Minimalist Living Makes Life Grander, Better

September 22, 2012 Minimalism
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There’s a misconception that those who practice minimalist living are giving up something. It’s really just the opposite. When you choose a minimalist lifestyle, you get rid of unimportant things so that you have more time and energy to devote to what really matters to you.

In other words, minimalist living is about getting rid of distractions instead of giving up possessions.

For some of us, having too many things we don’t need is a distraction that takes our attention away from important things. For others, converting to a simple, minimal lifestyle means we need to stop running around so much, attending so many functions we don’t enjoy and trying to keep up with the out-of-control lifestyles of our friends or coworkers.

Those who promote living a 100 Things Challenge — living with fewer than a hundred possessions — are placing a lot of focus on only one aspect of the simple life, and that just isn’t right. It certainly isn’t complete.

Collect Experiences, Not Stuff

Many of us were programmed by our parents or by society in general to get as many possessions as possible to prove how successful we are. But true success come from finding contentment in experiences rather than in possessions.

We don’t need different clothing for every season, a shiny new car or an iPhone to be content.

We also find that some of the information we’ve been given about life isn’t quite true. We’re told that successful people have a home of their own, but having a home ties us to long mortgages and living in one place. And it comes with the responsibility of making repairs and keeping the yard manicured.

Living a life free from excess possessions means having more time and energy to devote to collecting meaningful experiences. For some, that means living out of a backpack and traveling the world. For others, it means living in a cheap apartment and spending money on opera tickets or a health club membership.

When you collect experiences instead of stuff, you benefit from them as long as your brain continues to work, not just until the thing you bought breaks.

Strive For Happiness, Not Wealth

Contentment isn’t enough for most who seek a minimalist lifestyle, however. It’s happiness we’re after, and minimalism is the only way to find it for those of us who feel our lives are completely out of control.

Throwing away useless things creates happiness for many minimalists. Making do with the t-shirts they already have instead of buying a dozen new polo shirts generates happiness too. Eating in rather than eating out can create satisfaction that leads to greater happiness as well.

Benefiting from carefully chosen experiences instead of running around without any real purpose in life generates true happiness.

Rarely are happiness and wealth linked.

Minimalist living is about finding happiness by reducing stuff, processes and relationships in your life until you reach the smallest possible collection that serves you well.

When you find true happiness, you’ve found the best, grandest version of life. A streamlined life without a lot of excess is much more likely to supply that kind of happiness than one that’s wasteful and out of control.

Fortunately, minimalist living is a journey rather than a destination. That means you can take small steps today — like decluttering a drawer or blowing off an unnecessary event — and get a little closer to the contentment and happiness you deserve.

Minimalist Glasses: $6.95 For Good Online Prescription Glasses

September 22, 2012 Minimalism
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For many of us, part of minimalist living is eliminating hassles and overspending from our lives, but finding discount prescription glasses isn’t easy if you’re shopping at a local store. Mall eyeglasses stores are overgrown and overpriced.

Fortunately there’s an alternative that makes sense — whether you want minimalist glasses or some really fancy glasses with minimal hassles and minimal prices.

For online prescription glasses, I choose Zenni Optical, and I’m happy to tell you why. With glasses starting at just $6.95 for a complete pair — including single-vision lenses and sturdy, stylish frames — you can’t beat the company’s prices.

If you learn toward frugality as well as minimalism, you’re probably sold already.

But Zenni Optical has a wide selection of frames, all the options in lenses, coatings and accessories and a simple ordering experience that makes getting exactly what you want a breeze.

My Zenni Optical Review

Maybe I’ve already told you all you need to know about Zenni Optical. They have great prices, a full selection and have served me well. What else can I say?

Actually, there are a few more things I want to mention.

First, when I tell people where I get my cheap glasses online, the first question they usually ask is how Zenni can offer prices so much lower than in the mall.

That’s a simple answer: Mall eyeglass places have high rent and employees to pay in malls around the country, plus they have to maintain a large stock of frames in a showroom environment. Zenni processes all orders from one location, so it can get by with less equipment, fewer employees and fewer expenses too.

That kind of efficiency is a great example of minimalism in action. Without so many unnecessary processes and so much duplication, Zenni Optical is proving that online prescription glasses don’t have to be expensive.

Do you realize that glasses at the mall can cost $300 or more? But you can get the same thing — with anti-glare coatings, thin lenses and other options — for less than $20 complete with shipping when you order online.

If you have full-coverage vision insurance, you might as well go to the mall and pay their prices. If you value your resources and want glasses for less than the deductible or co-pay of many plans, however, go online to save a bundle.

250x300 Everyone's looks are unique.The company also makes sunglasses in whatever tint level you want and a variety of specialty glasses. Some frames cost more than $6.95, but if you’re looking for something simple and stylish, there’s no need to pay more.

I’m confident in the company because I’ve ordered my low power reading glasses from them and have had great experiences. I’ve also read other reviews and talked to my friends about Zenni Optical. I can’t find much negative information about the company.

Reviews sometimes point to a complicated ordering process, but your prescription has all the details you need — except possibly your PD, the distance between the middles of your eyes. Measure that yourself (in millimeters) or have someone do it for you, then you’re all set. You can have one of those mall or discount stores take the measurement if you prefer.

You can even use a metric ruler to measure your face to make sure the frames you order are perfect. Better yet, take measurements from a well-fitting pair of sunglasses or your old glasses. When you order discount prescription glasses from Zenni Optical, the site provides complete measurements of every pair of frames.

A Final Thought

There’s nothing simple or minimalist about dealing with an expensive mall store when you can get cheap glasses online from Zenni Optical.

If the price doesn’t convince you, the selection of simple, beautiful frames will. Once you get your glasses in the mail, the quality will make you a repeat customer.

For discount prescription glasses, I turn to the online prescription glasses company that demonstrates a commitment to simplicity.

Click here to visit Zenni Optical now.

 

How Does Sustainable Living Fit In With A Simple, Minimalist Lifestyle?

April 14, 2012 Minimalism
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Sustainable living — sometimes called green living — fits in perfectly with a simple, minimalist lifestyle because both ways of living focus on careful analysis of how you live — and making decisions that have the fewest negative consequences possible.

In the case of sustainable living, the goal is to avoid experiences that negatively impact the environment. In the case of minimalist living, the goal is to avoid the parts of life that clutter our minds and spaces with unnecessary emotions, thoughts and possessions.

A simpler life will almost always be a greener one because owning less, driving less, eating less and running fewer electric machines are all simple choices that are also important aspects of green living.

What Is Sustainable Living?

Sustainable living is a lifestyle practiced by those who aim to cut down on the rapid depletion of the planet’s natural resources.

A passing interest in going green turns into sustainable living when you put the concept of sustainability into practice. It’s one thing to agree in theory with environmentalists who suggest that sustainable practices are a good idea. If you adopt a green living lifestyle, however, you’re taking the idea that society should guard its resources more carefully to a very personal level.

When you make the choice to live sustainably, you’re making the decision to decrease the damage that your lifestyle does to the earth — often called your carbon footprint.

That means making careful choices in three important lifestyle areas:

1. Household energy consumption.

Decreasing your home’s energy consumption begins with simple changes like using the most energy-efficient light bulbs and small appliances, caulking windows to reduce heat loss in the winter and using heavy fabric curtains to reduce heat gain from the sun in the summer.

Next, embracing sustainable living in your home means changing major appliances like washers, dryers and air conditioners to greener models as the old ones wear out. You’ll also need to think about how you heat your home and your water.

In short, green living means analyzing every machine, process and choice in your home to make sure you’re living as responsibly as possible.

2. Transportation.

Most traditional cars, pickups and SUVs run on petroleum-based fuels that take a great deal of resources to obtain and then pollute the atmosphere when they are burned.

Changing to a hybrid or electric vehicle is one way to reduce the impact of your transportation needs on the environment, but there are others. For example, taking public transportation like a bus or train reduces your carbon usage for the trip to nothing because the vehicle would have run its route whether you were on it or not.

You can also dramatically reduce your gasoline usage by combining short errand trips into a single outing and choosing to do business with companies and organizations near your home whenever possible.

3. Diet.

The way you eat may have a detrimental impact on the environment, but you can make changes to reduce the negative impact of your choices. One of the simplest things you can do is eat less. Overeating means you’re consuming more resources than necessary to maintain your life.

Choosing food that is minimally processed and grown near your home is also a smart idea since there are fewer processing and transportation processes and costs involved.

In addition, adding more vegetarian meals into your rotation can contribute to sustainable living because it requires more resources to farm and process meat than to manage vegetable food sources.

A Few More Thoughts

In general, sustainable living means using less energy and fewer resources than those who don’t use care in making their choices by making every decision with its environmental impact in mind.

The modern green living movement is thought to date back as far as the mid-1950s. While this lifestyle has gained followers in the decades since, it has only recently come into the public spotlight as the repercussions of unsustainable, irresponsible living have become clearer to many people.

Today is a great time to move your habits in a greener direction. Sustainable living just makes sense, and it fit perfectly with a simple, minimalist lifestyle too.

In fact, making careful decisions with an eye toward consequences fits into just about any kind of responsible lifestyle.

Frugal Living: How It’s Different From Simple Living

April 4, 2012 Spending Less
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Frugal living often gets lumped in with simple living or the minimalist lifestyle, but it isn’t exactly the same thing. Still, the concepts are closely related and can complement each other.

In the minds of most people who choose frugality, frugal living is about saving money at every turn. People who live a frugal lifestyle are very conservative with how they spend their money, sometimes avoiding all necessary purchases in favor of a life that relies as little on financial resources as possible.

In many cases, minimalists and those who live a frugal lifestyle do exactly the same thing, but there’s a slight difference in approach. A simple life is usually focused more on reducing life’s unpleasant and unnecessary experiences down to the basics,  getting rid of clutter, eliminating activities that take time but provide little in return and clearing the mind of distractions.

Frugal living can accurately be considered one part of a simple, minimalist lifestyle in many cases. There are times when these two camps don’t completely agree on the best approach to life, however.

Spending To Create An Even Simpler Life

Those who choose a minimalist life aren’t always opposed to spending. For example, some simple living gurus choose to outsource their meal preparation tasks to restaurants rather than handling these tasks themselves. That way, they don’t valuable waste time preparing food. Frugal people usually avoid eating out because of the cost and instead prepare simple, frugal meals.

There could be other differences related to housing. A frugal person might choose to purchase their own modest home to avoid throwing away hard-earned money on rent, but another person who prefers the simple life might choose to live in an apartment where maintenance tasks are handled by a staff handyman — even if this isn’t the least expensive option.

While a frugal person might mow his or her own lawn with an inexpensive lawnmower purchased used, a minimalist who hasn’t managed to acquire a housing situation with no lawn might outsource the mowing, paying to free up some of their precious time.

To put it another way: Frugal living often means not paying for things you can do yourself for less money. Simple, minimalist living means sometimes outsourcing unpleasant, boring or time-consuming tasks. A minimalist might be willing to exchange some money for a valuable service; a frugal person might not.

Other Ways Frugal Living Differs From Simple Living

A simple lifestyle doesn’t have to be financially responsible at all, although it often it. Some people simplify their lives specifically so they can have more time to enjoy the so-called finer things in life. That is almost never the reason for choosing a frugal path.

People often choose to be frugal to improve their self-discipline, as a religious or spiritual exercise or simply to save money.

Frugal living is sometimes more work than simple living. Tracking every purchase and sticking close to a budget is frugal, but it’s also complex. It would be simpler to only occasionally monitor a bank account online, for example, than to try to balance an account daily.

A Few More Thoughts

Living a simple life is all about freeing up time and perhaps resources so your energy can be devoted to the most important things in life. Frugal living is often different in perspective only, although there can be some different value judgments as well.

Those who choose a frugal life focus on saving money, and by doing so they often create lives with less physical, mental and emotional clutter — lives that fit perfectly into a simple, minimalist lifestyle.

The best news is that we don’t have to choose a label for our lives. We can take on some frugal tendencies and some simple ones as well. As long as we are living lives that seem better to us each day, we can be certain we’re on the right track — whether we can genuinely call ourselves frugal living converts or not.

Debt Free Living: 6 Tips For Achieving Debt Free Living And A Book That Can Help

April 3, 2012 Saving More / Spending Less
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If you’re seriously interested in debt free living, you have to commit firmly to one thing: You can’t buy whatever you want, whenever you want it. You have to wait until you have money in hand to make purchases.

Additionally, you have to save as much as you can for unexpected situations and you have to do without a few of life’s so-called finer things altogether.

Don’t worry though. A debt-free life is one with no worries about the consequences of missed payments, no money wasted on interest and fees and nothing hanging over your head threatening to ruin your financial future.

Debt free living means different things to different people. To some, it means no mortgage, no house payment and no credit cards. To others it means simply no long-term credit card debt, but they may have house and car payments and use credit cards that they pay off every month so they can accrue rewards or points.

Here are some things you can do to move yourself steadily closer to a debt-free lifestyle:

First, take stock of where you are. Decide which of your debts are expensive and don’t serve you well. That almost always includes credit cards, but it could also include high-interest car loans and other consumer loans. Do everything you can to pay off this “bad” debt first or at least renegotiate the terms so they aren’t as oppressive for you.

Second, avoid using credit cards in the future. While some people can successfully manage credit card accounts and take full advantage of the protections and rewards they often, many of us can’t. To make sure a credit card balance never builds up for you, simply avoid credit cards altogether.

Third, keep track of your cash. Many of us lose hundreds or thousands of dollars in cash each year on small purchases at coffee shops, convenience stores and fast-food restaurants. Cutting impulse purchases and eliminating some of your weekly treats can save you a bundle that you can put toward better causes.

Fourth, save for unexpected expenses. An unexpected car repair that has to go on a credit card or an uncovered medical bill can derail an otherwise relatively stable financial situation. Creating an emergency account and keeping it well stocked can help keep unexpected issues from becoming burdensome debts.

Fifth, save for retirement too. As you free up more of the income that once went to servicing debt, you can save more for the future. There will be a day when you don’t want to work anymore.

Finally, consider a side job or project to pay off existing debts. To get rid of pesky and tiresome debts that remain despite your best efforts, take a second job for a few months, start an eBay store or offer some professional services on a freelance basis. You’ll feel much better when the debt is gone, and then you can decide whether the side project is worth continuing.

The Book Debt-Free Living

Debt-Free Living book

Debt-Free Living book, available from Amazon


Larry Burkett’s book Debt-Free Living takes a Christian approach to getting out of debt. This bestselling guide speaks out against credit and shows families how to get out of the debt problems that plague them throughout life.

Breaking the debt cycle is important, but understanding that it starts with determining the origin of your financial problems is crucial. With financial problems cited as a common reason for divorce, settling financial issues quickly and efficiently is important to maintaining a strong family. Burkett shows in the book how debt need not end an otherwise great relationship.

Should you own your own home or rent? Is borrowing against Biblical principles? When is filing bankruptcy a good idea? Debt-Free Living answers these questions and hundreds of others in simple, direct language.

One More Thought

You deserve whatever kind of life you want, but to have it, you may have to rid yourself of some of life’s weighty matters that are holding you down. Debt is one of those things that threatens to derail many otherwise grand lives.

Debt free living is possible. To find out for yourself how great it can be, follow the advice in this article and consider purchasing Burkett’s book, available at the best price from Amazon.

You deserve an even better life than you have now, and ridding yourself of debt could be the key to getting it.

Frugal Meals: 10 Ideas For Reducing Your Food Cost At Every Meal

April 1, 2012 Spending Less
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Preparing frugal meals doesn’t mean you have to serve your family low-quality meats like hotdogs and canned luncheon meats at every meal, and it doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to rice and beans every time you sit down at the table either.

Frugal meals also don’t have to be boring or tasteless. By making smart choices at every meal, you can dramatically reduce your food costs while still enjoying tasty, nutritious and fun meals.

Here are 10 ideas for reducing your food costs at every meal, every day. Take a few of these to heart and you’ll soon be the frugal meals king or queen of your neighborhood.

1. Reduce the amount of meat you serve. Your family probably won’t notice the difference if you reduce the meat in your favorite casseroles by a third or even half. They might not even mind if each hamburger is an ounce smaller or each chicken cutlet is really a smaller piece pounded out to look like a bigger one. Meat is expensive, so reducing the amount of it you use is the simplest way to make your meals more frugal.

2. Make up the difference with filling and inexpensive starches. Yes, rice and beans fit the bill perfectly here, but so do many other things. Switch your usual half-pound burger patty for a smaller patty and add a bowl of pinto beans to your meal, for example. You can also serve a side of buttered pasta or rice pilaf to make sure you get full at every meal.

Broke-Ass Cookbook

Broke-Ass Cookbook features frugal meals and is available cheap on Amazon


3. Try the cheapest version of everything. Frugal meals are sometimes exactly like your old meals except they are made from less expensive store-brand canned veggies, cheaper cuts of meat and economy-sized bags bought on sale. You’ll soon figure out when buying a name brand is really necessary to get good quality — and it almost never is.

4. Bring back some ramen. You may have given up packaged ramen noodles when you left college or got your first job, but they are much more versatile than many people realize. Drained ramen noodles make a quick and frugal substitute for spaghetti that tastes great. Noodles with their broth and seasoning can also be the base of a soup made from whatever leftovers are in the fridge.

5. Take advantage of doggy bags. Don’t leave leftover food behind when you eat out. Take home everything — even the chips and salsa or dinner rolls if you’re allowed — to use as a snack or an addition to the next day’s lunch. You’ll be surprised how much you can save. Leftovers fill you up just as much as fresh food, and no meal is more frugal than one you already paid for yesterday.

6. Make more soups. Soups are mostly water, and water is nearly free. That means a soup is an ideal frugal meal. Fill it out with leftover bits of meats and veggies or used canned items when you have nothing else.

7. Don’t forget the seasoning. Some frugal meals seem unappealing at first because they aren’t properly seasoned. Don’t be shy with dried herbs, spices and black pepper. Add in whatever seasoning you like to soups, pastas, grains and every other dish you serve. You deserve a meal that tastes great while it’s saving you money.

8. Have breakfast for dinner. Breakfast foods like eggs, grits and cold cereals can be inexpensive if purchased in bulk or on sale, so use up extras by serving breakfast for dinner. Since breakfast is many people’s favorite meal of the day anyway, you’ll surprise and satisfy the whole family.

9. Make a salad your main dish. With a base of fresh lettuces, you can get by with small amounts meats and veggies and still serve a nutritious and filling meal. And don’t worry about the high cost of salad dressing. Try some olive oil and lemon juice or thinned-down plain yogurt with salt and spices added instead of bottled dressing. You’ll be surprise how quickly a frugal meal can start to seem exotic and expensive.

10. Serve a mezza platter to your family and your guests. A mezza platter is a selection of meats, cheeses, breads, olives and other items served in small quantities. Things you’re wanting to get rid of from your refrigerator make a perfect mezza platter, and you may be able to create one for very little if you have things sitting around that wouldn’t have gotten used otherwise.

An Endless Array Of Ideas

It’s easy to get carried away listing out ideas for frugal meals. When you take a moment to consider what you usually serve yourself and your family, you’ll quickly realize that there are less expensive choices that can be just as pleasing as the ones for which you have been paying a premium.

Congratulations on considering serving more frugal meals. You’re doing the right thing for your pocketbook — and for those in your family who would rather spend the money you have in other exciting ways.

Frugality: It’s All About Saving Money (Mostly)

March 29, 2012 Spending Less
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So which are you: Prudent? Economical? Sparing? Thrifty? Or simply frugal? If you practice frugality, you’re very likely all of these things and more.

Frugality is the quality or concept of being frugal, and being frugal means using restraint when acquiring goods and services.

In other words, if you’re frugal you think about what you’re spending and only spend when necessary. When you do spend money, you work to find ways to spend as little as possible and get as much as you can for it.

People who practice frugality don’t require lavishness in their food, clothing, possessions or experiences. Frugal people may also use their time just as sparingly as they use their money, focusing on creating quality experiences with family and friends that don’t cost much money.

Frugal people, as it turns out, are easily satisfied and manage to be quite happy with quite a lot less than most people.

Implementing Frugality In Your Life

Frugality is a practice that is usually implemented with the idea of cutting expenses to make more money available for other things. Some people voluntarily choose a simple lifestyle as a way of learning restraint or as a spiritual or religious practice while others must simplify their spending because they don’t make enough to make ends meet.

Some of the steps people take to increase their frugality include:

  • Choosing free or low-cost entertainment options over paid-for choices whenever possible
  • Changing expensive habits like eating out or drinking at a club
  • Reducing waste by eliminating unnecessary overpurchasing of food, clothing or supplies
  • Resisting the “instant gratification” urge by waiting before making any purchases
  • Bartering

These are only some of the most common steps people take as they move toward frugality; there are many other things you can do if you want to become frugal. The idea is to limit spending and carefully consider every decision that involves using money.

Why Else Do People Choose Frugality?

As I said, many people turn to frugality because they want to save money — or need to.

There are some people who feel the need to be frugal for other reasons.

Some of these people were raised with very little money and have always perceived that they do not have enough of some things. For that reason, they conserve even if they don’t have to.

These people often become frugal hoarders — refusing to spend money and also refusing to throw away anything that they might need later. While some hoarders spend money to try to fill a void in their lives, frugal hoarders do it because they’ve never had very much and want to hold onto everything they get.

Some environmentalists also promote frugality because every item that isn’t bought is an item that’s never made and therefore never finishes its life in a landfill.

A Few More Thoughts

People turn to frugality for a variety of reasons, but saving money, resources and being more disciplined are the primary ones.

While frugality is closely related to minimalist living and other forms of simple living, frugality is most closely associated with saving money and resources rather than achieving a desired level of simplicity. Still, it’s hard to create a life that’s less based on money than the average life without finding that it’s simpler and saner too.

Frugality may not be for everyone, but the world and the individuals in it could benefit if a few more people tried it.

A New Favorite Simple Living Blog? Three Choices For You

March 27, 2012 Minimalism / Simplifying Life
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It seems that every server on the Internet must host a simple living blog or two, but some of them are more interesting, useful and educational than others.

You’ve probably heard of the big names in simple living like Zen Habits and The Minimalists, but their advice may not always hit home with you. It’s also natural to want to hear other voices on the topic.

Simple living is a lifestyle choice that’s attractive for several reasons. Some people choose it because they must find ways to live on less for financial reasons — or they want to find a simpler lifestyle to relieve stress. Some turn to simple living because of a desire to leave a smaller ecological footprint or to model a more responsible way of life to their children.

Here are three simple living blogs you may not be reading that deserve your attention. Be sure to subscribe by email to all three so you can keep up with the latest posts from these compelling writers.

1. So Much More Life by Gip Plaster

So Much More Life is a favorite of mine, and it’s the simple living blog I choose to feature on the sidebar of Minimalist Living Today. Gip’s advice comes from a lifetime of simple living, but he got serious about the topic and started blogging about two or three years ago.

So Much More Life is unique because Gip does so much to encourage community participation on his blog. While some minimalist bloggers have turned off comments on their blogs, Gip encourages them with questions in his posts.

I also like that he writes about middle-of-the-road simple living that isn’t too radical.

2. Untitled Minimalism by Robert Wall

Untitled Minimalism isn’t just another simple living blog. Robert writes about all sorts of issues related to simple, sensible living from a self-proclaimed geek’s perspective. In general, he takes an analytical approach in his posts. He also tells some personal stories and fills out many of his posts with hypothetical scenarios designed to make you think.

Robert promotes frugality as well as simplicity on Untitled Minimalism, giving his blog broader appeal than some.

3. Ex-Consumer by Jenny McCutcheon

Jenny’s simple living blog comes from a very different perspective than many others. Jenny and her husband seem to have plenty of money, at least judging by how quickly and easily they paid down their debt and established tens of thousands of dollars in emergency funds.

Once Jenny made the decision to live a simpler life, she made a real transition. Still, Jenny’s life has issues that can benefit from an even simpler lifestyle, and that’s what she writes about on Ex-Consumer.

Jenny may be in a different position from many of her readers — and she is less self-revealing than many other bloggers — but her content is still interesting and compelling.

A Few Thoughts

Reading a simple living blog — or two or three — is a great way to get ideas about the minimalist lifestyle and to find others who are on journeys like yours. Simple living blogs can also show you how others have found solutions to the issues that complicated their lives.

One of the best ways to fully experience the simple life, however, is to blog about your journey.

If you choose to start a simple living blog, you’ll be joining a growing number of people like the three bloggers mentioned in this post who find joy and inspiration in both reading and writing about simple living.

What Is Simple Living? A 450-Word Introduction

March 26, 2012 Simplifying Life
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Simple living means different things to different people, but these people and their practices share some things in common. Still, no one discussion of this lifestyle choice could ever be complete.

The term simple living can be used synonymously with minimalist living or voluntary simplicity — although some people may live simply because they can’t afford to live any other way, meaning the lifestyle may not be completely voluntary.

In any case, simple living often involves reducing possessions, increasing self-sufficiency, simplifying diet and reconsidering the role of technology in life, among other things.

Simple living is a lifestyle that aims to fulfill needs and focus on what you really want in life rather than chasing after dreams and life plans established by others.

Why People Choose Simple Living

Many people turn to a simpler lifestyle when they realize that their lives are out of control. They may find that they have accumulated a lot of debt but have little to show for it or that they are always busy but aren’t finding time for the things that are most important to them.

Some people feel an almost religious zeal toward their simple lifestyle and feel compelled to promote it to everyone they meet. Others allow their lives to serve as a positive example of simplicity. Still others don’t make their lifestyle choice obvious to others.

Religion is exactly the reason some turn to simple living. In fact, religious leaders like Buddha, Confucius, Laozi and Zarathustra recommended simple living, and some see preferences toward simplicity in Jewish and Christian teaching.

Christian sects like the Amish, Mennonites, Quakers and Shakers all prescribe to and promote a simple lifestyle.

Some turn to simple living after reading works by those who promote it. This can involved sources as diverse as Henry David Thoreau’s classic book Walden or the Zen Habits blog by Leo Babauta.

Advantages of Simple Living

Those who choose simple living often find that they:

  • Have more time for the things that are important to them
  • Are more self-sufficient
  • Are satisfied with their income level even if it is low
  • Can keep life, family and work in balance
  • Become increasingly uncomfortable with consumerism and materialism
  • Reduce their ecological footprint

And these are just a few of the benefits of living a simple life.

Even more simply put, those who choose simple lives often find that they like their lives better. If they didn’t, they would have simply gone back to their previous way of life.

Final Thoughts

No matter why people turn toward simple living or what specific advantages they find once they start living the simple lifestyle, few people turn back from this way of life.

Simple living casts aside life’s unimportant details and focuses attention on what really matters.

Do You Have Minimalistic Tendencies?

March 24, 2012 Minimalism
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Minimalist Living Today is designed for two kinds people: those who enjoy a simple, minimalist lifestyle and those who wonder if they might.

Could minimalist living be for you? It could be if you have minimalistic tendencies.

There are lots of articles on this site specifically designed to help readers like you understand the various aspects of simple living and topics that relate to it. But this article is about those natural tendencies that might make you more likely to related to a simple lifestyle.

Define Minimalistic

First, however, let’s define “minimalistic”. Minimalistic is an awfully complex word that means simple.

Really. Minimalism is simplicity itself, and if something is minimalistic, it’s simple — or minimal.

Minimal has several definition. One of them indicates a small amount or taking something to the slightest degree. A life that is minimalistic, therefore, is one that endures complexities to the smallest amount or degree. Complicated hairstyles, expensive wardrobes, complex cooking techniques and a needlessly inflated way of living aren’t compatible with minimalism.

Another definition of minimal in some dictionaries is “barely adequate”. Ask anyone who voluntarily subscribes to minimalist living and you’ll soon understand that minimalism is anything but barely adequate. In fact, for some, it’s the only way of life that’s rich enough to allow for experiencing the things that really matter.

Minimalistic Tendencies

The following questions could help you decide if you have minimalistic tendencies — and I hope you do:

Do you dislike dealing with corporations and systems? Does waiting on hold to service an account for which you shell out big bucks make you angry? Is the service at a restaurant never quite adequate? Would you rather have a way to serve yourself?

Do you find all the choices in modern supermarkets to be overwhelming? Would you prefer to have fewer choices in the grocery store so you could spend less time shopping and more time enjoying other aspects of your life?

Do you dislike shopping for clothing because you find the prices too high and the manufacturing policies of many clothing companies questionable at best? Would you rather make the clothes you have last longer and order any essential new clothing with the fewest hassles possible?

Do you like buying second hand items at thrift stores because you enjoy the idea of recycling, of saving money and of avoiding department stores and other traditional shopping outlets?

Do you like to cook simple meals with very few ingredients rather than complex menus that require lots of fussy measurements and multiple steps?

Would you rather eat in than eat out — especially when you think about the quality of the food you’re being offered at restaurants and the price you’re expected to pay for it?

Do you enjoy well-organized, easy-to-navigate free events and low-cost entertainment options but avoid crowded and expensive festivals and high-priced theatre shows?

Do you enjoy spending time alone reading, writing, creating art or enjoying your own company?

If you can answer “yes” to some or all of these questions, you are fortunate enough to have some minimalistic tendencies.

Continue exploring Minimalist Living Today so you can learn more about this lifestyle for which you are well-suited. And congratulations. A minimalistic life is an amazing thing.

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