I have only five pairs of shoes. My clothes fit a slim wardrobe and a dresser. My bedroom interiors are sparse and zen-like, making it an oasis of calm in my two-bedroom apartment. 

But if some folks have a peek at my personal library, well, they may accuse me of not being a committed minimalist.

Because I have about 100+ physical books. Perhaps 200. And 80% of these are unread.

The reason why I have such a high number of unread books is because a) I almost always give away or sell books that I have read b) Malaysia has awesome book sales, and for the life of me, I can’t resist them. Most of the books in the picture above (except the James SA Corey novels) were bought for a song; they were all remainder books in pristine condition that I bought for about RM5 (about US$1.20) each. How do you resist such deals? I’m only human after all. And I often buy a goodly number of these books during sales, which is why my TBR is hardly below 30 at any time.

Recently, my shelf literally broke under the strain of my books and I had to move all of them out into the hall.

I took that opportunity to cull my books Konmari style. I ended up selling about more than a dozen, gave away that much, and gave 16 to the Subang Jaya book exchange. And it felt awesome, like a weight coming off me.

When the new book cabinet came in and I moved the slimmed down book collection in, a curious thing happened. I stepped back, admired my collection and thought: Well, aren’t they lovely?

Despite the culling, I still have 100+ books. And, you know what? I didn’t mind that at all. I felt that I now have the right number of books in my personal library and look forward to reading and savouring them slowly over time.

This goes to show that minimalism doesn’t have to look a certain way.  You don’t need to have 33 clothes in your closet or only 100 things in your apartment.

Minimalism can look any way you want.  

You should have the number of (insert a type of stuff) that you’re comfortable with, as long as every item is needed and cherished.

And, for now, I love each one of my 100+ books on my shelf … until I read them and pass them on to bless others. 🙂