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A Year Ago on miss minimalist

My Minimalist Story, Part 1: A Clean Slate: I think every minimalist fantasizes about starting over with a clean slate—it seems a heck of a lot easier than the slow (and sometimes painful) process of decluttering the stuff you’ve accumulated over a lifetime. I for one had been decluttering for years, and still seemed nowhere near my goal of living with just the essentials… {read more}

My Minimalist Story, Part 2: The Great Unraveling: Most of us spend our lives in a constant state of accumulation. It all starts when we leave our parents’ homes, and start acquiring the “stuff” to lead independent lives.… {Read more}

Real Life Minimalists: Jennifer

Every Monday I post Real Life Minimalists, a profile of one of my readers in their own words. If you’d like to participate, click here for details. (Note: the schedule is now full through mid-December — but if you don’t mind waiting, feel free to send me your submission!)

This week, I’m happy to bring you Jennifer’s story. She tells us what inspired her minimalist journey, where she is now, and what she’s working on for the future.

Jennifer writes:

A few years ago, I got my heart broken, and in those first few awful days following the break-up, I was in deep DEEP denial.… {Read more}

Leo Babauta on his new book, “focus”

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I’m not the productivity type. I take a fluid approach to life, rarely set goals, and would rather empty my schedule than jam more stuff into it. To me, it’s a serene and creative way to live.

Over the last year, however, my digital commitments have increased dramatically – and I’ve found that between email, blogging, Twitter, and the myriad requests that fill my inbox, it can be difficult to find the mental space to write and create.

Enter “focus,” the new book by Leo Babauta from Zen Habits.… {Read more}

Radical Downsizing

A little over a year ago, my husband and I were living in a 1000-square-foot, 3-bedroom house with a 2-car garage and postage stamp backyard.

Now we’re living in a 390-square-foot, 1-bedroom apartment.

I have to admit: I loved the idea of such a radical downsizing, but wasn’t quite sure how it’d work out in practice. But you know what? So far, we’re functioning perfectly well in about one-third of our former space.

Here are the differences between our former (larger) house and current (tiny) flat:

Former house: 3 bedrooms Tiny flat: 1 bedroom Thoughts: Having three bedrooms was a lot of wasted space for us.… {Read more}

A Year Ago on miss minimalist

Minimalist Travel: What’s in My Suitcase: I received several requests that I list the contents of my carry-on. I’m happy to oblige, as I think we’d all be happier travelers with much less stuff…The list below covers what I pack for a trip of about 10-14 days (the typical length of my overseas travel). However, I’d pack the exact same stuff if I were traveling for 3 months… {read more}

The Top Ten Benefits of Being a Minimalist: A lot of people think being a minimalist is akin to being a monk—living a sort of ascetic lifestyle in which you deprive yourself of “wordly” things simply for the sake of it.… {Read more}

A Year Ago on miss minimalist

The Minimalist Mailbox: The key to being a minimalist is controlling the stuff that flows into your life. In most cases, this power lies in your hands: you can refrain from shopping, refuse freebies, and ask friends and family to stop giving you gifts. You can, in effect, shut the door on stuff. The problem: in that door lies a mail slot. And through that slot will pour all kinds of useless, unwanted, and uninvited clutter, almost every single day… {read more}

The Minimalist Wardrobe: Choose a Base Color: Once upon a time, the clothes in my closet ran the gamut of colors—I had warm hues, cool hues, neutrals, pastels, jewel tones, etc.… {Read more}

Real Life Minimalists: Cody

Every Monday I post Real Life Minimalists, a profile of one of my readers in their own words. If you’d like to participate, click here for details. (Note: the schedule is now full through mid-December — but if you don’t mind waiting, feel free to send me your submission!)

I think you’ll enjoy today’s submission from Cody. He explains how he was able to start over with a clean slate, after living for years amidst his roommates’ clutter. He’s also shared some photos of his minimalist bedroom.

Cody writes:

I would consider myself a salty veteran of the minimalist lifestyle.… {Read more}

Minimizing Digital Commitments

Last year at this time, I’d never heard of the term “digital sabbatical.” And I had no reason to: while I spent my days in front of my computer (writing, blogging, working), I rarely had need to log on during the evenings or weekends.

As the year progressed, however, my digital workdays grew longer: there were more blogs to read, emails to answer, tweets to write, etc, etc. I’d find myself online late into the night, or on a Saturday or Sunday, answering blog comments, working on projects, or simply keeping up with daily correspondence.

Sometime this summer, I realized my life was out of balance.… {Read more}

A Year Ago on miss minimalist

Farewell to My Minimalist House: My husband and I recently sold our three-bedroom, 1920s-era bungalow. As we inconveniently listed it during one of the worst housing markets EVER, it took four months for it to sell… {read more}

Ditch the Prints – Digital Photos are More Fun!: To be honest, I’ve never really enjoyed spending hours looking through someone else’s family photo albums—and I get the feeling I’m not the only one! On the other hand, receiving a snapshot by email always makes me smile… {read more}

Minimalist Living: One In, One Out: One in, one out: it’s a simple rule that works wonders in keeping clutter under control… {read more}

Born Minimalist?… {Read more}

Real Life Minimalists: Laurel

Every Monday I post Real Life Minimalists, a profile of one of my readers in their own words. If you’d like to participate, click here for details. (Note: the schedule is now full through mid-December — but if you don’t mind waiting, feel free to send me your submission!)

This week, Laurel tells us how she discovered (and embraced) a minimalist lifestyle, and how she plans to simplify further in the future. If you’d like to read more about her, please be sure to visit her blog.

Laurel writes:

Growing up, I always liked stuff, but I also felt trapped by it.… {Read more}