to live with fewer material possessions, or not own a car or a cell phone, or travel all over the world, then minimalism can lend a hand. But that’s not the point!

Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.

That doesn’t mean there’s anything inherently wrong with owning material possessions. Today’s problem seems to be the meaning we assign to our stuff: we tend to give too much meaning to our things, often forsaking our health, our relationships, our passions, our personal growth, and our desire to contribute beyond ourselves. Want to own a car or a house? Great, have it! Want to raise a family and have a career? If these things are important to you, then that’s wonderful. Minimalism simply allows you to make these decisions more consciously, more deliberately.

There are plenty of successful minimalists who lead appreciably different lives. There are many minimalists who have spouses and children. A great many of them have careers which they studied very hard for and which they really love, they belong to family`s whom they truly love and adore, and they have comfortable houses in good areas as well as a car. Conversely, you will find others who actually own very few things, have hardly travelled anywhere, live in a “tiny house” and are completely car-free. Even though each of these people are different, they all share one thing: they are minimalists, and minimalism has allowed them to pursue purpose-driven lives.

But how can these people be so different and yet still be minimalists? That brings us back to our original question: What is minimalism? If we had to sum it up in a single sentence, we would say, Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favour of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfilment, and freedom.
Minimalism has helped us…

• Eliminate our discontent
• Reclaim our time
• Live in the moment
• Pursue our passions
• Discover our missions
• Experience real freedom
• Create more, consume less
• Focus on our health
• Grow as individuals
• Contribute beyond ourselves
• Rid ourselves of excess stuff
• Discover purpose in our lives

By incorporating minimalism into our lives, we’ve finally been able to find lasting happiness—and that’s what we’re all looking for, isn’t it? We all want to be happy. Minimalists search for happiness not through things, but through life itself; thus, it’s up to you to determine what is necessary and what is superfluous in your life.

You want to learn to de-clutter and live with less, ask the haaji. On the five days of Hajj, they basically have a small nap-sack in which they have to fit their five days provisions into. The heavier the bag the heavier the burden! It shows that when the need calls, then we can do with less.