The start of a new year often carries the promise of fresh beginnings and lighter burdens. For many of us, January comes with an itch to (re)organise – closets are purged, drawers tidied, and resolutions renewed (remember that carried-forward promise to lose weight?).
But this year, I stumbled upon something more profound, thanks to Fumio Sasaki’s 2015 ‘Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism’. The book isn’t just about tidying your home; it’s about clearing your life of unnecessary baggage (both physical and non-physical) and rediscovering what truly matters.
Sasaki’s minimalist philosophy hit me hard. He writes about the liberation that comes from letting go – not just of physical items but of the invisible weight they carry. Inspired, I decided to declutter my own life, starting with something that most of us rarely think about – my phone.
When was the last time you scrolled through your photo gallery? For me, it had been years! I’d accumulated years’ worth (since 2021, to be exact) of pictures and videos – snapshots of skies, selfies and wefies, and meals I barely remembered eating. Each image was a digital “thing” with its own stories, quietly occupying space, both on my device and in my mind.
So, I took a deep breath and started deleting.
At first, it felt uncomfortable, even reckless. What if I forgot the memory tied to that photo of my 2019 birthday cake? (The last birthday before Covid-19, you know?) Or the slow-motion video of my youngest son’s first penalty kick goal? But as I kept swiping away, something magical happened: my head felt that bit lighter. And the more I deleted, the lighter it became.
You see, deleting those files didn’t erase the memories; it just removed the unnecessary weight of keeping them chained to my present. It was like hearing Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’ and finally understanding that “nobody said it was easy” to go back to what truly matters. The act of letting go felt like peeling away layers of noise until all that remained was clarity.
This small exercise in digital decluttering taught me something unexpected. Just like the pile of Baju Raya we insist we’ll wear again “someday” or the boxes of photo albums we keep for “just in case we’d like to reminisce about old times,” our phones can become cluttered reflections of our lives too. Holding on to every image, every video, is like trying to grip sand – it slips through your fingers anyway.
The truth is, memories don’t live in your devices; they live in you. And by letting go of the excess, you create space to focus on the present moment – the people, experiences, and emotions that truly matter.
So, as we step into this new year, I invite you to try it for yourself. Start small: spend 10 minutes today deleting a few photos from your phone. Notice the weight that lifts – not just from your device but from your mind. Trust me.
Because if Sasaki’s book taught me anything, it’s this: decluttering isn’t about loss; it’s about gain. And the first thing you gain is the freedom to live more fully, unburdened by the past.
Goodbye, things.
Dr Nahrizul Adib Kadri is a professor of biomedical engineering and the Principal of Ibnu Sina Residential College, Universiti Malaya.
The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer’s and do not necessarily represent that of Twentytwo13.
