The theme of the week around here has been stuff, physical stuff. The things on the desk, in the closet, in the trunk of the car, on the kitchen counter, under the kitchen sink. Those things. This week’s newsletter (coming soon!) addresses identifying and clearing out the stuff that has become dead weight.

I’m still riding the afterburn from half a week at Burningman where stuff was and was not at a bare minimum. We carried our own water for drinking, cooking and showering which would imply bare, and we had an air mattress in the tent (luxury for this girl!) We brought just enough clothes for the days there and brought costumes to play it up and have fun. (btw: some photos here)
A winged angel on a cauldron of books.
Photo credit: Mark Einert.
What I see from this gets right to the heart of simplifying, i.e. know what’s important to you, make sure you’ve got all the tools and time to do it in the way you want to.
This tea house was made of found materials and food packaging.
Photo credit: Mark Einert.

Along these lines, Zen Habits blogger Leo Babauta recently wrote about “How much is enough?“. Great question. He puts it in terms of “what makes you happy? comfortable? what helps you thrive?

I like that context–a simple way of figuring out what’s important to you–that which makes your heart expand, your mouth smile, your belly chuckle. Get in touch with that glow of feeling alive. What makes the glow grow…?