An IKEA Store along Alexandra Road in Queenstown, Singapore. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ever been to IKEA? Of course you have, of course you have.

I think the first time I paged through an IKEA catalogue was in the early 80’s, and I’d go through it again and again deciding what I would put into my future house. Fill it up with all that stuff.

Why would a child do that I wonder – a sense of stability or security perhaps. Maybe making a place my own. Boredom. Yeah it could have been boredom. Anything pre-personal computer could be because of that.

I am reaching a point in my life where I want to follow a minimalist approach to possessions  A bookcase with books of great personal value, the computer, a suit and so on. The bed, a couple of plates, a bowl, some forks and knives. The TV, a couch, a dining table. All those things would stay. The other 20 tonnes of junk is suffocating and needs to go. I have a blue coloured plastic potato masher in the second draw of my kitchen buffet. Never used it. Never will. Having that and the other thousands of pieces of crap is a mental burden that, if removed, might well allow me to invest some mental energy into other more productive endeavours.

Want to see what a house with less crap in it looks like? Here is a good place to start, and Miss Minimalist is a great site to spend some time. No matter how many images I see of what goes for minimalist design, the template of choice is in Orson Scott Card’s third Endor masterpiece – Xenocide, in which the character Han Fei-tzu has very little besides a futon and a series of workstations, dark wooden floorboards, and there must be some socks in there somewhere, but it was 20 years ago so maybe not.

I reckon that IKEA is actually a good place to buy stuff to help with a minimalist lifestyle, as long as that is the way you are going to live. Otherwise, it is just more stuff holding more crap. Container ships full of it; tonnes of one bag at a time filling up our homes.

So my friends, no matter how you shop, some IKEA stores are handing out their cafe generated used coffee grounds. That is very exciting news, so support them if you get the chance. Maybe buy an icecream and leave the little tissue they give you in their bin, don’t take it home! But if you need a brand new potato masher…