But wait... there's less!

A big part of downsizing is finding new owners for your no-longer-needed items. These items are still fantastic. Many of them are little treasures. It's just time for them to find a new home. For tips on online selling, grab my free e-book Less Clutter More Cash . Today's topic is garage sales. Are they worth it and when's the best time to have one? They do take some work Let's be frank. Garage sales can be a bit of work. Moving all your items to your garage or driveway. Pricing the items, or arranging them in boxes or on tables according to price. Promoting the garage sale to your neighbours - either online or with cardboard signs around the neighbourhood. Sitting around for hours on the day (not really hard work but time-consuming). Packing up after it's all over. Are they worth it? Garage sales can be worth it. If you have a lot of items to sell and they are fairly mainstream items then a garage sale can be worth the time. It's still a lot of work b...

Minimalism: A Documentary About The Important Things follows the story of Ryan and Josh. Friends since childhood, they each found 'success' in the high-flying corporate world but were desperately unhappy. Until they discovered minimalism. The film is about the story we are fed - especially in the USA - that buying things will make us happy. That earning more, and working more, will makes us happy. That our lives are all about buying things. Ryan and Josh (The Minimalists) bust apart this myth - through their own story and talking to authors, economics experts and normal people who have decided that enough is enough. They say they're not evangelising or trying to convert anyone, but it's hard to see the movie and not be motivated to declutter your life. Perhaps I was already a convert. Either way, the documentary definitely opens our eyes to the consumerist message - how pervasive it is, and also how flawed it is. Check out the trailer and see if your local...

I love hearing the stories of people on this show. Tiny House Big Living screens Sundays at 9.30pm on Channel 94 (in Australia). Each week there's two half-hour episodes. While it's fun seeing (and critiquing) the various designs, I really get inspired when someone is making a big positive life change. Recently we got two good stories in one night. Paul and Bekah Dreisbach Paul and Bekah each grew up overseas. Their families were in the Philippines and Africa. Paul shares how this changed them. "Our backgrounds of growing up in a third-world culture and country have affected why we're going to go tiny. People living in shacks or the smallest little places are just as happy and we've realised that it's not necessarily the place you live in or how many things you have but it's the people you're around." Bekah reflects on the moving back to the USA: "Here it's just a struggle to have more and buy more things and you surround yours...

Many of today's jobs will disappear. Will they be replaced by newer cushier jobs? "No" says this video. at least not in significant numbers. I was reminded of this 15-minute documentary (it seems even quicker) by the agriculture analogy in Will Robots Take Your Job? (see my summary of the book ). This short film also compares the disappearance of horses from agriculture to the current technological advancements. Many will worry about this, but it could actually be good news. If we sort out the details then many more of us could have a better work-life balance and enjoy our lives far more. A 4-day or 3-day work week is one option. Of course the government will also have to properly tax these robot-driven companies (to replace the income tax that human workers used to pay).

The future could be very different. It's one reason I started this blog. What will technology mean for jobs? For incomes? For society? So I was excited to find Will Robots Take Your Job? at my local library. What does the book say? There's always been technological change and we've always found jobs. As the more laborious jobs were taken by machines, we took on higher skilled jobs, moving further up the "skill ladder". The main question is whether this time is different. Will the "skill ladder" continue to have higher rungs for humans to move on to? Will these rungs appear as quickly as the current rungs disappear? Either way we're headed for significant disruption. Either large-scale re-training of our workforce or massive unemployment. The author despairs that our leaders seem not to talk about this - and worse still, not have a plan for it. Farmers or horses? In 1870 about 75% of Americans worked in agriculture and used 25 million hors...

Our place has a great view. That and saving almost $2000 a year are benefits of decluttering. My visiting friend Today, upon seeing the view, my friend's phone appeared in seconds. Not our first visitor to impersonate a tourist and definitely not the last. Later in conversation he commended my wife and I on recycling (by selling our excess possessions) rather than adding them to landfill. He was also glad that we were making some handy money from it. But it's even better that he knows. This is not about selling Is this another story about how much you can make by selling your unwanted items? No. At least not this time. Today I'm talking property and how to save on what is probably your biggest expense. How to shrink your rent When my wife and I were looking around to find our current place it came down to a final two. This one has a great view. The other was in much newer condition. Those two things cancelled each other out. The other place also had a slight...

Who has ever had four saucepans cooking at once? So why do we have four hotplates on cooktops? Back in the day of all-in-one units, four hotplates were a nice fit on the top of the oven. These days the cooktop and ovens are usually separate but we've stuck with four hotplates. In many homes and apartments it's worth re-thinking. Is this is a wise use of bench space? Two-saucepan cooktops are making an appearance and freeing up some bench space in smaller kitchens. Aldi are taking it a step further with the Induction Cooking Plate . It's a stand-alone single-hotplate device that can be packed away when not in use. Aldi says it has 8 temperature settings, 5 preset cooking functions, a timer, touch controls and overheat protection. Could this be the future of smaller kitchens? Cost-savings in building. More bench space. Less energy consumption with the efficiency of induction cooking. Another great example of less is more. I don't mean this to be an ad, but...

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld says "all things exist in different stages of becoming garbage" and describes our home as a garbage-processing centre. Demotion "Objects start at the highest level - visible in the living area. From there it goes down to a closet, cupboard or drawer. That's why we have those - so we don't have to see all the huge mistakes we've made." The garage "No object has ever made it out of the garage and back into the house. The word garage seems to be a form of the word garbage." Paid storage "Now instead of free garbage, you pay rent to visit your garbage. It's like a prison visit when you go there." What if it all burnt down? Last week I mentioned Scott Pape's book ( The Barefoot Investor (2018 Update): The Only Money Guide You'll Ever Need ). He's a finance expert who lost everything in a bushfire. The insurance cheque was a chance to start over. It was also a chance to realise that much...

There are three things that happy people have. Is more money one of them? Nope. Once your basic needs are met, extra money doesn't really make you happier. The three things are purpose, relationships and financial control, says author Scott Pape. I've just finished his popular book The Barefoot Investor (2018 Update): The Only Money Guide You'll Ever Need . I expected mainly tips on saving, investing and the sharemarket. Those topics are covered, but a lot of his advice is 1. Don't buy so much stuff, 2. Buy the basic stuff not the flashy stuff, and 3. Don't get sucked in by advertising and salespeople. He says millionaires drive average cars. People with flashy cars are generally not doing as well. ("All show and no dough") Stop making the bankers rich Credit cards don't help you get ahead or buy more. In fact they lock us in to a lifetime of debt and often people pay more in interest than they spend on the purchases. This mean our pay packet d...

Here's a question that came my way: "I plan on parting with a lot of things. But do I attempt to sell or just pass my belongings onto an op-shop? It feels overwhelming that I could be drawing out the length of the process by trying to sell." It's a good question. Here are four reasons why selling is great - and really helps you declutter. 1. You know it goes to someone who'll use it. There's something reassuring about an item you once loved going to a "good home". My wife sold her old money box to a mum and daughter for a small amount. It's nice to imagine the kid cheerfully saving up her pocket money in it - and makes it so much easier to part with. She'll get far enjoyment from it than we ever did. 2. Selling makes saying goodbye easier. My once-beloved jacket had not been worn for years and was an obvious candidate to be given away. Still, to see it go was difficult. Thirty dollars made it a whole lot easier. Many other items are in th...