Below are some details on how you could make your life simpler. They may appear "sixties" and a bit over-the-top... but applying some of this stuff on small-scale could probably have some interesting impacts... Source:
currently reading: Lester R. Brown - Plan B 2.0: rescuing a planet under stress and a civilization in trouble
- Building & Maintaining a Simpler Home: Buy or build a home that is designed for living simply. Follow the Japanese model (I love this!)-- movable walls, multi-purpose, reconfigurable rooms, and no wasted space. Use the roof as a permaculture garden, a solar collector, a meditation space, a water collector. Landscape with native species that don't need watering, herbicides and pesticides to flourish. Use simple, durable construction methods and learn to do your own repairs and preventative maintenance. Share your tools, know-how and time with others in your community helping them and allowing them to help you build and maintain your home.
- Simpler Furnishings: Build storage into walls, so you don't need furniture for storage. Consider flooring (padded -- but not with chemical-laden carpets -- or cushion-covered) that obviates the need for seating. Make both seating and tables portable, adjustable and multi-purpose. Make them simple. Make them yourself, so you can repair and maintain them yourself. (I love this!, but not sure whether I'll be able to maintain everything myself)
- Simpler Utilities: Insulate. Use renewable energy sources. Collect rainwater. Use graywater for irrigation and other purposes. Use compact fluorescent and LCD lights. Use timers and setback thermostats. Turn off heat, A/C and lights when you're away or not using them. Dress to be comfortable when it's 80°F indoors in summer and 60°F in winter, and set thermostats accordingly. (agreed!)
- Eating Simpler: Learn to make meals out of simple, unprocessed, raw ingredients. Buy local, organic and fair trade products, and avoid processed and chemical-laden foods. Learn to cook simple, quick meals. Follow the French model -- learn about sauces, herbs and spices and how they simply make raw foods exotic and nuanced. Become a vegan (do not agree).
- Dressing Simpler: Buy local, durable, hand-made clothing and personal-care products made from natural ingredients and free of slave labour, animal products and animal testing. Learn to make your own clothes, jewelery, accessories and personal-care products. Climate permitting, stop wearing clothes entirely.
- Simpler Fun: Learn how to entertain at home, simply, creatively and inexpensively, instead of having to "go out" to have fun. Rediscover simple pleasures and share them with your community: sandlot sports, massage, non-electronic games (like cards and charades), meditation, making love, conversation, hands-on hobbies, playing with children and animals.
- Simpler Transportation: Remember that every minute you spend walking adds three minutes to your healthy life, so it "takes" no time at all. Put a carrier and light on your bicycle and use it. Use virtual presence technology to reduce the need to travel. Carpool. Drive a hybrid. Avoid flying as much as possible.
- Simpler Investment: Pay off your debts. Don't get into debt. Don't buy on impulse. Buy stuff that lasts. Invest your time and energy in things that will make you self-sufficient and resilient and which are recession-proof, like your own sustainable business, know-how and fitness. Donate cash you don't need to responsible causes you believe in -- they'll invest your money with more focus and care than you probably can. If you can, work less -- and recapture time that will save you nearly as much as you have foregone in income, that will simplify your life further.
- Simpler Health Care: Take charge of your own health -- illness prevention, diagnosis and first-line treatment. Preventing illness is cheaper and simpler than coping with it, but it takes an investment of time. Learn how the system works, and when it works in the interest of the patient and when it works against it.
- Simpler Education: Learn, and teach, how to learn. When you and those you love have acquired that, use it to acquire critical life skills, through self-education, collaborative learning and home-schooling.
