Less is Now by the Minimalists

I’ve been following the Minimalists and Matt D’avella for a long time. I’ve read all of their books, listened to their podcasts, watched their YouTube videos, and even seen them speak live in Atlanta.  So, needless to say, I was very excited when Matt D’Avella and the Minimalists announced a new documentary was being released on Netflix January 1, 2021.  I was excited!  This is my Super Bowl.  I made my family watch it January 1 when it came out on Netflix.  My husband was happy to watch it and isn’t as obsessed as I am, but he’s pretty aligned on the value of having less.  My kids weren’t quite as eager to watch this, but they’ve seen enough tiny house and minimalist videos to know what they were in for.  I bribed them with something, and they sat down and watched it.

All in all, the documentary was good.  It was fairly repetitive of stories and anecdotes I have read in their books and heard in their podcasts and saw in their first Minimalism documentary released on Netflix in 2016.  I would still recommend it because I think content like this is important to consume, even when repetitive.  I always appreciate important reminders on my journey.  This documentary added value to my life, and for that, I am thankful.  It made my kids ask insightful questions, it encouraged my family to play the mins game, and it reminded me of several important things.

The Questions

My favorite part of watching documentaries like this with my kids is that they ask questions.  And they ask great questions.  They ask questions I would never have thought to ask or explain to them.  It reminds me how educational and essential it is to get kids to watch documentaries of all kinds about a variety of topics. They are learning and absorbing.  And I know they are listening when they start asking questions.  They asked us about what debt is, about mortgages, how many items are inside our house, and many others that I can’t remember.  We had to pause Less is Now about 20 times to stop and answer questions they were asking.  This makes the experience that much richer for our family and me. We’re experiencing and learning something together as a family, and it prompts meaningful discussions.  I love this!

Playing the Mins Game with my three kids and husband

By the end of Less is Now, one of my kids suggested they would do the mins game, and my other two kids were not quite as eager, but they went along begrudgingly.  They were all more motivated when I offered them each a $100 prize into their savings accounts if they each complete the mins game challenge by the end of January.  The mins game is a monthly challenge where on the 1st day of the month you get rid of 1 item, on day two, you get rid of 2 items, day three, you get rid of 3 items, and on so on until you reach the last day of the month at day 30 or 31, or 28 if you’re in February!  This means that on day 27, you’re getting rid of 27 items, and on day 30, you’re getting rid of 30 items.  If it’s a 30 day month, you’ll get rid of 465 items by the end of the month.  If it’s a 31 day month, you’ll get rid of 496 items.  They will each earn $100 each if they can get rid of almost 500 items in January.  Our entire family has agreed to play it, which means across all 5 of us, we will hopefully get rid of 2500 items in January.  This excites me! It’s a great way to start 2021.

Here is my favorite free printable for tracking your mins game progress throughout the month. It’s clean, simple, and shows progress very nicely.  I printed one out for each of us, and the kids are having fun coloring in their squares as they get rid of items.

I have my kids focus on selecting the items they are willing to get rid of, and then I am dealing with going through them to organize what’s trash, donate, sell, or give away to some friends with younger kids who would use.  I am encouraging them to get ahead and understand they don’t need to play the game day by day, or they’ll be overwhelmed in the later days of the month.  Within just a few days in January, my kids have gotten rid of enough items to get through their day 11 goal.  We’re hoping to keep up this momentum, so we’re always ahead and not getting too overwhelmed with some of the larger goal days ahead in January. It’s also a good lesson in teaching them to think and plan ahead. I’ve also been motivating the kids to stay on this as best I can.  A few times, I’ve offered them an extra 10 minutes of screen time if they’ll take a break and go find ten items to get rid of.  It works!  I would suggest you monitor what they are getting rid of and coach them on what counts vs. not.  One of my kids was getting rid of individual Legos from things in her dollhouse setup.  My kids actively play with Legos, so if they move some Legos from their dollhouse, it goes back into the Lego bin and doesn’t count towards their goal.  And in case you’re curious, my husband requires no monitoring and is doing great with his own motivation.

My favorite quotes from Less is Now:

• “As I started slowly releasing things, I gained a sense of freedom.”
• “The question is not if we are going to change as a society, but how we are going to change. Because we are either going to change by design or by disaster.”
• “How might your life be better with less?”
• “We often confuse simplicity with easy, but it’s actually the opposite”
• “People really aren’t free to choose…. Manipulation of our interests and of our God-given tastes really is happening.”
• “Marketers are really impressive in their ability to manipulate the mind and their ability to create a need or a perceived need out of something that was a want. We live in the most advertised to culture in the history of the world… Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent telling us we need this, and it has an effect.”
• “Deficit advertising… they send us advertisements that make us subconsciously feel like we are inadequate if we don’t have this product.”
• “What other people are pushing is not always comparable with what you need”
• “As I made more money, I spent more money. All in the pursuit of happiness.  All in pursuit of the American dream.”
• “We’re losing the stuff that actually makes us happy and makes society more safe and secure, which is community. We’re changing that time to work and buy more stuff.”
• “Really what the American dream is is this sense of freedom… You have to learn to contract your “needs” so that you can create a buffer around your life and create this independence.”
• “You gave up your freedom for some stuff.”
• “Making sure we’re actually going after what we truly want.”
• “Our memories are not in our things. Our memories are inside us.”
• “We are constantly comparing our lives to other people’s lives, and when we do that, it rarely measured up.”
• “We have to learn how to manage our attention because there are so many people competing for it.”
• “Embracing minimalism got easier by the day. The more you do it the freer and happier and light you feel, and the more you want to throw overboard.”
• “The more action you take, the more you want to take action.”
• “We don’t own much, but everything we do own serves a purpose.”
• “Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things, so we can make room for life’s most important things, which actually aren’t things at all.”
• “No matter where we are at on our journey to less, we are always going to be pulled in that direction. The direction of comparison, the direction of being overwhelmed by the media.  The truth is we have to constantly re-focus ourselves.”

What it reminded me for the future:

• Be stronger against advertising and marketing. I can and will be strong to avoid buying things I don’t need or want just because I saw an ad that is trying to lure me in.  I will be stronger!  Also, I’m a frugal person, and I used to watch ads to save money (cheaper option on Hulu with ads).  Now I am more willing to pay more to avoid ads, to save me time, mind space, and money in the longer term.  Yes, I will spring for the Hulu version without ads!
• My American dream is freedom. It’s not to have more money to buy more stuff. It’s to value my money, respect my time, and work towards freedom.
• The value of living below my means and avoiding lifestyle inflation. I have spent most of my life living below my means.  It’s come relatively naturally to me, but it is still something I still need to work at and manage.  I know how important it is to avoid lifestyle inflation, and I talk about it in my personal finance podcast a lot.  I know I shouldn’t be trying to “Keep up with Jones’s” because the Jones’s are in debt.  But I still get tempted.  I still find myself comparing something I have to others.  I just need to remember what matters to me and my values, as lifestyle inflation is an endless black hole.  When someone finally gets all of the things they want, they will realize that it doesn’t make them happy, and they will just want more.  That’s the black hole part.  It never ends.
• Less is more, and I don’t need much to be happy. I am in tune with my feelings, what makes me happy, and what is truly important in life. I know that beyond a few specific exceptions, more stuff doesn’t make me happy. I enjoy and appreciate quality stuff, but I don’t need a lot of it.  And I know that if those things were stripped away from me tomorrow, I would still be okay.
• This isn’t a once and done thing. I need to keep consuming motivating content.  I need to keep following inspiring people who are living the way I want to live.  Though I have made a lot of progress in the last ten years, I have more to go on my journey to less.  I know I will continuously be tempted and pulled towards more because there are people out there paid to try to convince me I want and need more.  I know I need to continually re-focus myself.

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