Live in your Garage

You may feel that your 2,200 square foot house is "a bit cozy" but if you were challenged to live in your garage - could you?

The North American single car garage is a larger shelter than 86% of the world's population call a family home.

Unbelievably the amount of space we allocate for a single car would be more space than the average family of 5 in the developing world.

Downsize then downsize again, then rent out your house and live in the garage - this is the best way to maximize the rental potential of your home and make some cash.

Just make sure you disable the big door in winter - that is one chilly surprise!

Books on minimization are an oxymoron

Don't get dragged into owning another useless possession because it promises to simplify your life!

Every single book on minimizing I have ever read, seen, skimmed, downloaded or perused was not worth owning!

In order to minimize you may have to skim a chapter at your local bookstore - but DON'T BUY IT!

Libraries take the books back once you are done with them - and there is no reason to build up a library of your own about minimizing your life!

You might as well start randomly buying useless things and picking up junk off the sidewalk.

The 'Gurus' of the simple lifestyle will let you know what they did without charging you because Gurus give away true knowledge that leads to change, if you ever have to pay for advice BE WARNED!

The reason people charge for advice is greed.

People are not trying to "Help you" by selling a book - they just see a sucker and take your money while patting you on the head and taking your money.

Live with less = no more books on minimizing

Park your Car for a week

Park your car for a week and just "Make do" and see if you can simplify your life.

Make NO your default setting

When people used to ask me to do something with/for them I would always say YES!

I would go through phases of life where I would be worn down and over committed getting everything done for everyone else.

Taking a look at what had gotten me into several concurrent full time projects with little to no time for my own, I saw that I was a dumping ground for other people's projects.

If people are time wasters there is a 99% chance that they do not want to be alone when they waste time and drag as many people as they can to the swirling vortex of time wasting so they don't get bored.

I had to put an end to others controlling my time and took back control by changing my "Default Setting" to NO.

Now that I am saying NO as my default response I find that the time wasters and "boredom buddies" have disappeared and are targeting others who's default is still set to YES.

I still am involved in the projects I want to be involved in but don't feel obligated to be a "Yes Man" for every acquaintance or whim of a friend.

Making people justify your spending of your time on their projects makes them re-evaluate whether or not they should even pursue the project in the first place.

Just Say NO!

Return to the night

Cutting down on the use of electric light will not only save you money, but will make you a more balanced person.

Too many people just flick on a light and keep working till way too late, I know because I am one of them. Too many times I use lights then leave the room only to return hours later just to turn them off.

If you are not in a room you don't need the lights to be on. (this goes for TVs and Computer screens as well)

There was a big movement back in the 80's focused on kids and not wasting electricity or water so we all were indoctrinated with the idea that leaving the tap running while brushing our teeth was the the 8th Deadly Sin.

Environmentalism aside, keeping yourself active through the "Artificial Sunlight" that electric lights provide keeps extending your work day and adding to your eye strain and diminishing your sleep.

In the old days they would work during daylight and then get some sleep.

Now all we do is work all day and then turn on the lights and keep on going.

Return to the night.

Cheers.

Cut out the Paper

I still can't believe how many people still waste hours every week reading the paper.

There has never been a more slanted, outdated, monopolized media source than papers.

If you have already cut out TV and your phone and worrying about things you can't change - you definitely don't need the paper.

This post is super short - but the message is clear: the paper is a waste of your time.

If you like reading then read a book.

Done.

Cut out the Worry

Create some mental "breathing space" by giving up the worry in your life.

You have to focus all of the worry in your life on the top 3 worries - the other worries will have to wait - for now.

Take 15 seconds and write down the top 3 things that you worry about - grab only the top 3!

Now write each one down on a post-it note. Stick each of the post-it notes in the front cover of three different books you have around the house.

Give yourself permission to spend endless amounts of time worrying about the items on the notes IF you open the book and stare at the post-it:

There is no time limit on this - you won't be changing how long you can worry about these "top 3".

There are a few rules:

1. You can only have one book open at a time
2. If you close the book - you are choosing not to worry about that item at this time
3. You can't take the books out of your house
4. I completely absolve you of all guilt for not worrying about worrying about your worries.
5. If you don't want to worry about one of these top 3 items anymore - replace it with some other smaller worry - and eventually work all of the worries out of your system.

Go forth and worry!

Cut the Clutter

De-clutter your house!

Pick one room and clean up the clutter from that room this weekend. Don't cheat and just move it to another room - really get in there and do a good job.

Tips for de-cluttering:

Get a box and a bag.

The bag is for garbage, the box is for storage.

pick up one item at a time and decide once and for all one of three things:

1. If this thing is not where it is supposed to go, get up and PUT IT AWAY right now!

2. If there is no place the item should be and you feel the need to keep it, put it in the box - but be warned once the box is full (the box needs to close properly) everything else must be PUT AWAY or THROWN AWAY!

3. If there is no place for it, and there is no room left in the box THROW IT AWAY.

Once the room is done, seal the box with tape, mark the room and date in bold letters on the side and store the box. If the seal is not broken in 6 months donate the box unopened to a thrift store.

Each weekend or day off take on another room in your house and eventually eliminate all the clutter in your home.

happy cutbacks!

Unplug the TV!

cut out the TV! Cancel your cable! and stop using pay per view!

Thousands of hours of your life have been wasted watching soap operas, game shows, and news.

I have heard the moaning from the lips of dear friends of mine that they just don't have time to do the things that they enjoy. They complain that they are too busy, that they just can't carve an hour or two out of their week for a meeting with friends or to just hang out.

YET

These are the same dear friends that download and watch thousands of hours of crappy art movies and obscure TV series for the sake of staying current.

There are people who have given up TV but for all the wrong reasons. Whatever you do, don't quit TV to brag to other people!

There are enough annoying people who are too good to watch the local news for it's glorification of violence and the commercials that are too sexually charged yet they are the same people spending hours reading raunchy romance fiction and playing violent computer games.

One buddy on a "too good for TV" kick said the following:

"I am not a mindless zombie watching negative news and mindless sitcoms, I would much rather spend my time in a positive way - shooting zombies!"

Not his most convincing argument.

Cut out TV and it will give you more energy, get you off the couch and save you several hours of waking time a day!

To lead an uncluttered life you will need to break the cycle of relying on the TV to keep you entertained for hours at a time.

Please note: I like video games and reading books, there are TV shows I enjoy watching but I don't schedule my life around them.

Happy Cutbacks!

Hang up your Phone PERMANENTLY

This is the first and quite possibly the least well received post - I want you to ditch your cell phone!

If you currently are addicted to your phone, you may want to try a trial period where you take the battery out of your phone for a day and if you must, still carry the battery-less phone around with you.

So many people feel that they NEED their cell phone to be connected, but fail to recognize what a cell phone is.

Cell phones are machines engineered to interrupt you.

Many people feel the interruptions make them important, but in reality you can't be a jet setter if anyone can have direct access to your time.

Protect your time from interruption and ditch the phone, even if it is only for one day a week. You will find that you get more done, enjoy what you are doing more, and will have increased concentration - but you will only have these benefits if you get past the initial withdrawal phase and get back to living a life without interruption.

If you truly are worried about missing an important call - Turn off your phone and set 3 times in the day that you will turn it on to check your messages.

As long as you have a cell phone you are at the mercy of anyone who has your number!

Happy Cutting!