Monday we were introduced to Tammy Strobel, her blog RowdyKittens.com, and her awesome new book You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap): How One Woman Radically Simplified Her Life and How You Can Too. We even had a chance to read a snippet of the book! And if that wasn’t enough we were honored to have her as our interview guest yesterday on the Tiny r(E)volution podcast! But now we are just going over the top! We’re simply crazy today as we are giving away THREE stamped, autographed, copies of You Can Buy Happiness…
Winning is simple and there are only two ways in which you can have your name (or your name twice, if you will) entered into the drawing.
- Leave a comment below answering the question: What have you done in 2012 to radically simplify your life?
- Go over to Tiny r(E)volution on Facebook and comment on the Giveaway announcement.
And that’s it. No scheme to gain more LIKEs. No Twitter prompts here. Just a good ‘ol fashioned book giveaway because we believe in the quality of You Can Buy Happiness…, we believe in our friend Tammy, and we believe in YOU!
UPDATE:
Congratulations to the following:
• Kacie (of treadingtiny.com)
• Harrison Bryant
• Kath Phelps
The above listed three are the winners of Tammy’s new book!
I haven’t made huge changes…but a few are: I’ve cut down on using paper plates, solo cups and bottled water.
I have been downsizing my belongings to live with less.
In 2012 I have really pared down starting with the larger
material things. To decide what
stays and what goes, I ask myself these two simple questions: “Do I want the
item?” (usually the answer is YES). “Do
I NEED the item?” Usually the answer is NO and it goes! It all takes time, but
I feel happier already!
My partner & I were double downsized (both of us lost our jobs after becoming disabled in 2009) as we like to say, and are still unemployed. We have dreamed of building a tiny house empire (house, bathhouse, studio, garden shed) ever since my partner designed & built KILI radio station in Porcupine SD & our baby (now 28) was born. And–brag alert–he was even in Solar Age magazine for his energy efficient building & contracting business back in the day. BUT! While life changes everything as you go, this has always remained our dream, and as much of the dross of our former lives falls away, we’re hoping we can still make it a reality. And it’s also my birthday today, so if that super duper qualifies me to win the book, that would be awesome.
Ch-ch-changes in 2012? Where to begin. We are SO downsizing this year–including our daughter, who lives on the road due to her job for now–all we possess fits in a 10 X15 storage unit. It feels FANTASTIC. Uncomplicated. Simple. We are going homeless–literally–but hope to do some house sitting & traveling while we explore possibilities for next phase of our lives. We may just be nomadic for awhile, as we can’t really afford much with drastically reduced disability income. We love to travel, so we hope it will bring out the best in both of us and our radical socialist cattens, who have helped us reshape our values as we watch the old, false values that had built up like a crusty shell around our psyches as we struggled to raise our wonderful hooman daughter, shatter into millions of bits and pieces and fall away.
Drastic, dramatic, terrifying life changes does that to peeples. And that can be A Very Good Thing.
XOXOXOXOXOXO to all of you, it is so great you are walking this beautiful, sturdy path!
Eat mostly what we grow, shop at ALDI, to save money, and always remembet before spending any money that if I don’t spend it, I don’t have to make it.
I have significantly reduced the amount of unnecessary clutter in my office & bedroom but I still have much more to go – YAY!
I’ve been (slowly) organizing and getting rid of things
I’d love to have this book! We’ve done some serious de-cluttering of our home and given away or sold a lot of our “stuff”. We also both quit our jobs and are working from home for ourselves. Lastly, we moved to one car this year! That was the biggest change for us but it’s been great!
I changed jobs to one with a normal schedule, trimmed down a second job, and cut a third. I also place a paper bag in my kitchen and put things in it for donation as soon as I see that I have no use for them. It goes to the donation location each time it gets full.
I have been simplifying since 2008 but this year my husband and I installed solar power at our house. I’ve finally gotten down to getting rid of my nicer crap that I have been hanging onto and right now I am working on having a minimalist kitchen, something I never thought would happen. I have also gotten my wardrobe down to 76 items. Hey, it takes time!:) I think I am addicted to “simplifying!”
I have been constantly looking at possessions and saying, “Do I Really Need this??”
Ever so slowly organizing and getting rid of unnecessary things.
I did my own version of Project 333 (
http://tinywhitenorth.com/decluttering-part-one/ ) and radically simplified my wardrobe. I’ve also moved my bedroom to the 4th and smallest bedroom in the house at only 8ft x 8ft in an attempt to see how spending time in a small space would feel, and the good news is I love it.
I’ve simplified my life by only embracing relationships and exchanges that feel good. The rest are shut out. You could say I’ve de-cluttered my work and social lives.
Our simplification has been on more of an emotional & spiritual level. After a literal come-to-Jesus moment, my husband is looking at life much differently and we’re both on the same page now about living simply with fewer possessions so that we can pursue more meaningful relationships and really love on people.
It’s been quite a year so far.
Oh, and we’re also on the hunt for a 40′ bus to convert/already converted that we can live in so we can pursue more adventure. 🙂
I simplified my work space, got rid of a bunch of clutter and have plans for a house-wide simplification and minimization in October and November.
I have been systematically cleaning out and giving away stuff for about a year now, I have a goodwill box always by the door. I really try to ask myself do I need this?
My husband and I downsized and moved from a 2300 sq ft house to a 1800 sq ft house. In the process, we sold and donated a bunch of stuff. It felt GREAT! What’s funny is that the smaller house fits our needs so much better! No formal dining room that’s rarely used – YAY! One less bedroom to clean. One less bathroom to clean. The smaller house has much more efficient use of space and it works soooo much better for us than the bigger house. We use less AC and heat, less energy, and the house is more comfortable and cozy. We love that we went smaller rather than bigger. It has been wonderful!
I love her blog! I’ve cleaned out every closet and drawer in our house. Sold half of my sons toys (he plays so much better now). Bought a much smaller home than we could afford (according to the bank) but one that will allow us to be without a mortgage in 3 years. Lessened my social commitments which has allowed me to become closer with some dear friends. I keep a box for Goodwill in the closet. I’m always finding things I should never have bought. We’re also spending much less money. I love all the open space our home now has!
The Goodwill box has always been at the bottom of the stairs, but (it is) they are being filled much more quickly as I sort through cupboards and closets that haven’t been de-cluttered since we moved in 7 years ago. This looks like a good book to work through.
In 2012 we downsized to a 600 square foot home, and began to get out of debt using cash instead of credit.
This year I’ve cut back on my purchasing of packaged goods. I buy liquid soap and other things in bulk, purchase products with recycled packaging whenever possible and use my reusable grocery bags. My biggest action will be moving into my Tiny House which will be built starting in November and the process for downsizing my STUFF has already begun. Goodwill, Goodwill, Craig’s List and more Goodwill.
I am SO excited to read Tammy’s book! Oh my, where do I begin? It’s been a radical year in the making. I am finally building my dream tiny house for the little person and I…FINALLY! This year to both prepare for that and to get serious about simplicity, I have sold off about 80% of what I once owned (admittedly, I did not own a crazy amount of “stuff” to begin with). I can now fit all of our belongings, every last thing I call ours, into my little Elantra, with my 80lb lab squeezed in there too. The best part? I have supported us this past year by selling off all that weight with the income it brought in, so I was able to stay home with baby girl for the first year of her life. How radically sweet is that? 🙂
Radically simplify…
Does quitting your job to go back to grad school count? Probably not as I’m just trading in one stressor for another.
Right now were still in the decluttering stages of the house but I did get rid of the dinning room table and our second bedroom is no longer a dumping ground.
The biggest thing we’ve done to simplify life, in my opinion, is that we only go grocery shopping once a month. Gone are the impulse purchases and the constant need to run to the big box store all the time. The few perishables we might need we can get at the local mom and pop gas station. It’s been freeing, in that we save a lot of time this way, plus it’s saved us money, too. (Cut our grocery bill nearly in half.)
I stopped blogging 🙂
I have pledged to throw away one thing a day!
I have built an earth oven & tried to put together a cob building group. I am now planning to build my art studio from cob. I also have bought solar cells to build my own solar panel & begin the transformation to solar power.
This year I’ve started to overhaul my yard and gardens using permaculture ideas so that instead of having large lawn areas to be mowed and tons of weeds to pull, I’ll have intelligently planned perennials, fruit trees, and a garden where all the pieces work together on their own.
I have been taking care of unfinished projects and eliminating junk mail. Tying up loose ends and taking care of things I’ve been “meaning” to do is so freeing!
I have had some radical changes as far as how I am looking at things in my house. It has been much easier this year to say that things can go out the door without trying to hang on to it in case I need it some day…lol 😉 I have also done a purge of the mental strains also. Relationships that do not fall into healthy, productive, and helping simplify my course in life, then it too has been out the door as well. This might sound mean to some people but has freed up my cluttered mind from all the nonsense that these kinds of relationships seem to create. I can contribute these successes to the tiny house movement which has shown me how less is more and much better physically, mentally, and emotionally. Thank you so much for the input that you have had in this woman’s life to help me see the positive changes that this could create in making a much more peaceful life. 🙂
Look how many people are excited about these books! I want to play too! I am not sure I have too big of answers that I can say that I have ‘completed’ yet this year… but the biggest action I have made this year to radically simplify my life has been my actively being more intentional about WHO I spend my time with. I have always been a ‘nice guy’ to everyone in my world and found myself in a big rut where I was constantly around a lot of negative and ‘toxic’ people. I have done other things like selling 90% of my worldly possessions and building a tiny house, which is not yet complete, but by far the biggest simplification has been not hanging out with people who draw all the energy out of me just by sharing the same space with. I have so much more time to focus on what is important to me and quite literally building my dreams! This year has been an amazing year for that!
Tiny is inspiring…. Cutting the clutter this year… getting ready to live in fewer square feet by losing the deadwood… ebay is my friend