Just two days ago I told my teenage daughter that after much thought, I was considering the option of entering the minimalist lifestyle. She smiled because she assures me that I could not live following this trend or lifestyle, due to my reputation of being a compulsive shopper of nonsense and unnecessary things.
Well, I must say that I have had to accept that certainly, in the past, I used to buy unnecessary things just because they were on sale or simply because I liked them, but not because they fulfilled a function or were important or necessary for my life.
When I emigrated from my country and I had to live in a very small apartment with reduced space, I had to rethink some shopping habits; I started to buy only what was strictly necessary for our stay in this country.
After three years of living in a very limited space, I realized that I didn't really need all those things I had at home in Venezuela.
I must confess that I was actually a compulsive buyer of things that I rarely used. This is coupled with my collecting gene, I like to collect and save things. For example, I like coffee mugs, I had more than ten coffee mugs just for me, when in reality I only need one.
Before I left the country I had to put most of my things away and I realized that I had a lot of containers and kitchen utensils that I never used. I also had some sports equipment that I didn't use because I don't really like to exercise.
Talking about my children's toys and clothes is another even more absurd story. My children's rooms looked like a toy museum and I always had to be building overhead shelves to store them.
My son collects toys and my daughter collects dolls and stuffed animals.
Not to mention libraries full of books and encyclopedias of animals and insects. All of this seemed completely normal to me until I had to build two additional rooms in our house, one of them as storage for unused things and toys of our children who are grown up but refuse to let go of them. The other room as a study for libraries and all kinds of gadgets like computers, printers and video game consoles.
When reading this many of you might think that we were a wealthy family, but nothing could be further from the truth, our family was a family with an average income, we were not poor, but we were not wealthy either, we simply spent, we allowed ourselves to spend on one or another silly thing from time to time with the premise that we would need it at some point. That was how little by little we accumulated unnecessary things.
Now our lifestyle is very different but not out of our own conscience, all this change has been forced by circumstances. Every time I see something I like, the first thing I think is: Where am I going to put it, if we don't have space, or when I go back to my country I won't be able to take it with me. Just thinking about this makes me give up the idea of buying it.
However, after a lot of analysis I think it would be very convenient for me to adopt the minimalist lifestyle, not only because it will help my economy but also because it will make me a better human being because I will be able to get rid of many material things and concentrate on what is really important.
Being a minimalist does not mean being stingy or extremely thrifty; it means having what is necessary to lead a healthy and simple life. This does not mean that we must give up our whims, it means that we will focus on what truly brings value and meaning to our lives.
That is why each person determines which things he or she is willing to give up and which things he or she wants to keep.
The advantage of a minimalist lifestyle is that it allows us to live a more orderly life in every way, not only economically and financially, but also in the work, social and emotional aspects.
Being able to live only with what is necessary and with everything that brings value and meaning to our lives, discarding everything that does not add up and everything that hurts us or we do not need in our lives, from purely material things to habits, emotions and feelings.
I am definitely determined to embark on this philosophy of life, I am well aware that it will not be an easy path as I like to make crafts with recycling and usually collect things to reuse; I also like to collect things, but I will try to give another twist to these habits and become a minimalist person.
I really enjoyed writing for this contest because thanks to this I can get to know the community and learn a lot more about this lifestyle. I take this opportunity to invite my friends 
Thanks for reading, greetings and blessings.
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The text has been trnaslated from spanish using Deepl translator.
