Every Monday I post Real Life Minimalists, a profile of one of my readers in their own words. If you’d like to participate, click here for details.
Today we meet Tim Lewis, whose minimalist journey started right out of university. He tells us how he decluttered his excess possessions, and is embracing a life of freedom and travel (check out his blog to learn more). An insightful and inspiring story!
Tim writes:
Tim
I believe that I have always enjoyed having less since an early age and like to think that I had minimalism born into me. As a child I used to love to hang around with my friends in the fields and forests of my home town and have many fond memories of travelling the country with my family and going on holiday in some fabulously remote parts of the country. Areas, like the Peak District, almost untouched by the modern way of life always provided me with peace and solidarity, even as a young boy.
However, at some point in my early teens I had lost myself and what made me truly happy. I suppose it had a lot to do with school which adds a lot of pressure to get the coolest new pair of trainers or the newest ipod (At that age who wants to be bullied for bucking the trend, huh?). This sort of behaviour had continued, and before you know it, I had accumulated thousands of DVDs/CDs/books/PC games along with, what only can be described as, a horrendous amount of clothes!
I believe that I had found myself again just before I graduated from university and had the task of moving all of my possessions out of Bath (An absolutely beautiful city, I urge all of you to visit it!) back into my old room in my parents’ house (which could barely fit a single bed and a desk in it). At that point I knew that I had a pretty big problem.
The wonderful thing about Bath is there are a lot of the charities there for a small city and I have spent a lot of time working with them from the extensive volunteering I had done during my time there. I looked at my room and turned my attention to clothes. I separated about 30% of them to keep for myself and gave the other 70% to a few charity shops nearby (Thank you housemates for helping me carry all of those bags of clothes!).
I then opened up an Amazon trading account and took the time to list every single DVD, CD, text book etc. Within the few months I had left before moving out, I had already sold all 50 text books making myself £1000. Getting rid of all of those heavy books and my clothes gave me a little peace of mind. I had already felt less encumbered than I did before and it clarified that I was going in the right direction. Since then I’ve been selling a lot of my other things on Amazon and gifting my books to the local library and it feels really good.
I always ask myself, “Did I ever really need or want any of this?” and I honestly don’t think I ever did. I think sometimes people simply lose track of why they are buying things, especially when you’ve already got a lot of it (My obsession with DVDs, for example).
It seems my journey of minimalism is just taking off and it has already brought me a lot of inner peace as well as a bit of direction in life (I’ve started my own fully fledged e-business on Amazon) as well as given me the freedom to move. My goal is to have all of my possessions in one bag and whilst I have visited many parts of the world there is still more to be explored. Having little possessions gives me the freedom to move without all of the stress and worry that goes with it.
In a couple of weeks I’m going to be travelling around continental Europe with my best friend hoping to create some amazing experiences and rekindle the peace that I once found travelling as a young boy.
{If you’d like to learn more about minimalist living, please consider reading my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or subscribing to my RSS feed.}
I love this guy. His blog is fantastic.Tim has so many good ideas and his writing is fresh and honest. Check him out NOW !!!!!
Tim,
Very inspiring post. I visited your blog and its lovely. I enjoyed reading about your travels and adventures:) Keep up the good work.
I like the idea of selling excess stuff on Amazon and have had moderate success with it, although textbooks tend to sell better than other books or CDs. If I list my textbooks for sale at the beginning of a college quarter, they sell pretty quickly.
I tried to be a good citizen and offered my excess books to the local library, so that everybody could enjoy them again and again. Unfortunately, the library doesn’t put donated books into circulation. Instead, they sell all donated materials at a book sale for pennies. I don’t feel that it is a good use for my books.
Lana, my library sells the bulk of items donated to us in our sale as well, with most books selling in the 10 cent to one dollar range. Those pennies add up. Last year the book sale earned our library over 13,000 dollars that was used for childrens programs and online databases. Plus people know they can buy whole stacks of reading for just a few bucks, and frequently re-donate when they’re finished.
Obviously I can’t speak for your library, but our staff is super grateful to all the folks that give us their books, and it really does benefit the whole community!
Sorry for the soapbox speech!
Thank you, Library Lady! Maybe I’ll reconsider. I have also found out that the local high school’s library is grateful for donations, which they actually put into circulation.
I agree with Library Lady. Also: It is thrilling to find a book you’ve always wanted to read for just $1. I don’t think your books are going to waste; instead, people can find real joy in discovering them!
Lana, I went to our local library and was so surprised how empty the shelves were of inventory. After combing through my books, I decided to donate them to our library, thinking as you did, that they would be put into circulation. These were popular books such as The Four Hour Workweek, Blue Ocean Strategy and other recently published sales books. I was to drop my box of books off at an unmanned desk, where immediately a patron started combing through them and claimed one as her own! Patrons could choose to drop some money into a self-help donation box…or not. I grabbed my box and donated it to the local thrift store instead. My library will have to rethink their donated book strategy before I’ll consider donating there again!
Amazing story, Tim!
What a great idea to start right out of school..when his mind is as fresh and uncluttered as he hopes his possessions will be.
Tim, I love your blog. It makes me want to travel to England.
One of the easiest ways to prepare fish is to cook it in foil, with some spices on top and there are a variety of recipes for this type of cooking. You might get some additional ideas from this website: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-recipeindexarchive2008,0,5938840.storygallery Halfway down the page, you will find recipes for poultry (which I understand you plan to eat occasionally), seafood and vegetarian/vegan dishes.
I, too, have been a lifetime minimalist. I’ve never been a collector and I am cautious about my purchases, but I still had too much stuff, at least in my opinion. So, I have been working slowly and steadily on planning my home and possessions better and purging what doesn’t fit. My oldest son discovered his minimalisim when he was in high school. He did not feel comfortable buying things just because of peer pressure of fads. Good luck to you on your journey!
Great blog, Tim. Your story is very inspiring – such a good idea to get that clutter well under control while you are still only have a ‘quarter-life’ crisis, not a mid-life one! ;o)
Great post Tim! I love that you’re considering donating some CDs and DVDs to your library! Seven years ago when I began working at the library, we had a pretty minimal collection of music and movies. While we do budget to purchase these items now, all the folks that donate these have helped us build our collection much faster. For every CD or DVD that we added to our collection there were lots of folks excited to borrow it!
My mom was a librarian. People were always calling saying they had books to donate. But what people don’t understand is that in many cases the libraries have limited space, certain needs/expectations from customers for certain books (latest fiction, reference books, etc.) She always used to say, “I’m pickier than they are,” meaning she must necessarily be more choosy about what to put in circulation given limited space and certain needs and wishes from the clientele. That said, most libraries are grateful for donations for their book sales. They use the money to fill in carefully considered “gaps” in their circulation inventory. So even if your actual books don’t end up on the shelves, they can help make it possible for other more desirable books to be on the shelves.
BTW the two things NO library wants is your old set of encyclopedias and your old collection on National Geographic magazines. ;-)
Anna,
I had to laugh about the old encyclopedias! We bought a set of World Book as a young couple with a very smart 4 year old who could read. (this was over 25 years ago) We spent over $1000 on those encyclopedias! But our daughter and 3 subsequent children spent many years just reading them for the fun of it! Although I believe they were a good investment, I hate that we spent that much on something that is virtually useless now. That same daughter has now repurposed and sold shelves made from those encyclopedias!
Bernice
5 things to do while waiting in life’s hallways
I tend to find too many gaps in my current libraries selections though. There are so many subjects they choose not to cover. I am potentially moving soon to an area with close to the same population but a much better library. I donated a miniature collection of pricey Real Goods alternative building books to them and happily saw them land on the circulation shelf there.
Great post. Happy minimalist journeying! One note to Anna in comments. Local school libraries and history and science teachers may be THRILLED to receive your old collection of National Geographic magazines. They can often use the books you are decluttering also. With so many budget cuts in education, please keep your elementary, junior high, and high school libraries in mind. Schools can also use your gloves, mittens, hats, and coats to help children of all ages.
Thank you so much everyone for your kind words. I’m thoroughly glad you enjoyed my story and I hope you continue to follow me and my journey :) Feel free to contact me about anything questions that you may have (I’ll sort out a contact page soon).
I cannot thank Francine enough for the wonderful work she does and the ability to connect people together and to allow voices to be heard which otherwise would not be. You are, and continue to be, and inspiration to me :)
I enjoyed reading the story – you seem to be doing this for all the right reasons! Good luck!
I recently saw a collection point in New Zealand for childrens’ books and copies of National Geographic to be sent to schools in Fiji. And regarding donations to schools, I always pass on good condition books to the school library – they are so pleased! Other things I have given to primary schools are games (the ones with an educational twist), dressing-up type clothes, spare pens and stationary, and recently decluttered at work and donated lots of promotional hats and T-shirts (for the school to use as painting shirts etc). They have been received gratefully! At one school we had a box in the entrance – you could leave any unwanted school uniform etc and then take out anything you could use.
Donate craft supplies, buttons, pipe cleaners, etc. I had some scrapbooking supplies someone gave me and passed them on to the preschool with some yarn and they could use them.
I just donated a big pile of books and magazines to our local library.
Our local library has many children’s crafts. I donate excess craft materials to them as well as our historical society. I use a lot of recycled materials in my collages and paper crafts. Cereal boxes and colorful junk mail make great decorations.
I filled 2 more bags with craft supplies. People give me things because they know they will be used or passed on. Plastic is always recycled, cloth can be cut up to make ribbon, yarn, quilt squares, or more. Anything as long as people aren’t buying junk jewelry or cheap plastic toys.
People give me non recyclable plastic bottle caps, I use them instead of pebbles for drainage in my plants. I tear ads out of free magazines and when I go to the Dr. I hand them to children and ask them to circle their initials while they wait. There are always pens available and the drug ads have lots of letters. I used to do that with my own children before they could read. Circling numbers is also good.