My Journey of Minimalism/ Danshari/ Decluttering

I started to get rid of my personal stuff about 2 years ago, after attending an online course- Zhuangzi─Posture, Awareness, and Sentiment (Offered by NTU in Chinese). The first two chapters of Zhuangzi is so good. I was so immersed into the feeling that the course bought to me, and I felt it was the time to remove some books that I no longer read. Til this moth, I’ve sold more than 200 books to the second-hand book store.

Since the first time of removing not needed books, I started my journey of decluttering. I also got rid of some clothings and stationeries. Along this journey, I’ve read a couple of books to help me. These suggestions are good, but some of them just don’t fit me well. About six months I didn’t feel right to get right of anything I owned.

Last week, after my practice of kundalini yoga, I started to know that decluttering is about knowing who I am, and I just need to let go the things which don’t serve the purpose. To know who I am, I believe this is an inward job, and I have to be totally honest to myself when asking: “Do I need this?” “How often I use this?” “Why I still want to keep this?” “Am I doing this because I enforce myself to do so?”

I also generated some rules about keeping it or throwing away:
1. Is this thing is still in good quality?
2. How often do I use it?
3. Any duplicates here?
4. Does it has any special meanings/ memories to me?

These rules are developing, and I kind of use these when purchasing new stuff. Right now I am happy with the process, and there are more to do.