Great ideas. We’ve got a lot of other wildlife around and my place too. I’m sure he’d enjoy that.

Purposefully constructing my life and orientating my actions in a way that resists the emergent inclination of our modern society to add complexity to life without compelling benefit. Simply put, seeking happiness through simplification.This can look different for everyone. For me personally this means closeness to nature, friendship and conversation, minimizing my financial obligations which minimizes my need to work, limiting screen time and unhelpful technology, striving to be present and appreciative, slowing down and enjoying stillness, caring for what I have, releasing myself from pressure to be someone else’s “better” while remaining ambitious toward exploring my passions. These are just a few aspects that come to mind.

I carry a Leatherman Squirt PS4 in my pocket every day. It’s tiny and doesn’t add bulk to my pocket but is super handy and I use it all the time. Has spring loaded pliers and tiny scissors, a small straight blade and file, and both a flat Phillips head and broader flat screwdriver.

There are scanning apps that automatically crop the photo, let you make multi page PDFs, and automatically upload to your cloud of choice or directly to your computer. This has made it super easy for me. I’ve tried a few and settled on the one-time paid version Genius Scan and it works well for me.

Lol this is very true 🤣. Point taken

I like the idea of trying to come up with categories to fulfill. That’ll also make it easier to balance what we get each of them. Thanks!

Great idea!

Southern United States

I was following Light Phone for a long time but ended up not pulling the trigger. For me the hard thing to reconcile was whether ditching my smartphone would really make my life simpler or not. I really value having a good camera in my pocket to catch special moments instead of having to plan to take a camera with me. GPS maps means I don’t have to think about getting where I need to go. Having apps for banking, utilities, etc. Helps me take care of things on the fly and not have to spend time sitting at a computer sorting my affairs.

But smartphones have that temptation to mindlessly scroll reddit, watch YouTube, and Google things you don’t really need to. Sometimes having to use our restraint can be draining, so having a detox is definitely worth it. I’m happy for anyone who’s found what works for them to simplify their life and be more present and happy.

I say one thing about smartphones though, they’re getting to daggum big!!! I wish I could get a thin smartphone with edge to edge 4.5 inch screen. Small in my pocket, not big enough to entice over using, but capable for doing what I need. Someone make it!!! Best ive seen is the iPhone mini 13. Might upgrade to that when my pixel 4a dies.

For nonbinary decisions, You can also tell it to roll a die of any size, like a d10, d20, or a fair dice that doesn’t mean exist like a D7. You can also just have it pick a number between X and Y, but thats not as fun haha.

I didn’t really get that sentiment from the article. To me the author seems to emphasize the importance of religion/spirituality as important for providing an “existential orientation,” although that point is somewhat obscured by their flowery, albeit precise, language. Though they do wrap up with that odd citation about having a cultural council, which seemed a bit out there for me.

Great article that discusses a lot of the good and bad of living an agrarian lifestyle. Simple definitely does not necessarily mean easy, but it can be rewarding by both qualities.

Something that comes to my mind is that you can definitely live a purely agrarian lifestyle like it were the 1800s or older as long as you take the lifestyle lock, stock, and barrel with it’s benefits and hardships; people have been living this way for ages. But, I think what most people want are the benefits afforded by this lifestyle (the simplicity, feeling close to nature, working with your hand, etc) but to also enjoy the modern luxuries we’re accustomed to (like technology, healthcare, etc), but it’s really difficult to make this lifestyle support these desires.

What’s worked for me is a hybrid lifestyle. I have a small house and a little land, I raise a big garden and my wife cans, so we grow most of our own food, but it’s not a business, though we sometimes sell to a local restaurant and on Facebook when we have extra. We work really hard and try to be frugal, but we both also work part time jobs to make money, which gives a better return on investment for our time than we can get trying make it Simple living lifestyle support our modern needs. So we incorporate modern life employment to make simple living feasible and comfortable, but strive for simple living to make modern life minimized and tolerable.

Have a great day everyone!

I find the current tone of the comments in this thread rather upsetting. It feels like a lot of people are arguing to refute OPs position that a person’s value is not determined from their material productivity. If this is you, I think you might be in the wrong community. I don’t think this is a point of debate in the simple living community.

To say that a person’s value is derived from their productivity is to say that you do not value the person, but what they produce. This can be interpreted as viewing a person as a Means to any End, rather than an End in themselves. For me, viewing people as Ends in themselves is a foundational pathos of Simple Living. The idea of valuing people, relationships, love, time, above wealth, material, prestige, speed is what simple living is all about!

Well wishes to you all 😊

Pulled the trigger on Crosscode! I’ll put the others on my list. Thanks!

This is such a clear and concise explanation of what simple living is ☺️. This is a great start for someone new to simple living and also a great refresher for refocusing those already embracing the lifestyle ❤️.