May 4, 2008
The minimalist life
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?
This post was featured in the Carnival of Personal finance.
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Filed under How to Simplify your Life by bob
Comments on The minimalist life »
Tippy @ 8:36 pm
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.
peter @ 8:37 pm
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.
bob @ 11:06 am
@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?
Clever Dude @ 7:19 am
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).
John @ 9:30 am
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 $$.
bob @ 11:07 am
@john
Great idea!! I can think of a few ways I could implement something like that right now…
thanks for sharing!!
pfnut @ 11:22 am
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.
Carnival of Personal Finance #152 — Money Under 30 @ 7:33 am
[…] shows you how to snowflake an emergency fund, and Bob from Christian Personal Finances suggests living a minimalist life. Need a thing or two? Mrs. NtJS from Not the Jet Set tells you how to shop garage sales like a pro. […]
Forest @ 9:20 am
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.