(Part 3) Top products from r/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.)

> How have you, experienced minimalists, handled situations like this?

I've been a minimalist for 5 years and I've experienced the same.

Many of my friends just didn't get it, so they attacked the idea. I figured it's a typical response to attack what you don't know or understand. At first I talked a lot about it, but for most people that didn't help. However, over time they say I was happier, and that they couldn't argue with. After a while I just stopped arguing with them, or trying to explain it (unless they asked), but rather showed them my life being better for it.

They could still text me to invite me to events. I did miss a few events (no FB) and heard about them later. I just simply asked that they would text me about them next time. If they didn't, or felt that was too much to ask, then I didn't complain. I decided if I wasn't worth texting (or calling) about an event then I didn't want to go, because I wasn't wanted enough. Why spend time with people who don't want you. With that my friends shifted a bit and I ended up with less 'friends' but better relationships.

Now, I've been traveling for the past 2 years and my friends have shifted again. Many of the people who's events I missed I don't even talk to anymore. I have made new friends, again less 'friends' and stronger relationships with the real friends who stuck around and new friends I've made.

I never recall ever being unsupported by family. Though my parents have been packrats since I was born. I haven't seen them for much over the last two years, but I heard two month ago that my mom read a book I suggested and now is giving away a bunch of stuff every week to thrift stores, so that's a huge plus!

TL;DR I exchanged my big group of 'friends' for real friendships with a smaller group.

> the ultimate form of success results in happiness

I think happiness is a false god. One persons happy can ensure the misery of many others. The search for individual happiness is a peculiar western ideal.

http://www.amazon.com/Against-Happiness-Melancholy-Eric-Wilson/dp/0374240663

Alice Waters (founder of Chez Panisse) has a book called The Art of Simple Food. I've had a lot of recipes out of this book and they're all simple and lovely. I also really like this tomato sauce recipe recently featured in the NY Times. Marinara is usually just ok, to me. This recipe is so bright and fresh tasting; it really features tomatoes. If you're open mornings, I've recently been enamored with fresh greens for breakfast. A frittata, a nice omelette, or phyllo-topped with eggs: top with greens. I like a handful of fresh arugula toassed with olive oil (or truffle oil), a touch of red wine vinaigrette, and s&p, and some sliced cherry tomatoes. It really brightens ordinarily heavy breakfast dishes. Also, I love the taste of homemade nut milk. I soak overnight equal parts almonds, cashews, and pistachios, some sunflower seeds, and some pumpkin seeds. Strain and rinse. Blend (2 or 3 parts water, 1 part nut mixture). And a pinch of salt and sugar/agave/honey to taste. It's lovely and so much more healthful than regular milk. You can also combine with egg and cornstarch (or chia seed) to make a custard or cream (see Chad Robertson recipe in "Tartine 3"). I love food and have worked in many restaurants. I also love eating simply. I'm vegetarian so I'm definitely biased towards meatless dishes, but if you have any questions or want some more suggestions, let me know!

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

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.

"If Not, Winter" ~by Sappho <3

"Basho's Haiku" by Matsuo Basho (and translated by David Landis Barnhill) I did my college thesis on Basho, and Barnhill is definitely the best translator, imho~ his other translated work,"Basho's Journey", is also wonderful if you're looking for a more diary-style, year in the life, work <3

You might appreciate this

Personally I find looking at it like a puzzle to solve is sometimes helpful. People do things, and you can't control them. You can try to influence, and some ways work better than others. At the end of the day, if things don't go your way, you still (probably) have a job, and you've learned something for next time. Why sweat it?

I was given [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Homemade-Pantry-Foods-Buying-Making/dp/030788726X/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394808619&sr=1-1&keywords=the+homemade+pantry) cookbook through one of Reddit's gift exchanges. Everything I've made has been very tasty and relatively easy to make. Not sure I'd leave the kids on their own, but with some supervision, the cheese cracker recipe would be a great place to start.

Im on month 10 of this. I'm so happy compared to how I was (and I wasn't miserable).

I have a kindle and am reading as much as possible. Long walks from 11am to 3pm every day.

I make my own breakfast, lunch and dinner most days...

Certainly not productive but I am more than willing to work a few more years when I'm 60 to balance it all out.

The problem is what to do next, whenever that is...

"Create the future" and be "authentic" is about all I have come up with. Certainly no more conference calls and meetings with people I don't respect and wouldn't speak to if it weren't for a paycheck.

Life is too short. This is obvious.

Edit - best of luck! I was reading this book and the main character quits his job at the beginning of the book. No one can understand why...his answer: "to think."

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

SUCH a good book. Teach your Children Well

Someone even wrote a book (a bit psuedo-sciency) on how being close to water improves human psychological well-being.

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Mind-Surprising-Healthier-Connected/dp/0316252115

Here’s a link to the documentary:
Henry David Thoreau: Surveyor of the Soul

And here’s the biography:
Henry David Thoreau: A Life

The author of the bio, Laura Dassow Walls, is featured prominently in the documentary.

Extremely classic book about this exactly

MMM before there was an MMM.

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.)

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.

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.

I'd recommend reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer before you do anything. It's a real-life story of a guy who really did go to Alaska to live in nature. He died fairly quickly. Wild by Cheryl Strayed is another book worth reading.

Living remotely in nature is great, and I get the appeal. But learn everything you possibly can about wilderness survival, and definitely take classes with other people, so you can have input from real experts on what you're missing. And read about where others went wrong, because nature is unforgiving and brutal. It doesn't care about you. It gives no shits about you finding your inner peace/strength/whatever. If you mess up, a painful death awaits. So if you're really going for it, be as smart and prepared as possible.

*Also see a doc about getting vaccinations. Tetanus is no joke, man.