Minimalist Living: Declutter Your Home, Schedule & Digital Life for Simple Living (and Discover Why Less is More)

Chapter 1: Introduction

Welcome to Minimalist Living. The basic principle of this book is: You have too much stuff. And it’s not making you happy. In fact, I’d wager that all your extra stuff is making you decidedly unhappy.

But there’s a way out from underneath that pile of stuff that’s weighing you down and holding you back.

We’ll discuss the underlying reasons that you, me, your friends, your coworkers, strangers on the street — all of us — are so compelled to buy, and why we clutter our lives in the first place.

We’ll use economics and philosophy principles to look at consumerism and minimalism.

We’ll discuss your custom minimalism plan, and why a minimalist lifestyle doesn’t match what you’ve probably seen it portrayed as in the media: It doesn’t mean living with bare, white walls, one lamp, one chair and owning just two outfits.

You’ll learn how to win back your sanity, time, money and freedom to live a life that is not minimal, but that is abundant in your values and what matters to you.

We will save your life from your stuff.

Are you ready?

Chapter 2: What is Minimalism?

To understand minimalism, I’m going to ask you to start with a simple question. The question is:

Have you ever packed for a vacation or trip?

If your answer is yes, then you have already practiced minimalism.

Minimalism can feel very inaccessible and unreasonable to those who have only heard about it from news articles. You’ve probably wondered if minimalism is really for you, if you have the strength to narrow down your possessions, or if you would be the same person without all your things. These questions are normal, and a misunderstanding of what minimalism can be has made it seem inaccessible to many people. But there’s a reason minimalism was brought on your radar, and a reason you are reading this book right now. You want to see if it is for you.

And as we learned with my vacation packing question, you have already tried minimalism. And guess what? You’re still alive!

Minimalism is en vogue at the moment, and that means that every decluttering guru, minimalist blogger and minimalist author (who convinces you to get rid of all your things but at the same time, buy their book for your coffee table) has a guaranteed method to make you finally happy. You can be just like the extreme minimalism guru once you follow their plan. Once you get rid of all of your clothes, your home and your devices, you too can live in a van, own three shirts, two pairs of pants and one pair of shoes, and grow your own vegetables out on the open plains.

OK, maybe I am exaggerating a bit. But many minimalists live in barren, cold apartments with barely any possessions. They say this makes them truly happy.

But my form of minimalism is different. My minimalism is for everyone, not just extremists. And I am going to do something very radical with my minimalism book: I am not going to promise I can make you happy.

Crazy, right?

But you have come to the point where you are looking at minimalism as a lifestyle because you’ve acquired an overwhelming amount of stuff and you’ve realized that it doesn’t make you happy. Things aren’t going to make you happy. But guess what? The absence of things isn’t going to make you happy either.

So, if you follow the advice in this book, what can it give you? Paring down your possessions — we’ll talk home, clothes, schedule and time commitments, digital clutter and more — gives you the space and room, free from distraction, to explore what does make you happy. I can’t promise you happiness, but I can promise that you’re taking the first step toward it by making the space for happiness in your life.

When you pare down what isn’t essential in your life, you make the room to discover what is essential. Often, what is essential and happiness-making is doing fulfilling work, investing in meaningful relationships with the people in our lives, and focusing on improving our physical and mental health over improving our status as displayed by our possessions, apartment and flashy car.

But we’ll talk about that more in future chapters. For now, let’s get back to that travel metaphor.

No matter whether you are a light packer or a heavy-duty packer who prepares for every possibility, just by packing for a vacation, you have practiced paring down your things. So even if you packed three large suitcases for a weekend beach getaway, you still practiced whittling down your possessions from a house-