But wait... there's less!

Rachel Aust begins her book "Less: A visual guide to minimalism" by defining minimalism as: unsubscribing from the idea that how much you own equates to your level of happiness. letting go of the unnecessary. the removal of distractions. a way to reclaim your time. an intentional way of living that allows you to identify what's important to you. simplicity. freedom. How is it a "visual guide" Flow charts, tables, photos and diagrams. Even if you didn't read a single paragraph of text there's still value in this book. Decide what to do with unwanted items by following a flow chart. Tips for daily, weekly and monthly tasks to stay minimal are in a handy table. Same for goal setting. Diagrams of study workspaces and wardrobes help illustrate how to keep those traditionally cluttered areas more minimal. Even lists are presented in visually appealing ways or as a collection of icons - such as the 20 essential kitchen tools. Not just declutteri...

I love reading. I read often. You might think I'd be the last person to want to get rid of books. But I do have a lot of them. There's about 100 just in this little arty photo of my main two shelves. I want to reduce, but what if I want to read them again? Should I hold on to them just in case? Oops! I said those 3 words. The 3 dangerous words to say when downsizing. "Just in case". Let's not be a hoarder If you've ever seen those hoarding shows on TV, the 'star' of the show has 10,000 objects they are keeping "just in case". As outsiders we can clearly see that it's all a complete waste of space. So how do I avoid the "just in case" syndrome and instead make sensible decisions about my books? Actual Data The theory for keeping a book is that I might read it again. But how likely is that? Let's take a survey of the books on my top shelf (neatly arranged by height). Part-read or never read counts as zero. Once r...

I loved this witty sign - made by the librarians at my local library. It makes a good point. If I want a choice of hundreds of movies or documentaries - the local library is a great option. Great for the minimalist Most movies we watch just once. In most cases owning movies is a waste of space. The great thing about the library is that there's a built-in deadline to return them and get them out of the house. Great for the money-saver At $0 per month movies don't come cheaper than that. You have to carry it home That doesn't sound like an advantage, but it is. An all-you-can-eat restaurant tempts us to over-eat. A $10/mth all-you-can-watch deal can turn into a binge-watching session that eats away our whole weekend. Don't get me wrong. Value for money is great. Spending less money means we don't have to trade away so much of our time for dollars. We can use that time for other things. For a more meaningful life. But unless your life goal is movie-watching,...

The inventor of paint-by-number, Larry Robbins, recently passed away . Paint-by-number kits come with a numbered picture and a series of small paints, each with the corresponding number on it. We simply paints all the "1" areas with paint number 1. The "2" areas with paint 2, etc. It meant that anybody, regardless of talent, could create their own artwork. All we had to do was follow instructions. The only downside is that after all that painting, nothing new or creative is ever painted - except by mistake. The whole idea is that if 50,000 people buy the kit, there will be 50,000 almost-identical paintings. Paint-by-number life It struck me recently just how much of our lives is like a paint by number. We think we're painting our own masterpiece but often we're just filling in the colours. We're taking the standard options and so a lot of our lives look very similar. We work similar hours, buy similar houses, have a similar number of kids, do...