Christine Platt: One day, I just found myself saying, like,
another weekend, you need to clean you need to organize. I'm
looking around and I'm like, oh, I should probably get some more
bins. And I just had like this light bulb went off and I was
like, Are you really about to buy more stuff, to hide the
stuff to store the stuff and that was sort of like my
awakening moment. My name is Christine Platt also known as
the Afrominimalist. And before I was the Afrominimalist, I was
probably the Afromaximalist.
You know, I wrote the Afrominimalist guide to living
with less to really guide people through a more holistic journey
and process. These are like all steps that I learned along the
way, the first thing was like, I had to acknowledge that I had
too much stuff. And that meant more than just looking at my
closet and being like, Oh, it's too much stuff in here. And then
like really acknowledging, taking inventory and really
fitting with that. And that's what led me to step two, which
is forgiveness, yes, she spent a lot of money, but you know,
you're not gonna be able to recoup it, you have to let it
go. But then you start blaming others. I mean, our parents and
our friends and our loved ones, they do, obviously play a part
in what we've learned, you know, to value and what we learned,
but we were also adults. And it's so important that that
forgiveness extend even beyond ourselves. And I couldn't move
forward on to step three, which was letting go until I forgave
myself for letting go. It's not always just about our things, we
also have to let go of limiting ideas and beliefs and narratives
that really no longer serve us. And I think, for marginalized
communities. A bit more challenging, right, we have we
have a lot more in terms of adjusting our mindsets. It
wasn't fed to us in a way that was that was ever meant to cause
us to overspend and to over consume and to, you know, be
wasteful with our resources, it was told to us from a place of
protection. So that led me to step four, which is paying it
forward being super intentional with our donations being super
intentional with what we keep what we have, a lot of what I
like to do is educate not only my community, but other
marginalized communities as well. And say, here are the
things that are uniquely challenging. That are, it's
going to be a little bit more challenging for you in letting
go of this. Because of this, and so much of it is rooted in the
fact that many of us are first gen. second gen, and one of the
things that you quickly learn is that there's the legality of
ownership, which is you know, something legally belongs to
you, the first time we touch something, that's when partial
ownership starts to form. Advertisers, brands, companies,
this has been a big part of their marketing research. This
is why they always want us to touch things, test drive things,
try it on. A lot of black consumers, the largest class of
consumers very much prone to conspicuous consumption prone to
overconsumption but a large part of that, too, is because of the
systemic targeted marketing efforts on our communities. And
unless we pause and start to dismantle them, not only within
ourselves, but also within our families and within our
communities, we really, really run the risk of not only
remaining victims of systemic oppression, as I say in the
book, but also contributing to it. And I love to being in a
position where I don't I don't have to say I only I'm only
allowed to eat out once a month like that is just so
restrictive. And I'd rather live my life in a way that allows
certain liberties and freedoms, we have a choice on where and
how we spend our dollars. Do we want to build generational
wealth? Or do we want another thing that we don't really need
us and love? These are tough questions that you have to ask
yourself. And the answers are so clear when I say it like that.
But if I can make choices that allow for the next generation
and my family, to not have to be saddled in that way, I feel that
that's my responsibility. It took some time for that to go
from feeling like a wasted burden to feeling like an honor.
What an honor, that I am the first person in my family to
have an opportunity to think differently, do differently and
act differently. Understanding that you are shifting the legacy
for your future descendants to me that is so powerful.