Do you have a Biblical reference for that statement? I know Jesus made a lot of anti-materialist statements, but I'm not familiar with one about cutting a cloak.

Sorry I was mistaken. It was St. Martin of Tours who cut his cloak in half in the Fourth Century. He was an unbaptized Roman soldier, but had a dream that night that Jesus was wearing the cloak half. Whether literally true or not, the story of St. Martin is an illuswtration of Jesus saying that whatever you do for the least of people, you are doing for him.

Get this Jesus Christ, Allah and Bhuddah crap out of here? This a bike forum...

When we talk about simple living — the subject of this thread — there is a connection with religious belief or worldview. Eventually, this connection will surface. This is to be expected. As long as the religious component does not move into proselytizing or quarrelling over points of belief, I'm fine with it.

You don't have to read the post...nor comment on it.

Aaron :)

I own 17.3 kg's worth of things. 5 shirts, 1 jacket, 2 pants, 1 short, 4 socks, 1 pair of shoes, 2 backpacks, camera with 3 lenses + tripod + odds and ends, computer, Ipod and cellphone. And most importantly, a hat.

I do own other things, namely my work tools and work clothes, along with ungodly amount of paintball stuff. But it's 6000 km away :D

Don't even own a bicycle to be honest yet.

Smallwheels, I feel the same way (and I left South Louisiana also). I think that the people with very few material possessions that also are spending their time in a way that pleases them are living a wonderful life.

I keep coming back here for inspiration also. I still have a small pickup truck that I use for my green job, but I'm looking into various trades/crafts as a way to possibly earn a living from home, or a small rented shop close to home. I'd really like to not own an auto.

Oh, about inspiration, have are any of you familiar with the site www.simplicitycollective.com? A really neat guy from Austrailia writes some excellent posts about voluntary simplicity. In fact, he did his doctoral thesis on voluntary simplicity.

Thank you Curious LeTour for posting that web address. I read much of the site and the PDF file about his living in a shed for a couple of years. He really is more extreme in his trials of simple living than most people would be. As someone familiar with the reasons for simple living his site seemed a bit long winded, but; to someone new to the concept it just might be the right amount necessary to get them thinking more about the topic. I especially liked that many of his posts had numerous footnotes related to other authors from the past and present.

Interesting thread. I will join in. Have there been any women on this thread? Those with children, I can see might not have this as a priority. But I am glad to know I'm not the only person of either sex, who finds this a worthwhile goal. Interesting that it is on the bike forum. I am trying to cut back on possessions and finding it hard, mainly just to get up the energy to decide what goes and how to get rid of it. Being that I don't have a car, I will have to either set it out in boxes on the street, a yard sale, or craigslist. I don't have too much of value anyway, being that I lost a job, marriage and a house and already got rid of a lot of items during that process a few years ago. I am now lucky to have a great work from home position (I actually have more work than I have time for now, although it is not extremely high paying, but certainly enough even though I have a big old student loan that will start taking away another large percentage of my income soon, probably for the rest of my life... oh well, not the place for that discussion) But I live in a small place. I have too many books, clothing, mostly. I invested a lot of money in to some of the books, and some have sentimental value. The art books can be to beautiful to get rid of. I also have art supplies (that I don't have time for lately) I find hard to give away as well. I think if I got rid of some of my broken furniture and some clutter that I would have more time for the art as a hobby. I actually have 4 bikes now, all old but one (and it was not expensive - but required and will probably continue to require upgrades - back wheel did not even last 3 months - the rim actually bent!) After having one that failed on me, I don't mind having the extras, and I am learning so much in the process of buying the used but classic bikes. I only miss having a car, in that i think I might like to gather up my most important valuables at some point and move until I find a place to live that is a bit less hot in the Summer.

Roody, I wouldn't lose a minute of sleep over that. The garnering of wealth is a secondary motivation. At those levels, the actual dollar amounts don't really mean anything. They are just the chips in the game. For Gates the thrill was making his company the dominant one. For Buffett it was beating the other investors and beating the averages. If you read some of Buffets books, its obvious that for him the fun was to be able to pull off big gains while others were losing their shirts. One good indicator of that is that Buffett still lives in a modest house in Omaha.

Well im back to this thread after a couple of months, very interesting reading, after a couple of camping trips where i have managed to get a car load of camping equipment on to the back of a mountain bike,it was quite easier than first thought, so i went solo by bike and train, and thoroughly enjoyed it been car free, but to be totally honest i need the car for work but i downsized drastically and 4 out of 7 days its parked up so im quite happy at that now,
Again in the clutter department i now live by my own rule of if i havent used it in 2 months its time for it to go.

I wouldn't ever go as extreme as some of the folks on this thread, as it's just not for me. I do like having some creature comforts, and I especially love having a few beautiful (and big/heavy) pieces of antique furniture owned by my great-great grandmother, whom I was named for. But I wish I could go back in time to around 2005, when my partner and I started living together, and NOT buy/accumulate 90% of the things we did. I also wish I could un-buy our house (sure I'm not alone in that right now!). Having terrible neighbors wouldn't be so bad if we were renting and could pick up and move to get away from them. I'd do it tomorrow if I could.

But when it comes down to it, no matter how much stuff we get rid of, even if we sell or downsize our home, we are still tied down by our pets. That sounds mean, but traveling or moving with 2 dogs and a bunch of cats to look after is difficult! I wouldn't trade them for anything, though.

For those who are selling things in an attempt to downsize, what are you doing with the money? Are you saving it, giving it away or doing something else with it?

The money from the stuff we are selling is getting dumped into a savings account at the moment, after we tithe on it. Not quite sure what we are going to do with, we don't have any real outstanding debt, just the normal month to month stuff. We may do a missions trip or something with it, or if we can't get the time off, fund a missions trip. The savings account is just a convenient place to keep it at the moment, the interest is miniscule.

Aaron :)

Yesterday I purchased a membership at Wheatsville Coop, a community owned grocery in Austin, with cash from sales of items on craigslist.

Smallwheels, I agree. The author of the simplicity collective can get a bit wordy. Also, it may be better for newbies, as you've mentioned. I do know that the author is trying his best to promote simple living, so that may explain a few things. I still like visiting that site and youtube vids from that author. It's inspirational for me at times. I need the support here and there. As I've mentioned before, that's also why I frequent the car-free forum, especially this thread.

Ive just started on unloading my stuff. I noticed something...if I put say things in garbage bag sometimes the say thing "talks" to me. I then realized I love the item and it should stay(for now) I put this evening a bird house ,a candle with a beautiful candle holder,and a wooden small cat figure Ive had for years. Well kitty is staying. I think when you unload and you see it leaving ,some things just trigger that...almost like a death. I have to say almost all things are not that way. I sadly got rid of my doggies leash(she died 2 years ago) I knew it was time and just taking up space but it was darn hard. On a good note my shelf in my living area(studio rental) and my kitchen drawer is neat and very bare. Im also frugal...I make my own laundry detergent and use vinegar for cleaning.

Just read this and it made me chuckle; someone is butthurt over church... Btw the way it's Buddha, no additional h needed.

Support Group Forming. Anybody Interested?
 

I recall selling my mothers jewelry, my class ring, a tiny wooden rocking chair that was mine from near infancy, and a necklace with a unicorn pendant. It was a bit difficult to sell those things because of my emotional attachment to them. The only one of those items that I ever regularly saw was the rocking chair. The other things were in a jewelery box I hadn't opened in a year. Even then I would just look at them once every couple of years. I still have the memories of them and that is enough.

I sold musical instruments that I adored but didn't play anymore. Right now I should be listing some more electronics that are related to my past musical career. My problem is that I procrastinate. I want to create a support system for me and perhaps others who want to lighten the load of possessions that are cluttering their homes and lives.

I've joined Google+ and want to create a circle of people who also want to regularly report on their clutter removal. Google+ is in the Beta testing phase so it isn't open to everybody yet. It still has bugs. Every once in a while Google opens up some space for more people. Yesterday Google+ had some invitations available. If anybody wants an invitation to join Google+ for the purpose of joining my circle of decluttering (not a real word yet) send me a PM here with your e-mail address. That is how it works. I type in the e-mail address of the people who want invitations and Google sends it to them. I don't know how fast it works. If Google closes the invitation process for a while and everybody doesn't get in, I'll save the names and add them as more spots become available.

If you have any type of Google account and are signed in to Google at the time you join Google+, that account will be linked to it. If you don't want that account automatically linked to Google+ you need to log out of it, clear your cookies and cache, and then open a new account. Otherwise your Google+ account will be stuck with your old account information. They won't allow you to change your primary e-mail address. I made this mistake accidentally and now have a rarely used e-mail address linked to my Google+ account which means I must log out of the one I use most of the time and log in with the old account any time I want to post there. It's annoying.

If you want to "declutter" old jewelry, there couldn't be a better time in history to do it. Gold prices are at record highs. My guess (it's only a guess!) is that it won't be too long before the gold bubble bursts.

I sold my jewelry at a locally owned jewelry store and got thirty times what gold buying pawn shops offered and about fifty percent more than the gold buying services that advertise on radio and TV offer.

The People who are going to call the people in the ADs are the people who do not realize Jewelry Shops have been buying gold for years. Those people who are they ones who want a quick shortcut to all of it. I hate tv now for all those gold ads and tax attorney ads.

In my case, both debt reduction and saving for my cross country ride in 2012.

I've been pondering selling the ring that my ex wore while we were married. To be honest, since it was customized specially for her and it's a really nice ring, I don't want to sell it to someone who would just melt it down. I want the artisan's work recognized. I haven't known how to handle it. While the price of gold goes up, my indecision hasn't been a bad thing.

Since both Buddha and jewelry have come up recently, I have to recommend the book "The Diamond Cutter" by Geshe Michael Roach. The subtitle is "The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life". Mr. Roach is a fully ordained Buddhist monk and worked as the director of a large diamond firm for many years after getting his Master's of Buddhism. He'd work in the diamond district during the day and go back to his monastery at night. The jewel really is in the lotus for him.

It's a unique book on business. What other book would recommend that when you are having trouble raising money to purchase a business that the answer is that you are being too much of a cheapskate and that you need to give to others more. Needless to say, his methods would get our economy back on track soon I suspect.

Check it out.

Here's a simple living idea.

Wow! Solar power in its simplest form.