Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Hello folks,

Three quiet, related announcements:

My new ERE guest post
http://earlyretirementextreme.com/guest ... pdate.html

A potential ERE meetup in Montreal:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5502

My upcoming book about escaping the daily grind (upcoming, that is, if we hit the pre-sales target)
http://unbound.co.uk/books/escape-everything

x

I'm looking forward to the new book. I enjoy your writing.

Would you still say you own about 20 things? I reread your first article and really enjoyed the minimalism link you posted. I'm on that journey myself and hope to get there soon.

http://theschooloflife.typepad.com/the_ ... alism.html

I enjoyed reading your guest posts asl well ...

... and you got me curious - is there any story that describes your journey to own as little as 20 things (and what they are/were)?

@fips- He explains that here: http://newescapologist.co.uk/2010/06/10 ... -is-at-me/

He even has his own wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wringham

I can't even find one for Jacob. That's a bit disappointing actually.

@IwantLess -

Joe Dominguez doesn't have one either. It seems it's a bit of a hit or miss for us D-list celebrities, since it's contingent on some wikipedian actually writing up such a page based on independent sources (e.g. newspaper articles or whatever).

You'll get there someday soon, Jacob. I believe in you

I want to say you had that as one of your items on a bucket list from somewhere?

When I heard wringham's accent, I knew he was cultured and intelligent. When I hear Jacob's I rush to protect the monastery.

IwantLess wrote:Would you still say you own about 20 things? I reread your first article and really enjoyed the minimalism link you posted. I'm on that journey myself and hope to get there soon.

http://theschooloflife.typepad.com/the_ ... alism.html

Thank you very much.

I took a quick survey of our apartment and found to my horror that I now own 37 things.

The increase is largely in the clothes department, having to cater for Montreal's extreme summers and winters (something I never had to contend with in Scotland, where the only weather is a stable and untroubling grey).

Additionally, my partner (also a minimalist but not as obsessive/unsentimental as I am) owns stuff. Though I don't share ownership of any of her stuff (pre-nup!) I still feel responsibility for it. I use some of her stuff after all and I'd have to schlep half of it in a move. Brings up interesting semantic questions about what we mean by ownership.

We're moving to Scotland for a while next year. This will prompt some jettisoning and maybe I can get back down to ~20 things. Nothing like a move to motivate pairing down.

Here's a little forum bonus on the subject of minimalism. An illustrator friend and I are making a tiny book called [something like] "The Minimalist Book of Minimalism" for which I'm writing 20 minimalist maxims. Trying to make them as succinct as possible. I'm not happy with the list yet, but here's an early draft.

01. Need little
02. Ownership is merely proximity
03. Everything's on loan
04. It starts and ends in the Earth
05. Access trumps ownership
06. Style trumps fashion
07. Reduce until optimal.
08. Asset or liability?
09. Sunday Best every day
10. Ventilate
11. Cut it loose / let it go / release it into the wild
12. Shops can be museums
13. Would acquisition facilitate appreciation?
14. Better than its volume in space?
15. You're here, not there
16. Less to maintain and less to carry
17. Air and water are priceless
18. Consume less to work less
19. Be resourceful: one object, multiple uses
20. Nothing to hide

I think 20 or 37 is some sort of lower record, so I got a bunch of questions:

How do you eat? W/o cooking utensils, do you eat all meals out? How does eating work?

If clothes break/tear, do you buy new clothes---presumably lacking sewing tools---or do you borrow those or buy and then dispose?

Do you ever say no to an activity because you don't have the equipment? E.g. it would be hard to go camping with minimalist equipment unless you're tough enough to sleep on top of a jacket under open sky.

Overall, it seems to me that extreme minimalism requires either tremendous amounts of outsourcing (e.g. eating out all the time) or not partaking in several activities (going fishing, sailing, playing soccer, etc.).

Obviously, this it at least one Wheaton level beyond me

jacob wrote:How do you eat? W/o cooking utensils, do you eat all meals out? How does eating work?

I cook. I've a rotation of seven basic meals plus their variations, all of which require the same simple utensils.

I have no microwave; no gadgets like salad spinners or sandwich toasters. I use a fridge and a stove and some other things (none of which I own -- it's part of the apartment). We're vegetarian so that keeps things simple too.

We go out to eat fairly often, but not as a minimalist solution to anything.

I've often wondered if consumable kitchen mainstays like olive oil or teabags should count as 'things owned'. If that's the case, I own more than originally claimed.

jacob wrote:If clothes break/tear, do you buy new clothes---presumably lacking sewing tools---or do you borrow those or buy and then dispose?

I have no sewing tools. Should my suit get damaged, it goes to a tailor for repair. If a shirt or something gets damaged I dispose and eventually replace. (I make things last for ages though. Not sure when the last time something got torn -- they're more likely to just expire after years of wear and washing).

jacob wrote:Do you ever say no to an activity because you don't have the equipment? E.g. it would be hard to go camping with minimalist equipment unless you're tough enough to sleep on top of a jacket under open sky.

I'm just not into the kind of activities that require special equipment. I don't go camping. I certainly don't play any sports.

This is not a prohibition of minimalism. If I liked to go skiing, I'd have the requisite equipment and would be delighted to own 47 things instead of 37 (or whatever it may be).

jacob wrote:Overall, it seems to me that extreme minimalism requires either tremendous amounts of outsourcing (e.g. eating out all the time) or not partaking in several activities (going fishing, sailing, playing soccer, etc.).

It's a choice, I suppose. I've found that minimalism saves me a lot of money and stress, maximizes my mobility, helps me to appreciate and value the things I do own. It keeps me off hedonic treadmill very nicely. It's one of the main reasons I don't have to go to work any more. Maybe it'd be different if I wanted to play sports or do some homesteading or become a carpenter, but for now it doesn't feel like it excludes me from anything.

wringham wrote:My upcoming book about escaping the daily grind (upcoming, that is, if we hit the pre-sales target)
http://unbound.co.uk/books/escape-everything

I just got my ebook. I can't wait to read it.

JLF gets a shout out in the acknowledgements.