1. Welcome to NoFap! We have disabled new forum accounts from being registered for the time being. In the meantime, you can join our weekly accountability groups.
    Dismiss Notice

Minimalism and Zero-Waste Living

Discussion in 'Self Improvement' started by Deleted Account, Dec 6, 2017.

  1. That's awesome! There's also a lot of places that can repair things for you, for those of us who might not know how to do those things ourselves. Like I remember Joshua Fields-Millburn talking about getting his shoes re-soled, because he really liked those shoes and that was all that was wrong with them. It's a great option, for sure.

    I would say reusing, repurposing, and repairing is probably the best option. And then second to that would be buying things used, if you need to buy soemthing you don't already have. Or borrowing from someone, if it's something you don't need to own.

    I really like the idea of thinking about access rather than ownership. Like a year ago or so, I got rid of a ton of books (like 6 boxes of books) and I gave them all to my local library. So now technically, I can still access all of those books myself anyway, if I want. But I don't have to keep them at my house. :p
     
  2. that's a brilliant idea with freeing up space by giving the books to the library but still able to access them
     
  3. I tried to sell them at a yard sale first, but apparently nobody wants books these days. Lol
     
    Deleted Account likes this.
  4. I love minimalism, and also freeganism (check it out).
    My SO is also into minimalism. We would love to live as Zero-Waste as possible. It is a great thing and I'm glad to see so many are into it :)
     
  5. Hm, never heard of freeganism. I'll check it out.

    I went grocery shopping yesterday, and I was so pleasantly surprised at how much good stuff they have in bulk! It definitely wasn't a Zero-Waste trip, but it was a lot better than I expected it to be. They don't allow us to bring our own jars here, but I usually just get stuff in bags and then when I come home I put it all in jars and reuse the bags next time.

    I have at least one breakfast and one lunch idea that are pretty much zero waste, so I'm excited about that. ^_^ I've always hated cooking, but I'm a lot more open to it now. Which is good, because to be waste free, you pretty much have to cook your own food.

    I still really want to start composting, but the compost bin I want that would make things so much easier is a couple hundred dollars. :/ so that will have to wait, unfortunately.
     
    Sunshadow likes this.
  6. Yes, but I have things for luxury and pleasure.

    I keep waste to a minimum and don't have stuff I don't use. Moderation is key to everything and some people take minimalism way too far imo.
     
    Deleted Account likes this.
  7. Yeah, I agree. My favorite aspect of minimalism is to just be more mindful of your consumption and the things you choose to bring into your life, whether that's physical items or responsibilities or hobbies. It's just a reminder to think about that stuff instead of just going with the flow and doing things because that's "what you do." If someone loves book and gets great pleasure from the smell and feel of the physical copies, by all means, have a huge book collection! But if you don't have much interest in books, or you don't really care about owning them but just want to read them on occasion, there's no need to buy a book when you want to read it. Get an ebook or rent from a liberal or borrow from a friend.

    Minimalism isn't about depriving yourself of things that bring you joy. It's about letting all the unimportant things go, to make more room for the things that actually matter to you. And most importantly, it's about changing your minded to actually ask yourself what matters to you and what is unimportant, rather than just going along with life and living someone else's version of a full, rich life.
     
    Deleted Account likes this.
  8. Just watched some videos today. It's so disgusting how much good is being thrown away by supermarkets. :/ I'm not sure if I would ever be one of those dumpster diving people, but it's definitely made me think a lot.
     
  9. I do it and it's a life saver, but of course that depends on your financial situation. But it's half primal too, once you get your hands on good food for free I guess you're hardwired not to let that fly anymore hehe. I'm serious, the food is crazy good.
     
    Deleted Account likes this.
  10. It is tempting, I'll admit. Lol but probably pride keeps me from trying it out. Also, I'm really bad with conflict. So I would be worried about getting in trouble.
     
  11. RecoveringFapaholic

    RecoveringFapaholic Fapstronaut

    172
    389
    63
    I think minimalism is great especially for us Americans who have so much junk. Since we don't have basements where I live, everybody's garages are packed with junk. My family's guilty of this: we have a two-car garage with one car inside and the truck sitting in the driveway. The other side of the garage is packed with junk. Some of it is necessary (e.g. lawn mower, tools, etc.) but some of it can go. In my grandma's neighborhood, people's garages are so packed that they park some of their cars on the street. The road has a lot of twists and turns and it's scary to go around a blind corner with cars parked on both sides of the road.

    I want to practice minimalism when I move out because you feel liberated from all that junk that you (mostly) don't need. I'm not a shopping addict or a hoarder so I think I'll be fine. I think minimalism is great as long as it doesn't get in the way of things you like doing. For instance, if you like to collect things you can do so while minimizing the things that are less important to you. I think you should focus on bringing more meaning into your life than minimizing the unimportant things; just as (I believe) you should focus on growing more wealth rather than conserving the wealth you have. This is why I'm not too fond of the practice of extreme budgeting. Of course it's good to save money, but you shouldn't focus all your energy into spending less money when there's so much more of it to be made. So while I think is important to eliminate things that don't add meaning to your life, I think it's more important to focus on adding more meaning into your life.
     
    AChosenPeople likes this.
  12. AChosenPeople

    AChosenPeople Fapstronaut

    424
    492
    63
  13. Sunshadow

    Sunshadow Distinguished Fapstronaut

    Wow, that's intense, man!
     
  14. You know what's even more insane than that?

    "the united states now has 2.3 billion square feet of self-storage space. (the self storage association notes that, with more than seven square feet for every man, woman and child, it’s now “physically possible that every american could stand — all at the same time — under the total canopy of self-storage roofing.”)"

    Kind of makes you sick when you think of how many people in the world don't have homes. And instead of using our money an resources to build them homes, we use it to build homes for all the stuff we want that we can't fit into the homes we already have. Gross.


    Agreed!

    Hm... strongly disagree with that part. Very strongly. Making more money isn't the goal to happiness. Being content with what you already have is going to bring you much closer to happiness. So I'm a firm believer in focusing on what you already have. Of course it can be good to have goals, like a new job that pays more, but in the meantime, until you reach those goals, your focus shouldn't be on what you can get more of, but rather what you can do with what you already have. In my opinion, of course. That's kind of a core value of a minimalist mindset, I would think.

    I agree with this part though ;) but "more meaning" and "more money" are not the same, so I disagree with the other portion.
     
    RecoveringFapaholic likes this.

Share This Page