Some weeks ago a very dear friend of mine had birthday. Rather than giving him a random object as a gift, that he may never use and would only cause more pollution to the environment, I prepared him brownies with oreo cookies.  As part of a minimalist lifestyle that I have been adopting, I made the decision to no longer present anyone with stuffs. This means that I try intentionally to buy and posses the least amount of material things. As put by Joshua Becker in his blog “becomingminimalist.com”, minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts us from it.

The idea of minimalism is to realize that having too many material possessions can turn our life and routine complex, tie us to places, situations and needs, and can cause anxiety – all stuff at home must  be cleaned, organized, stored, etc. Owning only few things, on the contrary, offers you the freedom to move to another home, another country, simplifies your routine, allows more time and money to do things that are really meaningful, and provides a sense of peace!

For me, adopting minimalism has been incredible rewarding. I stopped buying clothes simply because I found them beautiful, or to keep up with new fashion trends, or just because something was on sale.  Nowadays, I only buy something after reflecting if I really need it. I’ve donated everything I haven’t used in the past year. My wardrobe is at least a third of what it used to be and it keeps getting smaller. My husband and I, on special dates, always spend money traveling, because we decided to accumulate experiences and not unnecessary stuff.

But do not confuse minimalism with being poor. The rationale here is to INTENTIONALLY own few material things – only the truly necessary ones, which will last and can be used several years at different occasions. Nowadays when I go out, I don’t spend hours choosing what to wear. I have very few pieces of each item of clothing (four jeans, for example) but all of good quality that match with one another and I never feel badly dressed!

Well, but back to the friend’s birthday and the brownie I prepared … Wonderful and lovely, I was told!

Note: Oreo biscuits don’t have ingredients of animal origin, and I consider them vegan.