The shift away from minimalism (I like shirts)

I remember watching a bunch of minimalism, productivity, digital detox and similar videos from YouTube creators like Matt D’Avella and a few others. One of the videos that caught my interest was about wearing the same shirt every day. Some of the reasons for this were that nobody actually cares about what you wear that much, that it removes decision paralysis, and that it helps to declutter your life, and stuff like that.

At the time I mostly watched and didn’t really do that much other than consume the content—and promptly stay in my room not doing a thing because we were in the middle of a pandemic—so I mostly focused on other things like online classes, game development and watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.

As lockdown kept going, I noticed how people online were getting into the minimal lifestyle. I guess being stuck in their house the whole time made some people hungry for change, to clean everything up and have a better, bigger space to be stuck on—or maybe I was just eating what the YouTube algorithm gave me. I do remember decluttering some things, getting rid of old clothes and notebooks and such, but I was never that big about it.¹

But then, I stumbled upon a couple articles and videos about the contrary, noting how empty, cold and lonely those white rooms with basic furniture were, and how that type of superficial minimalism worsened the mental state of many people because of the whole situation going on worldwide.

So now maximalism and “cosy places” got trendy, I would not have noticed if it wasn’t for my siblings, to be honest, since apps like TikTok—which they use as much as I hate it—started to showcase videos with people doing room tours and sharing their collection of books, music albums, posters or whatever else, and shops like Miniso that have lots of small aesthetic things like containers and gel pens started to get more popular in México.

I rarely actually bought decorations or anything I didn’t need, and I didn’t have any problems with that, my room never really followed that minimal aesthetic to begin with—It definitely had nothing to do with being a poor university student, not at all.

I had my Rubik’s cube collection—growing at a slow pace since high school—and origami models scattered around random places. The regular mess of every guy’s bedroom.

Once we went back to the classrooms and outside, I started doing my social service and going to regular classes and getting used to more normal everyday stuff, not a lot to add about this time period to be honest. I’ve written about it on a few occasions, since I already had this blog at the time! I was still a student without any sort of income so things were how they were.

Anyway, back to shirts. I didn’t really care about what I was using most of the time when I was stuck at home, because, well, I was stuck at home. The return to classes made me start to mind a little bit more again, and I would finally wear more of my shirts. I remember thinking I was finally “adult” enough to wear buttoned shirts at university!

However, when the time to do my internship arrived, and I worked in an HR recruiting department, and saw the kind of work I would be doing—walking for hours under the sun giving away fliers to people and leaving them on doorframes or taped to light poles—the first thing I did with my first salary was getting a set of the same shirts, three gray ones and three blue ones, that I wore all the time. It wasn’t because of minimalism, I just wanted to avoid ruining the “fancier” stuff I had, and I didn’t want to put a lot of thought in clothes that would end up decoloring and getting ruined by the constant daily use.

There was a certain simplicity to it, as the video I linked at the start mentions, it was practical and I didn’t have to care, I remember getting a couple other simple, single colored shirts but not that much else. It worked and I remember actually being into it, but honestly, it was pretty boring.

Now that I’ve been working for almost two years doing office work and such, I kind of changed my mind about it. I just really like to wear shirts with designs I like.

Back in the day most of the clothes I got were purchased on physical stores, and mostly sticking to stripes, simple patterns, Marvel or Star Wars movies, and those random designs with city landscapes or sports on them. Bought with my parents’ money, or from a birthday gift here and there.

Today, alongside videogames, furniture, Casio watches and other nice things, I have the privilege to afford more cool t-shirts to wear!

Of course, I don’t really need them, but I have been letting go of some older ones that either no longer fit, or that are so used up I never wear them anyway, as much as I like the design itself.

Yes I’m justifying upcoming purchases by getting rid of the stuff I don’t use, shut it!

As an aside, I’ve seen some videos about how getting clothes second hand is kind of a pain nowadays? Because most things people buy today are so low quality and they get rid of it so quickly, second hand markets are full of attire nobody actually wants, and hunting for the old but good clothes is getting harder and harder year after year.

All of this just to say I ordered a Chrono Trigger, a Final Fantasy and a Metroid themed t-shirt from an online store because they looked super awesome. I guess I can’t help myself when it comes to videogame shirts.

Maybe I should make a gallery or something featuring my favorite t-shirts now because why not?