I love it! I, too, am a minimalist (except for shoes) - I hate clutter and I try to invest in things that make me better - not things that will be outdated in a few months. Keeping up with the Joneses only matters to those who have nothing better to do and this blog is one of the many better things I can do! Thanks for the opportunity!
And I love your one to five ratio - makes perfect sense - feeds the desire to contribute to others and rids the need for spring cleaning!

Huge fan of yours! So funny to hear about your minimalism!

2 personalities ......... well, i guess thats the the most prominent trait of a gemini! and i know you are one, right? :-)

HI! this is my first post. i am from India. have seen some of your movies and i think you are an intelligent actor. well, i take it that you get that a lot from people around you.

In response to your blog, i just want to say that, in my view, its only the opulent who have the choice of becoming an ascetic, for, only they have the choice to renounce now, dont they? :-)

would love to hear more from you ....

PEACE!

Rahul: Less is More--the freedom of it--you demostrate the notion of freedom and choice superbly.

A true Gemini, however, would be comfortable in the company of Kings and Beggars alike--N'est Pas??

So I think Enigma may be correct--based on the sense of freedom that I perceive in your message--which, if everyone moved like that--would dispel "hoarding as uncool--not 'in fashion.'" Nice to meet you! "Gemini Dave"

Hello Rahul,
I have to agree with you, I don't like clutter either. I've always been a 'quality' over 'quantity' kind of girl myself. I think I can just appreciate things I have more when I have fewer of them (if that makes any sense).

Oh, and don't worry about blogging, I am new to it as well (the Intentblog is the first one I've ever been on) and I think you'll find that it's a pretty cool thing......lots of great thoughts, wisdom and interesting and warm people! I look forward to checking it out as often as I can.

Hi Rahul! I have no idea who you are yet, but if I did I'm sure I'd be a fan. ;)

Good for you, not hanging onto a lot of "stuff." Coincidentally, my husband,Scott, and I and our two children (Hannah 10yrs and Joshua 8yrs) just packed the car full of things to give away that we are ready to let go of. And we're not nearly done yet! But I'm enjoying the feeling of more space already. Maybe we'll follow in your footsteps and give away 1 or 5 things whenever we acquire something new? Seems like a fantastic idea to me. I'm feeling "lighter" just imagining it.

Thanks for blogging! (Just saying "blogging" makes me laugh. It sounds so silly.)

Love, Kristin

Great reading your take Rahul... not too many think this way anymore... specially in a world where mindless opulence = "status"

How can a bengali not react to the phrase "opulent ascetic" it fits us to the "T" - not the kinds who inhabit SLB's "Devdas" though.[:) with due respect]

Way to go...and keep up "the ring out the old, ring in the new" funda... its a beautiful metaphor. Cheers

I haev just graduated...I practically lived in a shithole for the last 4 years. With always being broke and burdened under loans, living life the way I'd like to was only a luxury I could not afford. Now, things are changing, slowly. I feel the rush of adrenaline when I walk past those restaurants and shops where I was afraid to step in before, because I could not afford them.

I'm looking forward to buying my own apartment and I'm actually hoarding up materialistic stuff for my new "proper" home. Surplus of beauty and bath products, bedsheets and fluffy dry towels, a kitchen cabinet stuffed with cans of tomato puree and baked beans and a refrigerator brimming with food... my closet boasting of the most wonderful clothes, my shoe collection increasing by the week.... and just...eevrythign else I thought I was denied for the last few years.

I know it is materialistic, but it feels wonderful. It feels...powerful and I don't feel helpless anymore. More than anything else, knowing I have enough money to afford a roundtrip ticket back home to Bombay-- and not have to wait for 2.5 years before visiting home-- makes me fall in love with the idea of having money and enough material possessions to make me feel satisfied.

Is that too shallow? If it is, then why do I finally feel so content, and at peace?

hi, I'm new here, an interesting venture, this website.

Jinal Shah, I have a possible answer to your question.

I would say you feel good because you acheived a balance. you know, it's just as silly to be over austere as it is to live in excess. coz you were living below the line, you _felt_ somehow _lesser_ and once you could afford stuff, the balance was achieved, not in the material vs. austere but your self-esteem, which rose from below par to the place in the middle.

Possibly as the ability to buy what you need/want whenever you want it grows, it will at some point become blasé. At that point (if you have a blog) you might post something similar to what the original poster wrote (about giving stuff away and stripping down the excess so the overfull feeling floats down towards the middle, the balance).

We Indians love clutters.Don't we? We are afraid to let go of old anything be it clothes,papers,books,shoes,or emotions.Though personally i would like to have a less cluttered home, it simply does not happen.
My mother in law(an immensely adorable person) has a huge trunkful of silk cloth pieces since last fifty years to make a razai out of it some day!

Hi Rahul,
Gotta agree with u, it's the only way to live, why do we buy so much stuff. Believe me, if we had to just stop buying stuff, we could very well go through the next 3 to 4 years comfortably. Good to know there are more people who think likemindedly.
Fatima

Very interesting! I liked it! New resource for ideas: http://anthony.ianniciello.net/blog/archives/000079.html , Port aBuayar

Hi Rahul,

A new "mantra" towards clutter-free existence will certainly encourage commoners (oops! non-celebrities is what i mean)......bravo!

Please do not take the ratio of exchange over 1:5...it may rid the world of other "Opulent Ascetic"s........i just love that title!

Can you now tell me where are the world's major 'used goods' dumping yards??????

Chanrashekhar Aklujkar

Rahul,

Way to go! I too am a minimalist and am happy to learn that you and a lot of the readers here are like minded. We all should take a day to think about all the "stuff" we have and actually evaluate how much of it we need or have used! Probably not much. Our lives would be less cluttered and less complex if we don't have "junk"...I mean "stuff". Why can't we have just what we need?

Your home must be very peaceful.

Rupal.

Hi
Great posts !! I am learning the art of de-cluttering my space. I admire anybody who can live with only a few things . :)
Way to go Rahul !!

Hi Rahul,

Even i feel Minimum becomes More,when the excess unused baggage from our place is provided to people,may be for whom, even buying a set of clothing is not a priority even though they badly need some, coz they have to look into other factors where the little money they earn is to be priortise, (certainly your 1:5 ratio is bound to get you a heap of well wishes, no second thoughts on that)

Moreover,I feel it will be more worthy, if instead of providing our unused stuff, to 1 single person everytime we alternately forward to a set of different people. Even though it may require some extra effort from our side, but we will be atleast sure of making them SMILE !!!

Your musings are written in a wonderful and capitivating manner, and make for enjoyable reading. Thanks!

gosh...i dunno..i appreciate the fact that you choose to give it away so its helpful to someone else on this planet...but i could never be a minimalistic kinda person u know. just that...everything...everything has a scent of some emotion ..an attachment...ive been an exact opposite. couldnt get rid of anything. had to make memories outta everything...

hey maybe i've even picked somethin of yours eh?
somewhere its gotta come full circle... takes all kindsa ppl to make this world go 'round...

Bingo!
Deja-Vu?

...whatever, sounds like i just spoke aloud. Serious...being a Gemini/Cancer cusp i have imbibed the best of both these worlds (or atleast i prefer to assume so)which translates into practicality / personality extremes / fondness for the finer aspects of life especially space and more space...

And like u, a close friend dubbed me too...nick-named me "God"...he felt i had it all but he could never really see any of it!!! Bewildered? So am i...

And everytime i run at the garden (my only means of staying fit as any other form of physical exertion implies immense clutter), i imagine the vast expanses of the spacious universe opening up as my running track and every other runner at a blinking star's distance from me...

The mind's fine, hence i am...n how are u?

goats?reconfigurer asymptomatically assimilate?Cambridge.threat tenement day

provably enchanter flooding.corpses!bay.beep?currants stumbling

nice post..just begun readin u..n plan 2 read ALL of them..!

I am looking forward to buying my own house & I am actually hoarding up materialistic stuff for my new "proper" home. Surplus of beauty and bath products, bedsheets and fluffy dry towels, a kitchen cabinet stuffed with cans of tomato puree and baked beans and a refrigerator brimming with food...