A Minimalist's Social Price: Navigating Relationship Rifts

My mum would have a lot to share for this prompt if she had the chance, she is a minimalist that have not only changed her life's practices but also that of some who have gone over the conflict stage with her to accept what they first thought was inconvenient for them to practice. I've actually been one of those she had a few conflict with while living with her so I'll be sharing from my experience of not accepting minimalism at first.

Let it be clear that today, I see minimalism in a very positive light and as a taste of freedom because mum didn't stop at the rift the practice almost cost us while living together. I didn't grow up with mum so the times I visited to spend days to weeks with her, it was from one new lesson to another.

"Don't put that there, it will take up too much space".
"I'm not comfortable with this sofa anymore, I will give it out to someone who needs it".

These are a few of mum's words that didn't just end with her saying them. Her home isn't very big but you'd be surprised how much space it has, she gets very intentional with what she brings into her home, what she doesn't and she would always think of what could be removed from the room whether she uses it seldomly or never.

One time, she actually gifted out the sofa and the room became more spacious. We had a long session of "Why? It was still useful whenever you had more persons come over" but she kept trying to make it clear that she values her space too much to worry about that. It didn't go down well with me until one day she surprisingly figured out an "easy to remove for space" way whenever more people were around.

Not just with me, mum have had a number of conflict sessions with her sisters and a friend of hers that I've witnessed on different occasions. As someone who practices minimalism and visits people a lot to assist in situations, you will find her trying to put out the practices where ever she is especially with the decluterring habit.

One time, she came back from visiting her mother in the village and talked at length about grandma's unhappiness towards what she did over there before leaving. Mum cleaned up grandma's whole house while grandma was away and threw a lot of things out that she thought wasn't fit for use anymore. Grandma got home just before she was about to burn up the things she had decluttered away.

The two of them had a heated rift when grandma say an old bag among the things that she had kept some money inside, grandma got very angry. Mum apologised and confirmed the things before burning away the rest. Seeing the house got more space and better atmosphere, Grandma complimented mum with a prayer after.

Today, grandma's house has less work whenever we visit because she had tried her best to keep that atmosphere mum left by always trying to get rid of any unnecessary and recent clutter. Yeah, Grandma is also one who got influenced by mum's minimalism practice after a conflict.

Personally, I've not had much rifts with people about my minimalism practice since I started but I am expecting them, it's part of being a Minimalist.

_{Images used are mine}

Posted Using InLeo Alpha