I love simple.
I would love to eliminate about 50% of my remaining possessions. Most of it is junk sitting on a shelf that I tell myself I will use again that I probably will not. Truth be told, if someone stole it (this refers to about 50% of my stuff) I wouldn’t notice for a long time, if ever. So why do I have it?
In the midst of our over-abundance of everything, I am longing for simplicity. I love my coat that goes with dress pants as well as jeans. I love Gmail because it simplified my email management. I love ING because it made my banking easy.
I am a work in progress. I have areas of my life that I am proud of my successes in simplicity (simplifying my closet) and others that are still quite a mess. But, it is a fun journey that is worth traveling.
I always thought that freedom came as a result of many options. I am finding myself feeling more liberated as I ELIMINATE my options. I don’t really understand it yet, but I like it.
Here are my 3 rules as a beginner minimalist:
1. Evaluate your possessions that sit on shelves. Think about how often you will realistically need the item. Think about how much it will cost to replace it if needed. Throw/give the stuff away.
2. Find a place for everything. Keys, pots and pans, neck-ties, toothbrushes. It all needs a home.
3. Enjoy what you have. Get rid of the junk and really enjoy those few items that are worthy to remain in your possession.
Living the simple life
I don’t think I am alone in desiring less when our world is screaming, “more, more, more.” Lynnae wrote about why she likes the minimalist life, Leo wrote a book about it, and I seem to be hearing people talk about it a lot lately.
What about you? Is LESS the new MORE?
Join our discussion about downsizing and simplifying in the forums
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When I spring clean my house . If it has sat in my house unused for a year, it’s gone or placed on craigslist
Snowblowers & generators are exempt.
I love the idea of simplifying. When my wife and I moved, we donated or dumped like half of our possessions. It felt really good. Sometimes things can just start to weigh you down.
@Tippy
That is a good rule of thumb for most things – I still find things that I tell myself I will need “someday” – the problem is that I don’t think “someday” will ever come
@Peter
ahhhhhh. It does feel good, doesn’t it?
Oh man, if only I could dump half the stuff in our house. For instance, there’s this heavy kid’s desk we salvaged from next to a dumpster like 5 years ago. We don’t use it except to sit junk on (or in its drawers). But NOOOOO, the wife won’t allow it (cause it’s all her papers).
This is so true – I’m really starting to understand what is meant when people say “we don’t own stuff, it owns us.”
Here’s an idea – take all your junk and sell it in a yard sale. Take the money you make from the yard sale and *if* you ever actually need to use something that you got rid of, you’ll have a little fund to buy one again. In the meantime, you house is less cluttered and other people that feel like they need some of your stuff are able to buy it at your yard sale for very little $$.
@john
Great idea!! I can think of a few ways I could implement something like that right now…
thanks for sharing!!
We give stuff to the Salvation Army and keep the receipts. Our tax guy is able to deduct all the contributions. It is amazing how much stuff we gave away last year. What we received in tax benefits far out weighed what we would have received from a garage sale.
A good rule for clothes or toys is if you buy something new than you need go get rid of something. This rule keeps our closet managable. The rule also keeps the kids rooms from become to cluttered with old toys.
Yeah, less is the new more, at least for me. I’ve been on a simplifying kick lately (could have something to do with me re-reading Thoreau last month) but I’ve really been enjoying the process. Whether it’s hunting for things around the house that I can get rid of or just thinking about ways to use less – it’s really been enlightening and fun.
you can add me to the list of people who have begun talking about. memorial day, 2008.
I just looked around my house the other day and realized what a pain it will be when we move again. I have at least 5 different coats, each one goes better with certain shoes, pants, etc. I would have a really hard time getting rid of anything. The one thing I did is turn all my hangers around the wrong way. When I wear something, I hang it up the right way. After a full year, anything still on a wrong way hanger goes to the salvation army.
People continuously relate their lives to what they own. The typical standard in the US is to have a family of 2.5 kids, a house that measures 2,500 sq/ft, and a brand new SUV in the garage. The United States has become a nation of consumers, and if people quit consuming the economy fails. A lot more people are now looking back and wondering, do I really need that snow cone machine? We spend more money on junk then any nation in the world. There was a time in America that people bought new shoes because their old ones wore out! It is refreshing to hear that you are doubting your own consumerism and want to change you practices.
I think the first step is the most important.
Many people feel as though EVERYTHING is important, and then they can’t figure out why it won’t fit in their home.
Honestly, you have to evaluate your possessions and RANK THEM.
Set priorities about what you really love and don’t love, cull through those collections and only keep your favourites.
Only then, will everything be able to slowly fit back into your home.
It’s not that people need more space, they just need less stuff.
I’m a 33 year old male, about to be with my soul-mate in a few weeks. However, previous to this:
The times in my life I have lived alone, I do not have the heat in my apartments turned on. Blankets or layering clothes got me through the coldest months easy. (And my cat too.) At most a space heater in one room and an electric blanket – but I live in New York. Additionally, I have not owned a TV for about 10 years. Girlfriends wants cable, and TVs, fine – but when flying solo – I refused to pay for TV & cable to be told I need more stuff. I don’t need more stuff.
I always have a descent PC, and high speed internet. I stay well informed, reading what I wish without being told what to think about it. Clutter free mind leads to clear thought, and minimal purchases. Clothes? I have many favorites, but not a huge wardrobe. I’m not into fads and such.
Living by the Big “C’s” is fine.
Clothes. Car. Cat. Computer. Coffee Maker.
In my thinking, when I go to Walmart and such, I’m flabberghasted by the amazing amount of junk people so willing throw there hard earned money away on. Why the excess?
More stuff -> Need a bigger house -> Have more room -> Fill it with more stuff. People buy all that stuff because the media tells them it’s the key to self-definition. How silly is that? With no stuff, is it not cleared who you are and what you stand for? All that stuff is a mask. An excessive, expensive facade.
So, I’m moving to be with my lady, what I leave behind? I’m leaving my car, vacuum cleaner, coffee maker (she has one), many clothes, a dresser, hair clippers (she has some)… these things I’m giving to my friend across the street. I did make him pay the 60$ at the DMV to switch the car over.
Oh, and as a parting gift to my old life here, I paid off all my credit car debt within the last 6 months.
I should have edited and formatted this comment better – apologies.
Several years ago I was having problems with my health and my doctor’s told me that my biggest problem was stress and that anything I could do to simplify my life would help. I was taking 5 prescription meds for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other conditions. So I went on a simplification binge. I simplified my life in several areas.
Work: I was regularly working 50-60 hours a week and sometime much more. The joke at work was that I only worked half-days, just 12 hours. After having done this for several years I realized that it wasn’t getting me anywhere and the extra work-effort was just being taken for granted. Anytime management needed someone to handle and after-hours project the automatically came to me. I talked with my boss and told him that I couldn’t/wouldn’t be working the continuous long hours anymore but would still be available for true critical situations. I cut back my schedule to a 40-hour work week and stopped volunteering for high-profile assignments. I decided that I no longer wanted to climb the corporate ladder and became much happier in my job.
Health: I was severely overweight and was constantly eating junk food. I was drink soft drink like they were water (a couple of cases a week). I changed my diet to a more healthy (less fried foods, less sugar, and more fruits and vegetables) and replaced soft drinks with water. I have lost about 50 pounds since them and still have a ways to go to reach my final goal.
Books and Movies: I had over 1000 books and over 200 DVD and VHS movies on various subjects that were just sitting on my shelves. I kept the 20 or so that I knew I would read or watch again or that has other value and sold or gave away the rest. Then I sold the shelves to remove temptation. Now I use the library for most of my reading. If I do buy a book I try to buy it used then get it out of the house. If it is something I really want to keep I try to find an older book to get rid of.
Magazines: I cancelled all but 2 of my magazine subscriptions and I look through those within 7 days of receiving them. I scan any articles I want to keep into a dated folder. I review the folders periodically and get rid of anything that is no longer valuable.
Housing: I sold my 3-bedroom, 2-bath house and moved into a 1-bedroon apartment. I am single and the larger house just gave me more places to accumulate stuff. Plus I save about $750 on housing cost (rent plus utilities), and I am about 10 miles closer to work.
Stuff: I had boxes and boxes of old magazines, catalogs, and assorted other paper items. I went through the boxes and ended up with less that 1 box of stuff that was important enough to keep, i.e. warranties, insurance policies, tax documents, etc. I also scanned anything that I needed to keep longer but that I didn’t need a hard-copy into folders by subject and review them regularly to keep them cleaned up.
Debt: After I got rid of the other stuff and saw the stacks of bills coming in every month I began to see the debt as just another element of clutter in my life. So I paid off all of my debt and now live debt-free.
After all of this decluttering my life is much simpler. I still have the things I really need and add/replace things as needed. I can find things when I need them. I eat healthier and get more exercise. I am down to one prescription medication for blood pressure. I don’t have any debt, and have healthy savings and retirement accounts. I have money to pay my living expenses and for entertainment. All in all my life is so much simpler than before and my stress level has gone down considerably.
I have taught myself to embrace a few rules that work quite well for me and I do not like rules: 1) I Follow the In And Out Rule. When I bring or purchase a non-esseential in, a non-essential in my home has to go out; 2) I only buy and keep clothing and accessories that I truly love or think is totally fabulous or wonderful. As a result, I rarely if ever have a day where I am wearing something that makes me feel dorky, blah or just not happy with how I look. It is so much easier dealing with life’s challenges when you look and feel exceptionally good. 3) I realize that I can not keep all the beautiful things I see and can afford, no matter what the sale price is or even if the items is offered to me as a gift. As a textile lover, I realized this years ago when I had 5 coverlets for each bed in my home, three that my son kept in its original packaging on a shelf in his closet because he did not want to hurt my feelings. I sold several of them along with a few wall hangings; with the proceeds I was able to have an evening out wtih my family at a lovely restaurant.
For me, enforced simplification came when I had to move from a full-sized house into a room in my aunt’s home. I had 2000+ books, now I have fifty, and could do with even fewer if I had to, and my DVD collection was seven cases worth, and now I’m down to one soft-case for DVD and CDs (about one hundred disks all told). I have one small bookcase of collectibles- if necessary, I could pare it down to one shelf of pretty things and books, and I’d be alright with that. I’ve got a bed, a closet, a dresser, a desk, and some hygiene products. That’s all I need. My aunt, on seeing how much I’ve streamlined, has been encouraged to clean her own trouble areas- we did two closets last week, took a good chunk out of the garage, and she attacked her own closets and gave a fair bit of stuff away. I joke that my life could fit into a half-dozen plastic tubs, but it’s true. If I had to pack up again, I could move in five minutes.
One of the really good reasons to pare down is by writing up a list of your possessions and assessing a repurchase value, in case of a fire/for insurance purposes. Look at what you have, think ‘Do I really want to say I have that?’ and ‘I never use that, it can go, I can sell or donate it’ and your possessions list won’t be so long. In terms of stuff, less is definitely more. I certainly have more money in my pocket.
Minimalism isn’t a movement but an active decision in life to be self contained and prepaired for survival. I am one of many who truly am a minimalist. All of my “possession” are in a simple school backpack. I am content with living life more so than owning life. Remove the virtual fences you’ve been told to have and you too can see beyond the veil of life. Live today for yesterday ended and tomorrow only exists when it becomes today. Empty pockets have room to fill. Having no pockets leaves the world to fill!
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