New Trend: Minimalistic Living

[Ankesh]

Guy decides to live with only 100 things for one whole year:
http://www.guynameddave.com/100-thing-challenge.html

I see this minimalistic living a lot these days. Its a trend that seems to be gaining momentum.

A local Mumbai blogger is moving to USA for a year. Before moving, he decides to give everything he owns away.
http://www.gauravonomics.com/offcons...-lucky-reader/

There is a Yahoo group of people who decided to buy nothing for a year.
Member count: 9291!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thecompact/

An author also wrote a book on her one year experience:
"Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, by Judith Levine"
(Amazon reviews are not too good for the book though...)

What do you think of this trend? Is it a fad? Or a reaction to modern marketing and consumerism?

Do you see any opportunity or need here?

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by Ankesh

I see this minimalistic living a lot these days. Its a trend that seems to be gaining momentum.

What do you think of this trend? Is it a fad? Or a reaction to modern marketing and consumerism?

Do you see any opportunity or need here?

Ankesh,

Our target market would fall into:

Maximum living on a minimalists budget.

Now a healthy, less consumptive lifestyle is cool, but we're of the opinion it is better to combine a more frugal, responsible lifestyle with an INCREASE in income that far exceeds any costs of living the lifestyle you choose.

It is what Income And Happiness is all about, or soon to be about.

INCOME and HAPPINESS.

But there are many sub markets in between to target products and services to.

Gordon

There's nothing new about the minimalist movement. The difference is that people are going from 'simplifying' to 'doing without'. Not the same thing but same type of thinking starts the process.

The problem I see with the doing without crowd is they're letting their masochistic tendencies walk away with their brains and common sense.

Maybe this example will make more sense. It is a given that children deprived of adequate nutrition suffer mental retardation and, if severe and prolonged, Kwashiorkor's Disease and death. Now take the given that caloric restriction is one key to longevity and apply it to children and you have a recipe for disaster. It's that same kind of thinking that takes people from reasonable to extreme in applying things. At some point the thinking distorts and well...we know what happens.

The trick is to take things IN CONTEXT and not go off on one tangent and ignore the other signposts along the way. Statistics lie and people don't always tell the whole story. To ferret out the truths within all and balance them is the saving grace in having a properly functioning brain...and applying it appropriately.

Sandi Bowman

Ankesh,

Thanks for Noticing Minimalism.

Of course, those people who have Yellow Fever and adopt a Japanese-esq style of life, will tell you... living minimally has been going on for yonks. Ain't nothing new. Ain't no trend/fad.

What it is, is, You have Noticed what was always there.

So while you Notice minimalistic living, others are adopting new technology at every chance they get and being Gadgetized. Other's are going Country in their decorating. Others think Shabby Chic is The thing. Some are going for a Sea Change. Some for a Tree Change. Some LOVE old fashioned tongue and grove floorboards. Some tiles. Some only want carpet. Some think a soft pastel wall color is good. Some go for the Feature Wall deal. Others... you get the idea.

You can find contradictory things (fads/trends/whatever-you-want-to-call-them) everywhere. Pick one and start looking. You'll suddenly see what was there all along.

Michael Ross

[Ankesh]

Thanks Gordon, Sandi & Michael.

I agree - the minimalistic lifestyle has always been there (Except books, I'm a pretty minimalistic guy myself). But I'm finding the trend/fad to be growing and getting bigger and bigger... and a lot extreme.

And - it seems to be organizing itself. (People are now coming together and forming groups.)

It may seem that there is no opportunity to be found where people are not willing to buy anything at all... but I got to thinking a bit:

1. Even though these minimalistic people don't buy a lot, they do buy the best of things. There minimalistic lifestyle is not due to lack of money. But due to being stressing out because of clutter.

2. There is room for rental services. Like netflix.com but for other goodies. I recall one website being started for rental of purses. Netflix model can be used for products like women's shoes, ties etc too.

3. When these people stop buying goods, where is all there money going? They're buying experiences. More traveling. More adventures like flying in airforce planes and F1 cars. More massages and other leisure stuff.

People in the early 20th century made fortunes when they found a way to mass produce goods. I think we'll be seeing a lot more companies growing very quickly who figure out how to mass produce - or at least systematize the production of - "once-in-a-lifetime experiences".

Ankesh,

Reminds me of...

And offers all kinds of opportunities and possibilities...

Like...

Kyle MacDonald's success story...
http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

Just add a Unique angle to the idea...

As mentioned in another thread...

Time to get Ready to Live off the Land...

From http://entrepreneurshotsheet.blogspot.com/

Archives...

Profitable Opportunities In Sustainable Living And "Survivalism" (thread):
http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?p=21284

Great site on Minimalistic Living...

Maybe even a series of Hotsheets, info products etc... Loaded with Quality content...

As per a very interesting take on... Feel free to steal my content...

With 60,400 People Subscribed and Publicity all over the web...

A business model and success story Definitely worth studying...
http://zenhabits.net/2008/01/open-so...al-my-content/

http://zenhabits.net/2007/09/simple-...ify-your-life/
http://zenhabits.net/2007/06/help-me...-time-blogger/

Leo Babauta's inspiring story...

Might help a few passing through...

http://zenhabits.net/2007/02/my-story/
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/...oneymag/8.html

Phil

A few miles away is a typical suburban area - fairly well to do. The houses are in the high 6 to low 7 figures, luxury cars, boats etc. etc.

What do most of these people do in the afternoon and on weekends? Work on their lawns, do minor maintenance on their houses, put in new kitchens, wash their vehicles etc. I have seen people spend hours power-washing their driveway. Every house has an alarm system, some have video cameras. (Still one house with video was still broken into this week.)

The more things you have, the more you have to worry about and the more time it takes to keep them in shape. Soon your possessions are 'owning' you (and your time).

Do you really want to spend 3 hours washing a Ferrari and 30 minutes driving it around?