A running list of references from books/media/culture/real life that we’ve come across that reaffirm our lifestyle:

  1. Tyler Durden from Fight Club is a minimalist!
  2. Ray Bradbury, Season of disbelief (short story)
    An older woman is teased by neighborhood children for her stories of the past. They don’t believe that she was ever young despite mounds of evidence in her home. It is only when she gives up her past – when she sees herself as she is now, not as she used to be – that she is able to enjoy her present. Maybe Bradbury is still a nostalgic but he also believes in the now, in moving forward, in loving what the world has to offer. (synopsis credit: here)“It won’t work,” Mr. Bentley continued, sipping his tea. “No matter how hard you try to be what you once were, you can only be what you are here and now. Time hypnotizes. When you’re nine, you think you’ve always been nine years old and will always be. When you’re thirty, it seems you’ve always been balanced there on that bright rim of middle life. And then when you turn seventy, you are always and forever seventy. You’re in the present, you’re trapped in a young now or an old now, but there is no other now to be seen.”It had been one of the few, but gentle, disputes of their quiet marriage. He had never approved of her bric-a-brackery. “Be what you are, bury what you are not,” he had said. “Ticket stubs are trickery. Saving things is a magic trick, with mirrors.”
  3. In a conversation at work Clay told an elderly customer at work that we were minimalists and the customer smiled and told Clay that he was “wise beyond his years” :)
  4. We reference The Minimalists a lot. A lot of their popular essays have impacted our own journey. Read on! They also have a podcast, several best-selling books, and a documentary…we’ve found them all to be great resources.
  5. Joshua Becker’s blog, becoming minimalist
  6. True Cost documentary on fast fashion. It’s slightly repetitive but still worth watching. The clothing industry is the second largest cause of pollution in the world, second only to oil…and that’s not okay.
  7. Mari Kondo’s book was a huge help in our initial purge. Especially if you’re looking to just declutter your home without necessarily becoming a minimalist. (We still have our copy and we’ll give it away to anyone who wants to read it!)
  8. 6 things minimalists do via break the twitch.
  9. MGMT, Kids Aside from dancing to this song a lot in college, the lyrics will always resonate. “Control yourself, take only what you need from it”
  10. Umm…The Bible! So many verses. Treasures in Heaven. Do not worry about your life. We can’t serve God and money. All of it is really what minimalism boils down to for us.
  11. This sermon series and coordinating book from Ada Bible is truly what got the ball rolling for us. It started when we got serious about our finances which slowly spiraled into this whole lifestyle change.