You don't need new kitchen appliances to cook; use what you already have.
Productivity isn’t about having the right tools; it’s about having the right mindset.
Before you purchase any equipment, ask yourself the following questions:
- Will I use this everyday?
A tool that is never used is simply clutter. This is why I don’t own specialized kitchen supplies like egg-beaters, blenders, butter knives, or electric kettles. These are niche products that I don’t use very often. - Is there a simpler way to get things done?
Simple problems don’t need complicated solutions; life is complicated enough. Last year, I replaced my $60 GPS with a free map. Although the map didn’t offer turn-by-turn directions, it took up less space and didn’t require batteries, recharging, or clumsy interfaces. The map can be recycled, whereas the GPS will generate e-waste. - Do I absolutely need it right now?
Postpone purchases for as long as possible. Many products—-electronics especially—-are designed to be obsolete within a few years. Last year, I was learning iOS software development. Instead of buying an older model, I opted for the newest Mac Mini and iPod Touch. But by the time I began actual programming, Apple had already released newer versions of both, along with the iPad. If I had merely postponed my purchase, I would have had better equipment at the same price. - How much will it cost?
Calculate the cost in terms of your hourly wage, and see if it’s worth your time. Depending on your salary, cars may not save you time compared to bicycling. If you spend $10,000/yr. on cars (include loans, insurance, gasoline, and parking), and you only earn $20/hr, then you’ll waste 3 months each year working just to pay for your car. That’s 1/4th of your life! - How much research will I need to do?
Time wasted on research is time not spent on work. Factor in the time you spend comparison shopping, assembling equipment, configuring devices, and reading manuals. My parents once bought me a bookshelf that required our family-of-four 3 hours to assemble. That’s 12 hours worth of labor wasted to beautify the living room.
Being productive is about finding the most effective solution available, and what you already have is usually enough. Don’t fantasize about the latest and greatest equipment. Not only does it contribute to landfill, but it’s expensive and bad for your productivity. Find something that does just enough, and settle for that instead. Save your money, protect the environment, get work done, and move on with your life.
What one item do you most regret purchasing?
Getting Real, by 37signals, has been a huge inspiration for this post. I’ve been applying their techniques of quick, practical software development to daily life. Read the book for free online, and pay special attention to It’s a Problem When It’s a Problem and Less Mass.
Paul Graham’s essay on stuff is also worth reading.
You can make lots of things with two camping pots, a stainless steel plate, spork, knife, and stainless steel flask.Bake a cake boil water for tea,cook rice and vegetables,boil chicken, and distill water with a plastic tube.You don’t need much else.You can always ask a guest to bring a plate or improvise.I agree with your view on electronics.Why buy the latest e-reader if you can use a public library
How much camping gear do you normally bring? And what type of backpack do you use to carry it all? If you can link to it, I’d like to check it out. I may need to get some new gear in 2 months.
I most regret buying… a bed!
When we moved into our house, 3 years ago, my wife and I slept on a mattress on the floor. Everyone thought we were crazy and they talked us into buying a ‘normal’ bed. Although it was very minimalist and nice looking, it was such a useless piece of furniture!
And ooh, while we’re at it… #2 is one of those alarm clocks with a light that supposedly mimicks sunrise. Let’s just say it doesn’t fool our bodies ;)
Greetings from the Netherlands!
I regret owning a bed, too. Mine wasn’t expensive; in fact, it was totally free. My parents donated their old Cal-King bed and mattress to me when Hsinya and I got married. The problem was that I lived in a second-floor apartment with a narrow staircase. Lifting the mattress upstairs or downstairs required two people and at least an hour of struggling.
In all, we moved three times in the last 3 years. Last December, we decided to just give the king mattress away on Craigslist. It was more burdensome to transport than it was worth.
I respect your decision to not have a blender. But, once you have children, it’s a great option to puree food to have home made baby food instead of purchasing lots of chemically filled canned items.
For many years, we slept on a futon on the floor. However, when my hubby started having back problems, we bought a bed. We just have the mattress no bed frame/headboard monstrosity. I just don’t understand when people say I bought a bed, that means the thing you put the mattress on? In my mind I always thought my bed was what I slept on…
The items that I have that I never wanted…were sadly all gifts from relatives who don’t understand my life choices and how I can live without a tv. I guess they couldn’t take it anymore because they felt so sorry for me. Sadly, I’ve kept some of the junk they’ve given me, because when I sold or gave away previous stuff, they just went out and bought more junk…yeah so I was gifted a tv and sold it. When my relatives found out, they freaked out b/c I wasn’t watching tv and went out and bought me another one, an even bigger one…and it’s still in the box since April! Go figure…that will be a this weekend project.
Nice entry.
I completely forgot about pureed baby food. You’re absolutely right; it’s definitely much cheaper and healthier to make your own baby food. Hsinya and I have a lot of blindspots since we haven’t had kids yet. I only used blenders for making smoothies and soymilk.
Well-meaning family and friends can be a huge source of unwanted clutter. After we had just gotten married, my dad gave us plenty of furniture. We declined as much as possible, but we ended up with a solid-wood bookshelf, a Cal-King mattress, and a sofa bed. Each piece of furniture was extremely heavy (the bookshelf weighed 200lbs. when fully assembled). Moving was a total nightmare.
Sorry – this is my first post so I’ve never properly introduced myself yet!
Just wanted to say that you don’t even need to puree foods for babies – do a search on “baby led weaning” and you’ll see there’s a school of thought that babies can (and some suggest should) go straight on to actual solid food, not purees. We discovered this whole theory as our first child point blank refused to eat purees but would happily suck on cooked broccoli or cauliflower or a peeled pear or banana.
For our next three babies, we just did the same procedure – gave them whatever we were eating (we rarely eat processed or salty food) and let them help themselves from about six months. (Use common sense, obviously – no whole grapes or olives etc. :-) )
Sorry to be slightly off topic but baby-led weaning REALLY simplifies the weaning procedure and not just because we didn’t need the blender.
Definitely worth thinking about as minimalist parents
Karen (Scotland)
Interesting perspective.
I’ve been living blender-free for about 4 months. One drink I really miss blending is fresh soy-milk. I can’t seem to make it apart from using a blender (no, I won’t resort to the traditional mortar and pestle).
Hi Aaron,
now I’m really interested in how to make your own soymilk – would you share the recipe?
This recipe from Just Hungry describes exactly how we make our soymilk.
Here’s the basic outline:
1) Soak dried soybeans overnight in water
2) Puree soybeans in blender
3) Boil soybean puree in an equal volume of water
4) Filter mixture with cheese cloth
The liquid that filters through is soymilk, and the solid is okara.
I’m looking for a way to puree the soybeans without a blender, but I haven’t found one yet. So right now, while I travel, I’m just buying soymilk.
Thanks! I’m definitely going to try it.
I’m not sure what you could use instead of a blender – maybe you could just put the beans in the cheesecloth and then smash them with a hammer or so? X) no idea..
It’s tough. I’ve seen some minimalists like Rolf Potts who seem to survive with practically nothing. What they don’t do, though, is cook from scratch.
Hsinya and I have been debating between giving up our beloved foods or lugging around a large suitcase of cooking supplies.
I really enjoyed today’s post I have always been viewed as a little weird, because I don’t buy things that come in sets. Why? Well it’s always been a issue that I don’t need six cheap knives when I can buy two good ones. Do you guys remember the pot sets that people would buy that came in a set of four or six that nothing would fit in? I hated those sets it’s a waste of time why not just buy what you need other than that you collect pans you don’t use!
Eventually, I stopped shopping at Costco because everything came in sets. Costco had great deals for complete kitchenware sets, but I always discovered I never needed that many. I ended up with several tiny pans and oddly shaped tupperware I rarely used.
I totally agree with you about the GPS. Maps work perfectly well, whether AAA road maps or Google maps. I can do without the gadget.
I most regret buying a house, which we are now trying to sell. We were not unhappy in our apartment, but our family and others thought we were stupid to rent and crazy to live in such a small space with two teenagers. Now we pay more in interest and property taxes every month than we ever paid in rent (and that money is just as much down the drain). And we actually get along well as a family, so as long as we each have a small space that is all our own, we don’t mind spending most of our time together (our teenagers spend plenty of time out with friends, as well).
The hardest step towards financial recovery is admitting our mistakes.
As a college student, I squandered almost $5,000 on online shopping. I normally hate shopping, but I bought into the marketing hype that says better equipment make you more productive.
I bought over a hundred books, a new computer, a GPS, DVDs, USB drives, and even a bar code scanner at one point in time. I ordered a $500 dishwasher from Walmart.com. These tools were supposed to make me more productive, but now I’m viewing conventional, simpler solutions in a different light.
I also have a burden of student debt to pay off. But now that we’ve both recognized our mistakes, we’re half-way to recovery.
This is my first comment here (if you don’t count my baby led weaning post above.) I came over from Miss Minimalist a week or so ago.
This is a great post.
I had a lucky escape from the iPod revamp last year. I had been researching lengthily and my husband decided to treat me to a Nano for my birthday – mid August. I was (shamefully) ungrateful as I hadn’t quite decided on the Nano or the Touch so I took it back to change it for the Touch. It was out of stock so they gave me a refund. Two days later – Apple did the revamp. I almost cried with relief which I found worrying.
The thing is, there always seems to be something “better” coming out. It now just feels easier to jump off the bandwagon and enjoy what I already have.
So, I still haven’t purchased an iPod but I have put all my CDs onto the Mac so I can burn CD mixes for the car or travel or the kids. A cheap and easy compromise.
Karen (Scotland)
I started iOS development about 15 months ago. Since then, Apple has changed their hardware on me 3 times. I found it dizzying.
It’s predictable: Apple makes money by selling hardware, so they have to push out a new version at least once a year. But what’s in Apple’s best interest is probably not in your best interest.
Paul’s essay on stuff I must have overlooked. Sorry I’m so late posting my only wish is that I had this post in my early twenties when I spent fifty dollars a month on a storage unit so that when I moved out on my own I had what I needed well after moving out none of the things stored is what I wanted. I quickly replaced what I had because it no longer was my style. What a waste!
Hi Tiffany,
I know just how you feel. We need to stop shopping! Recently, I’ve been trying to get in the habit of re-using old items. So I’ll try to reuse old clothes, plastic bins, furniture, and books whenever I can instead of looking for new.
Each year in America, we’re throw away perfectly edible food and usable clothing that people in other parts of the world sorely need.