No, ladies and gents, that’s not a joke.
For six months, now, I’ve slept on a couch. I have not cheated. I have not strayed. I’ve been a pretty upstanding member of society, in fact, despite my never-ending delegation to the doghouse.
As my sixth-month anniversary with California fast approaches, though, I’ve started to look back. I’ve started to think back on my time here, and I’ve started to study my familiar blue ‘bed’ with the kind of critical eye you’d normally expect from an experienced furniture salesman. Why?
Couch philosophy. It’s all the rage.
This couch, for all intents and purposes, is my home. It’s indicative of a thousand different things I’ve experienced, sought out, and adapted to in the last six months, the tangible (and comfy!) proof of a decision I’m oh-so glad to have made. In the sort of flexibility you don’t normally expect from stationary furniture, it’s also going to double as my muse for the rest of this post.
See, this couch has proven a pretty important lesson. It’s something I’ve long suspected, something I’ve seen time and time again in the flesh, and something I have wanted to believe for every month I’ve been on the road.
Ready for this?
We Don’t Need Nearly as Much as We Think
There’s a bag in my room. It contains about nine shirts, two pairs of jeans, three or four pairs of socks, and about six pairs of underwear. Aside from a few miscellaneous items (hello, laptop!), this lone bag plays host to everything I currently own — my life, in other words, broken down, rearranged, and reduced to the bare essentials.
I have what I need.
Clothing? This might surprise, but it’s okay to wear clothing for more than one day. That’ll seem blindingly obvious to some, but it was a strange lesson to learn for me, as I remember pretty vividly being the kid who couldn’t stand being dirty — the kid who insisted on clean clothing every day of the week.
Oh, so much has changed.
Practically speaking, though, it’s easy to get by with maybe a week’s worth of clothing. Provided you’re like most modern humans and spend a majority of your day indoors, your clothing won’t attract enough dirt and grime to warrant an immediate wash, meaning you’re free to rock a t-shirt more than once a week. I’ve topped at four days, personally, with a day’s gap between each.
This leads to a bigger point: people don’t care if you re-wear clothing. The average person won’t even notice, I’d argue, and anyone with the audacity to comment on your wardrobe likely isn’t the kind of character worth keeping around in the first place.
Entertainment? I have a laptop. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suspect you have some form of computer too. It’s not much of an understatement to say that modern computers do everything, negating the need for stacks of DVDs, books, etc. whenever I find myself with spare time on hand.
Food? A friend of mine was shocked to discover that I spend an average of $150 each month on food. It helps, of course, that I eat just once or twice per day (and that I’m purchasing food for just myself), but here again we don’t need as much as we think. Buy some protein (eggs are an inexpensive choice), plenty of vegetables, some fruit, and you’re set.
Funny, isn’t it, that the formula for strong, healthy living can be reduced to a single sentence?
Sometimes it’s as simple as that. But don’t get me wrong — I’m not advocating you shove your house into a box and hop a plane to California, tempting though that may be. There is value, I think, in downsizing, but there’s just as much value in realizing what’s actually important to you.
What would you put inside your backpack?
Let’s try an exercise.
- Pretend, for a moment, that you have to consolidate your life down to just one bag.
- Make a list of everything you’d put in it. Be serious in cutting the fluff.
- When you finish, read over the list a few more times and take stock of how many items are on it.
You can guess the point here. I can guess the majority of you skipped the exercise completely, since I (admittedly) probably would have done the same thing. But here’s the thing: if you want to declutter, to streamline, to minimize, to simplify above all else, you need to take a critical eye to your life in the exact same way I’m studying my couch.
Your life can fit in a bag. You can be twenty, thirty, sixty or seventy — the age, as ever, doesn’t mean a damn thing. No matter what stage of life you’re in, no matter how cluttered or clean your home may currently be, you just need to remember that the bare essentials of what you need to survive — to thrive — don’t demand a space much larger than a backpack.
You don’t need a huge closet stuffed to the brim with clothing, you don’t need stacks upon stacks of CDs and DVDs, you don’t need a pantry chock-full of food you’ll never eat, and nor do you need any of the trappings thrust upon us as required — as normal — in modern life.
Here’s what you need instead.
You need friends. You need family. You need to crouch beside the fire with the best of both and roast up a big plate of s’mores, swapping the milk chocolate for a Reese’s peanut butter cup and laughing maniacally all the while (and, you know, fasting the entire day after). You need one night each week where everyone huddles in the kitchen and whips up a delicious meal, pooling your collective mediocrity at cooking into something surprisingly spectacular by the end.
You need those little snippets of life that stick with you for as long as possible. Funny thing, too, that so few of them demand piles upon piles of clutter on your shelves.
You need, in other words, just one thing: minimalism.
It’s different for every person, sure, and I’m not pretending that living out of a backpack is the only — let alone the best! — way to live. The one common thread is this: you need to take stock of your life, now, and realize just what you need to live it.
I think you’ll be surprised with what you come up with. I think you’ll be surprised to discover that you could probably shove it all in a backpack, too.
Me? I just need a bed, I guess, and my backpack. That’ll no doubt change in time, but for now, at least, I’m pretty content with the baby blue couch I’m sitting on as I type this — the three-cushion cradle I’ve called home for six strange, incredible months. I’ll be moving on soon to destinations unknown, but I’ll be happy as I go — content in what I’m carrying, as it’s everything that I need.
A Few Words about WDS
You’d think I would have mentioned this sooner.
I’ll be in Portland, Oregon for the World Domination Summit next week. Are you going too? If so, let me know! I’d love to meet up. I arrive on July 2nd and depart on the 7th, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
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11 Comments
I'm a writer, minimalist, and health dork with three goals in mind: to teach you how to lose weight, move more, and be happier by living a simple, natural life. It works. Like what you read here? Get 3NL delivered straight to your inbox!
…. Matt. Peanut butter cup s’mores = probably the best idea I have ever heard.
Fantastic post – I’m so happy California, and everything, is working out so beautifully for you. Although I’m definitely no definition of minimalist (I’ve discovered), I’m always striving to be a little more minimalist all the time, and well, “simpler”. It’s so helpful to check in and realize I only need what can fill a single bag. This post kicked me back in gear once again, thanks dude.
Awesome post! I am trying little by little to embrace minimalism myself.
PS: I think you mean you’ll be in Porland on June 2nd, not July, right?
Hey Matt,
Thanks for this! I must admit that my stuff doesn’t fit in my 50L backpack anymore after shopping for all the winter gear that I need to survive the coming months. Bloody freezing in Sydney! A tip if you need some kind of clothing only temporarily: buy them from a charity shop. Wear. When you don’t need the clothes anymore, just donate them back to the same shop. Easy!
Keen to hear where the destinations unknown may be. Have a great day!
It’s surprising what we are conditioned to think we need. And how much of it. I think growing up reading women’s magazines from a young age has scarred me.
Like for women, I am sorry if this is too much info – but neutral coloured undies. So we can wear them under light coloured clothing without being seen. Good in theory, yes? But WHY? I wear pretty much all black. Why do I buy these things and make sure I always have them, when I dont necessarily NEED them? And multiple pairs of bathers/swimmers/togs or whatever you guys call them. I go swimming a lot yes… rinse them in the shower and they are dry by tomorrow. Why do I need a second pair? Same with exercise gear (dries from the wash overnight!) bed linen and socks. Depending how often you do laundry you could feasibly get away with only wearing 2 or 3 outifts your whole life.
I envy the monks with their 2 outfits in their entire cupboard. The Dalai Lama has only 13 possessions. Now that’s cool. I think the trick is not so much to have less but to buy less! That’s the hard part.
As always Matt, loved it! So true, and Reese’s on a smore… once I tried it, I’ve never switched back to ol plain regular choc-o-late
…. and um of course I fast the entire next day… cough cough 
Down to one bag… I could do it. I have been dancing and toying with the idea of emptying out everything I own and just vagabonding for some time now. It’s a major want. Of course with kids, I am maintaining my work “cubicle” lifestyle, but I am fighting for a change. LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog.
I think my set of cast iron skillets might fit into my backpack, but I certainly don’t want to be the one carrying it after I load it with that weight…
In all seriousness, though, while I know I don’t _need_ certain things, I really like having them. To me, you don’t need a lot of stuff to survive (or even thrive), but that same stuff can make a home, which is a different concept entirely. I like the pictures of my family, whom I rarely see, smiling at me from the walls. I like my pictures/decorations from my trips around the world. I don’t need them (any more than I suppose I need more than one skillet), but they improve quality of life.
You need to write more posts Matt! This one really connected with me. This paragraph especially:
Clothing? This might surprise, but it’s okay to wear clothing for more than one day. That’ll seem blindingly obvious to some, but it was a strange lesson to learn for me, as I remember pretty vividly being the kid who couldn’t stand being dirty — the kid who insisted on clean clothing every day of the week.
I used to wear my shirt, underwear, socks one day and then put it in the hamper. This is true no more! I’ve been minimizing my life for the past month or so. I’ve given away countless clothing items and now have no problem wearing the same clothes over and over and over again. I dont sweat on them so they ain’t dirty!
I feel as if I could carry all my belongings in a backpack as well which is pretty sweet. Damn, I can’t wait to begin traveling!
Time to get rid of more clothes…. Really!
Tell me you will post more often, ok Matt?
And, what the he’ll is world domination summit? Maybe I’ll go if it’s sweet?
Great post! This gives me so much inspiration to become a minimalist. My husband and I are just now selling our home and moving into a smaller apartment, then in December when we’re done with college we’ll be moving to Portland. So now is the best time for us to whittle down our belongings. Thanks!
I have a couple of friends who are embracing the minimalist lifestyle as well, selling most of their positions and living the transient (good transient, not homeless) lifestyle. I wish I myself had the guts to do this, as I feel more attached to my possessions than ever. As long as I have my nook, computer, and a few sets of clothes I think I could get by just fine though. Really enjoyed the blog, will be checking back often.
Ryan
Paleo2Go.com
Not paring down as much as you (not even close); still, I’m gathering up lots of stuff for summer garage sales. Thanks for the inspiration.
I am reading such good stuff today – it’s totally speaking to me and where I am right now. I have a large family – we have four really small kids – and I’ve been slowly minimizing everything. It can be done no matter what stage of life your in or how many people you’re responsible for.
How’d you like Portland?