7 Ways to Sample Living With Less

by joshua becker

From the moment we’re born, we’re told to pursue more. Advertisements from every television, radio, newspaper, magazine, billboard, and website scream to us on a daily basis that more is better. As a result, we work hard hours so that we can spend countless dollars purchasing the biggest homes, fanciest cars, trendiest fashions, most popular toys, and coolest technologies.

But we all know it’s not true. We all know, deep-down, that happiness can not be bought at a department store.. that more is not necessarily better. We’ve just been told the lie so many times we begin to believe it… without even noticing it.

But what if, in reality, there is actually more joy in owning less? 

That truth would change almost everything about us. It would change the way we spend our hours, our energy, and our money. It would change where we focus our attention and our minds. It would change the very foundation of our lives. And if it were true, it would free us up to pursue the things in life that we most value. In other words, it would be a life-changing and life-giving realization.

Unfortunately, for some, the idea of intentionally living life with fewer possessions is just too counter-intuitive. It’s an approach to life they have never been introduced to or have never been invited to explore. The benefits have never been articulated. As a result, it’s too far a leap… too long a stretch… and jumping in with both feet is just not going to happen.

But maybe there’s an easier way than jumping in with both feet.. maybe the lifestyle can just be sampled for a bit. Oh, one may not experience all the benefits that are afforded to those who jump in with both feet, but they just may taste enough to continue along the journey.

To that end, allow me to offer 7 areas of life where living with less can be sampled. They are designed to be picked one-by-one, risk-free. Conducting each experiment for 3-4 weeks will give a good feel for the practical benefits, but hey, it’s your experiment. You decide the length.

7 Ways to Sample Living With Less

1. Clothes. According to statistics, we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. That means that many of us have closets full of clothes that we no longer like or no longer fit us correctly. They are just taking up space. The simple exercise of going through your closet and removing all unused clothing leaves your closet lighter, your mornings less stressful, and your wardrobe full of things you love. Give your lighter wardrobe 30 days to work its magic… you’ll never miss those unused clothes.

2. Decorations. Many of the decorations in our homes hold no personal value to our lives. They just simply happened to match the color of the carpet or be on sale when we walked into the store. Unfortunately, they are distracting you and your guests from the decorations in your home that share your story and highlight your values. Take a moment to walk through your home with a discerning eye. Leave only the decorations that are the most meaningful and the most beautiful. Your home will begin to share your story in a beautiful way. And your old decorations will likely end up on sale at your next garage sale.

3. Toys. Too often, we fall into the line of thinking that says more is better… and so do our kids. We begin to purchase and collect far too many toys for our children. As a result, our children have no need to learn how to be creative, helpful, careful, or sharing. In that regard, fewer toys may benefit your kids in numerous ways. Although you may want to consult your children before you relocate their unused toys, there’s a pretty good chance that after only a few weeks the old, unused toys will be forgotten (except by whomever used to pick them all up).

4. Cooking Utensils. There never seems to be enough storage space in our kitchens. Yet most of our grandmothers cooked far more often, far more elaborately, and far better than many of us today… in much smaller kitchens. The truth is that when it comes to cooking, simple is almost always better. We need far less cooking utensils than we currently own. As a result, our drawers, cabinets, and countertops can be far better organized and useful if we simply owned less. To give this experiment a shot, check out this article from the New York Times: A No Frills Kitchen Still Cooks. Then, store all your unnecessary utensils in a plastic bin, put them away out of sight, and see if you just enjoy cooking a little bit more in your new, clutter-free environment.

5.  Televisions. According to Nielsen, the average person watches 4 hours, 35 minutes of television each day. And the average American home now has more television sets than people. That threshold was crossed within the past two years. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people. In the average American home, a television set is turned on for more than a third of the day — 8 hours, 14 minutes to be exact. We are literally sitting on the couch while life passes us by. Experiment with owning less televisions. As a result, you will watch less. And when you do, you will be more apt to do it together as a family.

6. Counter-tops. Clutter is a form of distraction. It pulls at our attention and redirects our thoughts – even for just an instant. Everything sitting out on your countertops competes for your attention. Unfortunately, we have become so accustomed to these distractions that we don’t even notice them anymore… until they are removed. Experiment, even for just 7 days, with keeping your countertops completely clear. Store things in drawers, cabinets, pantries, or temporary storage boxes. After one week, you’ll likely return some of it for the sake of convenience, but I’d bet my bottom dollar that you won’t return all of it.

7. Furniture. It may require some heavy-lifting, but if you’re up for the challenge, removing excess furniture from your rooms will immediately open up significant space and airflow in your home. The rarely-used pieces of furniture in your home are quickly recognizable and taking up more space than you realize. Oh sure, this experiment requires a place to store your furniture during the trial period, but it’s a quick and easy way to remove some of the largest clutter from your home.

Sam Taylor-Wood - Gracefully Suspended (10 photos)

• Posted by Eugene on February 26, 2009 at 3:30pm
• View Blog

Suspended series

These self-portraits by Sam Taylor-Wood are truly inspiring. As she explores notions of weight and gravity, she places herself in situations where her interior and external sense of self is in conflict.

Born in London in 1967, Taylor-Wood studied at Goldsmiths College and went on to become a prolific film-maker and photographer. Highly acclaimed, Sam was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997 and won the Illy Café Prize for Most Promising Young Artist at the 47th Venice Biennale.

"Praise really isn't that important to me from anyone other than the people whose opinion I respect. I don't crave it – and I never read reviews any more. I know people say that, but I really don't read any of them. I have done in the past and it affects you so fundamentally that you know in the future that just one wrong word in an otherwise nice review can be really upsetting. I remember one particularly bad one after a show that I thought had been the best in my life. It blights everything – and yet it's just one person's opinion." Well Sam, I love your work anyways.

Bram Stoker's Chair series

what a gorgeous series!

I know I haven't updated you in awhile and many are asking "How's your 80/20 project going?" It seems that many have the inner need to reflect and simplify. I've heard from Ed, whose ex-wife sorted and tossed every single year, so that she, in essence "Had no past". I've heard from Beth who lost her beloved book collection in the house fire. And I've sorted through family heirlooms (and not such heirloom material) with Karyn.

So, I've done a lot, that's why I haven't been posting, I've been doing.

The one thing that I learned was that by taking the first 2-3 weeks of my project NOT doing, but thinking, was the best thing I could have (not) done. I thought through each facet of my life and really took a hard look at what is not working and what is and figured out how to focus on the later and get rid of the former...

And then I started. I started to sort and pack and while I might not hit 20% of physical things, I will get to 40% and maybe 30%. I have made major life decisions (more on that to come). I've put things in place. All of this would not have been possible had I not spent the time to figure out what needed to stay and how to get rid of the rest. It made sorting and packing a breeze, it was a simple question, "does this item fit into my new, clean, simple life or does it belong in my old, frantic, cluttered and murky life". Keep or toss? This goes for the physical as well as the non-physical.

I found a new place to live and this is my last Sunday living in the East Everglades. I am going to miss it, but I am ready to go. I can't wait in fact.

As I do more, I will update you more and some big announcements are coming, but for now, know that the 80/20 project is WORTH it. It's like running a marathon, everyone should at least do one once in their lives!

By next week, I will be writing this from the very New Orleansy 2nd floor balcony off of the bedroom of my new apartment, which fit almost ALL of my criteria! Affordable, close to public transportation for Bailey, easy to get to her Dad's, accepted two cats and two dogs, had a tub, had large closet storage, had a balcony or other outdoor space, had wood floors, was on the second floor and had both interior and street charm! After nearly a year of looking it appeared. Can you believe it?! Yes, "when the student is ready, the teacher appears", or something like that...

While it might not be 30 days, it will be a really complete project! Can't wait to tell you more.

Sometimes I feel like I am drowning in digital content. Emails, texts, social media, newsletters, RSS subscriptions, Ebooks, photos, songs, videos, and on and on and on....

I love, love, love to consume new content, but there is no end to it. It's like trying to drink from the ocean. In moderation, it's great, but you can also drown (the salt part of the metaphor excluded of course).

I am pretty good about segmenting everything. Facebook friends, emails, twitter friends, RSS Feeds, etc. are all categorized, tagged, assigned rules, etc. and for many, that would be enough. But considering the sheer size of most of my digital input channels, it's time to follow my own advice and prune.

Today I made a big start and went through my entire twitter list and made ONE list of ALL of the people that I find interesting and enjoy engaging with. I put this list, along with mentions and DMs onto tweetdeck and that's it. Before, I would switch between my 20 lists depending on what frame of mind I was in (real estate, academic, local, friends, etc.) but the cons were that I missed great tweets from some and still saw tweets I didn't need to. Paring it down to one manageable list ensures I see what I want/need to see and adding the mention and DMs ensures I won't miss out if someone reaches out to me.

I plan to follow suit with the rest of my segmentation, esp. e-newsletters, RSS subscriptions, etc. I think that having FEWER lists, as opposed to more and being selective about just putting the cream of the crop into those lists is going to help. Segmentation is great, but there can be too much of a good thing.

Digital photos is a HUGE project. I have them stored on no less than four different external drives and I MUST get them onto one, maybe terrabyte drive before I loose, irretrievably, dear family photos. This is going to have to be pushed to 2011, as there is no way to tackle that project right now.

Other things I know I need to become better about is caring for my contacts, cleaning up my desktop, dropbox and download folders routinely and getting better at scanning documents so I don't keep so much paper.

Just having the twitter thing sorted out gave me a sense of clarity and calmness, I spend quite a bit of time in/on twitter and having that done gives me inspiration to tackle the next projects as they are actually smaller.

What can you do to tame your digital tiger? I bet you have one to!

I have great food friends. Kathleen, a chef. Laura, going to vegan culinary school. And me, a food failure. I just hate to cook. (I do like to bake, but that's another story). The combination of hating to cook, hating going to the grocery store and being so pressed for time the past few years has led to a very poor diet. Not only for me, my my poor daughter.

When we move, we will now have the luxury of not having to drive 1-1.5 hours each way, giving us a huge chunk of our lives back. Our kitchen lives are going to change.

Thank goodness we both love fresh fruits and vegetables. We love salads, fruit smoothies, juices, soups, etc. A professional grade blender is going to become our best friend. We can make most of the things we love with little prep and be super healthy in doing so. I look at what Laura makes with her blender and am in awe.

I'd also like to go off dairy as much as I can (which is a hard for a Wisconsin born girl) and, egads, coffee. I wish that Theine, Kyra's tea shop were still in Coral Gables, but I am sure I can find another one. I drink farrrr too much coffee and need to find a replacement for it.

Moving back to Coral Gables will make it easier to handle this food change due to the added time in the day, less time driving in the car (fewer times that drive-throughs will seem like an option) and close to the Farmer's Market, when opened.

I still might not cook too much, but I will have freshly produced, healthy food for us to eat, which we enjoy. I'm looking forward to it! Who knows, I might even enjoy going to the grocery store!

The calendar octopus seems to be appropriate as a group of friends in Miami and I are currently struggling with building a group calendar which highlights all of the social events going on in Miami which we are attending. We want to have a central calendar where everyone can post, yet not duplicate the efforts of larger social calendar websites.

Personally, I have a LOT of different calendar items and places where my calendars are stored. I have moved from Mac calendar to Google calendar for ease in sharing both with family and virtual assistants. One main professional resource I use, TopProducer, does not synch with Google which irks me to no end. I need to look into this deeper to see what can be done.

My google calendar synchs to my iphone so I have it handy and on the go.

For my deconstruction project, I need to finalize the social calendar with friends mentioned above, remove old, recurring events and notes from my current google calendar, find a solution with TopProducer (are you listening to me TopProducer?) and bring it all into one, clean working calendar.

I live and die by organization, plans and routines so having things on more than one calendar (or worse yet, not in a calendar) just doesn't work.

I expect this project will only take 1-2 hours as I have done much of it over the past 12 months.

Simple, all-in, organized. The goal calendar.