by Chris Thomas, Designer @ Webcredible
A very short self-help book and rally against excessive consumerism.
Digital edition (free)
As read: February 2015
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
- The chapters are so short that it felt right to compile all of the notes into one section
Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
-- William Morris
- Thought: I mean, why stop at your house? Why not set this expectation for everything in your life?
- In the Western world, we accumulate a lot of things that don't meet this criteria: shit
- You don't need those free mousepads, lingering unwanted Xmas presents, obsolete gadgets, ... "pretty much anything being stored in a cardboard box"
- We spend a lot of time & energy cleaning, maintaining, and worrying about the shit we own
- Create more space by having less & enjoy the absence of things -- whitespace for your life
- It's about valuing experiences > things
"Without all this stuff to distract you, you are forced to search a little deeper to find out what the fuck it is you want to do with your life."
- Advertising convinces us that buying things will make us happy and solve our problems; we get caught up keeping up with the Joneses (i.e., conspicuous consumption)
- Reducing our own consumption saves energy & Earth's finite resources
- Discover a deep appreciation for & invest in the things you use every day (i.e., that with which you spend most of your time)
- Quality = frequency of usage + longevity + utility (i.e., being high quality and reliable is more important than cost, see buy it for life)
- Sentimental value can create emotional crutches
- Give or sell to people who need it more than you
- Share with friends, colleagues, neighbors
- Digitize analog things
- Fix or repair things to last longer
- Throw away or recycle
- Don't buy it in the first place