What are your best simple living tips?

-Always read on public transport.

Save the little black plastic canisters which rolls of film come in (for those who still use film and don't have digital cameras, of course). They make brilliant containers for things like buttons or drawing pins, or for storing flower/vegetable seeds in.

Grow your own herbs for cooking with. Easy, cheap, doesn't take up much room, makes the kitchen smell lovely (and your food taste wonderful)

If you are going on a long journey and are taking a picnic lunch thing with you, freeze juice or water in plastic bottles to pack with the food. The bottles defrost slowly, keep your food cool, and you get a nice cold drink too.

For a hot lunch on a long journey, take along a wide-necked thermos flask into which you have put a cupful of long grain rice, a cupful of mixed vegetables (defrosted previously-frozen ones) and a cup and a half of boiling hot vegetable stock. Seal it up, and after two hours you have perfectly cooked savoury rice. (Remember to pack a spoon)

ALSO, make sure you weed through your closets periodically for things to give to Goodwill. It's amazing the things you will find in there!

The NEW AND IMPROVED "What do you look like?" thread.

:)

Although I hate the idea of having to buy something to organise something else, my PDA and TiVo do a lot to save me time. Big Ziploc bags are also a great and fairly affordable way to sort things.

Oh, and ILx is a huge time suck and you should avoid it at all costs.

Amen, sister.

• Have a garage sale on ebay
  
• Keep your freezer at a temperature between zero to five degrees Fahrenheit. Settings below this use more energy and are not necessary.
• Have a small supply of dishes for daily life: each person just needs one bowl, one plate, one spoon, one glass, one fork, one knife. It makes less dishes to clean.
• Know your net worth and your monthly cash flow and manage your money accordingly
  
• Shop with cash. Set your grocery budget and then make sure your menu and grocery list fits your budget. Look high/ look low on the shelves to get the best deals.
  
• Use smart technologies like collaborative information filtering tools to get answers to your questions and to get more pleasures in life. It is particularly useful to process the high informational content of city life.
  

Throw away pots, pans, dishes, and silverware immediately after meals.

Reuse condoms.

Finally, a sensible answer!

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The thing about romantic literature is that nothing about it seems very clean these days and it doesn't do much help for the mind except to invoke lust and reduce love down to a means of two people always wanting to have sex.

Your average romantic literature doesn't give much purity to what love is really about.

A voluntary simplicity alternative to that sort of work of fiction consider reading christian romance books or revert backward to young adult romance.

Both very clean and interesting. At least most of the young adult books and I wouldn't doubt even christian romance on occasion need to be sifted through... you may have to pick and choose over some to make sure you're getting clean romance.

But mainly they both offer valuable lessons for adults and young adults without the risk of violating the purity and beauty of love.

When I think of simple life I think avoiding foods with preservatives, not having a TV and reading the paper at the public library.

junk mail is not natural yo
it might just take 1/36 sec. to identify one but it generates "stress"

1. only take shits at work
2. no DIY projects.
3. that includes buying furniture - if you can't bum it off the ancestry it ain't worth it
4. no addictions
5. that includes any sort of codependent or committed relationship - fucking's okay but only if they don't know your name
6. no bills beyond cable, power & water
7. no computers
8. no job that you can't drop at a moment's notice
9. no caring what other people think ever
10. loads and loads of spare cash lying around in case huge amounts of expensive shit happen to you despite following the above advice

If you screw it up somehow and your life ends up massively complicated, with children, a mortgage, a spouse, a car, insurance, a career, and a garage with two cars and power tools in it - don't blame me. You fucked it up.

1. Make sure to carry around a simple notepad to jot down all homework assignments in. Those big planners are just a waste of money.

2. Carry a copy of your schedule in your front compartment throughout the first two weeks of school. By that time, you should be familiar with your schedule.

3. Use those divided spiral notebooks for your notetaking and carry around generic folders for your homework assignments and anything that gets passed out during class. There will be no room in your backpack for binders, and you will only need looseleaf paper for homework, so keep them at home.

4. The dollar/$0.99 menus at fast food restaurants are your friends, and to save even more only drink water with your fast food meals. I can pride myself on the fact that I can buy myself a fast food lunch for under $3.

5. Jot down everything you owe something for each month and as soon as you write the checks for those things, write down the amount and when you sent the payment. If possible, keep the cancelled checks in your records for a year. This will prevent any future emergencies, and will keep you in line no matter what.

6. Save on your entertainment. If you see a lot of movies, go to the second-run theaters as much as possible. If you like to buy a lot of music, purchase as much of it at secondhand music stores or through the Internet as possible. If you love reading, secondhand bookstores are a good place to go.

7. Figure out what's a good thing to do that's low-cost. I love going to our big local main public library, where I only end up spending a few dollars (for parking and copy fees) for numerous hours of entertainment. I get to read very old copies of newspapers on microfiche, leaf through tons of government documents, look through current newspapers from throughout the country, and check out interesting books. (This means I'm a nerd, right?)

8. Learn how to do as many things as you can, so you don't have to hire anyone to do them. If you know how to mow the lawn, learn how to edge the lawn to give it that professional look. Learn how to install or upgrade your own computer components. Ask the mechanic in the family to teach you what's supposed to look "normal" under the hood and how to fix whatever's not computerized.

9. Wash your own vehicle with soap and water. It always ends up looking better than if you'd passed it through a car wash.

10. Only spend on what you feel is necessary in your life. I've got cable internet service because I view online service as a necessity in my life, and it does save me money over what I was doing before, which was subscribing to a dialup service and paying for a second phone line dedicated to online access alone. I've got digital cable because that is where I get the bulk of my entertainment. I will only splurge on those two, though. On the other hand, I can take a shower in 10 minutes, and even though I brush my teeth for five minutes I only keep the water going for 10 seconds before and 20 seconds after I've brushed my teeth.

11. Always get the generic for your prescriptions (I'm on three and all three of them are generics).

12. Fresh fruit that's in season is a cheap and delicious snack.

13. Instead of taking your friends out to dinner, cook for them at home. You'll end up spending about 1/6 of the cost of going out to dinner and you'll have a much better time.

14. I second the whole "growing your own herbs" deal. I grow my own coriander, mint, thyme, parsley, and oregano, and when next spring rolls around I will add basil, dill, and rosemary.

15. In fact, I love CJ's whole post. Follow all of those things as well.

Oh, and used laundry dryer sheets make really good drawer fresheners.

Don't ever stop cleaning. Don't ever do anything else. Make it the basis for your entire identity. If someone criticizes either your cleaning or your cleaning-based lifestyle, yell "Oh, this house!" and run off crying.

on an unrelated topic, ever notice how people say, "like the old Mark Twain adage..." when, like how could there be a NEW Mark Twain adage?

Do not get into debt.

Do not own more stuff than you can load into your car.

Separate from your family at the first possible opportunity.

Do not worry.

Do not hate.

Contemplate the sky every day.

Einstein was into this idea, c'est un pensez-y bien

mmmmmm

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