Living with less?

One of the threads of thought floating through my mind over the last half year is the concept of minimalist life. Living with less. Fewer things means less time cleaning, searching, or maintaining the things I own.

There are a number of blogs out there about clearing out clutter, and living more simply, and there are a number of blogs about paring life down to the bare essentials. A few about living with as little as 100 things.

I have rolled these ideas around in my mind for quite a while.

Coming to Germany, I was forced to reduce my posessions in a repeated cycle of choosing fewer and fewer things I could take with me. On arrival here, my personal possessions consisted of a couple laptops and other hardware, some clothes, a lot of Warhammer and Warmachine stuff, a collection of DVDs a few books, and a couple of things which held some significance to me.

Since arriving, I've kept pretty close to that list of stuff (though I have acquired more books and models). Of the things I actually own, the list isn't much greater than it was. But, I've been put in charge of more things, simply by association. The shared items of the house (furniture, dishes, etc.) fall under the domain of things I need to maintain and keep in working order. (The Germans simplify that into the simple word: Ordnung.)

I should very much like to take on the task of simplifying the world around me. Reduce the number of owned items, if only to give me fewer things that need cleaning. But, I don't feel like I am really in control of the shared items. They simply aren't mine to decide what to do with them.

I like the concept posed by minimalist living. I just don't know if I could make that work in the environment I am in.