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Turner Publishing Company - Stephanie Marie Seferian

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149 pages

English

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The Aspiring Minimalist’s Guide to Living Consciously and Contributing to a “Greener” Tomorrow

“This is the perfect book for people that want to find a realistic roadmap to sustainable living.” ―The Holistic Millennial

Eco-minimalism is a hot-button issue right now, and for good reason. Living a life with less can be the key to saving our precious planet.

Break the consumption cycle. There’s so much to do, and way too much to buy. Whether it’s through late night TV ads, social media, or other sources of influence, we are addicted to buying and then storing things. Sometimes we consume with no regret and other times we realize that we’re doing more harm than good to our wallets and our homes. It’s a constant cycle―one that many are longing to break. Who wants their hard-earned money to go toward something that soon ends up in a landfill?

A guide to eco-minimalism with a plan that is realistic. Manufacturing "stuff" exploits Earth's precious (and finite) resources. And then there's the harsh reality of where it all goes. Our discarded possessions ultimately head to landfills and contribute to environmental pollution, releasing greenhouse gases during breakdown and decomposition. Sustainable Minimalism is the solution. Empower yourself to incrementally incorporate the tenets of sustainable minimalism into your home and life. Learn to master the easiest tasks first and build upon your successes―a practical and stress-free process. Now that’s sustainable!

A blueprint for sustainability and stress management:

How to gain greater mental clarity and increase your free time with fewer possessions
Environmentally friendly ways of decluttering and organizing
Ways to improve your financial stability, while going green at the same time
How to get organized and operate a zero-waste home

If you enjoyed books like Zero Waste Home, The Minimalist Home, or The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, you’ll love Sustainable Minimalism.

From the Introduction

America, we have a purchasing problem.

I’ll never forget the first (and only) time I participated in Black Friday. I woke up early—too early, if I’m honest—and stood in a line that snaked around the side of a big box store. It was a frigid November night and I shuffled from side to side to keep warm. The lights in the parking lot illuminated the exhalations of the crowd; in that moment, I had the fleeting thought that this was all so silly. I should go home. I should get back in bed.

But in the end, I bought a flat screen television. I saved some money, but not all that much. The TV worked, but only for a few years before it pixelated and on-screen images became unrecognizable. When I look back on this particular Black Friday, I realize I was right: I should have gone home. I wish I had gone back to bed.

Corporations want us to believe that happiness lies in stuff, but research suggests otherwise. In 2018, 40 percent of Americans said they were more anxious than the year prior, and one in fifteen reported symptoms of depression. Our buying behavior has catapulted us into debt—the average American has four credit cards and a collective balance of $6,200 at any given time.

And what about our trash? While many consumers are in the habit of donating working items to make room for newer, shinier models, the vast majority of our perfectly working and perfectly fine discards find their ways into landfills.

Minimalism—the intentional choice to live with less—provides hope to overworked, overstressed, and overspent Americans. Adopters of a “less is more” lifestyle attest that minimalism offers the precious gifts of free time, mental clarity, and financial stability. But there is another, bigger benefit to living with less that no one is talking about: minimalism is key to saving our planet.

Although the minimalist lifestyle has experienced a rebirth in recent years, the concept is not new. Minimalism is mentioned in countless ancient texts; Buddhists have shunned material possessions for thousands of years. Yet twenty-first century minimalism is novel in that, these days, the concept of minimalism is entangled with the concept of decluttering. Modern minimalist influencers—including authors, social media personalities, and documentary stars—advocate for decluttering, yet remain silent on sustainability. As a result, aspiring minimalists in need of guidance find themselves on an endless hamster wheel of buying, decluttering, buying more, and purging again. From a historical perspective, overemphasizing decluttering and underemphasizing the reasons why we overbuy in the first place are thoroughly inconsistent with minimalism’s purpose. This practice also steals Earth’s resources, and for no good reason.

I found myself intrigued by minimalism shortly after becoming a mother, and for purely selfish reasons. My husband, Haig, and I—together with our dog and two cats—happily coexisted in an 850-square-foot apartment. But after our first daughter, Ani, was born, friends and family showered her with gifts. The sudden influx of baby toys, gear, and clothes slowly squeezed us out of our home.

Organizing, sorting, managing, and cleaning my daughter’s seemingly infinite possessions ate away at rare moments of free time. My anxiety skyrocketed. I found myself asking big questions about the true costs of consumerism as I folded unworn outfits and scoured the apartment for places to store unused plastic toys. Although Western culture emphasizes having more was preferable to having less, I found myself questioning such logic. I daydreamed about what a simpler, greener way of living in the twenty-first century could look like. I wondered whether such an existence was even possible.

If I wanted to find peace within my own home, I needed to make a change. So I sought out camaraderie on the internet and lurked in a handful of minimalism groups. Minimalism no longer felt like an obscure, countercultural concept; after all, thousands of people just like me believed that less could mean more.

PART 1 The Current Landscape

Consumerism’s consequences
Why we overbuy (and how to stop)
The better way

PART 2 The Low-Hanging Fruit

The benefits of a shopping ban
The 4 pillars of responsible decluttering
On-the-go sustainability
The low-waste parenting rulebook
You get a capsule wardrobe! And you get a capsule wardrobe!
Non-toxic cleaning? Yes, please!

PART 3 The Middle of the Tree

Less plastic now
Your complete kitchen overhaul
Meal plan success

PART 4 Get the ladder

Shop savvy & secondhand
Why self-sufficiency matters
Raising eco-conscious kids

Part 5 Conclusion

Minimalism maintenance

Acknowledgements

Notes

Sujets

Publié par	Turner Publishing Company
Date de parution	19 janvier 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781642505023
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	18 Mo

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Sustainable Minimalism , livre ebook

The Aspiring Minimalist’s Guide to Living Consciously and Contributing to a “Greener” Tomorrow

From the Introduction

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