Book Summary: The More of Less
The more of less is about getting more from life by owning less. The premise is simple, we all own too much stuff. It leads to bigger houses, to keep it all in and ultimate clutters your life. This book looks at strategy’s for owning less and freeing some clutter from your life.
Related Book Summaries:
10% Happier – Dan Harris – Book Summary
The Organised Mind – Daniel Levitin – Book Summary
Quotes:
You don’t need more space, you need less stuff.
The American dream has been defined in dollar signs and square footage.
Book Summary Notes:
- Spending and consumerism has become out of control. A person today is exposed to nearly 10x the ads of someone only a few decades ago. The clutter that results from this rampant consumerism becomes a drain on our resources and a major distraction.
- The solution to this problem is a movement called minimalism. This decluttering doesn’t just free up physical space it also allows us to redirect our time, energy and money to more important things.
- Minimalism isn’t about denial of things, it’s about getting more from less.
- The average American household contains twice as many things now as it did 50 years ago.
- Your first step should be to clear out the easy stuff. Tough objects with sentimental value can wait till later.
- Keep your most sentimental objects but experiment to find out what you can live without.
- Begin to examine your habits, purchasing and otherwise, to find out if you can make changes that will allow you to purchase less stuff.
- Around holidays when stuff can begin to creep up, be open with friends and family and even be deliberate in telling them what you would like instead of letting them guess. By explaining yourself and telling them in advance you may even find some are grateful to not have to go hunting for hours to try and find something for you.
- Giving away to local charities anything that may be useful to someone else is also a great way of decluttering while potentially helping someone in your community out as well.
