Living With Less
In this busy time of year, when we are focused on buying and gift giving, and consuming I thought it would be a good time to revisit a book review that focuses on Living with Less.
These are my thoughts on the book called:
Living With Less – The Upside of Downsizing Your Life by Mark Tabb. The book does have a lightly spiritual or religious focus, so it may not be for everyone. But, if you are at all spiritual, it will make you examine your life.
I was an eager reader, as I am totally on board with this idea. In my opinion, people live with so much more than life requires. Why? Not that I am advocating becoming a Quaker or Buddhist monk, just having what you need and a little more.
On that thought, I really related to chapter 8 in Tabb’s book. It is called “But I Live in the Real World”. In it, he talks about how to bring meaning to” living with less”, all while paying bills and managing a family. By making basic changes, Tabb suggests you can keep the demands of the physical work from blocking what you really want in life. He offers ten suggestions for making simplicity a vital part of your daily life.
- Live below your means, rather than beyond them
- Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status
- Don’t believe the hype
- De-accumulate
- Spend wisely. See your money as God’s possession, not yours
- Leave room for extravagance
- Invest your resources in people, not stuff
- Give to your local church
- Enjoy what you have as a gift from God
- Avoid becoming a legalistic jerk
People live with so much more than life requires. Click To Tweet
Tabb believes that nothing trips us up like material possessions. The book is all about encouraging others to clear the obstacles in their life to learn what really matters.
Want some other book recommendations we’ve blogged about?
Books About Organizing for Kids
Subscribe by email
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
I love the title of this book! These are such interesting points you pulled out. What does #10 mean? A “legalistic jerk?” I know what a jerk is, but I don’t understand the qualifying “legalistic.” What does he mean?
It’s such an enticing concept to live with less. I’ve been working on a project to do exactly that, although it’s slowed down more recently. It’s not that we’re moving, but I don’t want to hold onto more things than I need. Even if they have a space to ‘live.’ That in itself isn’t a good enough reason to keep them. I plan on living for a long time. Or, I HOPE to live for a long time.
But when my time does come, I don’t want our kiddos to have the burden of making more decisions than necessary about the stuff we left behind. It’s a process.
Linda, I am doing the same and (same as you) the downsizing happens in fits and starts. But I feel like anything is good. It will help when the time comes for the big downsizing. I think a legalistic jerk is someone who wants to enforce the law for their own gain.
I think I would love this book. I’m going to add it to my reading list.
I love this “Top 10” list. I think I’m going to share it at dinner tonight. Thanks so much for letting me know about the book, and giving me a glimpse inside!
You are so welcome Seana, I’m glad the book will be a discussion over dinner.
Although I’m not particularly spiritual, and I’m not a Christian (and this Tabb writes from a Christian perspective), I still find that much of this resonates. In fact, while I don’t quite hew to 5, 8, and, I certainly do believe that we should spend wisely and that we should use some of our excess bounty to support others with greater needs. But I must say I was flummoxed by “legalistic jerk,” but in theology (rather than law), legalistic means to stick more closely to moral law rather than personal faith, and I suppose as long as one’s faith can be individually defined, then I’ll go along with it (though I can’t quite figure out how it fits with the other rules).
I’ve never been much for acquiring (except for books, and I’ve gotten so much better about even that in the last few decades), and I’ve never understood the appeal of status. The only thing I ever remember wanting because it was so popular was a Papagallo purse (remember those, with the wooden handles and the buttons so you could put on different bag designs?) in the 1970s. But I only had the one design. (I keep a purse for years, until it’s unseemly to be seen in public anymore; I live with less just because my needs are so few, and because my I’m not that captivated by tangible things if I can’t eat them!) Thanks for sharing this book with us.
Julie, I also am not sure how the legalistic jerk rule goes with the other rules. I am like you, in that I don’t feel that I need more, but I see people with this desire all the time: clients and family! Live and let live. I’m happy in my home. That’s what’s important.