Older minimalists

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jacob
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Older minimalists

Post by jacob »

Most minimalist creators (youtube, podcasts, ...) seem to be millennials. I'm wondering whether this is generational or whether I'm just myopic. For example, most organizational advice seems to be dispensed by boomers and genxers, which would make sense, if the underlying "depression era inspired"-habits had not been cured by abundance leading to organizing as a solution. Thus focusing rearranging stuff rather than evaluating the amount of stuff.

Anyhoo ... question is whether anyone know any minimalist youtube channels covering the 55+ demographics?

(Obviously the methods work for anyone, but I'm looking to inspire people at the copy/compare level and thus need to find examples they can identify with.)

chenda
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by chenda »

Oldest ones I know are 40 something... So probably not what you are looking for

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Ego
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by Ego »

Rather than minimalism for the sake of minimalism, I believe older minimalists are minimalists as a result of another all-consuming passion. Rather than inspiring them with a frontal assault, it may be wise to learn what they want out of their remaining years and show them examples of how others got there with the help of minimalism. A technique you may be familiar with.

bostonimproper
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by bostonimproper »

I think it’s temporal (based on life stage). Pretty easy to be a “minimalist” when you’re young and haven’t had time to accumulate.

That said, I’m finding a decent number of hits combining “simple living” + “seniors” so maybe try playing around with keywords? As a millennial, I’ve also seen quite a few “seniors living in tiny home” / van life videos, so that might be another avenue of trends you can draw from.

Cats_and_tats
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by Cats_and_tats »

You might want to think about it in a slightly differing way. For example, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning is about how to get rid of as many of your possessions as possible so that the next generation doesn't have to deal with them. I imagine that there are a lot of boomer age people who have had to in the recent past, or are looking at, getting rid of everything in overstuffed homes from parents, and want to avoid saddling their children with that burden. So rather than looking for boomer age minimalism, there might be another way to find those people. I imagine there is a significant contingent of people who are getting rid of lots of their things for that reason.

My dad and his wife are an example - they wouldn't call it minimalism (and they aren't there), but they have been trying to get rid of as much as they can. They have also used my home (which isn't minimalist, but certainly has many many fewer things than a 'typical' house) as a reference point to having less things around. They recently had to help go through my grandmother's home, and as a depression era kid, she saved EVERYTHING, and I think it opened their eyes to what actually having to do to get rid of all that stuff means. So it might be a different way to search to get the results you are looking for.

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jennypenny
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by jennypenny »

Are you not including people like Daniel Suelo, Mark Boyle, Dan Price, Randy Vining, or Bob Wells? I don't think any of them call themselves minimalists specifically, but that's pretty much what they are and they are all Boomers or Xers. I think the term minimalist is favored by millennials and younger; most people my age see themselves more as independent, which includes embracing minimalism so as to be less beholden to society or to detach from society altogether (Ted Kaczynski is a minimalist ;)).

Millennial minimalism is also more aesthetically minimalist and therefore looks better on youtube. Xer minimalism is more ... hmm ... let's just say the focus is on functionality. 8-)

Western Red Cedar
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Marie Kondo is probably one of the most commercially successful minimalists and I think her book is popular with the boomer demographic. She has a show on Netflix with a couple seasons and some of the episodes feature older households.
Ego wrote:
Tue Dec 28, 2021 12:13 pm
Rather than minimalism for the sake of minimalism, I believe older minimalists are minimalists as a result of another all-consuming passion.
This is what I've noticed as well. I tend to listen to quite a few travel podcasts and YouTubers, and there are plenty of older travelers who promote minimalism, but it's often a part of a larger message.

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Lemur
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by Lemur »

I'm sure they exist - probably a lot not by choice but by circumstance...The 55+ minimalist demographic probably doesn't produce YouTube channels and other content :D . They might be found on Facebook groups at most if they ever made the technological leap for that.

Come to think of it, if Facebook and the like came out about a decade a go then it should be possible to find some channels...but certainly not the quantity that this generation has.

The millennial generation is the side-hustle generation...

shaz
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by shaz »

Speaking as an Xer, minimalism sounds like trendy pretentiousness to me. On the other hand, I and my friends are very interested in downsizing and simplifying our lives. Less housecleaning, maintenance, etc. If a smaller house means there's no room for the kids to move back in, great. If it means MIL won't want to move in, even better!

What jennypenny said about independence is so true.

Marie Kondo may call it "organizing" but really it is downsizing or minimalism, so don't dismiss organization as a keyword.

luxagraf
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by luxagraf »

shaz wrote:
Tue Dec 28, 2021 6:07 pm
Speaking as an Xer, minimalism sounds like trendy pretentiousness to me.
Strongly agree. I think there's a big generational component to that term.

I live in a 26 ft RV with my family of 5 and we have very little stuff, but it's not like I track it all in spreadsheet and make videos about it. Having interacted some with the simple living/mobile community, it's my impression that that's just not something people my age do (though there are plenty of people living it for sure).

Frita
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by Frita »

Is talking about doing something and deluding oneself that is action correlated with age? Based on the puny sample size of my family, those who were adults during the Great Depression got stuff done. The subsequent generations increasingly have had the luxury to putter through life, try little experiments and self-aggrandize. My two centavos is older minimalists are more likely to just get on with it...or post about it ad nauseum on Facebook.

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unemployable
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by unemployable »

I feel old now

VeganJesus
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by VeganJesus »

Some interesting points raised here- while I'm pretty firmly a zoomer and certainly have consumed the minimalism content of The Minimalists and Matt D'Avella types, I can't help but feel like the message is largely universal, though of course what it is minimalism looks like at different stages of life will vary across cultures and individuals. I loved Fumio Sasaki's Goodbye, Things and so did my 53 year old mom, for what that's worth.

My parents recently sold my childhood home and had to deal with getting rid of the mountains of crap accumulated over the decade and a half of them living there, as well as confront the habits that necessitated the purge of the aforementioned crap. Frita makes a good point above mentioning the conviction of the Depression Era habits where essentialism was born out of necessity- Zoomers and Gen X on the other hand grew up in a time where industry saw no problem bombarding children with advertisements to maintain the western material culture we have now. Multiply this exposure by 10 for kids born after 2010 or so.

WFJ
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by WFJ »

luxagraf wrote:
Tue Dec 28, 2021 8:30 pm
Strongly agree. I think there's a big generational component to that term.
Same feeling.

Most of the habits promoted by "minimalist" on YT were passed on in church or community centers for Gen X and above and was mostly done out of survival rather than current virtue signaling.

"The Minimalist" seem to produce a lot of books and videos for being minimalists? My conman Spidey senses go off when watching nearly anyone promoting themselves as minimalists (oxymoron). It is like promoting yourself as anti-social media on Facebook.

J_
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by J_ »

@Jacob: Roger D Taylor, with his boats Mingming I and Mingming II. See his books, and youtube films. Really really minimalist sailor/sailing over 55.

jacob
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by jacob »

I'm not looking for special cases (vans or boats). Swedish death cleaning is a good one but sometimes not the best one to lead with. I suspect Kondo also have appeal. I'm looking for examples that people who live in houses or apartments can see themselves in presuming that they'll fail to relate to a 20 year old talking about iThings or living out of their backpack.

Copy/Compare stage. WL1-3.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by Western Red Cedar »

I think the Marie Kondo series would probably be good to lead with. Her book outlines her process and philosophy, but the Netflix series seems almost specifically designed for the WL 1-3 inspire/copy/compare approach. In addition to examples, each episode has some kind of story or theme to tug at the heartstrings (saving the family w/ tidying, resolving sibling conflict w/ tidying, decluttering after a partner passes, etc...).

https://www.netflix.com/title/80209379

Married2aSwabian
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by Married2aSwabian »

DW spends some time on this YouTube channel:

https://youtube.com/c/GreenRenaissanceFilms

Very professionally done short films about simplicity, minimalism and mindful life philosophy.

Not just minimalism, but plenty of videos featuring us old folks … because hey, let’s face it, we’re the wise ones! :lol:

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jennypenny
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by jennypenny »

I'm still not sure you'll find any Xers or Boomers calling themselves minimalists (minimalism is partly possible because of the digital age). You might have to look for equivalent movements instead. For Xers, I'd say the equivalent is structured cleaning and professional organizing, which were born in the '80s. I remember people like Flylady (Marla Cilley), Sidetracked Home Executives (Pam Young and Peggy Jones), and various CHAOS* adoptees (a lot of 'organized mom' stuff -- it was mostly geared toward women back then).

Peter Walsh is another OG in the minimizing space. He was a favorite of Oprah's for a while. I remember liking his book "It's All Too Much".


*CHAOS = can't have anyone over syndrome

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C40
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Re: Older minimalists

Post by C40 »

jacob wrote:
Tue Dec 28, 2021 10:43 am
Most minimalist creators (youtube, podcasts, ...) seem to be millennials.
I don't think it's generational

Most creators using those formats are millennials.

People who share advice about these kind of things are more likely to be sharing while or shortly after they transitioned to it. If an old minimalist has been a minimalist for a long time, they are unlikely to talk about it much. It would be and feel normal to them

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