There’s happiness in having less. That’s why it’s time to say goodbye to all our extra things. That’s the minimal version of the message that I’d like to convey in this book.

When you think about it, being a minimalist is the natural state of things. We come into this world with nothing and only start to amass objects during the course of our lives. Then once we have all these objects they start weighing on us, caring for them takes up our time, storing them takes up space, thinking about them binds our attention. During our lives, we always have brief times of some sort of minimalism, most often during holidays. When leaving for a trip with only one bag or entering a clean and tidy hotel room a feeling of freedom arises. The feeling of being free from things.

Everybody started as a minimalist

Everything we have now, from small objects to our appartment is something that we wanted at some point.We were once eager to buy the clothes that hang unworn in the back of our closet now. The jobs we now occupy once promised the start of a better life.The simple truth is: we quickly get used to things.When Tal Ben-Shahar, a popular Harvard lecturer in positive psychology, became Israeli national squash champion at the age of sixteen, he afterwards told people that the happiness lasted for only three hours.In order to feel the same joy again, we always aim for more, but never arrive.

Why did we accumulate so much in the first place?

The more we accumulate and the harder we work to build a collection that communicates our qualities, the more our possessions themselves will start to become the qualities that we embrace. In other words, what we own equals who we are.

Fumio Sasaki gives 55 concrete tips on how to say goodbye to things, here is a selection:<ul><li>Differentiate between things you want and things you need.</li><li>Take photos of the items that are tough to part with.</li><li>Our things are like roommates, except we pay their rent.</li><li>Let go of the idea of “some day”</li><li>Let go of the idea of getting your money’s worth</li><li>Think of stores as your personal warehouses</li><li>If you lost it, would you buy it again?</li><li>Our biggest items trigger chain reactions</li><li>Don’t buy it because it’s cheap, don’t take it because it’s free</li><li>The things we really need will always find their way back to us</li></ul>

Tips to help you say goodbye to your things

If you really want to change something, the only way to do it is to start changing this very moment. There’s really no tomorrow, and no next week to look forward to. Once tomorrow comes, it’s going to be today. A year from now will be today when the time comes. Everything is in the now

The best-selling phenomenon from Japan that shows us a minimalist life is a happy life. Fumio Sasaki is not an enlightened minimalism expert or organizing guru like Marie Kondo—he’s just a regular guy who was stressed out and constantly comparing himself to others, until one day he decided to change his life by saying goodbye to everything he didn’t absolutely need. The effects were remarkable: Sasaki gained true freedom, new focus, and a real sense of gratitude for everything around him. In Goodbye, Things Sasaki modestly shares his personal minimalist experience, offering specific tips on the minimizing process and revealing how the new minimalist movement can not only transform your space but truly enrich your life. The benefits of a minimalist life can be realized by anyone, and Sasaki’s humble vision of true happiness will open your eyes to minimalism’s potential.

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The best-selling phenomenon from Japan that shows us a minimalist life is a happy life. Fumio Sasaki is not an enlightened minimalism expert or organizing guru like Marie Kondo—he’s just a regular guy who was stressed out and constantly comparing himself to others, until one day he decided to change his life by saying goodbye to everything he didn’t absolutely need. The effects were remarkable: Sasaki gained true freedom, new focus, and a real sense of gratitude for everything around him. In Goodbye, Things Sasaki modestly shares his personal minimalist experience, offering specific tips on the minimizing process and revealing how the new minimalist movement can not only transform your space but truly enrich your life. The benefits of a minimalist life can be realized by anyone, and Sasaki’s humble vision of true happiness will open your eyes to minimalism’s potential.

Fumio Sasaki is the former co-editor-in-chief of Wani Books, and lives in a 215-square-foot apartment in Tokyo, furnished with a small wooden box, a desk, and a roll-up futon pad.

Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism

Tim Fuchs