Is a ruthless clear-out the key to true happiness? Extreme minimalist reveals how getting rid of almost ALL of his belongings finally made him content (and he even threw out his BED)
- Fumio Sasaki, 36, from Tokyo was miserable and compared himself to others
- Started to embrace minimalism and spent five years downsizing belongings
- Time spent cleaning and shopping is now devoted to friends and travel
- Even lets go of precious sentimental items and treasures memory instead
Decluttering has become the holy grail of modern lifestyle in recent years, thanks to the phenomenal global success of tidying guru Marie Kondo.
But now extreme minimalist Fumio Sasaki, 36, an editor from Tokyo, looks set to take the Kondo crown with his book Goodbye, Things, which is published in English this week.
Saski advocates getting rid of 90 per cent of your possessions after transforming his unhappy life by striping his Tokyo apartment of as many belongings as possible, and uses the time he'd previously spent cleaning and shopping to travel, pursue new hobbies and catch up with friends.
He now says he's more content than ever, but previously Fumio constantly compared himself with wealthier friends, sought refuge in alcohol, and even ended a relationship because he couldn't see a future for them in his inferior financial position.
I couldn’t focus on anything, and I was always wasting time,' he told The Guardian. 'I didn’t try to change; I thought this was all just part of who I was, and I deserved to be unhappy.'
But then he discovered the concept of decluttering and started reading Marie Kondo, and devoted the next five years to downsizing his possessions, going so far as to get rid of his TV, bed and kitchen table, sleeping on a fold-out futon and relying on a capsule wardrobe of three shirts, four pairs of trousers, and four pairs of socks.
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While Marie Kondo advocates getting rid of anything that doesn't bring you joy, Saski's philosophy is more extreme.
He believes it's fine to let go of things that bring you joy and sentimental items that you hold dear, because the memory of them remains.
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'If it was a letter or a card that was really important to me, I remember every word in the card and the letter. It’s all inside me. So even though the material is gone, I still hold it very dearly in my heart,' he told Cosmopolitan.com.
'Now I enjoy challenging myself to try new things, going outdoors, scuba diving, running a marathon. A lot of things I used to think I wouldn’t be able to do, like it wasn’t for me, now I’m allowing myself to try those things.'
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