 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Too Stuff-ed?
Watch this Video
| Windows Media |
  |
| QuickTime | |
| MPEG |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||
 |
Have you ever asked yourself, “Where has all the time gone?” Of course you have. People associated with a progressive movement would say it’s spent on buying and taking care of things that just clutter your life. Simplicity believers have made a conscious choice to seek quality over quantity – maybe good advice as we head into a new year. |
||
 |
|||
 |
New Items | Additional Stories | UMTV Brief | Archives | ||
This is Christine Robertson's new home – all 330 square feet. You can see Robertson's entire domestic universe by standing in one spot.
Christine Robertson, minimalist: "I had a job several years ago in sales. I went out and bought a lot of expensive suits and I thought, ‘This is the kind of life I want. Sooner or later I'll buy a car,’ and then realizing after a while I didn't want to be in sales. I didn't care about making that much money."
And so, Robertson very purposefully shed her prosperous sales job and, she estimates, three-fourths of her worldly possessions.
Cecile Andrews: "We have all sorts of things that we think are going to make us happy, but they don't really."
Cecile Andrews is one of the new gurus of simplicity. Her book Circles of Simplicity now guides regular study groups around the country.
Cecile Andrews: "Simplicity is really asking 'what makes you happy?' And what makes you happy are the time-honored things – people, time for yourself, simple pleasures."
Who says money can't buy happiness? Money buys lots of stuff. And stuff seems to make us really happy.
Cecile Andrews: "I think of it as the "Costco high." You have this, like, 'Oh, look at all the stuff I got for so little!' And then you get home, and it wears off.”
Andrew Warner, Costco shopper: "I think they get you anyway when they always have something different there that you haven't tried before. And you can't just have one. Might as well have 10."
Cecile Andrews: "I think of it as the examined life – that you're asking what matters and what's important. And you're thinking in terms of your own sense of well-being, the sense of well-being of the wider community and of the planet."