If you really want to be a minimalist, there’s a certain skill you need to develop. It’s an incredibly helpful skill regardless; the people I know who had this skill were worth their weight in gold.
The skill is knowing where the world keeps its spare junk.
There’s this long-standing joke about dads always keeping some random, odd-shaped piece of wood in their garage for thirty years hoping for the day it becomes useful. I know lots of people like that; I’m even prone to it if I don’t catch myself. But I used to know this guy and if you said to him “Oh, I need a random piece of wood that’s seven inches by three inches in a trapezoid shape,” he would just take you on a long walk to some weird part of town and bam, there one would be.
He didn’t have it. But he knew exactly where to find one. The same was true of unusual food items, obscure electronic parts, you name it. Always either free or cheap, usually discarded or belonging to someone happy to have you take it.
The world has lots of neat spare junk that just collects in the corners. If you’re not careful, you become one of those corners, and that isn’t necessarily good. But exploring the nooks and crannies of your environment, taking weird ways home and opening doors as you see them – these are the things that make the world your garage. You can find the spare junk whenever you need it.
The Opportunity Machine 