There are simple facts and figures that have gone into our decision to purge the excess. Brian and I are avid learners; blogs, books and documentaries are a great resource for that, but we also draw on life experience - seeing how other people live and talking about how we want to live. Here are our top 5 resources for understanding the madness behind our method!
1. Currently being filmed:
Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things. Click the link for sneak peaks!
Best quote: "Life is better owning less." (CONFESSION: I almost shed a tear out of sheer joy and inspiration when watching the TINY HOME clip).
2.
20 ways Americans are blowing their money, it isn't pretty. Almost every one of these items is a part of how we minimal-ize our life.
In a nutshell: Here's the top 10 list, in case clicking on the link is asking too much:
10. Alcohol
9. Tobacco
8. Unused Gift Cards
7. Warranties That Cost as Much as the Product
6. Unused Gym Memberships
5. Lottery Tickets
4. Speeding and Traffic Tickets
3. Premium Cable Packages
2. Daily Coffee Trips
1. Wasted Energy
Best quote of the article:
The Huffington Post claims a person's chance of winning the lottery on a single ticket is one in 175 million. The odds of getting struck by lightning in your lifetime, being injured by a toilet this year, getting killed by a shark, and killed by an asteroid or comet are much more likely.
Want to minimal-ize your life? Cut out all that junk! Seriously use less, buy less, less, less, lessssss. It's honestly not hard. Sometimes you just have to deny yourself those American "necessities". Check out the next resource if you feel passionate that being a human being = consuming.
3. The show Hoarders on A&E, the more you watch, the more you're shocked. Don't use the excuse that you would never let it get that bad - consumption is consumption, excess is excess even if it isn't quite to that point where your house is condemned and Adult Protective Services shows up at your front door with a psychiatrist.
2.
How much stuffs do we all got? This article is a bit dated but we can assume that consumerism has only increased in the last 3 years.
In a nutshell: we have thousands of items the article states one family home had 2,260
visible items tallied in 3 bedrooms (
average amount of items in US household = 300,000) - so our quest to get rid of just one item each per week should fare just fine. In fact it might not even make a dent in the average household, lucky for us we only have one bedroom.
Best quote of the article:
“If everyday life in the first few years of the twenty-first century has been characterized by anything... it is the American family’s willingness to work hard and shop hard, purchasing one well-marketed new product after another and taking on debt in a vigorous show of consumerism.”
1. But the biggest motivator in minimal-izing was our own motivation and priorities as a couple. You can make or break your own excuses, but for us it just isn't about consumption. It's about spending time together and exploring the world, one minimalist vacation at a time (Stay tuned for more on traveling as a minimalist)
Need to consume more knowledge? Check out these links:
The State of Consumption Today
8 Simple Living Blogs
This isn't a link:
Count how many items are visible in the room you are currently sitting in, are you okay with that number? I'm not okay with my numbers, sad face.
Need not,
Brian and Josey
