People tend to fetishize minimalism. Cue the annoying Marie Kondo memes...
Truth is, minimalism is a rich person's game.
As an adult I never had enough money to have too much food in my fridge, let alone too many consumer goods cluttering up my house. Honestly, the idea of having all kinds of extra clothing and gadgets laying around sounds a little like a dream come true.
What's So Good About It
Besides, who said that minimalism was an answer to anything?
What do you think is going to happen? Do you think that if you get rid of all the excess, you will be left with exactly the right things?
Do you imagine a clean home with a few dozen of the perfect objects, each placed in the perfect spot? Cuz this is a pipe dream.
Most artists I know tend to be maximalists. They don't pare down to the bare essentials.
The key skill is not minimalism. The key skill is organization.
Where Minimalism Fails
You can't minimalist your way into a high fidelity recording of an orchestra - you need great cable management and a solid conductor. And a whole lot of money.
I suspect that minimalism is a false catch-all solution for society's woes, one that does not exactly work. The idea is, we have so much stuff and we still aren't happy - maybe we just need to get rid of everything!
I for one prefer to cultivate stability within chaos -- and my kind of chaos requires more than the bare minimum of physical objects laying around.
What about you? Do you vibe with extreme minimalism? Or are you, like me, more of a maximalist?