August 12, 2015. I was on holiday in my hometown, Málaga, south of Spain. The summer was a transition between living in the United Kingdom to living in the United States—to disconnect and sort out a fair amount of paperwork I had to do before leaving.
That day, I had an appointment to renew my Passport at the police station. That was all I would worry about that morning. I got inside the building, said my name at the front desk, and heard the magic words: "Please, wait here."
And there I was. I had been given a precious gift. A few minutes or, maybe, half an hour, when all I could do was just sit there and wait for my turn. A span of time in a context you would never decide to be on your own, but now you have been forced to. All you have to do is sit there and do nothing.
It is a precious moment for yourself. A moment when you can think. You can empty your mind. You can write. You can listen to music. You can do nothing.
While reading Vagabonding by Rolf Potts, I found this quote—penned by William Morris, an influential designer, writer, and socialist of the nineteen century—which summarizes what minimalism is in terms of physical belongings.
Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
If you think about it, you probably don't really need as much stuff as you own [or as much storage as you are currently using] to have a remarkable life. Living with less — just with the things we really need — is the only way we can pretend to be some kind of nomads.
The ways of living of our society lead more and more people to have nomadic lives everyday. For these people, who don't have a choice to acquire their own properties, this fact can surely be seen as an advantage.
Being ready to go anytime is, in some cases, a dream scenario — well, at least for a big group of people. Prepared to move from one place to another — not because something bad happened, but because you have built a framework which provides you the freedom needed to do so.
Being able to move with everything you need for a remarkable life would be awesome.
For that, a careful selection of what you own is needed.
