Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. ~ William Morris
For those who are regular readers you will know that I live a little differently these days. I essentially live with what will fit into the boot of my car and I am house sitting my way around New Zealand.
How did I go from being a corporate lawyer with a flat full of stuff to such a simplified lifestyle?
It all started with a book by Tim Ferriss called the 4 Hour Work Week. Along with the many fantastic ideas he shared, the one that really caught my eye was the 80/20 principle. This rule was formulated by an Italian economist called Vilfredo Pareto. Essentially he said that 80% of the results come from 20% of the time and effort. I had heard of this rule before but only in relation to business, in other words 80% of your income is generated by 20% of your clients. Tim went further and applied to this rule to every area of his life; clothes, information, financial records.
I’ve always been interested in living a simple life with the least amount of clutter so I applied to the 80/20 rule to my life. First up were my clothes; this is harder than it sounds as I had my favourites that, even though I didn’t wear them much, I was sure I would wear them again (sound familiar to anyone else?). In the end I was assisted by my (very blunt!) flatmates who let me know if which of my old favourites I should never be seen dead in any again. I didn’t quite cut my wardrobe down to 20% of what it was but I made a huge dent in it.
Next up were my financial records. I had 8 full lever arch files of information, most of which I didn’t need on a day to day basis. I made use of the super fast scanner at my work and a week of lunchtimes later I had scanned and stored 6 folders worth of information (before you do this make sure you are complying with the tax laws of wherever you live as you might still need to retain originals of some documents). This was a fantastic feeling as I had easy access to the information that I used regulary without having to stumble over the rest of the folders.
Books. Have I mentioned that I LOVE books?! I have a lot and throwing away any is like removing a memory forever. The 80/20 principle failed here as I could only bring myself to give away books that I knew I would never read again. Looks like my next house will need a library!
I had already reduced my quota of stuff when I moved from London back to New Zealand but I went through it again to see what else could go. As an added motivation I had planned an overseas trip which meant that everything was going into storage and the smaller the unit the cheaper it is and the more I would have to spend on the fun things in life. Out went that pair of blue sheets that were the wrong size for my bed, the spare buttons that I’d kept even though I no longer owned the clothes they belonged to and the spare suitcase I was never going to use (I’m a backpacker at heart). The charity box down the street was very full after I’d finished!
That was my stuff reduced as much as it could be…or so I thought. Now that I’ve had 6 months of living out of my car I’ve forgotten what I’ve actually put in storage. I’ve promised myself that when I do unpack my storage unit I will once again support a local charity by giving away any “stuff” that I no longer need, except for my collection of books that is.
