On Minimalism: Takeaway from Fumio Sasaki's Book

This past few months has been a pleasurable reading time for me.

I borrowed import books from Bookabuku, I read in the library and I slide through many eBooks in between. I read many interesting topic, mostly around personal development, career advice, personal finance and public health (or development). But, this book called "Goodbye Things" is my number one reading. It is so profound, it change the way I look upon everything around me. 

I already see this book many times in Periplus or Kinokuniya (and later Gramed because the translated version already published), yet I was not interested to read this because it feels like "Ok, well, another book by another Japanese trying to spread the joy of tidying to the rest of the world." I think of it as another Marie Kondo wave. Don't get me wrong, I like Marie's idea of Spark Joy. I read her book, I watch her Netflix. But for me, it is just a method of tidying. And, as a quite messy person, I took just a little from her advice. 

Until one day, I saw Kak Ayu Sabang Merauke's IG stories. She throw up almost everything in her apartment. It is so radical to the point that she only left with one spoon, one fork and one chopstick for her eating utensils, nothing more. Wow. Marie Kondo never show tidying up to that level. It is from Fumio Sasaki's book that Kak Ayu take the lessons. 

Curious, I search the ebook and start reading out. Dang! At the first few pages, Sasaki show pictures of his apartment. It is, how should I say this, it's a practically empty room! Sasaki really have a super clean apartment. And by clean, I mean that he has very few things inside. At one of his Youtube interview, he claimed to have only 200 things at his whole room (and that already include bottle of cooking ingredients). Later, he showed some other minimalist apartment, from a couple, a family of four, and a backpacker. All of the pictures really hit me as a reader to continue read to the next chapter. 

Fumio Sasaki described himself as a single man at age of 35, with a job that luckily align with his passion yet face a downward industry. He was a maximalist, he keep a lot of books, tape, DVDs as his possession. Yet, with all of that things, he get a hard time with anxiety. He keep wondering if he will lost his jobs, that he will never get married, that he will die alone in his room, etc. He never feels enough. 

Until one time, he got a project in his office that requires him to research and read a lot about minimalism in Japan. Actually, the minimalist trend start to arise when Japanese was hit by great earthquake and natural disasters. They start to realize that keeping a lot of things will actually harm them in the emergency situations. The wave getting bigger once Marie Kondo introduced her idea of tidying up, Spark Joy, and successfully followed by people worldwide. Minimalist become an inevitable movement. 

So, How Fumio Sasaki's Book Change My Mindset? 

He make me realize, that: 

1. We often look pleasure by trying as many new things as possible. However, I now realized that we need routine more than we need new things. Sounds boring, yes? Well, if you have a full-time, 9 to 5 jobs, you might really want to escape the routine that makes you feels like stuck in a rut. However, I soon realized that if we got all time in the world, we often end up doing nothing at all. At first few months after I resigned, I make a very loose schedule for my self. I try every library in Jakarta, I continuously looked upon Zomato to find recommended cafe to work my essay. I waste a lot of time deciding unimportant things. Making decisions requires energy. Even it is as simple as deciding what to wear and what to eat. Theory is, every day we got a limited energy to make decisions. So, if we drains up deciding unimportant things, we left with no energy to actually doing something meaningful to our self. Looking back, I also found that in the past I do this exact same things to excel in IELTS. After 3 weeks intensive preparation in Kampung Inggris, my tutor give me excellent tips for self study. He said, do the practice test every Mon, Wed and Friday. Three times a week, no more than that. At first, I thought that I could do better, I could do more. But, turns out, committing to only 3 times a week make me fully responsible with my own target. I rarely missed it. It builds my discipline and sense of progress rather than just a random studying each day. It makes me automatically set my three days as try out time from 9 am to 1 pm. It's essential to build your desired routine. 
2. Financially speaking, simplify your spending habits is a winning game. I really interested to financial planning after series of Jouska instastories. Since then, every talk by Mas Aakar, Mba Ligwina, or Mba Prita Ghozie catch my attention. I curious to learn investment instrument, I try to buy my first stocks in Sekolah Pasar Modal. But, it is crucially important to pay attention to your spending habit at the beginning. I myself was a reckless spender. I might not buy fancy things or travelling. Yet my money goes to what seems like a subtle but huge spending when accumulated. Things like coffee routine, dessert treat, or impulsive dine out. If we could maintain our spending to minimum, or at least on budget, we have much more freedom in our life. We could save emergency fund way faster. We could focus to spend only to something that add meaningful joy in life. It doesn't mean, however, to live a misery, no-fun life, where we do not own any expensive things or experience fun pleasure. If the expensive goods add meaning to our life and has a good quality, go for it. Minimalism make me think twice before saying "Yes, I need this things." Minimalism still make me have my coffee routine, but this time, I do not impulsively buy every coffee from every cafe in town. I know what kind of coffee that I like, I know I didn't need any other type of coffee. So I go for it. 
3. That previously I have an unreasonable amount of time checking what others people do on IG and what others people talk on twitter. I once feel that I need to catch up with whatever updates and things that going through in this world. When I checked my activity time in IG, I saw a staggering amount, nearly 3 hours per day. Damn, no wonder I messed up. I didn't thought that it will be that long. But spending some time scrolling in the morning, between lunch, after working and before sleeping adds up to that total number. Scary. So now, I uninstalled my IG (again) and looked up to updates only on the browser. After that, I will log out my account. I try to be more mindful on what information I need to search on Instagram. I realized, its nearly impossible to life without social media nowadays because we are social by nature, we have a tendency to connect to each other even its only in the form of IG updates. However, I also realize I want to spend my time more on precious things for me: reading books, working on my dreams, quality time with family, talk to my friends in person, etc. That awareness make me less attached to social media. 

Ok, Good, But Where is The Throwing Things Story?

Well, I didn't radically empty my room after reading this book. I only looked around, and start small every time I feel it. One day I throw clothes in my wardrobe that no longer used. Another day, I reorganize my books so it comes in order. Recently, I drop all bags in my hanger and put back only 5 (one backpack, one tote bag, one clutch, one medium and one small sling bag). Sasaki himself need one year to finally reach to that point. So the most important is not how we throw things up, but rather to be mindful about our things and surroundings. 

Wow, I didn't expect that what once intended to only review a book will ends up like a reflection about my whole life haha sorry for this long story. But I really want you to consider reading this book. It's like a counter-intuitive ideas in the age of consumerism and excessive ads. I hope it makes you feel better too! And if you're not really into reading, you could consider watch Matt D'Avella Youtube on Minimalism. He also doing a really good job and will show you a more humane and acceptable minimalism. Goodluck!