Evertett bogue the art of being minimalist

THE ART OF BEING

MINIMALIST
HOW TO STOP CONSUMING AND START LIVING

BY

EVERETT BOGUE

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 1


INTRODUCTION
Imagine a world where your life isn’t dominated by the things you carry.
The freedom that comes from a closet that contains a handful of stylish clothes.
One nice pair of shoes.
You have the freedom of an uncluttered schedule. So you can pursue your dreams.
Imagine if you could work from anywhere, and move whenever you pleased.
Imagine if you didn’t have to do housework every single weekend. You would never
forget where your glasses are, because you know where everything is instictively.
This world exists, you just have to go find it.
I firmly believe that being minimalist is the answer to many of your questions.
I know this because it is the life I live every day.
This e-book is my minimalist story.
I hope that it helps you find the answers.

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 2


HOW THIS ALL

STARTED

In July 2009, I quit my job and moved across the country to Portland. I had everything I owned on
my back and $3000 in my bank account.
I had no plan, no job lined up. It was the middle of the Great Recession. Everyone told me that I
shouldn’t do it, that it’d be impossible. I’d fail and end up bankrupt, hanging out under the Interstate with Portland’s large, hippy homeless community.
But I didn’t fail, I thrived. This is the story of my minimalist success. It wasn’t easy, but it was possible.
Since then, I’ve found that I can live wherever I want. I’ve been to Seattle, Chicago, and back to
Brooklyn. I’m planning to head out to Berkeley in May.
This e-book is about how I live this life.
The secret is that being minimalist opens a lot of doors automatically.
You just have to free up the mind-space from sorting your stamp collection and hauling around the
boxes full of books you’ve already read. When you do, you start to realize that every person on this
planet can be much freer than they are, they just have to let themselves take the journey.
There were only three primary choices I made to leave my job.
1, I had to have less than 100 things.
2, I had to give up consumerism and cook all of my own food.
3, I had to learn to work on the Internet.
The first two are covered comprehensively in this e-book. The 3rd is another story completely, and
perhaps my next e-book will be on the topic.
This e-book is a chronicle of my minimalist philosophy for success. Within, I go over in great detail
my minimalist philosophy towards life. I hope you’ll give it a read.

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 3


Everett Bogue is the blogger behind Far Beyond The Stars, where he
writes about being minimalist and living a creative life.
He was the photo editor of New York Magazine’s blogs from 20062009.
He has lived in Brooklyn, NY; Portland, OR, and Chicago, IL over the

last four months. He’s he’s holed up for the winter in Brooklyn with his
cute girlfriend and her special cat, Lola. He’ll be in SF Bay in May.
He has less than 75 things.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

EVERETT

BOGUE

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 4


WHY BECOME A

MINIMALIST?
There are many reasons, and not everyone follows the same path or ends up with the
same outcome.
If you’re reading this, there’s probably a good chance you’ve answered some of these
questions for yourself already.
Here are a few reasons that you might decide to become a minimalist.
• You’re unhappy with your job.
• You want to travel.
• You’re stressed and can’t find time.
• You want to follow your passion.
• You’ve bought everything you ever needed, but you’re still not happy.
There are of course more reasons, these are just some of the most common ones. I
became a minimalist for a combination of these reasons.
Being minimalist helped me leave my unsatisfying job. It helped me move across the
country with very little money. It helped me lose 20 pounds. I’m calmer now, and

more in control of my destiny.

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Being minimalist is having the flexibility to do what you want, when you wish to
do it.
Think about it. If you wanted to, could you do these things:
• Could you fly to Peru next Friday?
• Could you start your own company?
• Could you relocate to Vancouver next week?
• Could you cope if you lost your job?

WHAT IS YOUR MINIMALIST

DESTINATION?

There are people who are free to do these things. When these people want to make
change, they do...
You can be one of them by becoming minimalist.
I don’t believe you should just be minimalist for the sake of being minimalist. The
philosophy has to have another reason, and it’s important to write that down.
Think of something impossible, an objective that you’ve always wanted to achieve,
but that everyone told you was impractical. Make that your goal for next year.
Write that goal down.
When I quit my job and flew to Portland, OR, it was easy because I could carry
all of my stuff. I lived a sustainable life, so surviving on $3,000 for three months
wasn’t difficult.
Many people are trapped in their own lives by their stuff. But the reality is, we don’t
need most of it anymore.

Despite what they might tell you on television news, we live in an age of abundance.
You can have everything you ever wanted, it’s down at the corner store. It’s important to recognize that you can have everything that you want, but if you limit
yourself to the essentials you will open a world of possibilities for yourself. You can
live anywhere, you can work anywhere.
It doesn’t matter who you are, the possibilities are open if you get rid of the physical,
mental, and emotional stuff.
You can be free. You can do the impossible.
The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 6


BEING MINIMALIST IS

ABOUT...
There are a number of reasons that being minimalist is an advantageous
lifestyle to adopt and we’ll go over many of those in the coming pages. For
the moment I’d like to explain the three pillars of being minimalist.
These are the three primary reasons that I adopted a minimalist lifestyle.
They all have far reaching implications in your life, as well as to the planet
itself.

Sustainability.

Balance.

We all know the world is dying, Al Gore made that clear enough. We all hope
for a legislative change from our governments to cap carbon emissions, but it’s
just not coming. If we don’t do something, our children will inherit a dangerous world without ice caps.

Many people are frantically running around the streets of America trying to get
things done. These people are Tweeting and phoning, they’re stressed out and consuming. They’re fat and they’re sad, and they don’t know what the problem is.

I’m not sure what the world will look like in 50 to 100 years, but I do know it’s
not going to look like the one we have now. It’s going to be much warmer and
it will be much harder to grow food or go to the beach.

Balance is an element that we’ve lost in the modern age. I believe one of the primary keys to a happy human being is living a balanced lifestyle. This is a lifestyle
without sacrifices, without compromises. It’s a life where you aren’t forced, obligated, or otherwise enticed to work 70 hours a week.

We can sit back on our couches and do nothing or we can choose to adopt a
lifestyle which is sustainable. Being minimalist is one way you can do it. I’m
not claiming it’s the only way, and I know this lifestyle isn’t for everyone, but by
adopting it, you will fundamentally change the impact you have on this earth.

Being minimalist is a way to achieve balance in your life. By limiting yourself in life
to what is absolutely essential to your existence, you’ll have more time for yourself.
You’ll have more time to exercise and cook beautiful dinners again. You’ll be able to
focus on career goals that matter and not simply banging out the next widget.

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Freedom.
Many people in this world are being told to sit down, shut up, and pay their
mortgages. This is no way to live. What happened to freedom for all? You might be
asking this question. Well, the answer is simple.
You’ve been convinced you need all of these things in your life, but you don’t.
It’s a big conspiracy to keep the factories churning. That flat screen TV you bought?
There’s a 3D version coming out that’s better. You have a choice, you can rush out and
buy a 3D flat screen, or you can opt out. Destroy your television, have more time.
Maybe you don’t buy flat screen TVs, I know I don’t. Transpose this theory to any

consumption that you regularly do. I almost guarantee that you’re spending
outrageous amounts of money on something in your life that you don’t need.
I used to spend tons of money on two things, alcohol and clothes. I was a New Yorker,
I had to act the part. I’d go out to bars and do the sweet talk with B-list celebrity journalists and friends who were trying to get laid. At times in my life I would spend three
or four nights a week out on the town, racking up $80 bar bills.
Finally, I said enough. I want freedom. Maybe you do, too?
So stop spending. Take a serious look at your finances and see what you can cut.
Start setting goals. The best way to stop spending is to realize that you want to do
something with your life. I wanted to work for myself and live anywhere I wanted. So I
set goals. I would stop spending, and start thinking about my plans.
And then I jumped. I just quit one day, with $3000 in the bank. I said enough with
this system, I want out. I want to live a free life and I want to work for myself.
And you know what, it wasn’t that hard. I flew halfway across the country, embraced
being minimalist fully, and started living.
Being minimalist is about the decision to stop spending and start living a free life.
Will you join me?

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 8


WHY YOU SHOULD READ
In my first couple of weeks in Portland, I did a lot of reading. I didn’t have much
of a schedule, so I felt the best use of my brain was to read as many books as
possible.
One of the books I read during this time was Leo Babauta’s A Simple Guide to A
Minimalist Life.

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO A

MINIMALIST LIFE

While this e-book owes a great debt to Leo’s many years of minimalist practice,
I hope these two books can complement each other.
Leo’s book is simply brilliant. In it he lays down the terms of becoming a
minimalist in his signature, uncomplicated prose. He covers the fundamentals
of living without tons of crap in your life in a very basic way.
Because of this reason, I chose to leave out many of the more basic decisions
that you need to have more freedom in your life.
If you haven’t read Leo’s book yet, and are very new to the idea of being
minimalist, I hope that you’ll choose to read it now.
A Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life is the fundamental text regarding
minimalist philosophy. It’s only $9.95 and 50% of that goes to support my own
writing.
Thank you.

CLICK HERE
FOR MORE INFORMATION

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HOW I MADE THE DECISION TO

LIBERATE MYSELF

I’ve always had very few possessions, but being a minimalist isn’t just about
what you carry with you. It’s your entire engagement with the world. I spent
the last three years in New York living with very few possessions, but I admittedly did spend a lot of money. New York is like that, it sucks you in and spits
you out without your wallet.

by with little, and I started to realize that I didn’t need to be making as much money
(and spending as much money) as I was in New York. I hope by writing this I can
help a few more people achieve this state of being.

There’s a moment when everything changes, when you can’t turn back.

Minimalism is like the secret room that no one wants you to know about, and how
peaceful it is. We’re all bombarded by advertising every day, claiming that we need one
more thing, that we’ll be happier if we just buy more. It’s not hard to understand how
we’re conditioned to want to spend, but it’s hard reversing the work of (rough estimation) hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate spending to make us want just one
more thing.

I think there was a tipping point, when I figured out just how rewarding this
life would be. Living day to day, place to place, consuming the minimum, existing a little bit on the fringes. I enjoy watching the busy people running around,
frantically trying to support their overextended lifestyles, smiling, and then
going back home and writing a little. Trying to help spread a little more knowledge about where I’ve been, where you can go.
I think the moment when I couldn’t go back came when I started meeting
people who were living this way, at the minimum, traveling here and there,
making their living doing new and exciting things. I saw how they could get

I gradually began to stop consuming and started living.

The rewards are infinite though. Freedom can’t be bought, it can only be found.
It’s sitting right here, you’ve just got to slowly work your way backwards from the
grand buildup of possessions and spending and join us on the minimalist path.

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 10


Leo Babauta is the blogger behind Zen Habits and Mnmlist. He’s the author of

The Power of Less and A Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.
Tammy Strobel is the blogger behind Rowdy Kittens. She’s self-employed and lives a
simple car-free life in Portland, OR. She’s the author of Simply Car-free: How to Pedel
Towards Financial Freedom and a Healthier Life.
Colin Wright is the blogger behind Exile Lifestyle and runs a sustainable design company. He has less than 70 things and moves to a new country every 4 months.
David Damron is the blogger behind The Minimalist Path and Life Excursion. He’s
the author of two e-books, Project M-31: Simplify Your Life in 31 Days and 7 Steps to
a Minimalist Life.
Adam Baker is the blogger behind Man Vs. Debt. He moved from Indiana all the way
to Thailand, via New Zealand, with his wife and daughter, and got rid of all his crap
while paying off his debt.
Chris Baskind is an eco-writer and blogger behind More Minimal. He bikes all over
Pensacola, FL.

MEET THE
MINIMALISTS

I’m not the only minimalist in the world. There’s a growing community
of amazing individuals who subscribe to the idea of living with less.

Karol Gajda is a perpetual traveler and blogger behind Ridiculously Extraordinary.
He lives out of a single bag while working from anywhere.
Jules Clancy is a minimalist chef, and the blogger behind Stone Soup: Minimalist
Home Cooking.
Joshua Becker is the blogger behind Becoming Minimalist. He’s the author of Simplify: 7 Guiding Principles to Help Anyone Declutter Their Home and Life.

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 11


CONSUMPTION

We spend so much of our lives buying stuff.
Why do we need to? What is this really accomplishing?
By relinquishing consumerism, we’ll discover peace, happiness, and freedom.

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100 THINGS
People can’t relate to a group larger than 150 individuals. Beyond that
point, you start to see heads shaking and “Oh! I remember your face,
but your name escapes me.” This is called Dunbar’s law.
I believe this number also applies to stuff.
Once you get past 150 things, you start to lose your glasses. You don’t
remember what is in that box anymore, unless it’s labeled and you
look at it.
I put this theory into practice in July of last year. I simply gave away
everything I owned, until I had 100 things.
I noticed the changes immediately. I not only knew where everything
was (my second pair of red underwear, dirty; underneath my grey vneck, also dirty), I also noticed I didn’t have to worry anymore.

When I flew to Portland in August ‘09, home was with me. When I
got on the train to Chicago, home was with me.
100 things makes a lot of sense when you think about the evolution
of the human race. Up until 100 years ago, most of us couldn’t afford
more than 100 things, so we never developed the mental capacity to
handle owning that many objects.
We developed the need to have massive houses full of stuff when factories began to overproduce — they needed us to buy more, so we did.
Imagine how many objects a hunter/gatherer in the bush has to deal
with? A lot less. This leaves valuable brain power for getting the work
done.

Because I could associate properly with all of my objects, I wasn’t
constantly expending effort cleaning them, or trying not to lose them.

When you have 100 things, you no longer spend every weekend doing housework. Instead, you can spend that time educating yourself,
launching new business strategies, reading a good book, or lying in the
grass at the park.

I also could fit everything into a backpack, changing my definition of
home. My home was anywhere me and my stuff at any given time.

The possibilities are limitless. You only have to stop buying and give
most of it away.

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IF YOU DON’T USE IT,

LOSE IT

THE ONE-MOnth RULE

I have a solid one-month rule for everything I own. In addition to the
100-things rule, this means that I have to use everything I own at least
once a month.

I then give the items to someone who would find them useful, I donate
them to an organization who can use the items. If all else fails, I recycle or
discard the item.

If it doesn’t get used at least once a month, it goes in an ‘outbox’.
Depending on how much stuff I have at any given time, the outbox is
either a real box or a mental list that I have.

This is a little extreme for some people, but I think it’s worth contemplating. What would pass this test if you were to ask this of every object you
own?

When I have time, I take a look at the box and I ask myself some serious
questions:

I know some people who have a piano in their living room that they haven’t
used in 10 years. In fact, they never learned how to play the piano. How
much freer would their lives have been if they had decided they didn’t need
it?

• Will I use this next month?
• What purpose does it serve in my life?
• Do I need this professionally?
• Does anyone I know need this more than me?
• Can I get another one of these in three years if I discover I need
one again?
• Do I use this seasonally?
• After 30 seconds of deliberation. They either stay or they go.
They’re either useful or they are not.

I know some people who have three non-functional cars in their backyards.
I know some people who keep all of their college textbooks, even though
they are never going to pick them up again.

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30-day

waitlist
Here’s one sure-fire way to stop spending money.
Put every single purchase that you make on a 30-day waiting list. Put
anything that costs more than $20 on this list.
You can do this for everything but food, because you’ll be dead in 30
days if you do.
Most people buy things because they think they need it now, when
usually the need has more to do with the environment that they’re in.
They’ve succumbed to what the advertisers want them to buy in that
moment.
By adopting a 30-day waiting list, you’ll realize what you actually need
(which isn’t much).
You’ll defeat the advertisers once and for all.

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THE LIFECYCLE OF

STUFF
1, Somewhere, probably in the United States, someone has an idea; they’ll
make a Useless Object and it’ll make them rich!
2, They sketch it out, they mull over it. They send the idea to their friends.
Hey, that’s a good idea! I bet a bunch people would buy that and you’d make
money!

Many people have too much stuff. We’re faced with endless choices in modern
society and the most common choice is ‘yes, let’s have another.’ Another plastic
knickknack, another candle holder, another footrest, another little, cute bowl to
put your keys in.
Take a break from this e-book for a second and look around whatever room in
your house you’re in. What do you see that you haven’t used in a month? In six
months? In a year?
If you’re in a coffee shop, take a look inside your bag. What have you been carrying around for a month that you haven’t used?
I’ve known people who bring back a bag of little useless objects every day when
they come home. “Why did you buy these things?” I asked them. “For someday,”
they replied. What use is someday if you’ve forgotten you even purchased the
thing?
Think about the life cycle of your average, inexpensive, mostly useless object for
a second.

3, They get a few made at a factory in the U.S. They seem to look good!
They work perfectly at doing the useless thing that they do. Good!
4, They send their sample over to a factory in China, or another Asian country, and the factory sends a note back. Yes, we’ll make that for ten cents per
Useless Object! They make five million of them.
5, Stores in America spend endless amounts of money and resources bringing these Useless Objects into American stores, where American consumers
spend their hard-earned cash buying these Useless Objects because they
think they will make them happy. Either that or an American consumer
buys it for their friend because they think that it’ll make them happy.
That’s the basic life cycle of the thing you haven’t used in a month’s life.
Insert the real name of your object where I put ‘Useless Object.’
The only solution to this is to stop buying. Stop indulging that little voice
in the back of your head saying to you that one more object will make you
happy. It won’t. You’ll be happy for fifteen minutes and then you’ll go back
to being sad.

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Reflect on the true

cost of

stuff
People feel that just because they spent money on an object, they have to
keep carrying it with them. The problem is that over time the cost of an
item becomes greater.
The longer you live with an item, the longer you have to provide for it.
If you have 1,000 items, you need a big house. If you have 10,000 items,
you need an even bigger house, and probably some storage, too. What if you
only needed a house with one room, how much less would you spend on
your living situation?
Considering the true cost of every item in your life can make you realize just
how much you’re responsible for and just how much you are holding back
your life by not taking this opportunity to slim down your belongings.
Imagine if you had a life where you could put everything you own on your
back and just leave.
You would have many more options than you do now.
You could live anywhere. You could work from anywhere.
The possibilities are infinite, why not try it? Or at least think about it.

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There are infinite options for the modern consumer. As a minimalist, how do you decide who
to support?

We’ve all been to a Walmart or a Target, a dollar store, or visited Amazon.com.
We can buy whatever we want, and much of what I write about is how to avoid buying. But
the truth is that sometimes we need to buy things. We need clothes, we need to live somewhere, we need to eat.
I’ve contemplated this topic endlessly, as it has many complexities, many of which I will have
to leave to you to debate with yourself.
There will be exceptions. In some cases you may not have a choice as to what to buy (toilet
paper).
But with a little consideration, I believe a minimalist can stick with their values and support
the right people when it is necessary to consume.
The secret to minimalist consumption is simple; support the artists.
Now, I’m not speaking about artists as painters or sculptors. There are artists who do these
things and for those of us who buy paintings, we would like them to come from an artist. You
can also get a painting from a non-artist—it’s said that 60% of the world’s paintings come
from a single village in China. These people aren’t artists, they are factory workers.
I’d like to argue that there are artists all around us creating many fine things. An artist is
someone who is creating something that they are passionate about.
You vote with every dollar you spend. Do you vote mega-corporation or independant artist?

WHO DO YOU

SUPPORT?
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I buy my produce at an organic market instead of a generic grocery store chain,
because I know they care about their product. Even if the costs are higher.
I purchased my computer from Apple because I know they’ve designed a product
that works best for what I do. Even though it costs more.
I buy from indie writers like Leo Babauta because I know he is passionate about his
writing and he actually knows what he is talking about.

Artists create

what we can

believe in

Do you think Coca-Cola or Ikea has artists working for them? Probably. But most of
their stuff is cheaply made in another country by machine.
That bookcase is $24, but does it have a soul behind it? No.
I realize this makes the decision to purchase anything infinitely harder, but that’s
the decision we need to make if we’re going to support what really matters.
Artists give something that matters. That art might be a muffin that the lady at the
coffee shop woke up early that morning to bake. That art might be the blog post
that you read this morning that you know the writer put some thought into—so
that he was creating art that made a difference.
You probably think finding art is hard, but it’s becoming so much easier. Have you
been to Etsy.com?
Next time you buy a new coffee cup, consider buying one that was handmade. Consider passing on Bed, Bath and Beyond and getting a hand-knit blanket from the
woman with the shop down the street.
Next time you think about buying another bottle of Yellowtail wine, consider instead supporting a small wine seller from the Columbia or Willamette Valleys.

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Next time you consider buying stock imagery from a micro agency, consider instead supporting an artist on Flickr.
Next time you need to buy a dress, don’t go to Forever 21. Have Brooklyn fashion designer Anjia Jalac hand-make one for you.
Next time you buy a bike, don’t get one from Schwinn. Consider having one made for
you by Fast Boy Cycles.
Next time you buy coffee, skip Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts and order beans from

Intelligencia or Stumptown roasteries.
The options are available. But if you vote with the few dollars you minimalists spend
this year, I promise they’ll become more common.
Imagine how amazing it would be to tell the story behind everything you owned if it was
created by an artist.
We’re just coming off of two centuries of a factory dominated society, it’s only natural
that the options might be harder to find.
The point is that it doesn’t have to be that way forever.
You can support an artist with every purchase you make, you just have to make the
choice to do it.
We can support each other by buying from each other and not from a corporate machine. The tools exist to make this happen, we just have to learn to use them.
By purchasing this e-book, you’re supporting an independant artist. Thank you.
The time to support artists is now.

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The age of
abundance

Despite recession, the national deficit, and everything else you can imagine, we still have access
to a lot.
We have running water. In most places you can buy bulk quantities of everything that you need
at the corner Costco.
And yet we’re still complaining. “One throw rug isn’t enough! I want seventeen for $3.99!”
Therein lies the problem.
We can have everything, so people buy everything. They get addicted to another $2.99 or
$159.99 gadget every month. It doesn’t matter which income demographic you’re in. There is a
scalable economy to match your desire to buy more crap.
In Portland, there’s a Salvation Army outlet store referred to by the local thrifters called “the

bins.” You can buy anything you want for $1.49 a pound. They’ll even weigh your cart.
I went twice, while I was in Portland, and every time there were hordes of low-income people
piling their carts high with junk. A lot of the stuff at the bins is garbage. These people have access to it, so rather than buy a nice towel at Target for $10, they’re buying seventeen disgusting
third hand towels for $20. It’s not logical, but they still do it.
I bought a scarf that I found, it was nice and only ended up costing 49 cents.
This same situation also applies to 5th Avenue in Manhattan. For a very short time, I worked
at the Apple Store on 59th Street. Rich old ladies would walk in from the Upper East Side and
purchase twelve MacBook Pros. Just because they had the money, not because they needed all
of those computers.
Absurd, but true.
We need to realize that we have access to everything instantaneously. If we need something, we
can go out and get it. We don’t need seventeen third-hand towels in our closet. We don’t need
twelve MacBook Pros, just in case we happen to need them.
I know you’re not doing absurd things like this, but think about it on a smaller scale. Buy things
you need for now, for the important projects that you’re working on. Don’t buy things for someday just because you happen to have just received a paycheck.
It doesn’t matter whether your paycheck was $120,000 or $350. The same over-consumption
binge can apply, if you let it.

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 21


What if you traveled with

nothing?
Can you imagine what it would be like to simply fly from New York to
Chicago with just a satchel bag?

If it was an emergency; sleeping bag, tent, any food available in my
area, water bottle.

I think it’s important to regularly reflect about which of the things you
carry with you are essential. Which possessions do you absolutely need?

Less urgent situations; I’d bring my laptop.

Think about how easy it would be to move if you had only the essentials.
How easy it would be to go on vacation. How easy it would be to change
your job, because you wouldn’t need to pay for a huge house or rent a
large apartment anymore.

Obviously this is a rather small list, but I actually don’t own many
more things than this.

I’m living this life, and I think you can too.

Think about what you would bring with you if you had to leave now.
Make a list. Maybe even pack a bag and see how heavy it would be.
Consider if you had to walk 50 to 100 miles with that bag. Does it
still seem doable?

What would you bring with you, if you had to leave now?

This is a good mental list to have ready to go, you never know...

Say, in a hypothetical situation, you wanted or needed to leave your house
at this exact moment. What would you bring with you? You have to go
right now! There’s no time to sit around and mull over the decision.

You also never know when you might want to set off on an adventure, and these are always more fun when you’re not dragging two
rolling suitcases and a backpack with you.

Here’s my list:

What would you bring with you? Think about it.

5 shirts, 5 pairs of underwear, 5 pairs of socks, 1 pair of jeans. Suitable
jacket for overnight weather at my destination. iPhone, iPhone charger.
Cash, credit cards, and ID.

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 22


From an early age you’ve been indoctrinated into a society that values things above people.
We are what we own, or so you’ve been told.
They all told you that you wanted the two-car garage. They told you to fill one side with
stuff you couldn’t fit inside your house. Indeed, one-quarter of all Americans have a twocar garage in this condition.
The stuff just sits there. You walk by it and wish that it would disappear. Secretly you wish
someone would burn your two-car garage down, so you won’t have to make the decision to
get rid of that clutter.
We find so many ways to keep us from reaching our potential. Stuff is just one of those
ways. We don’t want to deal with the harsh reality of our lives, the fact that we haven’t really done anything important.
So we refocus all of our attention on the endless burden of re-sorting our stamp collection.
A friend of mine, the Brooklyn hip-hop artist D.O.V. of Verbal Graffiti, repeatedly loses his
life work every couple of years. In 2003, his house burned down. In 2009, his laptop was
stolen from his living room without a trace, containing years of un-backed-up recordings.
The loss is always devastating to him. He tells himself that this is the end of his career and
he’ll never make another beat again.
But this wasn’t the case, there were no devastating repercussions. Six months after the
loss of his computer he had a new album on the streets. He has another one half finished
already.

The beats weren’t on his computer, they were in him. By clearing away all the years of junk
on his computer—all of the beats that never had any potential, but he continued to mess
with—he was able to free himself to create a new album.
A clean slate can be a powerful drive to create.

You’re HINDERING YOUR

POTENTIAL

(WITH YOUR STUFF)

What if you were able to harness this ability for a lifetime?

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 23


Forgo the biggest

expenses

(The Minimalist Secret)

Many people make two very big purchases in their lives that are incredibly expensive, and completely unnecessary, if you position yourself correctly in the world.
1, a house.
2, a car.
You might have one or the other, or both.
In many places you need a car to get around. That’s understandable.
But consider this; what if you lived in a place where a car isn’t necessary? Bikerfriendly cities are becoming easier to find. Brooklyn and Portland are both covered
with bike lanes. A bike can cost around $150. A helmet is a little extra, but necessary.
If you buy a bike, you’ll be healthier, live longer, and people will instantly think

you’re cooler.

This is the minimalist secret.
You probably already knew this, deep down in your heart somewhere, but
society makes every effort to bang this one out of you. They tell you to sit
down, shut up and buy these two things.

Houses are another problem entirely. They’re very expensive and can tie an owner
down for their entire life if not purchased properly—like if you don’t have enough
money to afford one—which is most of us.

Almost everyone in society makes this fatal choice. They spend the rest of
their lives paying for making it.

The housing bust has proven that a house isn’t necessarily the best investment. I
know many people who are trapped by their mortgages in terrible areas where they
need a car to get around. This is a very expensive way to live.

This choice infinitely restricts their freedom for either their immediate
future, or for at least long enough that they can’t recover before they’re too
old to have any hope.

The alternative is a small apartment. Most cities have these for a fraction of the price
of a home. If you live in a nice apartment, you can move whenever you wish, your
costs are minimal, and your landlord will fix most of problems for you.
Never buy a McMansion or a Hummer.

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 24

THE MINIMALIST

PATH
The path to a minimalist life is not an easy one. I’ve found that my own life, my journey through minimalist living has a cyclical pattern. Some years I have more stuff, others I’ve purged everything.
Not everyone needs to take being minimalist to the extreme that I am right now. You’ll find that some
areas of your life really could use some simplification, while others may need to just be left alone.
Paring down my life to just the basic essentials for my own survival didn’t happen overnight though, it
took a concerted effort to keep from gathering more stuff. I also have had to let some things go.
Being minimalist has its rewards.
1, Less organizing. If you have no things, you don’t have to move them around.
2, Less expensive. When I wanted to move to Portland, all I did was hop on a plane.
3, I can live a more organic life. I can spend each day doing exactly what I want, without having to
feed the junk that surrounds me.
4, I need less space. I can basically live anywhere. My room right now costs mostly nothing and it
doubles as a yoga studio because I have nothing in it except a newly acquired bed.
But for those readers who are investigating the possibility of becoming more minimal, how can you go
about making these changes?

The Art of Being Minimalist: How to Stop Consuming and Start Living | www.farbeyondthestars.com | Page 25