# Living minimally

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2015-11-01

architect-this-city, atc, athiscity, evernote, halloween, home, house, housing, laneway, laneway-home, laneway-house, laneway-housing, life, lin-yutang, minimalism, small-spaces, the-minimalists, uncategorized, uniform, wisdom

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f95e1d72cabc3934746df5a21d4ecc26.jpg)

> _“The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” – Lin Yutang  
> _

Yesterday I posted the above photo on social media with the caption: 

> _“This year I decided to go ALL OUT for Halloween.”_ 

A friend then responded and said: 

> _“A minimalist does Halloween. Love it.”_

I’ve been called a minimalist many times before. And it is certainly something that I think about. Oftentimes I feel like life is a constant battle against physical and mental clutter. But that the more you can rid yourself of that clutter, the happier and freer you will feel.

It’s why I scan most of my paperwork into Evernote and then throw out the hard copies. It’s why I tend to wear a lot of white dress shirts and black t-shirts – it keeps life simple and reduces decision making. And it’s one of the reasons I’m so attracted to [laneway houses](http://brandondonnelly.com/post/102805630828/why-its-next-to-impossible-to-get-a-laneway-house) and [small spaces](http://brandondonnelly.com/post/131924083108/how-small-is-too-small). I don’t think most of us need as much home as we think we do.

If this is something that also interests you, I recommend checking out a blog called [The Minimalists](http://www.theminimalists.com/). I just recently subscribed to them.

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/living-minimally)*