Goodbye Things, The new Japanese Minimalism
Small book, 250ish pages.. Fumio Sasaki was a collector of ‘things’. Nothing crazy, just the normal every day objects. Unlike Marie Kondo, Sasaki is just a normal dude who got overwhelmed. He started to feel as if the things he owned were part of his identity. This was seen in simple things such as where he would place a book, so that people who enter his home see the book, and add the recognition of it to their image of him.. That he is the kind of person who would read that book, even if he hadn’t. Sasaki decided to say Goodby [to his] Things.
This book is less of a guidebook, and more of a conversation about the relationship we have with items. it is less about sparking joy and more about utility. Can you use one thing more and remove the need for 3 other things. It does go into the emotional ties with objects, but not to the same depth as Kondo. You can almost feel the increase of fervor on the topic, and he physically states that once you let go of some things, it is easier to let go of more.. To that point, I was giddy to hear Sasaki admit that minimalism can be addictive and potentially border on unhealthy. In the beginnings of the book, he describes how he started to go too far, how he reversed that trend, and how to interact with others who are not pursuing minimalism.
Funnily, as a minimalism book, it could have been shorter. The last fifth of the book recapped all of important points in his perspective on minimalism and how to be successful via a 50 page bulleted list.
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