Question number one: what about some recommended reading on the first part of minimalism?
I think that a lot of the books that helped me personally were
not necessarily having to do with minimalism specifically as a subject.
There's this book called "The Power of Habit by James Duhigg, which I remember making an impact.
"Start with Why," by Simon Sinek.
Would you consider yourself an essentialist?
I guess so - it all depends what your definitions
of "minimalism" and "essentialism" and "simple living" and etc. are.
I adopted the word "minimalism" for myself because it was really
the first one that I knew of, and it fit me.
And I think I just held on to it because I've had it for so long.
that it - it still feels comfortable. If someone told me I was an essentialist,
I wouldn't say, "no, you're wrong, I'm not."
How to deal with the feeling of thinking and feeling like you still have stuff to declutter?
Example: there's the shirt that is green with math signs and I love it,
but it looks so bad on my body,
and I don't know what to do, because I don't use it, but I love how it looks,
and it has a lot to do with my personality.
I think that you could find different uses for an item like a t-shirt -
so you could make it into a pillowcase,
you could cut it and put it in a frame and hang it on your wall,
you could just wear it as a pajama shirt, you know?
You don't need to necessarily wear it as a t-shirt out in public if you don't feel confident in it,
but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's not giving you joy,
adding value to your life, you know?
It doesn't mean that you need to get rid of it.
If you're not willing to go out in public in it - actually!
I have one of my own! One minute...
Ta-da!
I have this sweatshirt - Noah's Ark is a water park in Wisconsin that I went to.
This is probably from before I was even a teenager, and it was big on me.
Now, it fits me, and there's paint and chocolate and one of the sleeves is ripped,
but I wear it around the house, I wear it to sleep, and it still is so soft
and there's no reason for me to get rid of it yet, until I completely destroy it,
but I'm definitely not like going out on the town in this sweatshirt.
What made you decide to become a minimalist?
It really started when I graduated high school and was moving away to college,
and I realized that I had a lot of stuff in my room, and I had to - kind of -
figure out what I wanted to bring with me.
And then I ended up donating a lot of stuff.
This was like 2010 - so that was ten years ago.
I didn't really - I wouldn't say I decided to become a minimalist.
The ideas just resonated with me, and at that point in time especially,
it helped me and what I was trying to do.
Did I answer the question?
What is your story and reason for starting this journey?
Yep - flexibility! Moving around, trying different ways of living, too - experimenting.
I'm all about that experimentation.
A lot of questions about my clothes:
What's the benefit of a minimalist color palette in your living space and appearance?
I wouldn't say I have a minimalist color palette
in my living space - my furniture - a lot of it is hand-me-down,
or it's cheap furniture that I've gotten from Craigslist,
and so that's just kind of happenstance.
I chose black because I sweat a lot, and because I spill stuff on myself,
and black is the color that hides all of that.
Plus, black just looks cool, so if I wear black,
even if I'm like stressed out and sweaty and I spilled coffee all over myself,
I still look like I have my life together.
How did you find the perfect black t-shirt for you?
My perfect black t-shirt happened to be just a t-shirt that I bought one time on a whim,
because I wanted a loose-neck black t-shirt - and it ended up being my favorite shirt!
So every time I'd do laundry, it would be the first shirt that I would reach for,
and then for the rest of the week after it was dirtied, I would have to wear my other shirts,
and I would always be sad that I didn't have that shirt to wear.
And then one day, I had this realization that if I just had eight of those t-shirts,
I could wear it every day,
and I would be able to wear my favorite shirt every day -
the shirt that made me feel confident,
and that hid my sweat and my spill stains, and was a great material -
it's got a little bit of a heathered weave to it,
and it's actually organic cotton, and it's it's my favorite shirt, gotta say.
Yes but where did you get those pants from?
Pants are actually something that I still have not found the perfect
pair - although these ones that I'm wearing -
these, they're Nudie Jeans organic cotton.
Pretty much my favorite at this point.
I still have some complaints about them, but even since I started making videos,
I've worn pants from Prana and Patagonia and Lululemon
and a different pair of Nudie Jeans pants,
and this is what I'm at now.
Oh, and Carhartt!
And I still have not found the pair that I love as much as I love this t-shirt,
so that's still kind of a work-in-progress.
I think that you should try something out for a couple of months really before you can determine
what you don't like about it and what you're trying to find in a new pair of pants
before you decide that you want to switch to something else.
That's just my personal opinion - try to stick with it,
see what's wrong with it, and try to find something that solves that problem.
How do you keep your digital life minimal and how can I minimalism of my thoughts?
"Digital life minimal" - I actually don't have any social media accounts except for YouTube,
and I only really go on YouTube - mmm - twice a week, maybe.
I used to have more social media, and I would follow people I knew, and people I didn't know,
and brands, and I really didn't like being advertised to,
and it just was very overwhelming,
and I realized that a lot of my free time was getting sucked up by me consuming
other people's creations instead of me spending my free time creating things.
Once in a while, I have the thought that like, "oh, maybe I'll try an Instagram page again,"
or I'll have a concept for a certain Instagram page or a blog, and I'll think,
"oh, I should - I should start that up,"
but I haven't.
I haven't gotten to it, so
I guess I don't want it that much.
I'll let you guys know if I ever get any other social media.
I'll let you know, don't worry, I will let you know,
but at this point in time, yeah - this is it.
This is all I got.
"Minimalism of my thoughts" - I don't know man. Try meditation?
Ingrid, you are very kind - thank you.
Their question is - do you think that when individual minimalists
come together, it might lead to a more minimalist public spaces and systems?
How would it look like?
I have been thinking about that a little bit recently -
I don't think it's necessarily people who call themselves
"minimalists," but just people who are very interested in community-building,
whether it's in your neighborhood -
so sometimes, there are neighborhood coalitions or councils or groups
that focus on cleanup projects or local park rehabilitations.
There's a lot of greenery projects - local gardens -
but then there's also murals and artworks that occur when
people come together to build communities.
I don't think it necessarily has to do with minimalism -
but it's pretty fascinating, actually.
There's - there's a movement now for old malls to be turned into food courts.
I forget what exactly they're called - but it's basically like the food court at a mall,
but the entire mall is the food court.
And you can go there with your friends and your family,
and all share a meal together, but eat from different little shops.
I'll put a link in the description - that was a bad.
Those are bad - I can't talk today! That was -
link in the description to this community food thing.
It's pretty cool!
A lot of people asking about my van -
Um... So I haven't done anything to the van since last September.
I still have the van, I'm going to work on the van actually, after I finish recording this.
I'm going to start working on it again.
Really, what happened is that it got cold.
I live - I live in the Northeast, and right around September is when I moved into this apartment,
and I was just sick of the van, because I had been living in it for six months
and working on it, and it was just overwhelming at that point.
And I wanted to be an air-conditioned apartment, so I got it,
and then I said, "okay, I'm gonna give myself a month to just kind of chill,
and me and Lump are going to spend a little time apart."
But then, by the time I was ready to start working on it again,
and I was inspired again to get some new creations going with it,
it got really cold outside.
So probably, I'm thinking by the end of April I'll do the last build video
and give you guys a full tour of what happened with it.
But it's still gonna be kind of a work-in-progress in terms of -
I want to - like - add some some artwork to it, I think.
I might paint - I've always wanted to learn rosemaling -
it's a Norwegian folk art -
and so I think I might add some rosemaling to the van.
It's gonna be a struggle. I've never done it before,
so it's gonna be interesting...
I hope I don't mess it up!
How did you decide what things to bring back into your life, and also,
what does post-minimalism look like for you?
I have brought a few things back into my life.
I know that when I did my "extreme minimalist experience" last year
and put everything in a storage container,
there were a couple of things that I wanted during that month that I brought in back immediately.
One of those was a my V60 coffee filter system - I have been using it ever since!
And I've been completely grateful to have it back.
What does post-minimalism look like for you?
I don't know - still figuring it out.
I think it's - it's bringing activities back into my life,
and I still am figuring out what those activities are.
What do I want to spend my time doing?
Some people on my post-minimalism video, the "end of minimalism" video that I posted -
they were saying, like, "oh, now she's gonna put color in her wardrobe,
and she's gonna bring back a bunch of furniture into her apartment."
That's not what I mean at all - that's not what I meant.
I do not really have intentions of increasing the quantity of objects in my life.
That is not what I mean.
I want to increase the activities that bring me joy
and fill my life with things that are not physical objects.
I hope that was clear to those of you who were confused.
[mumbles, mumbles, mumbles - reading to myself]
So I posted a video last week showing you really how much cleaning I do every week -
sometimes it's more than that. sometimes it's less than that,
but it's usually just a couple of hours,
and I do it on the weekend.
On weekdays, I pretty much wake up and do like a simple morning routine, and then I go to work.
That pretty much takes up all of my weekday time.
When I come home, I go to the gym, or I'll watch a movie and relax.
And on weekends, I spend one day doing this pretty much,
or I might travel around.
I live by a couple of big cities, so sometimes I'll go to the cities.
I'll visit people, hang out with friends, or I will...
What else do I do?
I like going to coffee shops and I spend a lot of time on the Internet.
And I like reading, and yeah - it's a pretty simple life, you know?
You spend your time with people, and you spend your time with increasing your skills,
and you work because you gotta feed yourself and pay your rent.
Nothing too crazy!
People asking questions about my job - I work as an industrial designer.
I work for a company, and everything I do for them is owned by them -
it's all, like, proprietary stuff.
So no, I can't talk about it - I apologize for that.
Instead, you get to enjoy these creations that I make for you on YouTube!
But no, I can't really share what I do at my job, or any other information about that really,
so I appreciate you respecting my privacy on that.
And I would love to share more about how I make these videos if you're interested in that.
Oh my gosh, I didn't even mean to segue into this, but the next one is asking about my video kit -
I, actually, I'm gonna make a video soon,
talking about what I use to - what all of this is - to make my videos,
and it is evolving, and I am trying to learn how to to improve that.
What made you always decide to finish with a wink and a click?
And then show us how to do the click.
I honestly didn't decide to do it!
I just did it on the first video, cause I didn't know how to end it,
and then I just kept doing it on all of my other videos.
I didn't really want to have any - kind of - like, introduction or theme song or anything on these,
because I really liked getting to the point of the video and keeping it short and sweet,
but that's an easy way to do a little sign-off
and add a little bit of my quirkiness, sense of humor, to it.
If you guys want to learn how to do it - show us -
show us how to do the click!
Okay, so you know when you wink, your cheek - kind of - goes up?
At least my cheek goes up!
At the same time that my cheek goes up, I put my mouth -
I got - and it's the same motion as going, like -
you kind of suck your tongue at the roof of your mouth to do that.
But when you make the click sound, you suck your tongue to - uh -
it sounds gross.
You suck your tongue to that side of your teeth, and just - kind of - like, release the suction of it.
It sounds so gross, but when it all comes together, it makes a little "click" sound.
And I'm gonna do it now, because this video is over.
So, 'til next time!
[click!]