Minimalistic Living

There’s a lot of push today for living in a minimalist way.

Aaargh!

Using resources thoughtfully is always a good idea, for many a reason, from saving the earth, to conserving your bank balance, to minimizing your waistline.

Too frequently, minimalistic living doesn’t seem to focus on using resources as effectively as possible and instead is determined not to use any at all.

And that can be a very bad thing.

Whether we’re at home or at work our levels of wellbeing are best when we can signal who we are as a person.  When all of our at-home and at-work signaling devices are cut, people don’t know who we are as an individual (and, in a shared area, we similarly don’t know who they are because their stuff is gone).  Info that’s gone reports whether we’re concerned about the Earth and our fellow humans generally (or on a more micro-level happily into our family and flower patch).

When we are lacking info about others, we get tense and when we’re stressed our ability to get along with others and to do our best mental work is degraded.

Minimalists also seem to make some wacky design choices, such as colour selections that don’t work.  For more information on colour and how it can improve the lives we live, read this article.

Minimalize with care—when you minimize stuff you might be maximizing unpleasantness.

Right-Sizing for Best Thinking

Via design, we can make a space seem more spacious or less.

Since life is too short to dwell on the negative, let’s focus on creating spaces that seem the right-size, or at least a little closer to the right size than they may truly be—because when we feel a space is the wrong size, we’re stressed.

To adjust the size of a space:

• Use light colours on the walls to make a space seem a little larger than it objectively is and darker colours to make walls seem a little closer. To feel your best, make sure that the darkest colour in a room is under your feet, the lightest one over your head, and intermediate ones on the walls that surround you.
• Smaller patterns in wallpapers on walls will increase the apparent size of a space compared to the effects created by patterns with larger patterns.
• More brightly lit spaces make a space seem slightly larger than dimmer lighting. The same goes for cooler, compared to warmer light (cooler lit spaces seem more spacious). Also, when the distribution of light in an area is more even it will seem larger than when there is more variation in light intensity from one part of a space to another.
• Mirrors on walls make a space seem larger.
• Adding a pleasant scent to a space can make it seem slightly larger than was the case when it was unscented.
• When you arrange seats so that it’s harder to make easy eye contact (technically known as sociofugal seating, and an example might be rows of chairs all facing in the same direction), that space will be judged as smaller than when it’s easy to make eye contact with other people present.
• Putting up bookshelves, and not putting much stuff on those bookshelves, will make a space seem larger than it did when the bookshelves weren’t there.
• Not surprisingly, a space seems larger when we can do whatever we’ve planned in it without other people getting in our way.
• If you have architectural options: spaces that are rectangular seem larger than those that are square and areas with higher ceilings (say, above 10-feet) seem more spacious than ones where ceilings are lower. Also, more openings in walls, like windows, make a space seem larger. The same goes for longer sightlines through an area, they make it seem larger.  A space on a higher floor will also seem larger than one of the same size on a lower story.