Posts Tagged ‘Simple Living’

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Recently I found myself at Zen Habits because I had come across a link to an excellent article on the site,  Simple Living  Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life. It’s a guide to getting rid of what is less important to you in your life, so you can concentrate on what you really care about. That could be anything… the article is full of suggestions like decluttering, simplifying work and home tasks, eliminating the clothes you don’t wear, and so on. There are actually 72 ideas on the list, and many of them have links to other articles of his and other websites around the web.

So I lost myself in all that for a while.  I always love reading simple living tips from other people… I get more ideas that way. Think I will finally give away some of the cotton-polyester clothing in my closet that I wear about once a year, since I really prefer natural fibers.

Back to Zen Habits… There is so much there, that I was delighted to find Start Here on Leo Babauta’sminimalist Zen- style menu… that link takes you to the Beginner’s Guide to Zen Habits – A Guided Tour.  Here is part of it:

The All-Time Most Popular Posts on Zen Habits Read the rest of this entry »

My husband Kelly heard about The Audacity of Simplicity and passed news of it on to me. I didn’t want to wait till I had read it to get the word out about it…looks very timely and got good reviews. Here’s a bit about it:

Read the rest of this entry »

Back when the Voluntary Simplicity movement got started — that link takes you to the book of that name — I noticed that simple living was often more complex. Here are some examples:

• It’s way more work to make your own bread by hand than to buy a good whole grain loaf from a bakery or grocery store. (Now, with bread machines, this is less true!)
• It’s more time consuming to recycle… happily, this is less true now, but it certainly was then, when we had to drive our stuff to a recycling center that was only open on Saturdays.
• Shopping for all-cotton clothes and sheets may take more time than grabbing some part-synthetic items off the shelves. Read the rest of this entry »

I first bought the massive Encyclopedia of Country Living, by Carla Emery, over ten years ago. I kept it by my bedside for late-night reading because there was no pesky plot to keep me awake. I found it written in an enjoyable style, with lots of sections I wanted to read. I’ve cooked many recipes from it and several have become favorites. The title  is a bit misleading: this is not just a book for people living in the country, as anyone interested in simple living will find a lot of interest in the book. Read the rest of this entry »

I live simply in many ways by choice, and in some ways because I think it’s the right thing to do. And sometimes I wonder, does it really matter if I re-use plastic bags or keep my use of energy to a minimum? I mean with all the billions of us here on the planet, how much difference do a few bags or kilowatts make? Read the rest of this entry »

Simple living is a lot of fun.

I don’t think this aspect occurs to people until they have been involved in simple living for a while. Admittedly, going around changing all your light bulbs may not be the most fun you’ve had this week. It has its own rewards, of course, but fun isn’t the main one.
Personally, I like simple living because with fewer possessions and a smaller home to take care of, with a less hectic lifestyle, I have more time.

• More time to write — and for me, a day when I don’t get around to writing is a day with less life in it.
• More time to do my yoga stretches, morning walk, and prayer / meditation.
• More time to play badminton with my husband, in the evening just after the sun goes off the badminton setup in our yard.
• More time to really enjoy my friends… when they slow down enough!
• More time on the phone with my favorite family members, who live thousands of miles away.
• More time to cook from scratch.

More time, more fun…. and the simple green living lifestyle is better for our world.