One of the basics of minimalism is that you eliminate as many non-necessities as you can, to make room for what's important.

    If you don't need a ton of clothing, you get rid of much of it. If you don't need that new gadget, you don't buy it. Within reason, of course.

    You learn to be content with what you already have, with the necessities, with doing things you love rather than having things.

    But it's funny, because often things we assume are necessities are not necessarily so. The problem is that we categorize things as necessities because we're used to them, and we can't see how to live without them. And it's difficult to make big changes.

    Some examples:

    * A car.Cars are seen as necessities, but amazingly, people lived without them for quite awhile before the 20th century. Even today, some people manage to go carless. And it's not impossible - especially if you live in a place with a decent public transportation system. And there are car sharing options now in many cities, so you can use a car when you need it, for much less than actually owning a car. It's possible to bike and walk most places, and take public transit and shared cars everywhere else.

    * Meat.Many people believe they can't live without steaks and burgers. And I was one of them. These days, I'm not only vegetarian, but mostly vegan. And it's not that hard to change, if you do it slowly. It's also healthier and better for the environment - meat and dairy animals are tremendously harmful to the environment and a huge waste of our natural resources.

    * Lots of clothes.While I don't advocate going naked （though some do it） nor do I recommend just owning one outfit, it is possible to own less clothing than most people have. We don't need to constantly buy clothes to stay fashionable - we can buy quality, timeless clothing, with colors and patterns chosen so that all our clothes go with each other.

    * A big house.Have less stuff, you need less house.

    These are just a few examples - think about all the things you consider necessities. Are they really? What's really needed, beyond food, shelter, basic clothing, and loved ones?

    簡約主義的基本要素之一就是要盡可能多地拋棄你生活中那些非必需品，給真正重要的事情以足夠的空間。

    如果你根本不需要成堆的衣服，那就丟棄絕大部分。如果你不需要那個新的工具，請不要購買。 當然這都需要一定的理由。

    你應該學著對自己擁有的東西感到滿足，對必需品感到滿足，對你喜愛做的事情而不是你的擁有感到滿足。

    但有趣的是，那些被我們當作必需品的東西未必真的是必需的。問題的原因在于我們早已習慣了這些東西，因此就把它們當作必需品，我們無法看到沒有它們的生活將是怎樣。的確，做出大的改變是一件困難的事情。

    比如：

    * 一輛汽車。汽車被認為是必需品，但是令人吃驚的是，在20世紀前人們沒有它一樣生活了很久。即使今天，有些人也可以做到不使用汽車。這是可能的--特別當你居住在一個具備發達的公共交通系統的地方。同時，現在有很多城市都有租車的選擇，因此你可以在需要時使用汽車，這比完全擁有一輛汽車要簡單很多。騎自行車和走路可以去多數地方，乘坐公車或租車可以幫你到任何地方。

    * 肉類。許多人認為沒有牛排和漢堡將無法生活。我也是他們中的一個。這些天，我不僅吃素，而且幾乎成了徹底的素食主義者。做出這樣的改變并不困難，如果你慢慢地做出改變，這對個人健康和環境都大有好處--肉食和乳制品對于環境都有很大的危害，同時也是對自然資源的極大破壞。

    * 很多衣物。我并不贊成裸奔，也不推薦僅有一套外套，但對多數人來說衣物還是可以再少一些。我們并不需要不停的購買衣服以追求時尚，我們可以買高品質、不過時的衣服，挑選合適的顏色和款式以求衣服之間可以靈活搭配。

    * 大房子。少擁有一些東西，小的房子就夠了。

    這些只是個別的例子，考慮一下所有你認為是生活必需品的東西吧。 它們真的是嗎？除了食物，房子，基本的衣服和喜愛的東西，什么是真正必需的？