(Part 2) Top products from r/simpleliving

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We found 23 product mentions on r/simpleliving. We ranked the 305 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.

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Top comments that mention products on r/simpleliving:

u/frabelle · 9 pointsr/simpleliving

Some memoirs... would probably fall under "practical."

  • "No Baggage: A Minimalist Tale of Love and Wandering" by Clara Bensen -- Putting this at the top of the list because I love the concept so much. Girl meets a guy and they decide to go on a multi-week trip to Europe together... with no luggage. Basically, all they have are the clothes on their back and what they can carry in their pockets / purse. (I learned later that said boyfriend is Jeff Wilson, aka "Professor Dumpster," the college professor who lived in a retrofitted dumpster to show people how lightly one can live on the earth. More here: The Dumpster Project )

  • "The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today's America" by Mark Sundeen -- About three different couples that attempt homesteading in three remarkably different ways -- one in a traditional homestead on an old Amish farm with no electricity Northeastern Missouri where they teach others, one on an urban homestead in Detroit, and one on a farm attempting to be organic in Montana. This is probably the quirkiest, most offbeat title on the list and the one closest to my heart (possibly tying with "No Baggage.")

  • "The Big Tiny: A Built-It-Myself Memoir" by Dee Williams -- About a Boomer woman who builds her own tiny house to live in.

  • "Living Large in Our Little House: Thriving in 480 Square Feet with Six Dogs, a Husband, and One Remote" by Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell -- About a woman and her husband who were forced (due to financial circumstances) to live in their vacation cabin in the woods and ended up making it their full-time residence.

  • "The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape" by James Rebanks -- About a guy who still raises sheep the traditional way in the Yorkshire Dales area of the UK. He's also published a photography book (since this memoir was a runaway bestseller across the pond) and has a beautifully quirky Instagram account worth a follow.

  • "Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living" by Elizabeth Willard Thames -- About a young woman in New England who decides with her husband to eschew superfluous purchases for a few years so that they can build up their savings enough to buy a farm in Vermont and raise their family without the need to work. While I know reaction to this writer have been mixed (it's very "you can do what we did too", despite the fact that the couple had no student loan debt and were from middle-class backgrounds with self-sufficient parents), it is quite inspiring, and reinvigorated my attempts at making conscious purchases.

  • "Walden on Wheels: On The Open Road from Debt to Freedom" by Ken Ilgunas -- About a post-college guy's adventures in living minimally in his twenties while attempting to pay back his student loans. While there are a number of different experiences he discusses, the main focus is on him deciding to live in a van while pursuing a master's degree so as to save on living costs.

  • "No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process" by Colin Beaven -- About a man with a young family who decides he will attempt, while living in their New York City apartment, to create zero impact on the environment for one full year. (This is also the title of a 2009 documentary about the same man, cataloguing his adventure.)

  • "Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping" by Judith Levine -- About a middle-aged writer who decides, along with her husband, to only buy imperative purchases, like food and toilet paper. No clothes, souvenirs, event tickets, etc. I found this to be quite well-written and another inspiring volume.

  • "The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store" by Cait Flanders -- Similar idea to the prior book, but instead it is a young woman living on her own. An enjoyable read, but I did not find it all that well-written.

  • "Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists" by Joshua Fields Millburn -- This book is by the guys who did the "Minimalism" documentary on Netflix. Pretty cookie cutter and not terribly well-written, but again, relatively inspiring. Something I appreciated about this book is that Joshua came from a very tumultuous, working-class background, which sheds a new light on going minimalist. (So often I feel like these memoirs are written by the typical white, affluent, college-educated Boomers or Millennials that have never had to struggle much with want.)
u/boumboum34 · 4 pointsr/simpleliving

Yes it's possible. Though the current economic climate gives me pause. Peter Jenkins did it in the early 70's and wrote two books about it, A Walk Across America covering his route from Alfred, NY to New Orleans, LA, and The Walk West, covering the rest of the route, to Florence, Oregon. A 5 year trek (mostly because he kept staying with folks he met along the way for weeks or months at a time). So it can be done.

He basically did it by taking on temporary jobs along the walk whenever he ran out of money. For him, it became less about the walk, and more about the people he met along the way. That was really inspirational for me. I did a shorter version of it, a 3-week bicycle tour through 11 mountain passes in Colorado on less than $100 total, on a $10 thrift shop bike. Best three weeks of my whole life. I wish it lasted longer. I've done long walks too though nothing as spectacular.

On my bike trip, I found even going over mountains and up all those passes was a lot easier and faster on bicycle than walking. Instead of carrying 50-100 pounds on my back I put all that on my bicycle and pushed it up--then coast down the other side.

p.s. There are portable folding bicycles, that you can fold up, strap to your back, and carry, if you wish. But if backpacking is what you most want to do--then do that, and forget the bike. It's doable. :)

u/Disastrous_Hunter · 1 pointr/simpleliving

Here's an amazing Book on simple living that I just started reading. Just looking at the table of contents makes me happy that I feel like sharing it with others. . Its a list of 100 things you can do to lead a simpler life, the underlying theme is inline with minimalism and strives to add(strengthen) the purpose in your life and and be happier.

the art of simple living

u/chackoc · 5 pointsr/simpleliving

I'm a big fan of Not so Big House by Sarah Susanka. The book doesn't really contain actionable information -- it's more about presenting and promoting her thesis that we should spend our housing budgets on well designed, well built homes with smaller footprints rather than using the same budget to build a larger house with worse design or materials.

I personally think you should use an architect if you have the budget. The knowledge they can bring to the process isn't really something a layperson can replicate well. If you do want to try designing your own, A Pattern Language would be an interesting read. It can provide some useful rules of thumb regarding specific design elements that you might not otherwise consider.

Also you should familiarize yourself with passive solar building design. If you consider the concepts when developing a design and choosing a site you'll be able to leverage them for cheaper heating/cooling at little or no additional design cost. Building a well-insulated structure (a big part of passive solar design) also makes for a more comfortable home in terms of thermal regulation, noise management, air quality management, etc.

u/AnselmoTheHunter · 1 pointr/simpleliving

You don't have to be religious to read and enjoy this either: "The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything." I really liked the bit on the Examens and living simply - which is pretty much the bulk of the book.

u/confusedvagina · 1 pointr/simpleliving

In Praise of Shadows is a another great read on Japanese aesthetics and minimalism.

u/plytheman · 1 pointr/simpleliving

If you get a chance you might be interested in reading Winter by Rick Bass. He basically gets hooked up with living in a pretty secluded house in the middle of no where to act as care-taker. Keep the house in basic shape and the rest of your time is yours to garden (assuming it's not the middle of winter), go for hikes, read, whatever.

u/sitruss · 1 pointr/simpleliving

I highly recommend his book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, that explains in greater detail the circumstances that led to his inventions.

u/pippx · 3 pointsr/simpleliving

If y'all want to read some more of Bryson's thoughts on this, many of his travel books delve very deeply into it. My two favorites are A Walk in the Woods and The Lost Continent.

u/rw3iss · 3 pointsr/simpleliving

This book, "Psycho-Cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz, talks a lot about this, and coincidentally I'm 6 hours into the audio version at the moment (which you can find if you're clever):https://www.amazon.com/Psycho-Cybernetics-Updated-Expanded-Maxwell-Maltz/dp/0399176136/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1527054666&sr=8-1&keywords=psycho-cybernetics

u/freetorun · 2 pointsr/simpleliving

I recommend Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think compiled by Edge.org - it's really long but the essays are short (2-3 pages) and some of the insights are interesting to read. In the past month I have cut back on my "boredom browsing" and have had more time to do other things (read, exercise, etc.)

u/PrudentPlant · 3 pointsr/simpleliving

I feel like your post is right on the money. Some of us are drained by people, others are charged up by people. I prefer to be alone 99% of the time, aside from time with my wife. My wife and stepdaughter and one of my daughters prefer our personal time a great deal and rarely have people over. Almost never. Many of our neighbors are the same way!

There are many writers out there who have and do live in the wilderness. “They prefer their own company.” Richard “Dick” Proenneke who lives alone in Alaska. Sue Aikens. Dolly Faulkner. Heimo Korth and his wife. They all happen to live or lived in Alaska wilderness. They just prefer to be alone the vast majority of the time.

Some of us were not built for the people world, as I discovered as I read the books (and others) below.

https://www.amazon.com/Forty-Years-Wilderness-Dolly-Faulkner-ebook/dp/B00GU6N0JQ

https://www.amazon.com/Final-Frontiersman-Family-Alaskas-Wilderness-ebook/dp/B001D0IU5S/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=HEMO+KORTH&qid=1559087292&s=digital-text&sr=1-1-catcorr

https://www.amazon.com/One-Mans-Wilderness-50th-Anniversary-ebook/dp/B07G2F6GW1/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Proenneke&qid=1559087319&s=digital-text&sr=1-1-catcorr

u/iliikepie · 3 pointsr/simpleliving

Sure! Two books really helped me. One is Toxic Parents. It may not apply to your life though. My parents weren't alcoholics or physically abusive, but there was emotional abuse and emotional neglect. That book really helped me to be able to work through a lot of things from my childhood that I just couldn't let go of and would constantly think about.

The Brain That Changes Itself is a book that isn't really a self-help type book. But for me, it really inspired me. It showed me that I do have the power to change. Even to change things that I thought were impossible.

u/inthequiveringforest · 29 pointsr/simpleliving

Sometimes, and I don't know if this applies to your understanding specifically, there is confusion around these two concepts. I have found that this excerpt from Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, dense as it is, helps to clear it up:

> Loneliness is not solitude. Solitude requires being alone whereas loneliness shows itself most sharply in company with others. Apart from a few stray remarks--usually framed in a paradoxical mood like Cato's statement (reported by Cicero, De Re Publica, I, 17): numquam minus solum esse quam cum solus esset, "never was he less alone than when he was alone," or, rather, "never was he less lonely than when he was in solitude"--it seems that Epictetus, the emancipated slave philosopher of Greek origin, was the first to distinguish between loneliness and solitude. His discovery, in a way, was accidental, his chief interest being neither solitude nor loneliness, but being alone (monos) in the sense of absolute independence. As Epictetus sees it (Dissertationes, Book 3, ch. 13) the lonely man (eremos) finds himself surrounded by others with whom he cannot establish contact or to whose hostility he is exposed. The solitary man, on the contrary, is alone and therefore "can be together with himself" since men have the capacity of "talking with themselves." In solitude, in other words, I am "by myself," together with my self, and therefore two-in-one, whereas in loneliness I am actually one, deserted by all others. All thinking, strictly speaking, is done in solitude and is a dialogue between me and myself; but this dialogue of the two-in-one does not lose contact with the world of my fellow-men because they are represented in the self with whom I lead the dialogue of thought. The problem of solitude is that this two-in-one needs the others in order to become one again: one unchangeable individual whose identity can never be mistaken for that of any other. For the confirmation of my identity I depend entirely upon other people; and it is the great saving grace of companionship for solitary men that it makes them "whole" again, saves them from the dialogue of thought in which one remains always equivocal, restores the identity which makes them speak with the single voice of one unexchangeable person.