The Start of My Minimalist Journey

Yesterday I started reading "The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life" by Leo Babauta.  Mr. Babauta starts off talking about why he's a minimalist, the benefits of being a minimalist, discussing what true necessities are and simplifying what we do with our time.  Then he jumps right into tackling clutter, part of which is the clutter on our computer.  So, last night started to follow his suggestions on cleaning up my computer's desktop.  I started with condensing files and then I hid the icons from my desktop and added a beautiful desktop background.  I didn't take a screenshot of my before but here is what my desktop looks like now.  I have a rotating background and here are two shots of my desktop...

Today I took it a step further and cleaned up my News Feed on Facebook.  I now have only the most important updates from friends, family, and pages on my News Feed.  Facebook can be a time-suck and I think this will make it easier and quicker for me to keep up with the people and pages that are most important to me.

I have also started on moving files and pictures to my Google Docs and to Picasa for storage, at the suggestion of Mr. Babauta.  [I already use both of those services but I will be making a point to use them for nearly everything.]  They will be easier for me to have access to all of my files no matter what computer I am at.  They will also free up space on my hard-drive, which is in short supply on my laptop.

Mr. Babauta has also gone completely paperless.  I'm not sure exactly how I could make that work in my life yet but I will certainly look for more ways to cut down on my paper clutter.  I already pay nearly all of my bills online and don't receive paper bills.  Just looking around my room, I can see paper-sourced items like books and magazines that I could go paperless with.

I have lots more work to do on this journey but I think if I work at this everyday, always looking for more ways to reduce and release, then I could really make some serious progress over the next few months.