Thank you very much.
I took a quick survey of our apartment and found to my horror that I now own 37 things.
The increase is largely in the clothes department, having to cater for Montreal's extreme summers and winters (something I never had to contend with in Scotland, where the only weather is a stable and untroubling grey).
Additionally, my partner (also a minimalist but not as obsessive/unsentimental as I am) owns stuff. Though I don't share ownership of any of her stuff (pre-nup!) I still feel responsibility for it. I use some of her stuff after all and I'd have to
schlep half of it in a move. Brings up interesting semantic questions about what we mean by ownership.
We're moving to Scotland for a while next year. This will prompt some jettisoning and maybe I can get back down to ~20 things. Nothing like a move to motivate pairing down.
Here's a little forum bonus on the subject of minimalism. An illustrator friend and I are making a tiny book called [something like] "The Minimalist Book of Minimalism" for which I'm writing 20 minimalist maxims. Trying to make them as succinct as possible. I'm not happy with the list yet, but here's an early draft.
01. Need little
02. Ownership is merely proximity
03. Everything's on loan
04. It starts and ends in the Earth
05. Access trumps ownership
06. Style trumps fashion
07. Reduce until optimal.
08. Asset or liability?
09. Sunday Best every day
10. Ventilate
11. Cut it loose / let it go / release it into the wild
12. Shops can be museums
13. Would acquisition facilitate appreciation?
14. Better than its volume in space?
15. You're here, not there
16. Less to maintain and less to carry
17. Air and water are priceless
18. Consume less to work less
19. Be resourceful: one object, multiple uses
20. Nothing to hide