Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
do we really want minimalism?
I recently read a fascinating book called, The Longing for Less: What is Missing From Minimalism by Kyle Chayka. Chayka takes us down various pathways: discussing Minimalist Art, Minimalist Music and Minimalist Design. He discusses the ways in which the word has been used, misused, appropriated… and why it reemerges at certain times in history. He makes some points that I have been mulling over for years.
When I became an organizer, I didn’t consider myself a minimalist, I considered myself an organized person with a knack for helping others become organized. It is true that I had limited my wardrobe to 3 colors since 9th grade, and that I had very spare, almost spartan apartments in my 20’s… but by the time I began organizing, I was nesting, not divesting. But my career as an organizer has dovetailed with a rise in the popularity and awareness of minimalism. I understand the attraction of a cool, white room, but I also know that it isn’t the cabbage rose wallpaper that is standing between you and serenity… it is all your stuff.
Chayka makes some hilarious observations: apparently young Steve Jobs had a huge house but no furniture, only a stereo. To me, that is minimalism for minimalism’s sake. Not comfortable. What is the function? Why have so much space if it is empty? He contrasts this with the actual interior of Charles Eameses’ (of chair fame) home, which was decorated with many random, but beautiful items, Chayka calls is: “haphazardly curated” and “a perfect imperfection where plenty of humanity is allowed.” Yes, I’m pro-humanity.
Often when my clients crave a more ‘minimalist’ interior, and I find myself telling them to slow down. That nothing is wrong with a jar of pencils- in fact, if you have ever been in in an artist’s studio, a jar of pencils can be a beautiful thing. I am someone who believes that form follows function. What is most beautiful to me is the stuff that is used: A wall of copper-bottomed pots, a pile of books you are actually reading on your bedside table and yes, a jar of pens. We respond to pictures of minimalist décor because we know that our homes are too cluttered… but we don’t need new décor, we just need to let go of the excess: impulse purchases, duplicates, old things that we used once but are now passe. Let them go.
Maybe, our desire for minimalism is a kind of unrequited love. We will never get there, but there is something human in our longing for it. In fact, that is how Chayka ends the book, he writes, “we never reach that state of perfect emptiness. It is always a temptation in the distance.”