Showing posts tagged minimalism
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With only one drawer and inches of storage space for food preparation utensils, I have come to learn what are the minimalist and bare necessity utensils for the kitchen:

Can opener
Spatula
Rubber spatula
Tongs
Bottle top opener
Dry ingredient measuring cups
Liquid ingredient measuring cup
Measuring spoons
Whisk
Cake/pie server
Meat thermometer

Erin Rooney Doland - Outfitting a Minimalist Kitchen

The Art of Being Minimalist

I recently read Everett Bogue’s The Art of Being Minimalist. What can I say, other than it was fantastic! It covers the areas that a person starting out in minimalism needs to hear. It isn’t dry, merely covering various topics in a formulaic fashion, but rather tips interweaved with his story and some inspirational words. It is sure to get anyone interested in breaking the cycle of consumerism fired up!

You can purchase the eBook here (affiliate link) for $9.95 (for the first one thousand buyers; $19.95 after that).

What’s It All For?

Yesterday a friend asked me why I was devoting so much time to this ‘minimalist thing.’ I had an answer, albeit a general one, but it made me think more about my own reasons for traveling the minimalist path. Why buck the system? Why try to break the cycle of consumerism countless people have been caught in, myself included? How do the benefits outweigh the costs with my choices. Here are a couple of reasons I’ve come up with (in no particular order):

  • Save money - this is a fairly obvious reason
  • Get into the habit so I can show my future children the benefits of consuming less
  • Travel/moving - I’ve been inspired by Everett Bogue from Far Beyond the Stars with his recent post detailing his 75 personal belongings. He can pack up and move much more easily than most people can. I need to be open to God’s call and not chained down by my possession or expensive monthly payments
  • Smaller house - If I have less possessions I don’t need to have a large house to store all of the junk. I suspect a lot of the space in people’s homes are devoted to things that are mostly useless.
  • Less maintenance, less worry - With less stuff you don’t have to worry about keeping it in good shape, pay for repairs, or storage.
  • Freedom from Slavery - Just freedom in general. I can do what I need to do without worrying about my possession. Though, if my possessions keep my from doing something, it’s the possessions that own me. Right now I am not my own man, I am owned by two credit card companies and three banks (student loans). My work is not my own, my time is not my own. I am a debt-slave.

So there are my reasons for my minimalist journey. What are yours? Have you committed to the path of freedom?

Simple → Minimal

Leo Babauta describes the differences between simple and minimal: Minimalism being an extension of simplicity. They’re mostly identical, but minimalism focuses more on getting rid of what is unnecessary altogether to give yourself more time and energy for the things that really matter most to you.

Priorities

This article from the Simple Dollar really hits the nail on the head. Living a frugal life doesn’t mean you have to be boring. you just need to step back and prioritize what’s the most important things for you, and get rid of the rest; aka minimalism.

Figure out what you want out of life, and go for it. Don’t let anything else slow you down, clutter your life, or cost you opportunities. Get to the heart of it, and shed the rest.

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In the 5th century, Arenius determined to live a holy life. So he abandoned the conforms of egyptian society to follow a simpler lifestyle in the desert. Yet whenever he visited the great city of Alexandria, he spent time wandering through its markets. When asked why, he explained that his heart rejoiced at the sight of all the things he didn’t need.
His Heart Rejoiced | Becoming Minimalist (via zenhabits)
(Reblogged from zenhabits)

Simplifying Simplicity with Five Simple Questions

I just read this post about simplifying your quest for simplification at Man Vs Debt. This is a guest post by Flexo (from Consumerism Commentary) in response to Baker’s post (the author of MvD) 42 Ways to Radically Simplify Your Financial Life. It takes a much simpler approach: Get rid of anything unnecessary. That, my friends, is the heart of minimalism, as well as frugal living. I’d like to share my response to portions of that article with you.

When I was thinking about the first question (What are my values), I found it difficult to put what I know on subconscious level into words. I listed off a couple of values, but really had to consider whether they truly were my values, judged against my actions. I wanted to say health as a value, but why was I saying that? I guess it would have to be because I value the mobility and independence that health brings. A healthy person can much more easily pack up and move somewhere far away than can a person with certain medical conditions or medications. I’d also say I value health because it will (most likely) extend my life and I can be there to support my family and friends longer. So is it health I value, or the things that health brings? Like independence, family, or friends?

Something else I considered, my faith. Is my Christian faith my number one concern? As much as I would like to say it is, I honestly can’t. I still hold my beliefs, but do I work as hard to grow in faith as I do with school work? No, I don’t. That’s another thing I’ll need to evaluate.

What about my work? That is incredibly important to me. When I am on a break from school and I’m not actually working, I tend to feel listless and down. I seem to need work to validate myself, and reassure myself of my worth.

The article covers more, but I thought just making the values list was an important enough topic to warrant its own post here. So, I’ve made a draft of my list. My values:

  • Work
  • Health
  • Faith
  • Independence
  • Self-improvement

What’s your list?

Minimalism and Books / Going digital

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now: How do my book and movie collections fit in with a minimalist and frugal lifestyle? Can I really reach these life goals if I have large collections of books or movies?

I haven’t quite settled on an answer yet, but Leo Babauta has some insight (as always) on everything minimalism. His post mainly covers ways to reduce your book collection and the benefits of such a purge.

For me, there are several problems with large collections of media: they take up huge amounts of space (especially in the case of books); they require special furniture in order to store them; it can be costly in order to acquire a large number of items (unless you’re a member of a book club); they make moving that much more difficult; and they can cause us to center our lives around our possessions. Of course, there are a number of perks with these collections, but I’m sure you could already name these on your own.

One of my goals by the time I graduate is to be able to fit all of my belongings into my car (my couch being an exception). It makes it much more difficult to fit everything into my relatively small car with a large box devoted to books and movies.

With movies, it’s not too hard to go all digital. Since I use my computer as my “TV” I am ready to really digitize my collection, it’ll just be a slow process. But books aren’t so easy. Many books are available in ebook form, but I don’t have a Kindle or similar device, so that sets me back a bit. And for now I’m quite content with using the library - no money required.

Check out Leo’s great post and let me know what you think! Have you already started moving digital?