I have drastically minimalized over the last couple years. I sold my stupid big house, now I rent. I got rid of most of my stuff. I have minimal furniture, empty walls, I started biking everywhere instead of driving. I am much happier.
People who own "everything", including owning a house, plenty of belongings, a car et al, are more happy to pursue minimalism.
People who own "nothing", including renting a house, not much in the way of belongings or a car, are more likely to pursue maximalism.
I think what we can establish from it is that people want different things at different times of life in different circumstances. What suits a young person who loves to travel doesn't necessarily suit someone with a family of their own.
What demographic do you fall under?
Renting does not imply a shoebox apartment or a mediocre house in the suburbs.
I´ve moved something like 12 times in my life, as a kid, as a young adult, maried man with kids, now divorced one with shared custody. I've lived in studios, appartments, houses, most rented but 2 owned. My conclusion is whatever space you have you might end up using all of it and only because it is available, not because you are using all that shit.
I got back to renting close to a large city center because I wanted to get rid of cars and be able to go anywhere with my bicycle, have the kids walk to school , to their friends place or outside without me having to drive them left and right. Leaving in family do not mean you need so much things/space, hobbies don't have to require space. Also a lot of things can be shared with neighbors.
However my work laptop takes quite a beating from daily commute, work travel, etc and usually winds up needing a repair every one or two years. I probably need a hard case, but I guess there’s a bit of moral hazard when work has AppleCare for all the laptops.
For instance: owning a 10 years old thinkpad running st and a window manager as your main computer signals very highly among the right circles. The difference is they call excess as bloat.
Still I don't consider I am living in minimalism because I am not living alone and I leave alongside a ton of shit from my gf and kids. The living room is basically my only minimalist space in the appartment.
Minimalism, the rich people kind, is what happens when you've sampled the limits of various things and realize nothing will make you care about 95% of them. So you discard that 95% without any risk of FOMO because you've been there and done that. This is the peace of mind that allows them to focus their time and money on the 5% of things that do matter to them. These kinds of minimalists don't have much stuff, but what they do have tends to be extremely high quality and functional. It is a difference between economic minimalism and domain minimalism.
The trajectory from forced minimalism to maximalism back to intentional minimalism is not going to be inexpensive for most people. Like many people, I followed this trajectory to its logical conclusion. Looking back, it isn't obvious to me that it is possible to skip the maximalist step. It provides critical context that allows someone to understand where not to minimalize, which will be different for every person.
Someone once told me that there are some homeless people in Berkeley who actually have trust funds but find the homeless experience liberating. Not sure how true that is.
But the funds come with strings: stop doing drugs, stop being gay, go in to the family business, etc.
The liberation is having an autonomous life from controlling family, not the act of being homeless.
You think you don't smell bad.