After a long weekend in Las Vegas, I found myself at the airport 10 hours early for my flight.

I had experienced as much Vegas as I could handle, so I decided to head the airport with the other gentlemen who had much earlier flights. After going through security, I wandered around the airport and came across the American Express Centurion Lounge—an “exclusive” lounge for American Express cardholders.

After realizing that I was going to be hanging around for a tremendous amount of time, I inquired about the cost and benefits.

A 24-hour pass for $50 included high-speed WiFi, unlimited drinks, a full meal buffet, plenty of seating and napping options, a beautiful shower facility (yep, I took a shower), and more. I figured if I ate two or three meals here I’d get my money’s worth in food alone.

I went ahead and purchased the pass.

[Read more…] about The Intersection of Minimalism and Luxury: When Does Spending Make Sense?

Often people focus on the act of getting rid of things when talking about minimalism.

While purging is indeed an important part of removing excess and distractions in your surroundings, it’s not the end all be all.

In fact, just getting rid of stuff completely misses the point of minimalism.

[Read more…] about Why Just Getting Rid of Stuff Misses The Point

I used to hate doing laundry because it took a ton of time and energy to do load after load.

Sorting, washing, drying, sorting, folding, putting away. It was made worse by the fact that I would never do laundry by choice—only out of necessity when I ran out of clean underwear. I had so many clothing options that I didn’t have to do laundry for weeks, or sometimes up to a month or more.

I’d always wear the clothing I most enjoyed first until they disappeared into the pile of dirty clothes and I’d move on to other clothing I liked less and less. Then at the last possible moment, lacking any reasonable remaining clothing options, I was left with a massive multi-load laundry project to tackle.

How I learned to enjoy doing laundry wasn’t by figuring out a more efficient way; it was by doing less.

[Read more…] about How I Learned To Enjoy Doing (Minimalist) Laundry

The road to minimalism is not always a short one.

It often takes multiple sources of inspiration, learnings and validation to understand why it makes sense to only keep that which is most important to you. There are many blog posts about minimalism, but it can be great to hear people speak passionately about their experiences of getting rid of stuff.

Here are three inspirational videos that will help you down the road on your minimalism journey.

[Read more…] about Three Inspirational TED Talks On Minimalism