More people are getting rid of clutter and keeping purchases down to a bare minimum, Yang Feiyue reports.

Yang Zhihua, a minimalism consultant, reads a book at home in Beijing. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

It may be an oxymoron but it still rings true, especially these days. More people are realizing the benefits of "less is more" after cutting their life down to the bare necessities.

Take Yang Zhihua for example. It used to be almost torturous for him to decide what he should wear before leaving his apartment.

There are too many things that compete for our attention. If we don’t set boundaries, we will be very tired

Yang Zhihua, a Beijing-based minimalism consultant

"I didn't have a good physique, so I hoped to cover it up with clothes and make myself look better," says the Beijing resident in his early 40s.

When the clothes he bought failed to do the trick, he went looking for more that might.

"I suspected that, maybe the clothes I bought were not good enough, so I began to buy my way up to luxury items," he says.

The scales fell from Yang's eyes when he found that even those expensive clothes couldn't give him the image of himself he had in his mind.

To make things worse, they became a burden. He owned about 1,000 items of clothing at the peak of his spending spree.

Most of them ended up being buried in the deep recesses of his wardrobe.

"You don't want to wear a piece of clothing if it doesn't look good on you," Yang says. Worse still, they cluttered his living space, he adds.

That was when he started to do some soul-searching and decided on solving his image problem at the source.

"I started to work out and pay attention to what I ate based on relevant science," Yang says.

It took just several months before he saw an improvement in his body shape, and he was excited to see that anything, whatever it cost, looked nice on him.

The experience made Yang realize that freeing himself of his obsession toward clothes gave him more time to do things that are actually beneficial. It also motivated him to review his previous lifestyle.

Letting it go

Before 2012, Yang recalls, he had never thought twice about buying things he wanted.

It turned out to be double trouble.

"I couldn't save money and the things I bought became a burden," Yang says. "Moreover, it was spiritually painful when you went out of your way to impress people who just couldn't appreciate (your efforts)."

Seeing the error of his ways, Yang first dealt with his piled-up clothes.

He cut his items of clothing down to 20 for all four seasons, before moving onto his other belongings, including furniture.

He got rid of the old sofa, TV stand and bedstead, and brought in a table with wheels.

"My home was bigger and more comfortable, easier to clean with the robot vacuum," he says, adding that he could just move the mattress to do yoga in the living room, enjoy sunshine on the balcony in winter and avoid the summer heat in the shade with his movable table.

All of these practical benefits encouraged Yang to carry on the reductive lifestyle to achieve just the bare necessities and to live more simply.

He has confined phone use to one hour a day and never stockpiles food.

"There are too many things that compete for our attention. If we don't set boundaries, we will be very tired," Yang explains.

Qiao Sang, a minimalist, who works at a travel agency in Hebei province, practices yoga at home in Shijiazhuang. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Gain beyond pain

A windfall of Yang's change of lifestyle came after he shared his experiences online.

Publication houses approached him and helped him publish two books in 2017 and 2019.

Yang's followers started to grow.

Everyone should find their own minimalist lifestyle... You will discover many interesting things about life while experimenting

Qiao Sang, a minimalist, who works in a travel agency in Hebei province

To date, he has accrued about 1 million fans on various social media platforms, including Douban, WeChat and Douyin, which has enabled him to start a business as a minimalism consultant.

He also holds a monthly Spartan life training session.

"Most of us have found that problems can be easily spotted and dealt with, when things are simplified," Yang says.

"People are giving me positive feedback and, when I find out that I've helped improve their life, or their family relationships, it empowers me to keep doing what I do."

As far as Yang's understanding of a Spartan life or minimalism goes, he says it should boil down to personal choice.

"Most people can only stick to it if they feel the benefits," he says.

Yang is part of an increasing number adopting an accumulation-averse lifestyle. They have trimmed personal items to a minimum, and thrown away or donated unwanted things.

For necessities, they choose the best within their budget and make full use of them.

From spender to saver

In North China's Hebei province, Qiao Sang has carried on her abstinent lifestyle for more than two months.

The young woman, born in the 1990s, began out of curiosity and has fully fallen for it.

Her home has since been reduced to six pieces of furniture, including a dining table with a chair, a sofa and a mirror next to it.

In her closet, only a few clothes are left hanging, which was a far cry from her past life.

"I used to buy clothes in bulk," Qiao says.

Since college, Qiao had indulged her urge to shop with her ability to make money through part-time jobs.

She acted as a tour guide for expats in Beijing over the weekends, which gave her 3,000-4,000 yuan (US$465-620) a month. "The easy money encouraged my desire for buying," Qiao says.

Qiao does paragliding in Turkey in 2016. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

She spent what she earned and continued this way of living after she graduated from college and got a job in a travel agency.

In her craziest shopping moments, she would buy several hats of the same style, just in different colors.

"I could buy the things I wanted, because money spent could always be made back," she says.

She didn't realize the burden of her years of consumerism until she was about to move into her newly-purchased apartment, with a floor space of about 90 square meters, in Shijiazhuang, provincial capital of Hebei, in 2019.

"My home was designed with no storage space," Qiao says.

It forced her to take stock of her belongings.

That was when she found that many of her 200 items of clothing and 40 pairs of shoes had barely been touched over the years.

So, she gave most away and only kept those she wears often.

"Life suddenly became easy and convenient," Qiao says, adding that she no longer has to waste time worrying about what to wear.

Constant self-reflection

When Qiao broadcast herself doing yoga in the vacant space of her home last year, her audience, who thought of her as a minimalist, suggested she take her simple living further.

Qiao has since scaled back on ordering takeout. She buys fresh food every day and cooks herself.

Whenever she feels like buying something, the item must justify itself: She will ask herself if she will use it often and if it is worth the space it will take.

Currently, Qiao is assured that everything in her apartment is a necessity.

"Not spending has given me time to think of things at work and observe other people's mentality," she says.

"I also read a lot more than before," she adds. She has read 30 books since mid-November.

So far, Qiao has kept daily tabs of things she consumes and shares her experience with her 90,000 followers on the popular social commerce platform Xiaohongshu, also known as Little Red Book.

She has used her influence and brought together people who are interested in living the simplest possible life in two WeChat groups. Each group has more than 400 members.

"It is more like a trading platform, and people can give away things they don't need to those that do," she says. "All transactions are free of charge."

Qiao advises her followers not to focus too much on the definition of "freeganism", an extremely low consumption lifestyle.

"Everyone should find their own minimalist lifestyle, with the bottom line being reasonable in terms of nutrition and food safety," Qiao says. "You will discover many interesting things about life while experimenting."

Contact the writer at yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn