Two years ago, I thought that my apartment building would be sold and therefore I'd need to move. I looked around my bedroom that I had slowly and intentionally built up to fit my needs and preferences and realized I had way too much... shit. 

So like any sane adult, I got deeply into minimalism and started decluttering my room. Most of my belongings outside of the kitchen were in my room and I realized that living like that is a surefire way to make a room feel messy (but have you seen housing prices??) So instead I focused on losing clothes and fighting my urge to save "nice boxes". I went down the minimalist youtube rabbit hole and quickly picked up minimalist habits that also fed the environmentalist side of my brain. I have broad opinions on this side of decluttering, on scarsity mindset, on my own personal finances regarding what I should and shouldn't keep, but one that has been iritating me for a while is the use of the term "minimal-ish". 

Minimalism began as an artistic and aesthetic choice, but lately has come to mean anything that is "stripped down". According to Oxford Languages (aka a Google Search) the only two definitions include a) "a trend in sculpture and painting that arose in the 1950s and used simple, typically massive, forms" and b) "an avant-garde movement in music characterized by the repetition of very short phrases which change gradually, producing a hypnotic effect". Scrapping the second one, even the first definition doesn't fit the way that we're using it now for homes. Some would say that Minimalist design is stripping everything back and choosing to go without style or adornment. As much as I loved this white IKEA sleek, modern aesthetic in my university days, I crave color and I crave places to both hide and display things. 

I like TheMinimalists' definition, "Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of life's excess in favor of focusing on what's important". I focus far too much time on things that are not truly important to me and so this resonated with me. One of my favorite YouTubers is "The Minimal Mom" who does videos on decluttering, living with less, and streamlining your lifestyle. She's direct and she has an excellent way of rationalizing this decluttering mindset. She lives with less furniture, less clothing, less toys, and less of just about everything else - except those things that are deeply important to her. She is the MINIMAL mom, but she refuses to call herself a "full minimalist", she's "minimal-ish". 

This feels to me like a way to cover for the fact her house doesn't look like a brutalist prison cell and avoid the negative comments that say she's not minimal enough, but I feel like the goal for me is to call myself a minimalist, because calling oneself a minimalist means to live by the ideals of living with less, of focusing on what's important, and of ridding your life of the excess that is getting in the way. 

She is not alone in this proclamation of not really being minimalist. Many suburban mom's make similar content and yet none feel comfortable saying they're minimalists.Their houses are clean and organized - but not barren. They have enough to get by and to enjoy their lives - but aren't making all of their skin care from coconut oil and charcoal. To be a minimalist is to strive for less, in much the same way folks who identify as Christians strive to live a life that follows Jesus. One does not need to be hung on the cross to follow in his footsteps (if you believe in him) and yet why does one need to live in a cold, white box to call oneself a minimalist. 

But I understand, people live in black-and-white and the kind of person who comments on a YouTube video is the kind of person who thinks the Minimal Mom isn't minimal enough - and so I'd like to consider another term we can begin using:

"Intentionalism"

This also has artistic meanings as well as linguistic ones, but if Shakespeare can make new words, then so can I. In my mind, this is an excellent way to explain defining one's life by the intentional removal of excess; the intentional focus on things that are important to your life.  Another online Minimalist account, fittingly known as "Becoming Minimalist" defines minimalism as "intentionally promoting the things we most value and removing everything that distracts us from it". I LOVE this version because it includes not only that Minimalism is about the way you do things, but also about WHY. You use the TOOL that is minimalism to reduce excess because you INTEND to focus on important things. In this sense, one is not a minimalist, you are an Intentionalist. You center your life about doing things intentionally which can bleed into other areas such as how you furnish your home, how you organize your home, how you set up your kitchen, how you clean, how you work, and how you live. 

Perhaps there's already a term out there that more accurately describes this and isn't tied to more opaque philosophical musings, but I like this word to describe the Minimal Mom's focus on WHY over WHAT. For her and many others, it's not about owning the "correct" number of plates, but intentionally keeping the number of plates that works for this season of life. To embrace Minimalism is intentional, so I feel you should use it to become more Intentionalist. 

Perhaps I'll talk more about the other things that Intentionalism could promote beyong minimalism, like how being intentional could help you become a more earth conscious citizen. How intentionalism could define a relationship. It's something to muse on, that's for sure.