I Was Rolling My Tee-Shirts Long Before Marie Kondo

For some crazy reason people think minimalism is something new. It’s not. It’s just a new term for simple living. And it’s been going on forever. In fact, I was rolling my tee-shirts long before Marie Kondo’s, The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up. There’s nothing new under the sun.

For the record: I’ve been rolling my tee-shirts since 1987. I bring this up for two reasons:

1. Minimalism Is Nothing New

In her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo made rolling tee-shirts popular. Some people even may have thought it was a novel and groundbreaking idea.

But simple living is not new. Space-saving ideas have been around ever since people have had to live in small spaces… forever.

In 1987, long before minimalism was a term for living simply, I noted that a friend rolled his tee-shirts and kept them in cubicle shelves. I thought that was a cool idea. I’ve been rolling my own tee-shirts ever since.

King Solomon was right:

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

The only rule I follow is to keep my life simple, similar to how I believe Jesus might have lived. Okay, I have a long way to go with that.

No one really knows if Jesus had his own home, but many scholars believe he did. But they also think that if he did, it was likely a simple home. Learn more here.

But the point is that you don’t have to follow any single set of rules to live simply. What works for me might not work for you. You might hate the idea of rolling your tee-shirts. You might love coffee tables. It’s okay.

I’ve never read Marie Kondo’s book, and I don’t really care if I ever do. Why? Because my simple living journey is my own.

I believe we are much more likely to succeed at something when we take responsibility for it. If we simply follow others, we are less likely to follow through. And if they stray off the trail, so do we. I should know, my parents got into a cult when I was a kid.