Materialism vs. Minimalism: Working on a Balance

So, this will be another post about consumerism; Christmas is coming, all of that Black Friday hype is still in the air, and I have been thinking a lot about it. I'm a very material person, but I was forced to learn how to buy properly. Some people around me have made shopping into a quite dangerous habit, and I don't wanna end up like them - though I still want to acquire my things. So, I've been planning the best way to deal with this. I've decided I won't simply "try to control myself" like many people recommend, as I've tried that alone and it never works. It's necessary to work on something more concrete - I'm acquiring habits and learning to buy only what I can see that I really care about.

Let's go to the examples: a couple of months ago I finally joined the gym for real. After the first week, I was crazy for a "proper" bag. I was using an old one which my mother had. It was a bit uncomfortable to use it, so you could say I actually needed this acquisition. But I was on this vibe for a couple of weeks, spending hours looking for the best model on virtual and real stores, asking others for recommendations, until I found the perfect one at home. I was doing a good cleaning up on me bedroom, which I share with my brother, and I found a small bag fit for gym. He got this in some promotion years ago, and used only once or twice. It's been laying on his closet all this time in perfect state. I asked him if he was interested in it, and he said I could keep it - all my problems were over!!! Yes, a lesson was learned that day - do make sure if you don't already have the item you need or want laying down on a forgotten closet.

my gym bag: small, discrete, fits everything I need, and it cost me R$0

Book Buying vs Reading

You know those people who buy so many books they practically become hoarders? I used to be like that. Let me make it clear that I don't wanna judge anyone's lifestyle, book buying habits, etc. I just wanna tell how and why I do not fit this style anymore, and that avoiding this collector's life has improved my life and my readings.

Well, I've been a great fan of books since my childhood. At school, I was always the-bookish-girl. I would not only read, but also reread many times the ones that were most dear, and there would always have something new to be learnt. But then I finally got to an age in which I no longer needed my mom to take me everywhere; I started buying things by myself, and somehow I think I mistook the pleasure of reading with collecting all these interesting volumes.

I'd not only buy a lot of books on bookstores - I'd also get many for free with friends that were giving away their collections, for example. My parents were so proud of this consumerism and accumulation on my part, cause oh, they had such a smart girl, right? When in fact what was happening at this time was me getting 10, 15 books per month and only reading two or three - with some sacrifices, four - from my entire collection. There was a point in which my to-read list was insanely long. And we did not even talk about my e-reader, which contained lots of free e-books, fanfictions from AO3, and many articles that had once been waiting to be read on my internet bookmarking file. Too much to read, too little time; simply thinking about its length made me feel a bit tired already.

It took me a while to realize how compulsively I was acting. When the space at home and money available started running out, I finally woke up, and one day I put myself on a sort of book buying ban. As this consuming had long become a habit, I knew I wouldn't be able to just stop buying; the impact would be too hard, and I'd certainly go back to it anyway after some time. I decided to put some meaning in it: I could only buy a book after reading four that were on my shelf.

It was hard to go through it at first, which is normal for a compulsive consumer, I suppose. But after some months the feeling of need to acquire new things started going away, and I was definitely reading more. I stopped using my time with going on the bookstore for that book that sounded so promising and/or everyone loved, and focused more on reading the pile I'd acquired during that couple of years. Because of this, I also realized how I didn't have any interest whatsoever in some of those books; the excitement over them had run out. I decided to sell and donate them, and others which I had read that I didn't plan on rereading. I would only keep the books that were really meaningful to me.

Today, I practically don't buy books if we compare with me-from-the-past. When I do, it's because it's not available on the local libraries, and I read it immediately most of the times. Sometimes I do buy books in order to also keep them as collection (eg. The World of Ice and Fire), but it's a meaningful one, you know. I have to say: it's such a relief to see a small to-read list! You know that you can finish it, you get excited about it, and so you look for it. I've also deleted a bunch of docs and Amazon samples on my e-reader, and now I only have stories and texts that I know why I wanna read. It's quite a great sense of freedom, to focus on just a few things.

I'm still on the buying ban though, just to make sure I won't fall for that black hole again. Sometimes I wonder if I'm a bit alone in this kind of thinking, cause I see many friends of mine that love buying books for many different reasons but never get to reading them...  There is a video by Ariel Bisset which sums up perfectly how I feel about this habit - which I mostly believe I grew out of. And if you understand Portuguese, I definitely recommend this text (in Portuguese) that also deals with bookish minimalism.