Minimalism

So, many of you have probably heard the term "minimalism" before as it's not really a new concept. It does seem to be making its rounds through popular culture again though, despite the chaos of consumerism that we now know to be hallmark of this time of year, with Black Friday last week and Christmas just around the corner.

For the first time in, well ever, I'm viewing and understanding consumerism and the concept of minimalism differently this year. For the longest time, I equated my own happiness, success, and my pursuit of (don't judge me, as cheesy as this sounds) "The American Dream" with having more, having the most, having the best, just having in general. A LOT has changed on the me, myself, and I front within the last year and minimalism has truly been at the heart of it.

Really digging down deep and understanding what minimalism meant to me was one of the most liberating experiences I've had thus far in my young life. It allowed me to break free of the constraints that constantly inundate us with the idea that we need more to be happy. For me, it was that if I just have this thing over here that costs more than half my life, then I'll be ______ or have ______ that I've always wanted. It's a vicious cycle of lies we learn at a young age and it's only gotten worse with social media and technology, where there are now literally thousands of ways to advertise to us at all times. We are constantly being fed information about what to buy, what to wear, how to wear it, who wore it best, and what they drive, why we should drive that too, that we're almost so out of touch with who we really are.

I thought I was the person that would be happy and content finally after obtaining all this stuff I'd been lead to believe I needed for so many years. Only to find that, wait a minute, I've acquired ALLTHISSTUFF (mostly I notice when I'm cleaning and dusting, like JEEEEEZE how many things do I really have and why do I have so many, there's literally like one in every color and they attract so much dust and why is there so much dust up here frowny face) and I'm still feeling ______ and not how I thought I would feel despite having all of the colors.

It was like BOOM. No, more like omgholysh*t this is really scary. What if I stop buying stuff and *gasp* have to just be okay with me? Without my stuff? What a concept. It was terrifying. Really. But only when I was able to live with that conscious decision I'd made to not only stop acquiring stuff that I didn't need OR stuff that I justified getting because it felt like it met some other need, but explore my own motivations for it in the first place, did I get to really know me. Who I am, what I wanted to buy, wear, and how I wanted to wear it. I stopped caring (so much) about other people's' opinions and started living for me.

And now I have less stuff to dust! #Winning.

That being said- I'm forever struggling with the notion that I'm a small business owner whose primary goal is to sell stuff to people. Even further, in order to compete with all the other incredibly talented designers and artisans out there, one has to advertise and market and do all those things that I just got done chastising "those guys" for doing above. My hope is that the handmade quality of my work and attention to detail that goes into each item outshines anything else. And if you're a minimalist like me...in fact, let me reverse a bit.

I actually started this post to spotlight my minimalist leather wallets. My intentions were to tell you to buy a minimalist wallet. To advertise. Shame on me. I totally use one myself though and love it.

In fact it replaced my 200 lb Michael Kors wallet that I'd had for a couple years that carried everything AND the kitchen sink. They really are great gift ideas for men, or anyone really who needs to carry just some cash and maybe a few cards with them. They hold everything snugly and will adjust to fit your cards over time. Chances are, they'll last forever. That's the great thing about them; they not only get better with age, they also look better with age, with wear, and time. Unlike most modern conveniences and junk that we're sold everyday, things that break or don't work correctly right out of the box, these babies are classic, timeless, and durable AF.

So that's that. If you happen to be in the market for a slim wallet OR need a quick gift idea for your BFF OR something else entirely that justifies a wallet purchase, head on over here to pick one up!

As always, a big TY for the support.

❤