Are you a minimalist crafter? Do you want to be? What does it even MEAN?
The word manifesto has such terrible connotations, but I really like the idea of having a manifesto or a firm statement of beliefs about different things that I do.
Writing a manifesto, or mission statement, or whatever you want to call it, clarifies your thinking and reminds you why it is you do what you do.
Why Minimalist Crafter?
I started this website because I was fed up with all the stuff in my office/craft room.
It had been a mess for YEARS.
And for years I had been saying THIS would be the year when I finally got my shit together and did something about it.
Spoiler alert: that never happened.
Or I would start (I’m SO good at starting things) and be really enthusiastic and fired up about it for a few days. I’d give away a big bag of yarn or a box of random supplies and I would feel GOOD.
But then I’d get busy again, or bored, or tired, or overwhelmed (or, let’s be honest, all of the above) and I’d just quit with the job half (OK, honesty again, less than half) done every time.
Did I mention this went on for YEARS?
Is There Another Way?
Eventually I got bored of listening to myself talk about how great it was going to be when my office was finally clean. All the things I was going to make, the new opportunities that space would literally open up for me.
I mean, I’ve been writing about it in my morning pages for ages, so I really did a lot of thinking and writing and beating myself up about it, which is both totally boring and unhealthy.
There had to be another way, right? A way in which I actually managed to do what I said I wanted to do all those years?
And so Minimalist Crafter was born.
What is a Minimalist Crafter?
The idea is that most of us know what too much looks like. We know what it feels like. We know we have too much stuff, we just don’t know what to do about it.
We need to strike a balance where we have less and make more. Where everything we have inspires us, and the stuff we don’t like or that makes us feel guilty for not using it gets out of our house forever.
It’s not about getting rid of everything. Being a minimalist crafter is not the kind of minimalism where you only have two plates and two spoons.
It should always feel like you have enough.
Enough to be inspired.
Enough to make what you want to make.
And nothing more.
It’s a Journey
It’s always going to be a process, and I’m not done, if there is such a thing as done.
But I can feel a change, a shift in energy, a delight in getting rid of things, clearing things out, actually seeing what I have and all the things I want to make with them.
That’s what being a minimalist crafter means to me. Keep less, make more. I’d love to know what it means to you, or what your stumbling blocks are along the way.
