First: By pants, I do of course mean trousers. Not underwear. I have three pairs of those.

Now: I’ve owned no more than one pair of pants at a time for the past eight months. And somehow, the world hasn’t ended.

I know, shocking.

It’s interesting to note how people respond when I tell them I own only one pair of pants. Usually they inform me that owning just one pair is completely impractical. Then I remind them that, despite seeing me in those same pants dozens of times, they never took any notice. Even the people I’ve been closest to over the past eight months didn’t seem to realize my lack of trouser diversity until I brought it up.

As it turns out, owning one pair of pants is very practical for me. Since I’m traveling quite regularly nowadays, it’s better that I don’t own many clothes. I like to keep my backpack light enough so I can carry it around for hours at a time without developing the urge to kill myself.

I must mention though that I do own a couple of pairs of shorts. So when it comes time to wash my jeans in a cold country, I’ll stay home for the day and wear my shorts. That’s one downside to owning a single pair of pants. Another is that if you’re in a country where they still allow smoking in bars, your pants can start to smell quite shitty when you’re out for a few nights in a row.

A Minimalist Wardrobe

I feel I’ve built a solid minimalist wardrobe over the past year. I’ve purposely bought clothes that are pretty inconspicuous, items that people don’t notice much despite me wearing them over and over again. My t-shirts are mostly plain, earthy colors, nothing outstanding. As for pants, I always go for light-colored jeans. I find they’re suitable to wear to pretty much anything apart from the most formal gatherings, which I don’t usually find myself at anyways.

Because I allow myself to own only a few items of clothing, and I know I’ll be wearing each item regularly, I’m quite picky when I go shopping for something new. When I was in the market for a new pair of jeans back in August, I must have tried on at least twenty pairs before I found some that I liked.

Which brings me to another downside of wearing the same pair of pants every day: They tend to wear out pretty fast. Those jeans I bought last August recently developed a pretty sizable rip along the crotch, so this week I went out and found a new pair.

Given that I go shopping for clothes so rarely, I try to invest in quality, even if it’s expensive. The price comes secondary to how much I like a particular item. I figure it’s better to spend big on one thing you love, than it is to spend little on several different items, none of which really float your boat.

My minimalist wardrobe right now is essentially this:

• seven t-shirts
• one long-sleeve thermal shirt
• one pair of jeans
• two pairs of shorts
• two pairs of shoes
• seven pairs of socks
• three pairs of underwear
• a jacket
• a scarf
• a pair of gloves.

I like every item, except for my light blue t-shirt, which makes me look a bit like a tall, naked smurf when I wear it with my light blue jeans.

As for laundry, I do a wash every week or so. Sometimes I’ll wash my clothes myself, in a bag as per Karol Gajda, and other times I’ll pay someone to do it. It’s often worth spending the few $$ for the time it saves me.

To be completely honest, sometimes I do feel a little lame and uninspired wearing the same clothes all the time. I do occasionally feel the urge to go and buy something new, to feel that consumer buzz for a little while. But I know that the feeling wouldn’t last, and I know that buying things I don’t need goes against my priorities right now. I highly value the freedom I have to travel, and to maintain that I must keep my possessions to a minimum.

In the long run, the trade-off is absolutely worth it.

What’s in your wardrobe?

Are you a minimalist fashion horse like me, owning just a few essential items of clothing? Or do you have a whole heap of items stuffed away in a closet, rarely worn at all? Do you agree with the 80/20 principle in this case: that you wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time?

…

P.S. If you’re interested in seeing a list of everything I own, you can check out a regularly-updated list of my possessions here.

P.P.S. This weekend I’ll be publishing my latest monthly finance report, detailing everything I earned and spent while working from my laptop in December. Finally, I have positive numbers to share . Make sure you’re signed up to my email list so you don’t miss it. If you’re not already on there, you can sign up below.

I left New Orleans on Wednesday, fitting everything I own into my carry on luggage or on my person. Hooray and yay and other such words of triumphancy.

By my count, I now own 59 things, though that number is somewhat subjective, as you’ll see. Some things I group together and count as one, such as socks and toiletries.

Why group things like this? The honest answer is that the smaller my number of possessions, the better the initial shock value. I’m hoping people will see 59 and feel inclined to take a closer look. While I don’t believe fitting all your belongings into carry on luggage should be everybody’s aim, I do believe that everyone can benefit from minimalist principles, and I’d like to get as many people familiar with them as possible.

Plus, I’m just really bad at counting. I struggle like a mofo when I hit the 60′s

All 59 things I own

Note that there are some affiliate links in the list below, but only for products I use and highly recommend. I ask that you only buy items I recommend if you have a clear need for them. A percentage of the sale price will go towards supporting my writing.

1. Macbook pro (with charger and backup discs)
2. Canon Powershot SD1000 camera (with charger and mini tripod)
3. iPhone (with charger and headphones)
4. Motorola mobile phone (with charger – will be ditching this if I can get my iPhone working in Ireland)
5. Mouse (and mouse mat)
6. After Eight tin (acts as a container for my small electronic equipment and cables)
7. Tech Air laptop bag/backpack (I’ve had this for years, still going strong)
8. Neck pillow (for travel)
9. Stationary (3 notebooks and a pen)
10. Universal power adapter
11. Headphone/microphone set (handy for Skype)
12. Laptop lock
13. Money clip and contents (credit card, debit cards)
14. Wallet (I prefer the wallet to the money clip on occasion)
15. Check book
16. Mail/documents for keep (immigration papers, birth cert, etc.)
17. Passport
18. Gloves
19. Flask (I fill this up at water fountains to avoid buying bottled water)
20. Toiletries bag
21. Toiletries (disposables like razors, toothpaste, shampoo, etc.)
22. Grooming kit (small scissors, nail clippers, tweezers)
23. Toothbrush
24. Towel
25. Running shorts
26. Basketball shorts (worn mostly while sleeping/lounging, not playing basketball)
27. Underwear (7 pairs)
28. Socks (14 pairs)
29. Undershirt
30. Undershirt
31. T-shirt (navy Sound)
32. T-shirt (teal Loyola)
33. T-shirt (black Loyola Saints)
34. T-shirt (CCC 10k 2010)
35. T-shirt (brown NOLA)
36. T-shirt (white Loyola leadStrong)
37. T-shirt (green NOLA Dirty Coast)
38. T-shirt (gray Megaphone)
39. Long sleeve shirt (dark grey/blue)
40. Polo shirt (blue Cape Cod)
41. Polo shirt (light blue/brown)
42. Dress shirt (black striped)
43. Jacket (black/grey Champion)
44. Hoody (grey LSU)
45. Hoody (navy/blue zip)
46. Jeans (dark)
47. Jeans (light)
48. Slacks (grey/red/blue cross-hatch)
49. Belt (black)
50. Airwalk runners/sneakers (white/grey)
51. Vibram KSOs, black/camo (<– not an affiliate link)
52. Amazon Kindle (a recent purchase, and I’m loving it)
53. Book: The 4-Hour Work Week (I can’t recommend this book enough)
54. Book: Affluenza (holding for my cousin in Ireland)
55. Book: The Reluctant Fundamentalist (holding for my cousin in Ireland)
56. Heys XCase, black (<– not an affiliate link)
57. Canvas grocery bag
58. Plastic laundry bag
59. CD – My Wiener Touches the Ceiling (<– not an affiliate link)

How to whittle down your belongings to the bare essentials

Like I said, such extreme minimalism is not for everyone. It may not even be for me. This is very much an experiment I’m trying. I own 59 things now. I may have more or less in a few months. It will take me a while to find my sweet spot. The same will be true for you.

I started getting rid of items 7 months ago. I’d only been in the US three years and hadn’t arrived with much more than one big suitcase, but when I did my first count back in April I found that I had around 350 items. I started getting rid of stuff in batches. First to go were the clothes I never wore, and such things as old magazines, unused kitchen appliances and my paper shredder.

Then I moved from my apartment into a sublet for the summer, negating my need for furniture, dishes, cutlery and the like. I also got rid of a bunch of books around this time, and some more clothes.

Beyond that, I was just getting rid of small batches every few weeks, as I figured out which remaining items I really used and which were dead weight. I started scanning important documents and taking pictures of sentimental things like birthday cards, then ditching the originals. I got lasik eye surgery so I could throw away my contacts and glasses.

I was down to about 130 items during my last week of work, then promptly donated all my business casual clothes the day after I quit my job. I’ve been steadily getting rid of some remaining items over the past couple of weeks to ensure that I could fit everything into my carry on luggage. I bought a Kindle so I could still read without acquiring and carrying around physical books. I sold my Jeep and gave away my bicycle since I was leaving town for good. I wanted to keep a pair of dress shoes but had to ditch them in favor of a few extra t-shirts and underwear (not everything would fit in my XCase).

Like I said, I’m not sure how this will work out for me. I might really miss those dress shoes, or maybe I’ll discover that I really don’t need 7 pairs of underwear ;-P

I’ll keep an updated list of my possessions here if you’re interested to see how I progress.

Selling vs. donating

I feel many people hold onto things they don’t want or need because they feel it’s wasteful to just get rid of them. They’re looking for a buyer with deep pockets or else throw their excess crap in storage to be dealt with some other time. Bad ideas.

I donated most of my items rather than sell them. Finding a buyer and negotiating a sale price can take a lot of time. Being rid of unneeded items is more important to me than the money I could get in exchange for them. Plus, I always try to consider the use someone else will get out of an item. Why should I keep a good book sitting on my shelf long after I’m done with it, when I could give it to someone else who would really benefit from reading it? Same with that baking tray I use maybe once every six months. It’s better that I give it to someone who bakes regularly.

Let go of the unneeded things in your life. Others will get more use out of them.

There’s also that whole karma thing. I ask for a lot of favors. If you’re friends with me on Facebook, you’ll know what I mean. I ask people to support various causes, for a lift to the airport, and all kinds of other things. But I balance this out by giving as much as I can of myself. This blog is part of that giving. The writing I do here seems to help some people. And when it came to whittling down my possessions, it felt right to give most of them away for free. I got back a lot of gratitude and goodwill in return.

Minimalist freedom

Having everything I own fit into carry on luggage is a nice feeling. I can now pack up everything I own within minutes and go anywhere I want with little planning. It’s also harder to lose or misplace things. There are some downsides to such extreme minimalism, but for me those are far outweighed by the benefits.

I am no longer a slave to my possessions. I don’t have a car payment or a mortgage or a DVD collection holding me hostage. I am the master of all that I own.

How about you?

Me and everything I own. December 1, 2010. New Orleans International Airport.

• Leave my 9-to-5 job at the end of November.
• Return to Ireland and set up my own business.
• Build the business to the point where I’m delivering more value and earning more money than I am now, while working a maximum of 20 hours per week.
• Move to Spain by May 1, 2011.

I have already begun setting myself up for success. One of the ways I’m doing that is by moving decisively towards a minimalist lifestyle.

What is minimalism?

Minimalism is me selling my TV, canceling my Netflix and giving away all my furniture. Minimalism is me realizing that I don’t have to pay $800 a month for rent (I recently moved apartment and saved myself $65 a week). Minimalism is donating all those clothes I never wear and all those books I never reread.

Minimalism is getting rid of all the crap and clutter so I can be free.

I counted up all my possessions at the start of May and found I had 330. As of this writing, that number has been reduced to 193. I’m aiming to own less than 100 things by the time I leave New Orleans.

Why minimalism?

I believe a minimalist lifestyle will help me succeed in my grand plan for several reasons:

Minimalism cuts out distractions

Less clutter helps me focus, helps me keep the main thing the main thing. Since I began the elimination process, I’ve found it much easier to find the focus and time needed to do my writing, planning and studying.

Minimalism saves money

I’m amazed at how much I can now save per week while earning the exact same income that I have been for years. All along, I was spending huge chunks of money on things I didn’t really need. I’ll go into detail about my financial situation and aspirations in a future post.

Minimalism gives me freedom to move

My new apartment is a temporary sublet, but having to move again next month won’t be a problem. I imagine it will take about two hours, total, to pack, load, transport, unload and unpack everything I own. At the end of November, when I move my entire life back to Ireland, I don’t expect I’ll have to check a bag at the airport.

Minimalism detaches me from material goods

Most people fear a big dip in income because it would force them to drastically change their lifestyle and give up all their toys. But what if you choose to embrace a minimalist lifestyle regardless of your income? You’d realize that you really don’t need to live that superficial lifestyle to be happy; in fact, that lifestyle was one of the main hindrances to your happiness in the first place. Having embraced minimalism, I’m well prepared for the temporary dip my income will take when I quit my day job and start my own business.

Minimalism works

I’ve been following people like Everret Bogue, Colin Wright, Leo Babuta, Karol Gajda, Tammy Strobel and Raam Dev; just a handful of online entrepreneurs who have adopted a minimalist lifestyle to achieve success. They’re living proof that minimalism works.

Helping the movement, the homeless, and myself

Everett Bogue’s fantastic e-book is what got me seriously considering minimalism in the first place, so I’ve decided to help spread his message. I’ve signed up to be an affiliate, meaning I get a 50% cut of sales generated through this here blog. The arrangement should give me an idea of what my current earning power is like, so I won’t be starting out clueless when I quit my job in November.

Unfortunately, since I’m currently a non-immigrant worker in the United States, it’s illegal for me to earn any extra money beyond that which I’m paid by my sponsor/employer. This law is in place to ensure I don’t take more work away from Americans by doing side jobs. Damn Government’s holding me down, man.

So since I can’t get paid, I’ve arranged to have my affiliate earnings deposited directly to the PayPal account of a non-profit, namely The Desmond Project, an organization that provides hearty meals to the homeless in New Orleans every Saturday. I’ve volunteered with them several times in the past year and can testify that they’re great people doing great work.

So if you’re interested in learning more about minimalism, feeding some homeless folks, and helping me figure out how much money I can earn through this website, click here and continue on to buy the e-book. The cost is just $17, though you’ll probably end up saving a lot more than that if the message impacts you the way it did me.

But wait

Everett encourages everyone who buys his e-book to make five copies and pass them along to friends, free of charge. So before you go spending your hard-earned cash, leave a thoughtful comment below and you could win one of the five copies I have to share.

Avoid black-and-white simplification, embrace complexity and tolerate contradictions. Complexity and contradictions create confusion for Westerners because they want a right answer. Almost always, there is no definitive one. If you can live with the foggy nature of reality, it is less worrying because oversimplifications for the sake of clarity will be constantly upset by contrary evidence.

Oliver came to this conclusion after doing research in China, a country that doesn’t seem to have high stress levels despite its booming economy. He found that in many cases, Chinese people have the same socially-influenced, materialistic goals as Americans, but they are more prone to adopt them as their own. In Oliver’s words, such “self-deception is essential if you are to cope with this lack of ‘self-concordance’ (having a good balance between your life and your values).”

Oliver points to Confucianism to help explain this. One of the tenets of Confucianism is the principle of contradiction and paradox, the belief that good and bad can coexist in the same object at the same time. Think yin and yang.

Acceptance of this belief apparently leads to inner peace. I can see the benefits. Clarity is nice and everything, but there are many issues which simply do not have a perfect solution. Take guns for example. Americans who oppose the right to bear arms will tell you that if no one had guns, the country would be a safer place. On the flip side, others will argue that criminals will always have guns, and so we have to level the playing field by arming ourselves. Both sides make many valid points beyond those, and both will cite history and statistics to strengthen their cases.

The abortion debate draws similar controversy. Pro-lifers argue that abortion is murder. Others will point to a 15-year old girl who was raped and fell pregnant. What is she to do? There are also studies showing that legalized abortion was a huge reason for the crime drop in 1990′s America. But then, the very woman who fought for her right to have an abortion in the 70′s and so started the ball rolling on legalizing the procedure, is now herself a pro-lifer.

Obviously when it comes to issues like these, there are no perfect solutions, only shades of gray. I believe that learning to accept this “foggy nature of reality” is a key part of personal development.

The things you own, end up owning you.

That quote is from Fight Club, one of my all-time favorite movies. It sums up a lesson I first learned about six years ago, when I was stuck working in a department store in Ireland, having dropped out of college and dreaming of one day living and working in the United States.

Problem was, I kept making excuses as to why I couldn’t just drop everything and move to the U.S. Most of those excuses centered around material things. I owned over a hundred movies on DVD at the time. I also had a big widescreen TV, a Playstation 2, an Xbox and a nice desktop PC hooked up to a serious sound system. I knew I couldn’t bring all those possessions with me to America. What would I do with them?

For a while, I did nothing. I just stayed where I was, with all those nice things, holding me hostage.

Breaking loose

I’m not sure what triggered the change in me, but at some point I got fed up and decided to break loose from the shackles. I gave away pretty much all of those possessions and took off on my U.S. adventure. I thought I’d miss everything I’d given up, but instead I experienced an overwhelming sense of freedom. Nothing was weighing me down anymore, except the suitcase full of clothes I brought with me.

Then the airline went and lost that suitcase full of clothes, but I wasn’t bothered much. I’d already separated myself from my material belongings. They no longer defined me.

Beauty in decay

I got another lesson in materialism when I moved to New Orleans in 2007. Even though I had already come to realize that material things were overrated, I still leaned towards the new and the shiny whenever I needed to acquire something. But a few months living in the Crescent City changed that.

If you ever visit New Orleans, you’ll quickly find that most of the establishments here look a little shady and run down, the bars in particular. If I saw bars like that in Ireland, I’d steer well clear. But I came to learn that in New Orleans, you really can’t judge a book by its cover. A bar might look like a hell hole from the outside, but then you reluctantly follow a wise friend inside to find the place full of high-character people having the best of times.

After a while I found myself seeking out the dive bars and repeatedly shunning style in favor of substance.

When it came time to buy myself a wagon, I got a good deal on a well-used Jeep that oozed character. I called him Doug. The air conditioning didn’t always work and there were a hundred pins holding the upholstery together. A few months after buying, a taxi slammed into the side of Doug; nothing but superficial damage. I was delighted. Battle scars = more character.

A buddy of mine summed up that attitude quite well, noting that I’d come to appreciate “the beauty in decay,” as most New Orleanians do.

Irish recession

The recession in Ireland is real: Lots of job losses, cut-backs, broken dreams. But I see it being great for the country in the long run. Ireland had become much too materialistic for my liking. People had become overly concerned with big houses, fancy cars, the newest mobile phones and the like. You had to have two mortgages and go out on the town at least twice a week. Every child was getting fourteen different presents for Christmas, without truly appreciating any of them. People were admired more for what they had instead of who they were. TG4 was probably one step away from launching My Super Sweet Sé Déag.

A lot of that hasn’t really changed, but it’s starting to. People have no other choice now but to cut the fluff and get back to what’s really important.

Owning nice things

This post isn’t meant as a rant against owning nice things. Materialism is defined as “preoccupation with or emphasis on material objects, comforts, and considerations, with a disinterest in or rejection of spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values.” So owning nice things isn’t the problem. Identifying with them is. I’m reminded of Fight Club again:

You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis.

By all means, buy nice things, but buy them for their practicality more than anything. Art and decoration is fine, but let it be an expression of you; not an attempt to impress someone or make people jealous. Buy yourself that $3000 couch, but not when you can get a $500 couch that looks just as good, is just as comfortable and will last just as long.

How to be less materialistic

You start by making a firm decision. Be sure you actually want to be less materialistic first, then try a few things from this list:

• Separate needs from wants. It’s perfectly fine to want stuff and to get what you want, but you should never confuse your wants with your needs.
• Spend stretches of time without your material goods. See if you can give up TV for a week, or see how you’d cope without your car for a couple of days.
• Never buy when you can borrow, and help other people out by sharing your own stuff. You’ll save money, reduce clutter and build trusting relationships.
• Acknowledge the emotions that certain possessions stir up in you, and ask yourself why. Try to identify what parts of your character are lacking and how you might be using possessions to compensate.
• Similarly, try to identify what possessions your friends might have that make you jealous. Ask why, explore that part of you, and try to improve on it.
• Consider how you’d feel if you lost certain possessions. Would you be able to handle it? Could you do without that computer, that TV, those new clothes? What would you do without those things? If your answers scare or depress you, you know where you need to grow.
• Be grateful for the things you already have, and express that gratitude regularly. A good way to do this is to write out three things you’re grateful for each day.
• Go on cleaning/clearing binges to declutter your house. Zen Habits has a great article on how to do this effectively.
• Request that people forgo giving you regular birthday/Christmas gifts and instead make donations to trusted charities.
• Expand your social circle and try new things – learn to value experiences, relationships and memories over possessions.

Find your comfort zone

The most important thing is to find your own comfort zone with your possessions and your relationship to them. It should be a personal journey, different for everyone. Just be careful not to use material goods to compensate for character defects. Remember the words of
Evan Esar:

Character is what you have left when you’ve lost everything you can lose.

Some day you might wake to find you have lost everything. Hopefully you’ll still know who
you are.