The Liberal Arts Minimalist! Why It May Be The Best Thing In Your College.

An Indian Minimalist In College!

Being a minimalist simply means discarding whatever is not required by you, It is a lifestyle which ultimately reduced stress, At least that is why I adopted it.

There is an underlying philosophy to which it makes sense.

Perfect sense, because if you keep less materialistic stuff around you, you reduced your attachment to that stuff.

This doesn't mean you should live in a cave with no utensils to cook your meals, or not need technology at all.

It just means that you cull out the unnecessary bits that take money, space and effort to conserve.

The best part is it is easier to do so now thanks to tech!

Printed Books and the other Printouts.

During the semester, I usually end up taking about a foot high of printed notes and exercise books because the originals are too expensive.

At the end of the semester I used to store these books at the bottom of my cupboard and they just took up a lot of space, Used notebooks too! and all those little bits of papers, magazine cuttings, research articles printed out and even someone's notes xeroxed!

Now, I decided to CULL my use of paper, It took some time getting used to but it helped clear the clutter from my desk immensely.

Ways I minimised my paper clutter:

College notes and textbooks I passed on to the juniors for free, after all, IT would be rotting in my room and occupying space anyway.

For textbooks, I decided to use the online PDF after identifying the books in our syllabus.

It was mostly free, I converted these and had them sent to my Kindle (The 5-6K one on Amazon)-After I used a desktop App called "Calibre" my use of the kindle for reading was improved and now I keep most of my textbooks el Cetera here.

If I have the soft copy of any book, I get rid of its hardcopy on my shelf-THIS APPLIES ONLY TO BOOKS YOU RARELY READ-I would never donate any of my favourite hard copies of books because of the feel and look are really great.

I also used apps like speech to text to take notes online and type out my notes, Then I would email them to myself in a systematic manner.

I still use a physical notebook as of now to take notes, But I think I have reduced my paper usage by 60% (at least) just by actively trying to keep more softcopies of study material.

Another thing I do to reduce paper is submitting  my assignments online instead of a hard copy(My professor encouraged this- ask yours if you can too!)

I like that I don't have a tonne of books in my bag when I go to college, I used to use the mobile-The problem I had with the mobile is I got distracted by texts, emails and often didn't treat it like an educational device XD , but now use the kindle to read the textbook while I write down my notes during the lecture in a notebook.

Also, instead of printing out the Power Point presentation's given in class I just convert them into PDF's and view them on the kindle.

Clothes And Accessories

I used to have two cupboards full of clothes, It was too much and I wore only a few outfits on a daily basis.
So what I did is select a theme for my wardrobe,, I wanted to have more blues -SO a more a classic theme.Then I packed all the clothes didn't  that fit into my theme or I didn't really like and kept for the sake of it and 1)distributed it to people who would need/wear them. 2)Packed the ones I thought I might need but not exactly sure into plastic bags that I compressed and kept them in the storeroom.

I have just one rack and a suitcase and I live very comfortably out of that.
The plus is whenever I have a camp or need to travel I can make do with these few items because I have trained myself to need less.
It is perfectly okay to repeat your outfit every two weeks as long as you wash it.

I have kept aside 15 outfits all on a hanger and mostly with blue as the main colour of each outfit, I also have 5 workout clothes (just two track pants and 3 comfortable shirts )
I just use a pair of socks.That's it.I wash the pair while I take a shower and its dried by the next day.
For underwear and bra's I think it's best to use as less as possible but don't inconvenience yourself by skimping out too much.

It is okay to keep extra underclothes.


Bathroom

This was surprisingly easy.What I did was gather all the stuff I used (shampoos soap, conditioner facewash etc...) into a box and cleaned the entire place until it was good enough to eat in XD
Then I used the bathroom and only got out the things I needed to use from the box, So far I only went to the box for soap, a toothbrush, moisturiser and a facewash.
I realised that I only use a few things daily, The rest-Like floor wash and all those scrubs etc,i use them rarely..thus it made more sense to not keep them out in the open but in a box.
This reduced the clutter and dust buildup in my bathroom a lot.
Also, it is nice to see how less I can use and still be so healthy and have good skin.

Tip: A baby wipe on time, Saves your skin from grime.(I use a cheap fragrance-free one like "littles" got 240 wipes for 160 rs on an amazon discount offer)





Overall:

Try to be minimalistic, gooodI always think of how to better oneself and use less.This helps me invest in lesser things but spend more times looking into quality.I'd rather have one a good quality handbag than a dozen cheap and easy to ruin handbags.
Same with clothes.
Same with cosmetics.
Same with people.
Being a minimalist made me happier and focus on what matters the most.

Hope you enjoyed this post! Happy minimalism and have a stress free day :) Tell me in the comments what YOU do in your minimalist lifestyle,or why you read this post :P



Please check out the link below,The kindle sells for 5000 INR on some days,add it to your wishlist and just wait for it :P