Less - a visual guide to minimalism

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.

Book review of Less: a visual guide to minimalism

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 decluttering

Yes, a fair chunk of the book is about decluttered decor and wardrobes. But that's not it.

Reflecting her list of benefits of minimalism, Rachel also offers tips for other areas areas of life where less is more:

Having a few clear goals and focussing your schedule to achieve them.
Spending on what's important and habits to avoid wasteful spending.
Digital decluttering. Simplifying the stuff on our computer and phone.
Decluttering our mind and single-tasking rather multi-tasking

I should re-read that last one. Even as I write this, I'm getting distracted by alerts of social media comments on my previous article.

In short

This books is easy-to-read and practical. I'd recommend borrowing it from the library for a quick read-through and then using the relevant tips and visual aids for the area of life you're currently minimising.

Comments

Ethical Investing for Australians

I write about investing, because it's a key part of life. Spending less and investing means an automatic income. An automatic income means we can work less (if we choose) and definitely stress less. But where to invest? What to invest in? Many people expect their money to be invested responsibly and ethically - rather than making money through things like cigarettes, weapons, casinos, adult entertainment, environmental destruction, and pollution from fossil fuels. Those are all things we could probably do with less of. So how do we invest to get good returns - and to have a positive effect on the world? Here are some sources I've seen: Ethical Investing in Australia At Frugality and Freedom , Michelle has done a fair bit of research into Ethical Investing in Australia . For herself, she's chosen Bank Australia for banking, Australian Ethical for superannuation, and two exchange-traded funds ( FAIR and ETHI ) for her share investing outside of super. She also gives detail...

How to waste a year's wages

A friend recently asked me why it is that so many people (on good incomes) are struggling to save. Often the big three money areas are housing, transport and food. In one sense these are necessary items. But what we spend on them is often way more than necessary. I crunched some numbers on how much extra my wife and I could spend on these things - if for some reason we wanted to burn our money. 1. Housing Our apartment is fairly nice, but also cost-effective. I've mentioned how choosing it saves us $1,800 per year , compared to a similar one we saw. The high end of 2-bedroom apartments in our suburb is $305 per week more than our apartment. Not $305 per week. $305 per week more than ours is. I cannot get over that. Sure it's new and modern-looking, but that's a lot of money. It's an extra $15,860 per year above what we pay. 2. Transport The Australian Automobile Association lists the costs of owning and running a car. It includes many often-overlooked c...

Don't dump on charities

Netflix causes mass dumping. Here's an alternative. January is usually a big month for physical donations to charity. In 2019 it's been over-the-top (literally) as charity donation bins have been overflowing with items. The Netflix series "Tidying Up" by famous declutterer Marie Kondo (see her book ) has inspired many to declutter their homes. But in the process they've cluttered the streets. What's so bad about donating? When the bins overflow the extra items are thrown away. Having been in the weather, the rain and on the ground, they are classified as contaminated and cannot be sold. To make it worse, much of what fills the bins is not good enough to sell, and is also dumped. Bad donations hurt charities 13 million dollars. That's how much it costs charities to deal with all the junk we dump on them - 60,000 tonnes a year. Lifeline says half its stores have stopped accepting donations. We might think we're helping, but that's a lot ...

But wait... there's less!

Search This Blog