Lately, I’ve been reading Joshua Becker’s book Simplify about minimalist lifestyle. It’s a very short book, but hey, it has to be, this is minimalism!

This is an inspiring book about removing clutter and stuff you don’t actually need from your life and enjoy your life –not the things. Here are my key takeaways from the book:

  • Which you hold, holds you. Things you own actually begin to own you after some time. You clean them, organize them, buy them, sell them etc. More you own, the more time they rob from your lives.
  • “There are things more you should value more than possessions –God, family, relationships, character etc.”
  • Give things away or sell them if you are not really using. You won’t lose that much.
  • Spend money on life experiences than possessions.
  • You can’t just adopt every rule of minimalism, you’d rather create your own environment with less clutter.
    • Remove unused stuff from your living areas.
    • At the end of your life, you won’t care about how many hours you worked, you’ll just care about the time you spend with family and friends. You won’t care about your money but the difference you have made, the lives you changed and legacy you have left.
    • Prepare wish lists and send them people who might buy you a birthday present.
    • Watch much less TV, subscribe less channels.
    • Keep no mail in your email inbox; archive or delete them. (Bonus: How I keep my inbox 0 unread every day)
    • Be honest, lying is complicated. Truth simplifies things.
    • We were never meant to live a life of collecting stuff. We were meant to live simply enjoying experiences of life, people and the journey of life – not the things of life.

I came across this book from Roey Brecher’s post How I Simplified My Life, which I found influencing.

Photo: Steve Jobs at his home by Diana Walker, 1982. See this post on Hacker News.