16 Rules for Living with Less Part 2

Minimalist Rulebook: 16 Rules for Living with Less When it comes to letting go, I wish I There’s no real Minimalist Rulebook. What brings value to my life very well could get in the way of yours. Further, the things that once added value may not could hand you a continue to add value, so we must constantly question list of the 100 items not only the things we acquire but the things we hold you’re supposed to own to be a minimalist. But on to. Because minimalism is not an antidote to desire, and because, like most people, Ryan Nicodemus and I still act on impulse, we’ve created sixteen rules and tactics minimalism doesn’t we use to help stave off the tug of consumerism and work like that. get organized. Since the easiest way to organize your stuff is to get rid of most of it, let’s explore these rules and tactics. 01 30 DAY MINIMALISM GAME If Ryan’s Packing Party is too extreme for you, I totally understand. A decade ago, when I was first introduced to minimalism, it was probably too extreme for me, too. That’s why he and I came up with the 30 Day Minimalism Game, which has eased tens of thousands of people into decluttering their homes, cars, and offices. Let’s face it, even the thought of “decluttering” is boring at best, dreadful at worse. I mean, who wants to spend their weekend cleaning out their closet, attic, and garage? Bluck! That’s exactly why we created the 30 Day Minimalism Game—to make decluttering fun by injecting some friendly competition. Here’s how it works. A new month is always approaching, so right now is a great time to find a friend, family member, or coworker (or archenemy) who’s willing to minimize their stuff with you next month. Each person gets rid of one thing on the first day of the month. Two things on the second. Three things on the third. So forth and so on. Anything goes! Collectables / Decorations / Kitchenware Electronics / Furniture / Supplies / Hats Bedding / Clothes / Towels / Tools Whether you donate, sell, or recycle your excess, every material possession must be out of your house—and out of your life—by midnight each day. It’s an easy game at first. Anyone can purge a few items, right? But it grows considerably more challenging by week two when you’re forced to jettison more than a dozen items per day. And it keeps getting more difficult as the month progresses. Whoever keeps it going the longest wins. You both win if you both make it to the end of the month. Bonus points if you play with more than two people. Win or lose, we’d love to hear about your decluttering experience on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Use the hashtag #MinsGame to find thousands of other people sharing their photos as they let go. 02 PHOTO SCANNING PARTY If you’re looking for one physical item that could add immense value to your life, you may want to consider a good photo scanner. If you’re anything like I was, then you’ve probably allowed the overstuffed boxes and albums of photos to go unchecked over the years, and now they’re collecting dust in your basement or closet— just sitting there, unused, waiting for “one day” to come. I, too, held on to heaps of meaningful photos that added absolutely no value to my life because they were hidden away, and the prospect of dealing with them seemed daunting, overwhelming, not worth the hassle. So I let them sit in the attic, the cupboard, the garage. Then, inspired by Ryan’s Packing Party, I decided to throw a Photo-Scanning Party. (It turns out that if you put “party” at the end of anything, Ryan will show up.) First, I found a high-quality scanner into which I could rapidly feed photos and documents and immediately save them to a memory card, which I could then use in a few high-res digital picture frames so I could actually display my important photos. Plus, if anything were to happen to my home—flood, fire, robbery—all my photos are saved and secured online; thus, I’ll never worry about losing those memories. It goes without saying, the memories aren’t in our material possessions, but I discovered that a well-curated photo collection triggers all the wonderful memories of yesteryear— without all the physical baggage. Next, to make my “party” a little more fun (and less lonely), I invited a few friends over, ordered food and drinks, and together we thumbed through the photographs of my childhood in all its double-chin grandeur, scanning my favorites to display. As I write this, I still have one remaining box of photos to scan. Another Scanning Party is in order! Feel free to join me: scan your photos and share your favorites on Twitter or Instagram using our #ScanningParty hashtag. And If you want to see the scanner and digital frames Ryan and I use, visit minimalists.com/scanning . 03 NO JUNK RULE Everything you own can be placed in three piles. Essentials. Few possessions should fall into this pile. These are the necessities we can’t live without: food, shelter, clothes. While the specifics change for each person, most of our needs are universal. Nonessentials. In an ideal world, most of the things we own would fit in this pile. These are the objects we want in our lives because they add value. Strictly speaking, I don’t need a couch, a bookshelf, or a dining table in my livingroom, but these items enhance, amplify, or augment my experience of life. Junk. Sadly, most of our things belong in this pile. These are the artifacts we like—or, more accurately, think we like —but they don’t serve a purpose or bring us joy. The average American home contains an overabundance of stuff—hundreds of thousands of items—and most of it is junk. While this junk often masquerades as indispensable, it actually gets in the way of a life worth living. The key is to get rid of the junk to make room for everything else. Of course, the personal effects in these three piles are different for everyone, so we’ve created some more rules to help you get clear on what’s valuable and what’s simply taking up space. 04 SEASONALITY RULE Rules can be arbitrary, restrictive, boring—but they are often helpful when we hope to make a change. Whenever we attempt to simplify our lives, too often we get stuck before we even get started. When faced with a hoard of possessions—some useful, others not—it is difficult to determine what adds value and what doesn’t, which makes letting go nearly impossible without some sort of rules to move us in the right direction. Here’s the first rule we created a decade ago: the Seasonality Rule, aka the 90/90 Rule. Look at a possession. Pick something. Anything. Have you used that item in the last 90 days? If you haven’t, will you use it in the next 90? If not, it’s okay to let go. What’s particularly useful about this rule is that it covers virtually every season. Let’s say it’s March and you’re getting ready to embark on some spring cleaning. Pick up the first item you see in your closet, basement, or storage unit. Maybe it’s an old sweater. Are you using it right now (in the spring)? Have you used it in the last 90 days (in the winter)? Will you use it in the next 90 days (in the summer)? If yes, then keep it. If not, say goodbye! Note: In terms of weather, spring is roughly the same as autumn. That’s how this rule covers all four seasons. 05 1 IN, 10 OUT RULE Being a minimalist doesn’t mean you’ll never buy anything new. It means you’ll do so with intention. It also means you’ll let go aggressively and deliberately. Or you could do both simultaneously. When I first started simplifying, I was overwhelmed by how much stuff I wanted to jettison. That overwhelm compounded because I still felt the pall of future purchases. To combat impulse shopping and aid my minimizing efforts, I implemented a new rule: the 1 in, 10 out Rule. Based on the “one-in, one-out policy” that’s used in many nightclubs, bars, and military establishments to control the number of people in one building at any one time, this rule helped me both control what new items I bought and what items I kept, because for every item I acquired, I had to get rid of ten things I owned. Want that new shirt? Ten articles of clothing hit the donation bin. Want that new chair? Ten pieces of furniture make it to eBay. Want that new blender? Ten kitchen items are axed. This rule helped me reshape my everyday-consumption habits, and, much like the 30 Day Minimalism Game, it has helped a lot of people strengthen their letting-go muscles. 06 JUST IN CASE RULE What were we doing? Why did I need a suit for this trip? Was it just in case there was an emergency wedding or funeral? And why did I pack all this other stuff, like these three pairs of swimming trunks? I mean, we’re going to Florida, so I might as well bring a couple extra pairs just in case, right? And don’t forget that blowdryer and a few extra pairs of pants and maybe even a beach towel—you know, just in case! We were supposed to be “The Minimalists,” and yet there we were with a trunk full of stuff, almost all of which we weren’t going to use during that trip, but we packed it all: Just. In. Case. That’s when I learned that “just in case” are the three most dangerous words in the English language. Again and again, we hold on to things “just in case.” When we travel, we cram our luggage with heaps of stuff just in case there’s a remote chance we’ll use it during our vacation. At home, we don’t let go of our hoards of old cables and adapters and boxes just in case we “need” them in some nonexistent distant future. “Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it,” wrote David Foster Wallace in 1996. I think that’s true for most of us today. Often, the only way we let go is if we lose our grip. Of course, that’s not letting go at all. And if we don’t let go, we get dragged. The truth is we needn’t retain most of the things we hang on to. We rarely use our just-in-case items—they sit there, take up space, get in the way, weigh us down. Most of the time they aren’t items we need at all. And if we remove the just-in-case items from our lives, we get them out of the way and free up the space they consume. Ever since that first book tour, I’ve let go of nearly all of my justin-case possessions. And during Ryan’s and my last book tour, we made sure not to pack anything just in case. We also came up with a hypothesis: the Just in Case Rule, aka the 20/20 Rule. Here’s how it works. Anything we get rid of that we truly need, we can replace for less than $20 in less than 20 minutes from our current location. Thus far, this hypothesis has become a theory that has held true 100% of the time. At first, this rule sounds like a rule of privilege. Who can afford to go around spending $20 every time they replace something? Wouldn’t that cost you thousands of dollars every year? Actually, no. It turns out you rarely ever have to replace the items you’ve jettisoned because most of them are useless. Personally, I’ve replaced fewer than five just-in-case items in the last decade, and I’ve never had to pay more than $20, or go more than 20 minutes out of my way, to replace them. Most important, the $100 I’ve spent replacing those five items gave me permission to let go of thousands of pointless items that were merely taking up space in my home—and in my mind. I’m sure there are exceptions to this rule. But it is my theory that the Just in Case Rule works 99% of the time for 99% of all items and 99% of all people—including you. Think about it. What are you holding on to just in case? And how much relief would you feel if you let go?.