The Emotional Scale

The Minimalist

Emotionally Minimalist individuals tend to not be overly-attached to physical things. These are not the people who visit souvenir shops, or impulse buy the latest fashion trend or newest gadget. Minimalists are quite capable of caring deeply, just not usually about “stuff.”

These are the people who would much rather go out for an experience for their anniversary than receive jewelry, and appreciate the thought behind a child’s drawing but have no idea what to do with it.

The Middle Child

The Middle Child here does NOT refer to the classic “middle child syndrome” of feeling left out or abandoned. Instead, these are the people who are emotionally somewhere in the middle. Some things have a deep meaning to them, but they are not attached to every item that crosses their path. 

To give an example of a Middle Child in my own life, my mom has some of her grandchildren’s drawings on the fridge, a few wedding gifts still in use from 43 years ago, and a table of pictures documenting the extended family. But I’ve never seen her willingly enter a souvenir shop, and she doesn’t believe in having “collections” of anything that aren’t useful.

The Maximalist

The Maximalist cares about everything, forever. These are the people that have multiple “memory boxes” for each person in the family. They’ve kept the mix tape their sixth grade boyfriend gave them, the camp t-shirt from 10th grade, and they still have a photo album from college filled with people whose names they can’t remember.

I personally am a maximalist, and those weren’t random examples. I didn’t get rid of that mix tape until I got married and was purging things for our move. It takes discipline, and often help, for a maximalist to let go of the things in their life, especially when they are just starting.