You might be wondering how this relates to environmental issues, but stick with me.  Most of us were raised to believe that we must slave away for 40 + hours a week and that the measure of success is the size of our house, the model of our car(s), the fashionable updated wardrobe, the contents of our entertainment center… the STUFF.  Once you give up this concept of the American Dream, you are free to decide how you really want to spend your time and develop a more meaningful way to live.  Being satisfied with less is not punishment, it is freedom.

I served my time in the trenches; over 15 years of working full-time, over time, commuting an hour to work. I have been away from the job for 4 years, and still have nightmares where I can’t  find my desk. You get so caught up in the politics of the office, in the importance of your role, and have so little free time that other things going on in the world at large scarcely matter. Your perspective narrows.

You get caught in a loop of having to work more to pay for the car that gets you to work, and the clothes you need to wear to work.  You work so much that you feel empty and deprived so you charge more STUFF you don’t really need on the credit card, and have to work more to pay it off.  You collapse exhausted at the end of the day in front of the TV, too tired to think about the state of the environment, too tired to eat anything but fast food or food that comes in little boxes with little seasoning packets and ingredients you can’t pronounce. The only hope is to stop this madness and gain control of your destiny.  Get out of debt, slow down, and drop out.

If you need help with this, read Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin or Getting a Life: Real Lives Transformed by Jacqueline Blix and David Heitmiller.  Then you can move on to the classics like Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin or Walden by Thoreau.  I found all of these for 50 cents at thrift stores, but there is always the library.

The gist is, scale down and simplify your life.  If you have to charge it, don’t buy it.  You might be able to get out of debt by selling things you already have but don’t really need through Ebay, Craig’s list, or a notice on a local bulletin board. You might be able to sell a large house with a large mortgage and get a much smaller one, or sell an expensive car and get a bicycle.

Consider each purchase carefully before you make it, and consider all your options. Sometimes you think you need something you really don’t.  Maybe you can get the book or movie from the library, maybe you can borrow a tool you will rarely use from a friend.  Frequently we are able to fabricate something out of things we already have instead of buying something new to meet a need.  Sometimes if you wait long enough, you don’t even want something you had to have or can figure out another route.  If you do need to buy something, thrift stores are wonderful places to shop; you are reusing things that might have been thrown away, the prices are cheap and usually the proceeds go to worthy charities.  We also love salvaging things from the local dump and actually brag about it.

The best things in life are free (or cheap).  For entertainment, go on a walk or hike, read a book, ride a bike or make something creative.  Spend vacations camping for free in  National Forests where you can cook on a campfire instead of staying in motels and eating out.  Grow your own vegetables and raise chickens for eggs.  Buy healthy whole food in bulk (rice, beans, lentils, oats, nuts) and cook from scratch which saves money, the planet and your health.   Walk, bike and take mass transit when you can or drive an older efficient car when you must.  Do these things, save your money, make good investments that produce income, and you too can be free.

Everyone’s situation is different, and some start with more issues (health, children, debt), but I believe that simple living only makes things better.  Even if you can cut back and work part-time, you will have time to read, to think, to walk, to cook.  You will have time to notice what is going on in the world, see what is going wrong and find ways to help.  You can develop creative ways to make money doing something you love or something that makes a difference.  You can experiment with low-impact living.

We all need to provide for our basic needs, but the trend in consumerism is over the top.  What are you working for?

For more information, see The Story of Stuff, the blog Rowdy Kitten about a young couple who find freedom in simple living (paying off $30,000 of debt in 2 years) or Sue Robishaw’s website, and The end of consumerism: Our way of life is ‘not viable’.

Tags: Freedom, Simple Living