I know exactly how you feel. Whenever the urge for something like that comes on, I start painting or drawing. While not everyone likes to make art, I think everyone has the capacity to be creative in one way or another. You might want to consdier picking up a book, exercising, writing a letter to a friend, taking a walk. I'm sure you'll forget about the urge to watch TV (or use whatever it is that you donated/released) in about 10 minutes.

I just read one of Leo Babauta's books, The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life. He's the author of zen habits. It was pretty good.

I like the website simpleliving.net.

My parents live about 20 miles away from where i am, so they allow me store some of my junk there basement.

But mostly I carry
Knife
2 sets of clothes
School books
15mm wrench
crescent wrench
wallet
sometimes a blanket
and some granola.
All in a backpack

I will sleep outside in parks and in alleys in the summer, but i mostly couch surf all of my friends houses.

Pretty simply, I guess. My only posessions are my bike, laptop, clothes, sketchbook/journal. I've been nomadic for a while, trying to find my place and my passion. Been living out of a backpack for so long, I almost forgot what it was like to have a closet full of options. Don't have a car, hence the reason for posting on this forum. Just like my compatiriot above, when I'm not working I'm guerilla camping in parks, beaches out of the way places and couch surfing with friends or random people I meet. It's a life I never thought I'd enjoy but I'm having the time of my life.

I suppose you guys that sleep outdoors don't live in the north. That would be rough and perhaps deadly in the winter months.

I definitely need more possessions than that. It would be a good exercise to actually figure out the minimum number of things needed to survive without an apartment or car. What would be needed and still be portable?

Last week I was on my way home from the store and saw a guy on a recumbent tricycle. He had a motorcycle top trunk on a rack with panniers. He was towing a huge trailer full of all kinds of stuff. I talked to him for a minute and commented on the weight he must be pulling. His whole rig weighed about five-hundred-fifty pounds.

He had been touring for ten years. He was haggard and very tan. It was a lifestyle choice for him. His equipment wasn't cheap so he must occasionally have an income source.

I don't think I'd enjoy permanently riding around in first gear towing that much weight. Most people in trucks don't haul that much weight around.

Having fewer possessions doesn't necessarily make one's life simple. It only makes one's life less cluttered. Still I'm going for a less cluttered life in order to make one part of my life simpler. If I get to the point where I can just rent a small truck and quickly load my possessions into it and move in one day, I'll have succeeded. Maybe in time I'll get that down to fitting into a hatchback car (with a bicycle roof rack). ;)

That's a good question. I suppose the answer would be different for everybody. Also, I think the answer is MUCH more psychological than physical since the bare needs for physical survival are pretty small. The vagabond cyclist with 550 pounds of luggage obviously carried much more than he needed for mere physical survival.

There's also a social or cultural component. A monk in Thailand only needs (or presumably wants) a bowl, a robe and maybe an umbrella. In the US, this minimal level of possessions probably wouldn't fly.

No. I live in Hawaii now and I used to live in Northern California. It's not so much the cold in either places, it's the damp. Especially in California. I was freezing cold most of the time in the winter simply because I could not stay dry. But even still, I'm fortunate that the worst I ended up with was a constant cold. Might another guy who had frostbite in his feet from the wet and now has permanent nerve damage in his legs and can't walk very fast or far without being in pain.

I think the key to how I live is having everthing serve as a multi-purpose tool. I use my laptop to read books online, write, blog, listen to music, play games, do artwork digitally, edit my photography, skype my friends, etc. That way I don't need to carry around any books, gaming CDs, I don't even have a mobile phone. Yes, someone in 2010 has no mobile telephone and I don't intend to get one. I also have a tarp that serves as a roof for rain, a tent if I need one, a ground cover, a tablecloth. I have a cast iron pan that I cook eggs to pancakes to oatmeal to stirfry in.

I can't say if you could live very well in apartment and be able to pack up and leave in an afternoon. Even when I was sharing a house with housemates, I could pack up in a week (and indeed I had to), but I still had to sell my desk, bookshelves, tv,bed, end tables, all the furniture. So if you're willing to ditch that stuff, yeah. But otherwise, I couldn't see one getting everything into a hatchback in <a day unless you lived on the floor with a futon and sat a laptop on a small table and didn't own many books or even cooking pots/pans.

I've pared down my possessions to whatever I can fit in 2 small rooms that I share with my girlfriend in a 4 bedroom apartment. I've done alright, but am stuck on just one aspect of my decluttering: getting rid of video games. However ridiculous it may sound to some people, my childhood and teen years were defined by Nintendo and PC games (Zelda, Mario, Starcraft, etc), and I still greatly enjoy playing one on the rare occasion. But, I have a vision of the life I am striving for, and it does include these games. How can I let go of these things which in my younger days provided countless hours of bliss and memories of such care-free and awesome times?

Part of me is an absolutist, which only wants to keep the essentials, the things I use day in and day out, and the other half says, what's the harm in holding on to and occasionally playing a few quality, cherished games if it's not costing me any money (only time)? I can't decide.

That is a personal battle you will have to decide. I have been as low on possessions at one point they would all fit in the rear of a Ford Ranger Pickup...with room to spare. I am definitely above that at this point in my life, but looking at paring things down again. My current weakness is tools, books and bikes.

Aaron :)

I only have one bike at this time, but tools, books, and bikes are also things that I want more of. At least I can rotate out some books by donating them to a library.

I would keep Mario too.

One think I have done with some books and music is to convert to digital format. I use Mobi Pocket Reader to keep the classics handy. I download from Many Books or the Gutenberg project, for the classics, I do buy the occasional ebook. Music is stored on a flash drive, as well as my Crackberry and a separate MP3 player.

I haven't figured out a way to digitize my bikes and tools:D

Aaron :)

iBarna I am with you on that I try to have as less as possible and I still think that I have too much.... I do not drive and have not had a car for almost a year, I hate furniture so as far as that goes I just have a small bookshelf on which I keep my DVDs and a couple of books. Same as you I love my laptop. I have finally gotten my first bed 2 years ago. I have only one Bicycle and I am planning on getting another one, since I commute it would be nice to have another one. I am not the biggest fan of clothing so I do not have much as well but I still think I do so I am gonna donate most of it. - + =

Plus I forgot to mention I do not watch TV, I own one but do not use it as much.

Lots of older games can be played on PC using an emulator. As a kid I could never beat Zelda on NES. But a few years ago I got it for my PC and finally beat it.

I first read this section of the forum about a year ago, it has had a great impact on me, I am selling everything that I do not use, and I am taking part of that $$$ and buying my self the kind of bicycle I want., I will also buy a new bicycle trailer, it's a slow process but it's happening.

My kids do that too, so I told them, get it out of here, so they did, now my grandkids do it,,,,How can I live simple with all this family**********

Simply, I don't live simply.

Having less is better, i am a minimalist so i know. if you can keep track of all your items in your head you are doing good. you appreciate your items more if you have a
minimal amount. just saying. :)

This is what I'm striving to achieve. I've sold a couple of things this week. One person that came by to see a guitar now wants to buy my fathers WWII collection of uniforms and medals. A coworker is interested in buying my mothers old sewing machine and cabinet. The pace of discarding my unused possessions is slow but momentum is building. I'm a year behind in getting rid of things. I won't be working much in November so I'll be listing many more items on ebay.

I still have my list of just under three-hundred items that I know I want to keep. That goal seems unreal because for so long I've had an entire house full of things. On the other hand I recall living away from home while at school. I only had one room of possessions and I was doing just fine.

I've been donating items of clothing to thrift stores, but I seem to be buying almost as much clothes while I'm there as I've donated, yikes!

For those of you who are trying for a simple life, do you find your family and friends don't understand or wonder if you're being too frugal? How do you cope with that?

I hear you. I've got most of my clothing down to an acceptable minimum, but then there's this 6' tall stack of T-shirts that I've accumulated over the past quarter century. I've gone through and sorted them all and given quite a few away to get it down to 6'. But each one means a lot to me and they're saved for special occasions.

And things have their own lives. A few weeks back I was standing in line in a convenience store. Idly looking at the back of the shirt of one fellow in front of me. I noticed that it was about football. Then I noticed that one of the teams was from Brawley. Then it registered that Brawley is in Eastern California, nowhere near Arkansas.

Finally the light came on. That was exactly like the shirt my ex had sent me from a football fund raiser for the hospital she works for in El Centro, California, a shirt I had given to the Goodwill donation center half a block away without ever wearing. So either it was the same one, or by extreme coincidence another had made it's way to Little Rock. Since the fellow wearing it was Mexican, I wondered if he got the shirt because he was a fan of Mexicali football.

Yeah, it's freaky to see your clothes walking around on somebody else's body.

BTW, if you're giving clothing to Goodwill or Salvtion Army, you might want to check with local hoospitals to see if they need them. On the Psych Unit where I work, we're always looking for clothing to give to patients who come in without anything.

If I'm giving clothing to a thrift shop. I prefer to do that in another community. Usually, however, by the time I'm finished with a garment, it has to end up in the landfill because it's beyond reuse.