As someone currently living out of a 40L bag [1], I don't feel any great cognitive load or emotional weight lifted. We sold all of our stuff (books, desks, cars, house) in order to do a round the world trip. The process really sucked.
You do save money from living without cable or not buying so much 'stuff', but I find that to be the limit of the benefit. I have no reason to believe that we won't be buying back many of the things we sold prior to travelling. In all honesty, living out of a bag makes me want more. I miss having more than three shirts or two pairs of pants to wear.
Minimalism is fine, but all the proselytizing around it makes no sense to me.
Makes plenty of sense to me. For a lot of people, me included, it's easier to buy things than it is to get rid of them. Getting rid of something takes you into loss aversion[1]. Plus, objects at rest in your closet tend to remain at rest.
Basically, I find that maintaining a minimal set of stuff requires regular mental effort. So I enjoy reading about people who are especially aware of the benefits.
I imagine it's like the various weight loss tricks. If you are naturally skinny and have an ok diet, then you might say, "Why are all these people talking so much about the awesomeness of fresh vegetables? Sure, they're fine, but I don't get why people need to talk about them so much."
I've never understood why so many simple-living advocates (caveat: I consider myself one) feel such a need to convert others, but I've also never understood why people get so defensive in the face of such proselytizing. If this makes sense to you, consider doing it yourself. If it doesn't, ignore it. No one is forcing you to do anything, nor even to read this stuff.
As someone currently living out of a 40L bag [1], I don't feel any great cognitive load or emotional weight lifted. We sold all of our stuff (books, desks, cars, house) in order to do a round the world trip. The process really sucked.
You do save money from living without cable or not buying so much 'stuff', but I find that to be the limit of the benefit. I have no reason to believe that we won't be buying back many of the things we sold prior to travelling. In all honesty, living out of a bag makes me want more. I miss having more than three shirts or two pairs of pants to wear.
Minimalism is fine, but all the proselytizing around it makes no sense to me.
[1] http://orofino.me/daniels-rtw-packing-list/