But wait... there's less!

October is Buy Nothing New Month , and that's their slogan: Shop Less. Live More. This quote about consumption is doubly true. There's the hours we spend to earn the money to spend. Then there's the hours bustling around shopping centres and malls searching out the thing we want (or that advertising has told us we want). Of course there's also the issue of where we put all this stuff we buy. Do we just buy a bigger house (with a bigger mortgage) or do we put it in storage? "The Japanese may have tidiness but in America we have storage lockers - our only growth industry." - Marge Simpson . I found these stats about the US storage industry . I find it such a waste that after spending so much to buy all this stuff we then spend another $22 billion to store it. Shocking. Clearly we need to be less addicted to purchasing. Buy Nothing New Month is a great way to start. Are you with me?

Do you feel like you have too much stuff? Is your home full of things you never use? Would you like to swap them for cash? We did My wife and I have sold more than 550 items online as we downsize and we've learnt a bit along the way. I've put some of our best tips into this handy ebook. I hope you can use these tips so you too can have less clutter and more cash. Enter your email address below to receive the book for free. Less Clutter More Cash Get my new ebook for free. PS. This will subscribe to the But Wait There's Less email list, so you'll know when the new updated version of the book is available. You can unsubscribe at any time.

As we downsize i'm finding some things I'd half-forgotten I own. Like this retro Casio handheld computer game. I decided to sell it - especially as it turns out they are a bit of a collector's item. I mentioned this to a computer-game-loving friend of mine. He suggested I hold on to it for "investment value but also because it's cool to have old stuff like this" but also said to put it online if I "really need the space". That last bit got me thinking. It's not really about the space - the game's only the size of a mobile phone. We have sold more than 200 items now, so I guess the space adds up. But the amount of space wasn't a big driving factor. The famous Kon Mari method says to give away things that doesn't bring you joy. I think I would adjust that slightly. This game still brings me a little joy. I play it for a minute or two every couple of years when I stumble across it - often when looking for something else in that dr...

My wife and I have sold more than 200 items online as we've been downsizing. We've made a fair bit of cash, and also learnt a thing or two along the way. I've put some of our tips in a small ebook. In the spirit of downsizing and less-is-more I've kept my cover design fairly simple. Which one do you prefer and why? Let me know in the comments. The ebook it will be a free download to those subscribed to But Wait There's Less . Update: The book is now available .

Now it seems that advertising doesn't even have to make sense. This vending machine at my local shopping centre has the slogan "let life surprise you". I guess it's aimed at people who find their life predictable and would like more spontaneity. But where's the surprise? A person puts money in and selects a drink. That drink comes out and the correct amount of change is returned. Still no surprise. Perhaps the slogan might be valid if your selection had no impact on the random drink dispensed. Or if every third customer got all their money refunded. Or if the vending machine was replaced with a children's lucky-dip. But as it stands it is far from a surprise. It's perhaps the most predictable activity you might do all day. Perhaps if people are looking for spontaneity and excitement they'd do better to spend less time in shopping centres and more time doing things that bring happiness . Also, don't bother paying $3.50 for fizzy drink j...

This meme came up on my wife's facebook feed. I'm not retired and I do have a job. I work 3 days a week and have Mondays off. It's a long weekend every weekend. And that's a good reason to be happy on Monday! PS. It's "winter" here in Brisbane and today is sunny and 26°C (79 F).

Why do we give birthday gifts? Surely it's to bring joy to the birthday person. So what would they enjoy? Often it's not a physical present. Often it's our physical presence. Today is my sister-in-law's birthday. She wasn't at all keen to have a party like last year's milestone birthday. Instead she suggested a simple bike ride along the river leading to a brunch at a riverside restaurant. She seemed to really enjoy the day. And why not? A pleasant bike ride alongside the river on a gorgeous day followed by a delicious brunch - all in the company of people close to her. That's the kind of thing we really enjoy. It's not the kind of thing you get at a shop. It's not the kind of things that fills up your house, but it is the kind of thing that fills your heart. PS. I don't often take photos of food, but I tried to capture the joy of a mid-morning Eggs Benedict by the waterfront. In the moment I ate most of it before even thinking of a photo.

The apartment we live in is currently for sale. The owners are asking $429,000. The floor area is 76 square metres. (US readers: 818 sq.ft) With those numbers, a buyer is paying $5,645 for each square metre. (US readers $524/sq.ft) In those terms, it seems really expensive. So many things that just aren't worth the space they take up. The bookcase is not the worst, but at 90cm wide and 30cm deep, it takes up 0.27m 2 (3 sq.ft). Either way, that's $1,573 worth of space. I gets scarier when that maths is applied to a spare bedroom. It reminds me of the book Less is More . Kim says that in the old days items were more expensive but space (housing) was cheap. So it made sense to hoard things back then. But now it's the other way around. Generally items are cheap to repurchase (if we ever need to) but the space to store them is costly. These days it makes more sense to be selective about what we hold on to. In Australia there's a lot of talk at the moment about h...

Part of the reason we have so much stuff, or throw away so much stuff, is because we buy too much stuff. A big part of that is the constant advertising messages we are hit with throughout the day. I saw this one recently. In the bottom of a shopping basket. Is there no space free from advertising? OK, this is probably been happening for some time, but I generally avoid the two major supermarket chains. PS. One of the extra advantages of working 3 days per week is moving grocery shopping to a weekday. It is so quick and hassle-free with hardly anyone there.

What do you do when you have 80 pens? Help save someone's life. Most times we give away an item we feel we're helping someone. Even selling an item does the buyer a favour by providing what they need at a bargain price. But this was a step above. At a local church, lawyers and other volunteers help refugees seeking safety in Australia. They have a mountain of government paperwork to do to demonstrate who they are and the serious danger they face in their home country. Recently they needed more stationery supplies for the paperwork and applications. It was a great chance for us to declutter our stationery and help people in real need. I was surprised to find we had at least three staplers and 80 pens. Almost half the pens no longer worked - either broken or had dried up while waiting to be used.. We have much less now - but probably still more than we will ever use in our lifetime.