Rob

You could also stock up dry goods for a buffer :) But yes, I would say losing the fridge would be the hardest thing to minimize away, at least in North America

Thanks for the not-so-minimal comment!

The Fridge – I’m not sure I feel comfortable without having a buffer of food saved up, just in case. Keeping fresh food stay fresh longer also has a certain appeal to me. I’m really just going to assume it’s a default in any household I live in, in North America. But it *would* be quite interesting to see just how long I could live without one, without buying food constantly during the week.

The Car – I’d love to sell it tomorrow; I really would. You’re right, though: I should do the math on renting, versus maintaining the one I have.

The Bed – I like the idea of one I can tuck away when it’s not needed, but I’ll save this decision — along with the fate of the couch — until I move.

The Office – I also love the idea of digitizing everything. Perhaps it is time I looked at scanners, or getting one from somebody who no longer uses theirs. And personal document management systems, preferably cloud-based (Google Docs? Evernote?).

The Dishwasher – I never fill it. I really only use it when I have a lot of people over and there’s food involved, which isn’t very often (though I want to change this).

So in all this, where am I coming from? Environmentalism is a big driver. One of the ideas is about training myself to consume less, by having less. Part of this is about setting an example and causing people, like you, to think. You’re right, this can’t be about sustainability, but at least I’m lowering my footprint in the long run. I would like to ultimately move towards homesteading, but I don’t see that happening in the near future.

The unfortunate truth is that things do define people; I see it everyday. Consumerism is everywhere.

Things don’t define ME, though. That’s one of the points of all this.

Chris.

Just to let you know, I think you definitely can minimize further than you’ve described, it just comes down to whether you WANT to.

For example, my wife’s parents in China do not have a microwave. Nor did they until about 4 years ago have a fridge. (Buy your food fresh, buy only what you need. And you’re vegetarian so almost everything you would want can be left a few days unrefridgerated anyway – no worries about meat)

The car – lose it. Really. You are right on the subway. You want to visit your family and friends? How often is this really. If once a week or less, you are almost certainly cheaper to just rent a car each weekend (or alternating weekends) than to pay car maintenance, insurance, annual license plate + toronto plate fees, driveclean (depending on the age of your car), etc.

Bed – if you are minimizing to have more space as well as less stuff – I liked the futon I slept on in Japan. The style there is to fold it up and put it in the closet when not being used – not put it on a couch frame like people do here. In fact, I’m not sure the futons we sell here are really the “authentic” kind like they sell in Japan – Japanese ones don’t have springs and are more like thick blankets than anything. Anyway, since rooms are a premium, the beds go away and then during the day the room can be used for something else.

Office: how feasible would it be to scan those deadtree docs to PDF then recyle the paper? If your office has a fancy MultiFunctionPrinter this is easy and fast.

It’s too bad you don’t live in China – otherwise really I’d tell you to lose everything in your kitchen :) Eating out for every meal is actually achievable when I was in China. Oh well. BTW you can boil water in a pot – you don’t need a special tool for that.

BTW, depending on how you do it , and making sure only to do it when full, but your dishwasher is more efficient than washing by hand. Then again, with your minimization, maybe you never fill it? Anyway, first hit on google: http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/dishwashers.htm

So, where to go from here? Are you approaching this from a sustainability standpoint? If so, living in an apartment will never make you sustainable. Have you considered homesteading somewhere? You can grow your own food, be “mostly” off the grid with solar/wind energy, and still work because you can get an internet connection almost everywhere these days. I guess a food for thought.

I’ll stop now before this is a novel. Good luck with your minimization quest. Your things don’t define you.

-Moof aka James

As for transportation, my parents are almost in the middle of nowhere, though *relatively* close to bus and train stops. At this point they could come and pick me up, but my preference is that I would rather not burden them with that task. It’s worth a talk with them, at least.

I think with the couch I’m going to look for a time when that makes sense to sell it, rather than do that right away. The thought of moving across the city has crossed my mind, so that might make the most sense, timing-wise. Although, yes, filling my place up with plastic balls does have a great big sense of appeal to it.

As for the car, there are alternatives for inter-city travel. Unless your friends/family live in the middle of nowhere (and I admit, that is possible in this country) then a greyhound coupled with local mass transit will usually do the job. Heck, if they’re far enough away driving isn’t an option anyway, and you’d have to fly.

For the living room, I would definitely recommend a couple of those Sumo bean bags they had at PAX. Those were extremely comfy. However, if you already have a couch, why get rid of it if you have to buy something else to replace it?

Of course, there’s always this:
http://xkcd.com/150/