Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #573785 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.com Review
When you tell your friends you're thinking of ditching your cellphone and cutting up your Visa, they may think you're nuts. Be strong and read the Ten Principles of Simple Living, which include Consume less; Love people, not things; Put people before things; and Live from your vision. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Simple Living is about evaluating your consumer-choked life and learning to live happily with what you need--not what you think you need or just plain want.

Cutting back and reconsidering your time, relationships, and especially spending isn't going to be easy. "Simple living is about making choices that put you in the position of being more in control of how you choose to spend your money," says author Georgene Lockwood, "not shunning money altogether." Focusing on what you like to do, rather than on what you have to do (or think you have to do), is a way to simplify. The book is divided into five sections: What is Simple Living?; Your Money IS Your Life; Simple Living Basics: Food, Clothing, Shelter; Family, Friends, and Community; and What if Everybody Did It? The sections are broken down into chapters that question and challenge you to reduce, reuse, and reflect. Convincingly written, this book is very practical and encouraging. "It's for people who want to have more time for relationships and for doing things they really enjoy," says Lockwood. "It's for those who are looking to go beyond simply organizing and decluttering ... to a lifestyle that's more sustainable for the future of this planet and our civilization." --Dana Van Nest

Customer Reviews

One of my favorite books on the subject
Even after a decade and more of simple living I love reading books on simple living issues and one thing I like about The Complete Idiots Guide to Simple Living is where the author Georgene Lockwood notes in the section on The 10 Laws of Stuff that:

1. Stuff breeds. The more you have the more you need.
2. The useless stuff crowds out the good stuff.
3. Dust, bugs, rodents and moisture all love stuff. The more the better.
4. Stuff tends to stay where it lands.
5. Stuff expands to fit the space available. The more space the more stuff you think you need.
6. Over time stuff becomes invisible After living with stuff we don't see it.
7. Stuff costs you money more than once.
8. Stuff has a powerful effect on your state of mind. Useless stuff is a burden. It weighs us down.
9. Stuff takes value only when it is used.
10. Stuff doesn't make you happy, you do!

She also discusses the issue of quietness. That people who are afraid of quiet often have the most stuff because they need to always be doing something. So if we need noise and activity what is it that we fear?

And she offers great advise that when you read it you tend to go DUH ...of course that makes sense...why didn't I think of that. Like instead of six knives whose total cost is thirty dollars, and which won't hold an edge, how about buying one top quality knife that when sharpened holds an edge and is a gem to use? That the less we own the less time we spend cleaning. That when we buy a tool or appliance don't buy one that isn't multi task. As an example I bought a top dollar KitchenAid processor and it gets used all the time. Whereas the variety of cheaper tools that I had to dig thru a drawer to find were more a frustration and rarely used.

She notes in Abundance, not Excess that Paring down and living simply doesn't mean being poor. The simple life is abundant; you have everything you truly need and the time to satisfy your true, inner wants. This isn't deprivation! This is true abundance. Excess, clutter and useless stuff are the true deprivers.

Wonderful guide for beginners
Simple doesn't mean being deprived. This book is good for anyone who wants to enjoy life and stop chasing after the "American Rat Race Dream." Especially good for those of us that are new to the concept.

Right from the get-go the book includes a cut out card for you to keep to be critical of ads on what their trying to say to you, and the principals of simple living.

Its not about being deprived, its about values, what's important to you in life and what makes you happy. Its very easy to read and the author presents ideas that you can use or not use. Not every idea will be for everyone, however most of the ideas and tips are useful.

The book starts out explaining simple living and what it is. Part 2 talks about money and how to control it, and how to get out of debt! It talks about how less stuff can mean more!

Part 3 is about food, clothing, and housing. What you eat is what you are. How to eat well and nutritiously for less. Trends or tyranny. Examining fashion and fads, and how they affect us. It talks about how to buy good clothes that are timeless, and how to take care of them instead of buying fads that go to the dump after 1 season. Then it gives tips on how to take care of them. It also gives housing tips. And alternatives to transportation.

The rest of the book talks about family and community, how its more important than acquiring stuff and politics of voluntary simplicity. The book is very easy to understand and she gives resources and where to find them, if a person wants to dig in deeper in a certain subject.

I really enjoyed it and learned so much from it, this is a book for beginners about enjoying and getting more out of life. There's more to life than money! :-)

Good introduction to the lifestyle of simplicity
Over the past few years, I've purchased many "Idiot" books, and I find their standard layout (which is present in Simple Living) very helpful when you are grazing for information on an unfamiliar subject. It includes: reference cards in the front of the book which summarize the book's main points, two tables of contents (one short and the other more detailed), a large-type-face index, and an appendix offering additional reading and resources pertinent to the topics of each individual chapter.

Judging this book as exactly what it proclaims itself to be, a general introduction to the topic of "simple living" (defined as, "living lightly on the earth"), I believe the author does an outstanding job, for the following reasons:

(1) She provides a concise but comprehensive history of the concept of living simply, including its many different appearances in the U.S. over the past several centuries. This puts simplicity in a fascinating, long-term, American context.
(2) She states that though among those advocating the ideology of, "live simply so others may simply live," there is no universally accepted definition of what simple living means, there are many common concepts which have appeared regularly for decades in books and articles on this subject. She does an excellent job of describing the most central issues, including the importance of maintaining a "sustainable lifestyle," which does not destroy the environment, and creating a definition of "happiness" and "prosperity" for ourselves based on something besides the incessant purchase of consumer goods.
(3) She admits the irony that living simply is anything but easy and is often more expensive than maintaining a more "normal," mainstream lifestyle. In addition, it can be very unpleasant to be the odd-person out, pursuing an "alternative lifestyle," particularly if you have children. Young children and teens are notorious for not wanting to be different from their peers. By covering these issues, she allows persons exploring the possibility of living this way to think ahead about possible pitfalls they might face in order to prepare for them.
(4) Finally, the author's style of writing is clear, easy to read, and her voice is lively enough to make this topic very interesting reading for people of all ages, backgrounds and education levels.

If you only have time to read one book on this subject, I highly recommend this one as a top choice. It would also be an excellent resource for the friends and family of simple livers who want to better understand their loved ones.