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[newsman] <i>Some experts</i>
<i>call it a retail apocalypse.</i>

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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<i>2019 marked one of the worst years</i>
<i>in a decade for brick-and-mortar stores.</i>

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[man] <i>Less Is Now.</i>

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[interviewer] Why do you think
this idea of minimalism or simplifying

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is really catching on right now?

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Mm-hmm.

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I think it's because we have
the opportunity to have so much. [laughs]

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A portion of America's
definitely addicted to stuff.

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Probably not in the classic
psychology sense of addiction.

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We just love stuff!

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Monday, today, is supposed to be

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the biggest online shopping day
of all times,

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reaching around three-and-a-third
billion dollars in online sales.

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Anything that you can think of,
you can get on your doorstep,

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now within 24 hours.

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That's… That's almost like magic, right?

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When you look up at the sky, you may soon
see Amazon's army of new-age deliveries.

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[newswoman] <i>The electronic aircraft</i>
<i>would have a 15-mile range</i>

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<i>and deliver packages within 30 minutes.</i>

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[man] The consumer world understands

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that if I can get you
to choose before you think,

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I'm gonna get you
to buy things you do not need.

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My senses are just being bombarded
with reminders,

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like, "Hey, you should buy this.

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You'd be happier if you buy this."
You know?

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[laughing] And it's just sort of like,
in so many ways,

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they're trying
to beat you into submission.

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"Okay, I'll buy it! I need it! I need it!"

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Amazon, hiring once again.

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The company looking to recruit
100,000 workers

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to meet surging levels
of e-commerce demand.

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Lots of smaller retail businesses
are being lost,

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and the power is being consolidated
in the hands of these giants.

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Stuff is contributing to our discontent
in so many different ways,

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because it's taking the place

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of the things that actually
do give us more happiness.

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I found minimalism about seven years ago
in the midst of a breakdown.

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I was overworked. Um, I was exhausted.
I was heavily stressed out.

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There has to be more to life
than just working.

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I think immediately I got up,
and I went to my closet,

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and I started pulling my clothes out.

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Uh, I stayed up until 3:00 a.m.,
and I just packed so many things.

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[woman] As I started
slowly releasing things,

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I gained a sense of freedom.

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[woman 2] Change is definitely coming.
Change is inevitable,

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because you can't continue to consume

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more than the planet can replenish
every year.

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You just physically can't.

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So the question is not
<i>if</i> we are gonna change as a society,

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but <i>how </i>we are gonna change.

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'Cause we're either gonna change
by design or by disaster.

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It all started with one question.

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How might your life be better with less?

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[birds chirping]

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-[man] Want some tea?
-[woman] Sure.

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[man] Okay.

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[woman] It's in the… Yeah. Okay.

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[man] Yeah, y-you know, I mean,
aesthetics are important to me,

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but what I care most about
is having a place free of clutter.

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So when you look around my place,

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not everything
is necessarily minimalist design.

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I don't go out of my way to specifically
have only minimalist aesthetics.

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But to me, it's… it's clutter-free.

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We often confuse simplicity with easy,

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but it's actually the exact opposite.

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Living a simple life,
it takes a lot of work.

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It takes a lot of work to be intentional.
What's easy is going with the flow.

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It's going out, and going to IKEA,
and buying the cheap furniture

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every time you think you need
a piece of furniture or an end table.

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It is very difficult to go through
some of these stoical experiments

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to see what you can live with
or live without,

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but, in the end, it's worth the work.

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[host]
<i>People go, "Check out this documentary.</i>

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<i>-These guys, The Minimalists."</i>
-[hosts 2] <i>The Minimalists.</i>

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[host 3] <i>The Minimalists are with us.</i>
<i>Joshua and Ryan.</i>

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[TV journalist] They have books,
a podcast, and a Netflix documentary,

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all guiding typical consumers
on how to downsize their way to happiness.

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[Ryan] I don't think you can understand
how Josh and I came to be minimalists

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without looking at our upbringings.

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Both of us grew up poor.

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Our moms had issues with substance abuse,
and we really never had enough.

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Dude, look at this. This is hilarious.

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[laughter]

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Even our furniture.
[chuckling] It was like…

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It was like do-it-yourself furniture.

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That's like our cupboard in the kitchen.

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I was really a happy kid
up until, uh, about the second grade

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when my parents got divorced.

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It happens to a lot of kids,
their parents get divorced.

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But I remember things
really getting dysfunctional when…

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uh, when my mom left my dad.

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And there was just a lot of…

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a lot of partying, I remember.

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And, um, you know, as a kid,
it looked like a lot of fun.

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My mom did a good job
of making it look fun.

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I met Josh in the fifth grade
when I moved to his middle school.

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[laughs] Oh!

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[Ryan] It could have been
that we were both from broken homes

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and didn't have much money growing up,

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or maybe it was that we were
the two fattest kids in our grade,

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but we just hit it off,
and we became best friends.

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[Joshua] When we were growing up,
I feel like we could've used minimalism,

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because minimalism is basically
the intentional use of resources you have,

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and if you have very few resources,
like we did growing up,

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man, we could've done much better

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by being more deliberate
with those resources.

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It's interesting,
because when you're poor,

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it's like, when someone
offers you something, you take it.

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I-I think about my household growing up,
and we had so much stuff,

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because we took every single thing
that was offered to us.

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However, we had a lot of stuff
that we didn't need.

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In fact, it was just clutter,
and it did not add any value.

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As we get more space,
we fill it with more things.

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As we get more things, we need more space,

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so we turn to storage lockers,
or we turn to bigger houses.

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And we never really stop to question,
"What is essential? What is necessary?"

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Then, "How much of the stuff is actually
adding any value to my life at all?"

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A decade ago,

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by the time I was 28 years old,
I had achieved everything I ever wanted.

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I was the youngest director
in my company's 140-year history,

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and I had all the fringe benefits
of a middle manager

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at a major corporation.

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The luxury cars,

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the closet filled with designer clothes,

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the big suburban house
with more toilets than people.

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I guess you could say
I was living the American dream.

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But then, my mom died…

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and my marriage ended…

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both in the same month.

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And these two events
forced me to look around

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and start to question
what had become my life's focus.

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You know what I realized?

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I realized I was so focused
on so-called success, and achievement,

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and especially
on the accumulation of stuff.

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I might have been living
the American dream,

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but it wasn't <i>my </i>dream.

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It took getting everything
I thought I wanted

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to realize
that maybe everything I ever wanted

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wasn't actually what I wanted at all.

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[woman] Corporations
and the drive for corporate profit

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is absolutely behind the addiction
to stuff that we have in this country.

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The way corporations are structured
in this country

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is they really need to keep growing.

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A corporation's primary obligation
is to their shareholders,

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to which they have to keep delivering
increased revenue,

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and that's sort of the foundation
of capitalism, growth.

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I-I don't think the problem has much to do
with how much we're growing,

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but rather how we answer the question
of "where are we going?"

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I think one of the biggest problems
we have in our world now

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is that people
really aren't free to choose.

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We talk about being in a free market

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or a free society,
but people aren't really free to choose.

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Because you just have
one or two large institutions

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that have these artificial monopolies,

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and they get to decide for everyone

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what you can watch,
what you can listen to.

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And so, manipulation of… of our interests,

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manipulation of our natural,
God-given taste really is happening.

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[man] Marketers are really impressive
in their ability to manipulate the mind,

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in their ability to create a need
or a perceived need

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out of something that was a want.

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We live in the most advertised-to culture
in the history of the world.

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Think about it.

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Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent
telling us we need this,

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and it has an effect.

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[Joshua] The money spent on advertising
in the United States

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has increased
from just over $5 billion in the 1950s

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to $240 billion a year today.

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And since the turn of the 21st century,

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much of that spending has moved
from television and radio

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to digital advertising.

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The result, intelligent and predictive ads

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that seem to know us
better than we know ourselves.

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Companies have figured out
how to stitch our devices together,

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so they know when you pick up your tablet
or switch to your smartphone,

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when you change the channel on your TV

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or speak to your smart device.

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Using the GPS on your devices,
they can track your movement

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to see which billboards you pass,

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which stores you frequent,

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and even the amount of credit card debt
you've racked up.

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They map these movements

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to know when it's the perfect time
to message you next.

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And the end goal is always the same.
To get you to buy more stuff.

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And one of the tricks they use
is what we call deficit advertising.

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They send us advertisements

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that make us subconsciously feel
like we are inadequate, um,

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if we don't have this product.

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So, "I will not be loved
if I don't have this toothpaste."

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"My children will not value me
if I don't have this dish soap."

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Everyone's gonna want this.

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It's no different
than the premise of working out at a gym.

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It's the massaging hand sauna.

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-[woman] This is gonna make you thirsty.
-A perfect set for every occasion.

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-You can feel it, you can see it.
-[muffled] You can totally feel it.

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[Annie] This bombardment of messages
that we are not enough.

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So think about what that does
to people, just every day,

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over and over, getting messages,
"You are not enough.

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Your hair, your clothes, your skin,
your body is not enough."

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Just relentless.

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So then we want to go be enough.

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And because we've lost
these other ways of being enough…

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The other ways of being enough
are having a community, having a purpose,

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you know, having an identity
besides the brand on you.

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Because we've lost those,

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we misplace our desire
for belonging and satisfaction

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by buying more stuff.

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We don't really say,
"Okay, I'm gonna turn stuff into my idol."

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We don't say that in our intellect.

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No one intentionally does that.

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But we can tell by our behaviors
that that's actually what we've done.

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Because you know,
if you're saying to yourself,

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"Well, if I just had that car,
I'd be happy then.

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If I just lived in that house,
I'd be happy then.

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If we moved to that neighborhood,
we'd be happy.

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If I had that couch or those new drapes,
I'd be happy then."

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And that means that you're worshiping
at the altar of stuff.

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You have officially contracted
the disease of "stuffitis."

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And so, it becomes a spiritual thing then,

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because it's in competition
with the things that really matter.

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[T.K.] Everybody's selling something.

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And that doesn't mean that…
that selling is always bad. It's okay.

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I want my grocery store
to sell things that I can go buy.

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I want to be able to buy food, right?
So I want them to sell that to me.

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It's not about looking at people
and condemning them for having an angle,

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or for having something they're marketing,

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or for having a product
that they're pushing.

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It's… It's making sure you understand

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that what other people are pushing
is not always consistent.

232
00:11:55.965 --> 00:11:59.093
It's not always compatible
with what it is you need.

233
00:12:00.428 --> 00:12:05.307
My shopping habits before minimalism
were compulsive.

234
00:12:05.391 --> 00:12:07.560
I was spending money,
and it was out of control.

235
00:12:07.643 --> 00:12:11.731
Shopping was a crutch.
It was a place I would go to.

236
00:12:11.814 --> 00:12:14.942
Some people like to emotionally eat.
I would emotionally shop.

237
00:12:15.025 --> 00:12:16.485
I was all about the deal.

238
00:12:16.569 --> 00:12:21.782
So I was all about, um, finding,
you know, that 99% off item

239
00:12:21.866 --> 00:12:24.535
that I could get, you know,
for a huge discount.

240
00:12:24.618 --> 00:12:27.329
I would most likely buy that item

241
00:12:27.413 --> 00:12:29.665
thinking this was the only chance
I would get.

242
00:12:29.749 --> 00:12:32.126
I would have, uh, nail clippers.

243
00:12:32.209 --> 00:12:35.463
I would buy fancy ones,
normal ones, regular ones, you know.

244
00:12:35.546 --> 00:12:38.048
Ones that had a different little thing
to go on it.

245
00:12:38.132 --> 00:12:40.134
I would buy just random stuff like that,

246
00:12:40.217 --> 00:12:42.887
and then I would realize,
like, I'm wasting my money

247
00:12:42.970 --> 00:12:44.597
on things that I already have.

248
00:12:44.680 --> 00:12:48.517
I bought a scooter. A 150 cc scooter.

249
00:12:48.601 --> 00:12:50.895
I thought somehow
that would change my life.

250
00:12:50.978 --> 00:12:54.607
I could imagine myself
riding this in Atlanta.

251
00:12:54.690 --> 00:12:58.444
And if you've ever been
in Atlanta traffic,

252
00:12:59.111 --> 00:13:02.573
the last thing you want to be doing
is riding on a scooter.

253
00:13:02.656 --> 00:13:05.409
I felt like I deserved it.
I felt like I worked really hard,

254
00:13:05.493 --> 00:13:09.288
and these beautiful items would show up
and make me so happy.

255
00:13:09.371 --> 00:13:14.293
And then the feeling of shame
would creep up and guilt,

256
00:13:14.376 --> 00:13:17.296
and the bills would show up, um, and I…

257
00:13:17.379 --> 00:13:19.173
It was just a… a bad cycle.

258
00:13:24.345 --> 00:13:26.180
[Joshua] You know,
it's strange in retrospect,

259
00:13:26.263 --> 00:13:28.974
but I didn't realize we were poor
when I was a kid.

260
00:13:29.058 --> 00:13:31.101
We were on food stamps
and government assistance,

261
00:13:31.185 --> 00:13:33.312
but that seemed totally normal to me.

262
00:13:33.813 --> 00:13:35.523
Poverty was sort of like oxygen.

263
00:13:35.606 --> 00:13:38.567
It was all around me,
but I couldn't see it.

264
00:13:38.651 --> 00:13:40.778
It was just there.

265
00:13:41.529 --> 00:13:45.866
Shortly after I was born, my father's
mental health took a turn for the worse,

266
00:13:45.950 --> 00:13:48.536
and that's when everything
started to change.

267
00:13:49.036 --> 00:13:50.871
You see, when Mom married my dad,

268
00:13:50.955 --> 00:13:54.667
she didn't realize he suffered
from manic depression and schizophrenia,

269
00:13:54.750 --> 00:13:57.211
but she found out pretty quickly.

270
00:13:58.295 --> 00:14:01.966
And Dad's mental illness
was only amplified by his alcoholism,

271
00:14:02.049 --> 00:14:06.595
which made him mean, and aggressive,
and completely unpredictable.

272
00:14:07.763 --> 00:14:11.225
I guess the physical abuse started
around the time I was three years old.

273
00:14:11.308 --> 00:14:13.978
In fact, my very first memory as a child

274
00:14:14.061 --> 00:14:18.566
is of my father extinguishing a cigarette
on my mom's bare chest.

275
00:14:19.733 --> 00:14:24.530
Things only got worse from there,
until, eventually, we escaped.

276
00:14:25.573 --> 00:14:28.993
Mom and I moved 20 miles south
to a suburb of Dayton,

277
00:14:29.076 --> 00:14:30.578
which sounds nice, right?

278
00:14:30.661 --> 00:14:31.829
The suburbs!

279
00:14:32.830 --> 00:14:34.874
But it wasn't really nice at all.

280
00:14:40.212 --> 00:14:42.298
It's gonna be right up here on the right.

281
00:14:44.550 --> 00:14:47.011
You see that green house right there?
That's it.

282
00:14:49.805 --> 00:14:52.933
-[turn signal clicking]
-Oh, man.

283
00:14:54.143 --> 00:14:55.060
Look at that.

284
00:14:55.728 --> 00:14:59.982
It's all boarded up,
and it has, like, this wrap on her.

285
00:15:02.151 --> 00:15:04.194
-[car door opens]
-[Joshua] Wanna take a look?

286
00:15:05.029 --> 00:15:07.740
We lived in a house
that was literally falling apart.

287
00:15:07.823 --> 00:15:09.617
The rent was $200 a month.

288
00:15:10.200 --> 00:15:12.745
Our home always smelled faintly
of empty beer cans

289
00:15:12.828 --> 00:15:14.455
and stale cigarette smoke.

290
00:15:14.538 --> 00:15:15.789
I can still smell it now.

291
00:15:16.373 --> 00:15:19.543
Cockroaches scattered
every time I turned on the kitchen light.

292
00:15:19.627 --> 00:15:21.128
And whenever the power got shut off,

293
00:15:21.211 --> 00:15:24.757
we'd run an extension cord from next door
to keep the TV glowing.

294
00:15:25.674 --> 00:15:27.051
Here's the front door here.

295
00:15:30.137 --> 00:15:31.221
Oh, shit.

296
00:15:32.765 --> 00:15:36.143
It looks like they might have squatters.
It's totally falling apart.

297
00:15:39.605 --> 00:15:43.233
So when we first moved down here,
I know we signed up for food stamps.

298
00:15:43.317 --> 00:15:47.154
As a kid, I didn't know the difference
between the white and green money we had,

299
00:15:47.237 --> 00:15:49.365
because the food stamps
were these white bills,

300
00:15:49.448 --> 00:15:52.534
and then, you know,
green money was just… just money, right?

301
00:15:52.618 --> 00:15:55.537
And she would trade the…

302
00:15:56.872 --> 00:15:59.333
She would trade the white bills…

303
00:16:00.376 --> 00:16:03.837
for the green bills, 'cause you needed
the green bills to buy alcohol.

304
00:16:04.505 --> 00:16:07.466
And so, she'd buy
whatever beer was cheapest.

305
00:16:07.549 --> 00:16:11.595
You know, Milwaukee's Best
or the bottom-shelf bottles of wine.

306
00:16:12.721 --> 00:16:16.392
I'd come home each day from school…
I was about six.

307
00:16:17.059 --> 00:16:23.440
I would find Mom just passed out
on the couch day after day after day.

308
00:16:23.524 --> 00:16:25.776
It became this normal occurrence and…

309
00:16:27.945 --> 00:16:31.240
I feel like
I didn't realize it at the time,

310
00:16:31.323 --> 00:16:35.411
but I kind of thought it was…
kind of thought it was my fault, you know.

311
00:16:37.037 --> 00:16:40.249
As things started unraveling,
Mom's drinking got worse.

312
00:16:40.749 --> 00:16:44.920
Now don't get me wrong, my mom
was a good person with a good heart

313
00:16:45.004 --> 00:16:46.797
and a hilarious sense of humor.

314
00:16:46.880 --> 00:16:50.676
Somewhere along the way, she'd simply lost
a sense of meaning in her life.

315
00:16:50.759 --> 00:16:53.262
And I knew
the only way for me to break the cycle,

316
00:16:53.345 --> 00:16:56.140
the only way for me to find
the meaning that she'd lost,

317
00:16:56.223 --> 00:16:58.392
was to make a lot of money when I grew up.

318
00:17:01.895 --> 00:17:03.814
I remember back when I was a teenager,

319
00:17:04.356 --> 00:17:07.067
I spent most of my summers
working for my dad,

320
00:17:07.151 --> 00:17:09.319
painting and hanging wallpaper.

321
00:17:09.403 --> 00:17:12.865
And you should have seen
some of the houses we worked in.

322
00:17:12.948 --> 00:17:16.201
Some of them were unbelievably fancy.

323
00:17:16.827 --> 00:17:19.038
Ten thousand square foot garages,

324
00:17:19.121 --> 00:17:21.040
indoor swimming pools,

325
00:17:21.123 --> 00:17:22.750
private bowling alleys.

326
00:17:23.250 --> 00:17:27.713
Nothing I aspired to own myself,
but it was pretty impressive.

327
00:17:27.796 --> 00:17:33.469
And then, one day, we started to work
on this really, really nice house.

328
00:17:33.552 --> 00:17:36.305
It wasn't like
a multi-million-dollar nice house,

329
00:17:36.388 --> 00:17:39.600
but it was something nicer
than my mom or dad had ever owned.

330
00:17:39.683 --> 00:17:41.351
The walls in their home,

331
00:17:41.435 --> 00:17:44.730
they were decorated with the smiling faces
of friends and family

332
00:17:44.813 --> 00:17:47.149
that affirmed the happiness
in their lives.

333
00:17:47.232 --> 00:17:51.695
And the stuff in their home,
it filled every nook and cranny.

334
00:17:52.279 --> 00:17:54.406
I pictured myself living there.

335
00:17:54.490 --> 00:17:59.495
I pictured how happy I would be
if I could just own a house like that,

336
00:17:59.578 --> 00:18:01.705
filled with all that stuff.

337
00:18:02.998 --> 00:18:05.584
So, I turned to my dad and I asked him,

338
00:18:05.667 --> 00:18:09.713
"How much do I need to make
in order to own a house like this?"

339
00:18:10.714 --> 00:18:15.427
He looked at me and he said,
"Son, if you can make $50,0000 a year,

340
00:18:15.928 --> 00:18:18.806
you could probably afford
a place like this."

341
00:18:19.306 --> 00:18:22.768
So that became my benchmark. $50,000.

342
00:18:23.894 --> 00:18:26.396
Then, during my senior year
of high school,

343
00:18:26.897 --> 00:18:30.943
Josh and I, we were sitting
at the lonely lunchroom table together,

344
00:18:31.026 --> 00:18:31.902
and we started to talk

345
00:18:31.985 --> 00:18:35.614
about what we were going to do
with our lives after we graduated.

346
00:18:35.697 --> 00:18:38.242
So I told him,
"I don't know what I'm going to do,

347
00:18:38.325 --> 00:18:43.163
but if I can find a way
to make $50,000 a year,

348
00:18:43.664 --> 00:18:45.249
I know that I'll be happy."

349
00:18:46.250 --> 00:18:49.545
So that's what I went and did.
That's what Josh went and did.

350
00:18:49.628 --> 00:18:53.423
We got sales jobs
and we started earning 50 grand.

351
00:18:54.383 --> 00:18:55.759
But something went wrong.

352
00:18:55.843 --> 00:18:58.804
I wasn't happy.
I had to go back to the drawing board.

353
00:18:58.887 --> 00:19:01.974
And thank goodness,
I found out what had happened.

354
00:19:02.683 --> 00:19:05.394
I forgot to adjust for inflation.

355
00:19:06.645 --> 00:19:07.813
So I thought to myself,

356
00:19:07.896 --> 00:19:11.483
"Well, maybe $65,000 a year,
maybe that was happiness.

357
00:19:11.567 --> 00:19:13.277
Or maybe 90,000,

358
00:19:13.360 --> 00:19:15.696
or maybe six figures,

359
00:19:15.779 --> 00:19:19.366
or maybe owning a bunch of stuff.

360
00:19:19.449 --> 00:19:21.702
Maybe that was happiness."

361
00:19:21.785 --> 00:19:23.453
Whatever happiness was,

362
00:19:23.954 --> 00:19:28.542
I knew, once I got there,
I'd finally feel free.

363
00:19:29.501 --> 00:19:33.839
I bought new cars, and electronics,
and closets full of expensive clothes.

364
00:19:33.922 --> 00:19:36.717
I bought expensive home decorations
and furniture,

365
00:19:36.800 --> 00:19:39.428
and I always had the latest gadgets.

366
00:19:39.511 --> 00:19:43.390
And when there wasn't enough cash
in the bank, I paid for expensive meals,

367
00:19:43.473 --> 00:19:47.477
rounds of drinks, and frivolous vacations
with credit cards.

368
00:19:48.103 --> 00:19:53.525
As I made more money, I spent more money,
all in the pursuit of happiness.

369
00:19:53.609 --> 00:19:56.486
All in the pursuit of the American dream.

370
00:19:58.113 --> 00:19:59.656
[man] One thing I think is unique is

371
00:19:59.740 --> 00:20:03.118
when you're an immigrant,
the American dream is still a good thing.

372
00:20:03.202 --> 00:20:05.913
I think it's only people
who grew up in the American dream

373
00:20:05.996 --> 00:20:07.539
that no longer value the American dream,

374
00:20:07.623 --> 00:20:09.249
because it's become
the American nightmare.

375
00:20:09.333 --> 00:20:13.545
[Annie] People in the US work longer hours
than almost any industrialized country,

376
00:20:13.629 --> 00:20:17.466
depending on which data you look at,
but we work enormously long hours.

377
00:20:17.549 --> 00:20:21.220
We work as long hours
as people did during feudal society.

378
00:20:21.303 --> 00:20:23.847
We have such short vacations, if any.

379
00:20:23.931 --> 00:20:26.183
Half the country doesn't even take
two weeks of vacation.

380
00:20:26.266 --> 00:20:28.560
We're commuting longer hours
than ever before,

381
00:20:28.644 --> 00:20:32.814
and then we're spending more time alone
in front of screens than ever before.

382
00:20:32.898 --> 00:20:36.235
We're losing the stuff
that actually makes us happy

383
00:20:36.318 --> 00:20:38.487
and makes society more safe and secure,

384
00:20:38.570 --> 00:20:39.863
which is community.

385
00:20:40.364 --> 00:20:41.865
Um, we're losing that

386
00:20:41.949 --> 00:20:45.244
and changing that time
to work and buy more stuff.

387
00:20:46.119 --> 00:20:50.874
[Erwin] What you don't want in your life
is this endless horizon of aspiration.

388
00:20:50.958 --> 00:20:53.460
"I just need a bit more of this
or a little bit more of that.

389
00:20:53.543 --> 00:20:55.879
I need more success,
more income, more wealth,

390
00:20:55.963 --> 00:21:00.592
a bigger house, bigger car, bigger this,"
because that's just an endless black hole.

391
00:21:00.676 --> 00:21:03.303
When we get all of the things
that we want,

392
00:21:03.387 --> 00:21:08.225
we tend to be wrong in the predictions
that we made about how happy we would be,

393
00:21:08.308 --> 00:21:10.727
because the brain normalizes those things.

394
00:21:10.811 --> 00:21:13.230
After a few months of that,
you normalize it,

395
00:21:13.313 --> 00:21:15.899
and you say,
"All right, that was great at the time,

396
00:21:15.983 --> 00:21:19.319
but now I have a new set of desires,
a new set of dreams,"

397
00:21:19.403 --> 00:21:21.571
and everything that is the ceiling today

398
00:21:21.655 --> 00:21:25.993
becomes just the ground floor
for a new level you're trying to get to.

399
00:21:26.076 --> 00:21:29.913
And so, really what the American dream is
is this sense of freedom.

400
00:21:29.997 --> 00:21:33.250
Now how do you get that?
Just by gathering up more money?

401
00:21:33.333 --> 00:21:34.251
Nope, won't do it.

402
00:21:34.876 --> 00:21:36.920
Not if you gather up yet more stuff

403
00:21:37.546 --> 00:21:40.507
to go with your more money,
because you're still gonna be teetering.

404
00:21:40.590 --> 00:21:43.385
You just added zeros to your stupidity
is all you did then.

405
00:21:43.468 --> 00:21:48.807
And so, what happens is you have to learn
to contract your, in quotes, "needs,"

406
00:21:48.890 --> 00:21:52.269
so that you can create
a buffer around your life

407
00:21:52.352 --> 00:21:54.855
and create this independence
to where you've got enough savings

408
00:21:54.938 --> 00:21:58.066
that you can say, "Take this job
and shove it," if you need to.

409
00:21:58.150 --> 00:22:00.652
You don't have a bunch of debt
pounding down on your head,

410
00:22:00.736 --> 00:22:03.613
buying things that you don't really need

411
00:22:03.697 --> 00:22:05.490
with money you don't really have

412
00:22:05.574 --> 00:22:07.576
to impress people
you don't even really like.

413
00:22:07.659 --> 00:22:10.996
And so, what you've done there
is you gave up your independence,

414
00:22:11.079 --> 00:22:13.123
you gave up your freedom…

415
00:22:13.999 --> 00:22:16.626
in return for some stuff

416
00:22:16.710 --> 00:22:19.921
that's gonna be worth nothing
in next year's garage sale.

417
00:22:20.005 --> 00:22:24.009
[Erwin] You almost have buyer's remorse,
and you also have this gambler's dilemma

418
00:22:24.092 --> 00:22:26.428
where you gambled for this
and now you have it.

419
00:22:26.511 --> 00:22:29.431
Do you want to give it up
even though it makes you unhappy?

420
00:22:29.931 --> 00:22:32.100
So I think a part of the process
for all of us

421
00:22:32.184 --> 00:22:35.145
is making sure we actually
are going after what we truly want.

422
00:22:35.228 --> 00:22:38.273
And when we have something,
to do an honest evaluation of going,

423
00:22:38.357 --> 00:22:41.777
"Is this something I want to define
my life? Do I really want to keep this?"

424
00:22:44.738 --> 00:22:48.367
[Ryan] Chasing the American dream,
it cost me so much more than money.

425
00:22:48.450 --> 00:22:53.246
My life was filled with stress,
and anxiety, and discontent.

426
00:22:53.872 --> 00:22:57.501
It got to a point in my life
where I didn't know what was important.

427
00:22:57.584 --> 00:22:59.086
But one thing was clear.

428
00:22:59.586 --> 00:23:03.465
I had this gaping void in my life.

429
00:23:03.548 --> 00:23:09.221
So I tried to fill that void
the same way many people do, with stuff.

430
00:23:09.888 --> 00:23:13.975
I continued to work 60, 70,
sometimes 80 hours a week,

431
00:23:14.059 --> 00:23:17.396
forsaking some of the most important
aspects of my life.

432
00:23:17.479 --> 00:23:21.066
I barely thought about my health,
or my relationships,

433
00:23:21.149 --> 00:23:23.193
or things that I was passionate about.

434
00:23:23.276 --> 00:23:25.362
I was living paycheck to paycheck.

435
00:23:25.445 --> 00:23:27.322
Living for a paycheck.

436
00:23:27.406 --> 00:23:29.032
Living for stuff.

437
00:23:30.534 --> 00:23:33.161
[Joshua] It's like I was swerving
from credit card purchases

438
00:23:33.245 --> 00:23:34.913
to reckless spending

439
00:23:34.996 --> 00:23:40.335
to accumulating debt to maintain
a lifestyle I didn't even enjoy.

440
00:23:41.002 --> 00:23:44.506
I had all of the stuff to fill
every corner of my consumer-driven life.

441
00:23:44.589 --> 00:23:49.594
Giant televisions, fine china,
stainless steel appliances,

442
00:23:49.678 --> 00:23:53.932
marble countertops,
expensive watches, tailored suits

443
00:23:54.015 --> 00:23:57.978
and more, and more, and so much more.

444
00:23:59.271 --> 00:24:03.733
Then, toward the end of 2008,
actually it was two days before Christmas,

445
00:24:04.276 --> 00:24:05.610
I got a phone call from Mom.

446
00:24:06.528 --> 00:24:08.947
She had just moved down to Florida
earlier that year

447
00:24:09.030 --> 00:24:11.741
to finally retire on Social Security.

448
00:24:12.409 --> 00:24:18.081
But on December 23rd, she found out
she had Stage IV lung cancer.

449
00:24:19.916 --> 00:24:22.419
And in less than a year, she was gone.

450
00:24:23.587 --> 00:24:26.381
I spent a lot of time with Mom
that year down in Florida

451
00:24:26.465 --> 00:24:30.343
as she struggled
through her chemo and radiation.

452
00:24:30.427 --> 00:24:33.972
But when she passed, I realized
I needed to make one last visit.

453
00:24:34.681 --> 00:24:37.309
And this time,
it was to deal with her stuff.

454
00:24:38.310 --> 00:24:42.439
So I flew from Dayton, Ohio,
down to St. Pete Beach, Florida.

455
00:24:43.106 --> 00:24:45.192
When I arrived, do you know what I found?

456
00:24:57.662 --> 00:24:58.580
Stuff.

457
00:24:59.080 --> 00:25:03.668
Like three houses worth of stuff crammed
into Mom's tiny one-bedroom apartment.

458
00:25:03.752 --> 00:25:06.087
Now, it's not like Mom was a hoarder.

459
00:25:06.171 --> 00:25:08.924
I mean, I didn't find any dead cats
in her freezer.

460
00:25:09.633 --> 00:25:11.551
But she owned a lot of stuff.

461
00:25:12.135 --> 00:25:14.638
Sixty-five years' worth of accumulations.

462
00:25:14.721 --> 00:25:16.681
Did you know
the average American household

463
00:25:16.765 --> 00:25:19.184
has more than 300,000 items in it?

464
00:25:19.601 --> 00:25:21.019
300,000!

465
00:25:21.520 --> 00:25:25.649
Just take a look around at your average
basement, or attic, or garage.

466
00:25:25.732 --> 00:25:26.608
What do you see?

467
00:25:26.691 --> 00:25:29.819
Unused sporting goods, exercise equipment,

468
00:25:29.903 --> 00:25:32.948
camping gear, holiday decorations,

469
00:25:33.031 --> 00:25:35.909
musical instruments, spare parts,

470
00:25:35.992 --> 00:25:37.911
outdated electronics,

471
00:25:37.994 --> 00:25:41.414
random cords and miscellaneous cables,

472
00:25:41.498 --> 00:25:45.043
magazines, and cassette tapes,
and compact discs,

473
00:25:45.126 --> 00:25:48.004
tchotchkes, and knickknacks, and trinkets,

474
00:25:48.088 --> 00:25:51.132
and all the things
we forgot we even owned.

475
00:25:51.216 --> 00:25:57.013
Boxes, and bins,
and entire rooms stuffed with stuff.

476
00:25:58.223 --> 00:26:01.768
We had so much. So much stuff.

477
00:26:01.851 --> 00:26:03.979
My closet was out of control.

478
00:26:04.062 --> 00:26:07.649
So I had a closet full of clothes.
I had a dresser full of clothes.

479
00:26:07.732 --> 00:26:10.652
Photography equipment, bicycle equipment.

480
00:26:10.735 --> 00:26:12.571
Skin care products, beauty products.

481
00:26:12.654 --> 00:26:14.447
Shoes, purses.

482
00:26:14.531 --> 00:26:16.700
I'd open the closet, stuff would fall out.

483
00:26:16.783 --> 00:26:19.244
I don't know why,
but I had three soccer cleats,

484
00:26:19.327 --> 00:26:22.163
even though
I don't really even play soccer. [laughs]

485
00:26:22.247 --> 00:26:25.125
You know, things people had given me
throughout the years,

486
00:26:25.208 --> 00:26:27.919
whether those be cards, or objects,

487
00:26:28.003 --> 00:26:31.298
or tokens that I'd kept
from different events we'd gone to.

488
00:26:31.381 --> 00:26:34.551
But it was just a never-ending,
uh, you know, turnstile

489
00:26:34.634 --> 00:26:36.595
of, uh, "I need this. I need that."

490
00:26:37.345 --> 00:26:39.139
[woman] It's so easy to buy things

491
00:26:39.222 --> 00:26:42.100
that we think are the solution
to our problems.

492
00:26:42.183 --> 00:26:46.187
I remember when I had babies,
and I really wanted them to sleep well,

493
00:26:46.271 --> 00:26:50.442
and I thought I just needed the perfect
sleep device in order to make that happen.

494
00:26:50.525 --> 00:26:53.069
So I had probably
four different types of swaddles,

495
00:26:53.153 --> 00:26:55.780
multiple different types
of zip-up sleep devices.

496
00:26:55.864 --> 00:26:59.451
There are… If you go on Amazon,
you can find there are dozens and dozens

497
00:26:59.534 --> 00:27:03.330
of different types of mechanisms
to get babies to sleep.

498
00:27:03.413 --> 00:27:05.498
Pieces of equipment that you can buy.

499
00:27:05.582 --> 00:27:10.712
But the reality is that getting babies
to sleep is just really hard,

500
00:27:10.795 --> 00:27:15.425
and we can fall into this trap of trying
to buy our way out of the hard times.

501
00:27:15.508 --> 00:27:19.304
And it's… it's often not very successful
and very expensive.

502
00:27:19.387 --> 00:27:22.515
[T.K.] I actually think the best way
to know if you have too many things

503
00:27:22.599 --> 00:27:25.852
isn't by waiting to see
if you run out of room to keep them,

504
00:27:25.935 --> 00:27:30.231
but asking yourself if you've run out
of purposeful things to do with them.

505
00:27:30.315 --> 00:27:32.609
When you've run out of purposeful things
to do with things,

506
00:27:32.692 --> 00:27:35.862
even if you only have one thing,
you already have too many things.

507
00:27:35.945 --> 00:27:40.784
The reason we are so depressed
and so empty when we have so much

508
00:27:41.534 --> 00:27:45.413
is that if you get more
of the wrong thing, it becomes less.

509
00:27:45.497 --> 00:27:47.999
There are deeper things that…
that fulfill us.

510
00:27:48.083 --> 00:27:50.210
Our need for meaning,
our need for progress,

511
00:27:50.293 --> 00:27:52.003
our need for intimacy.

512
00:27:52.629 --> 00:27:55.131
The reason the message of minimalism
is so powerful

513
00:27:55.215 --> 00:27:59.052
is because we're bingeing
on all the wrong things,

514
00:27:59.594 --> 00:28:03.098
and we're dying of hunger
for the things that really matter.

515
00:28:06.976 --> 00:28:10.438
But, of course,
most of us aren't hoarders, right?

516
00:28:11.856 --> 00:28:12.941
No.

517
00:28:13.024 --> 00:28:14.943
We just hold on to a lot of stuff.

518
00:28:15.026 --> 00:28:17.445
We hold on to a lifetime
of collected memories.

519
00:28:18.071 --> 00:28:22.200
I know Mom certainly did, and I had
no idea what to do with any of it.

520
00:28:25.161 --> 00:28:27.580
So I did what any good son would do.

521
00:28:29.040 --> 00:28:29.958
I called U-Haul.

522
00:28:30.709 --> 00:28:33.628
I called U-Haul, and I asked
for the largest truck they had.

523
00:28:33.712 --> 00:28:36.548
In fact, I needed one so large
I had to wait an extra day

524
00:28:36.631 --> 00:28:39.175
until the 26-foot truck was available.

525
00:28:39.259 --> 00:28:42.721
As I waited for that U-Haul to arrive,
I invited some of Mom's friends over

526
00:28:42.804 --> 00:28:44.597
to help me sort through her stuff.

527
00:28:44.681 --> 00:28:49.728
I mean, there was just too much stuff
to go at it alone.

528
00:28:50.395 --> 00:28:53.440
Her living room was stuffed
with big antique furniture,

529
00:28:53.523 --> 00:28:55.108
and old paintings,

530
00:28:55.191 --> 00:28:57.777
and more doilies than I could count.

531
00:28:57.861 --> 00:28:59.320
And her kitchen was stuffed

532
00:28:59.404 --> 00:29:01.698
with hundreds of plates,
and cups, and bowls,

533
00:29:01.781 --> 00:29:03.992
and ill-assorted utensils.

534
00:29:04.075 --> 00:29:06.494
And her bathroom was stuffed

535
00:29:06.578 --> 00:29:10.498
with enough makeup,
and face creams, and hygiene products

536
00:29:10.582 --> 00:29:13.001
to start a small beauty supply business.

537
00:29:13.084 --> 00:29:16.588
And it looked like someone was running
a hotel out of her linen closet,

538
00:29:16.671 --> 00:29:19.799
which was stuffed
with mismatched bath towels,

539
00:29:19.883 --> 00:29:21.926
beach towels, and dish towels.

540
00:29:22.010 --> 00:29:24.429
Don't even get me started
on Mom's bedroom.

541
00:29:24.512 --> 00:29:29.267
I mean, why did Mom have 14 winter coats
stuffed into her bedroom closet?

542
00:29:29.809 --> 00:29:33.271
Come on. She lived in St. Pete Beach.

543
00:29:35.732 --> 00:29:40.361
So anyway, there I was attempting
to finish packing all of Mom's stuff

544
00:29:40.445 --> 00:29:42.906
when I looked under her bed.

545
00:29:47.535 --> 00:29:51.623
I noticed these four boxes,
these old printer paper boxes.

546
00:29:51.706 --> 00:29:52.707
Kind of heavy,

547
00:29:52.791 --> 00:29:55.084
sealed with excessive amounts
of packing tape.

548
00:29:56.002 --> 00:29:57.670
I noticed each box was labeled

549
00:29:57.754 --> 00:30:00.757
with just a number written on the side
in thick black marker.

550
00:30:01.883 --> 00:30:02.926
And I stood there…

551
00:30:03.760 --> 00:30:04.677
looking down…

552
00:30:05.887 --> 00:30:09.224
wondering what could possibly
be inside those boxes.

553
00:30:14.020 --> 00:30:16.856
Turns out it was
my old elementary school paperwork.

554
00:30:17.690 --> 00:30:19.776
Grades one through four.

555
00:30:20.819 --> 00:30:23.321
As I opened those boxes,
my curiosity ran wild,

556
00:30:23.404 --> 00:30:27.325
and I thought to myself, "Why was Mom
holding on to all that stupid paperwork?"

557
00:30:28.076 --> 00:30:31.704
But then all these memories
came rushing back, and it was obvious.

558
00:30:34.582 --> 00:30:37.460
Mom had been holding on to a piece of me.

559
00:30:38.044 --> 00:30:41.589
Mom was holding on to all the memories
inside those boxes. Right?

560
00:30:41.673 --> 00:30:42.799
But wait a minute.

561
00:30:42.882 --> 00:30:45.760
Those boxes had been sealed
for more than two decades.

562
00:30:45.844 --> 00:30:50.849
It was clear Mom hadn't been accessing
any of the memories inside those boxes,

563
00:30:50.932 --> 00:30:54.394
which helped me understand
something important for the first time.

564
00:30:55.520 --> 00:30:58.231
Our memories are not in our things.

565
00:30:59.315 --> 00:31:01.317
Our memories are inside us.

566
00:31:01.401 --> 00:31:03.736
You see,
Mom didn't need to hold on to those boxes

567
00:31:03.820 --> 00:31:05.238
to hold on to a piece of me.

568
00:31:05.905 --> 00:31:07.699
I was never inside those boxes.

569
00:31:08.533 --> 00:31:12.412
But then I looked around her apartment,
I looked around at all her stuff,

570
00:31:12.495 --> 00:31:15.623
and I realized I was getting ready
to do the same thing.

571
00:31:15.707 --> 00:31:17.458
If I'm being honest with myself,

572
00:31:17.542 --> 00:31:20.503
I was just gonna selfishly cling
to most of Mom's stuff.

573
00:31:20.587 --> 00:31:23.172
But, of course,
I wasn't gonna get any real value from it

574
00:31:23.256 --> 00:31:25.425
as it sat there locked away in perpetuity.

575
00:31:25.508 --> 00:31:27.468
But the truth is that, by letting go,

576
00:31:27.552 --> 00:31:29.929
I realized I could add value
to other people's lives.

577
00:31:30.013 --> 00:31:34.601
So I donated most of her stuff
to her friends and to local charities,

578
00:31:34.684 --> 00:31:37.478
finding the stuff a new home.

579
00:31:37.562 --> 00:31:39.439
And the few items I was able to sell,

580
00:31:39.522 --> 00:31:42.233
I was able to take that money
and donate it to the two charities

581
00:31:42.317 --> 00:31:45.278
that helped Mom
through her chemo and radiation.

582
00:31:46.195 --> 00:31:51.034
You see, I realized
I could contribute beyond myself

583
00:31:51.117 --> 00:31:53.119
if I was willing to let go.

584
00:31:54.871 --> 00:31:56.497
When I finally returned to Ohio,

585
00:31:56.581 --> 00:31:59.918
I returned with just a handful
of sentimental items.

586
00:32:00.001 --> 00:32:02.670
An old painting, a few photographs,

587
00:32:02.754 --> 00:32:04.589
maybe even a doily or two,

588
00:32:04.672 --> 00:32:08.009
which helped me understand
that by having fewer sentimental items,

589
00:32:08.092 --> 00:32:11.304
we're able to enjoy
those sentimental items much more.

590
00:32:11.387 --> 00:32:14.265
I get far more value
from the few items I kept

591
00:32:14.349 --> 00:32:18.561
than if I were to water them down
with dozens or even hundreds of trinkets.

592
00:32:18.645 --> 00:32:22.732
Ultimately, I had to let go
of what was weighing me down

593
00:32:22.815 --> 00:32:24.233
before I could move on.

594
00:32:24.776 --> 00:32:25.693
To move on…

595
00:32:26.569 --> 00:32:29.572
I had to take an inventory of my own life.

596
00:32:31.741 --> 00:32:35.078
Turns out I had an organized life.

597
00:32:35.662 --> 00:32:38.748
But really,
I was just a well-organized hoarder.

598
00:32:38.831 --> 00:32:40.792
And if you would've looked
beneath the surface,

599
00:32:40.875 --> 00:32:43.878
you would have found a lifetime
of unchecked consumption.

600
00:32:44.504 --> 00:32:46.297
As companies continue to innovate,

601
00:32:46.381 --> 00:32:49.592
our ability to show restraint
is getting more and more difficult.

602
00:32:49.676 --> 00:32:50.885
Outsourced labor

603
00:32:50.969 --> 00:32:54.597
combined with advancements
in shipping, manufacturing, and logistics

604
00:32:54.681 --> 00:32:58.226
has dropped the cost of consumer products
to an all-time low.

605
00:32:58.309 --> 00:33:01.980
And now, with one-click purchasing,
same-day delivery,

606
00:33:02.063 --> 00:33:04.857
and a society
that has normalized credit card debt,

607
00:33:04.941 --> 00:33:06.901
we've dug ourselves into a hole.

608
00:33:07.694 --> 00:33:10.905
The average American
carries four credit cards in their wallet

609
00:33:10.989 --> 00:33:13.992
and the average credit card debt
for indebted households

610
00:33:14.075 --> 00:33:16.661
is more than $16,000.

611
00:33:16.744 --> 00:33:20.915
Each year, we spend more
on shoes, jewelry, and watches

612
00:33:20.999 --> 00:33:22.667
than on higher education.

613
00:33:23.376 --> 00:33:26.629
[Denaye] I remember when I was a kid,
there was something called layaway.

614
00:33:26.713 --> 00:33:29.465
We'd go to the department store
and pick out our school clothes,

615
00:33:29.549 --> 00:33:30.967
and my mom would put it on layaway,

616
00:33:31.050 --> 00:33:34.429
which meant she would go and make payments
once a week for several weeks

617
00:33:34.512 --> 00:33:37.432
until she paid all of it off
when she had all the money paid in.

618
00:33:37.515 --> 00:33:39.434
That's when we got
to bring home the stuff.

619
00:33:39.517 --> 00:33:42.687
This concept does not exist now.
If you want the stuff,

620
00:33:42.770 --> 00:33:44.939
you put the credit card down
and take it right away.

621
00:33:45.023 --> 00:33:48.484
And I think that functional change
in the way that we buy

622
00:33:48.568 --> 00:33:51.738
has made a difference
in what our expectations are

623
00:33:51.821 --> 00:33:54.574
and a sort of sense of entitlement
about what we should have,

624
00:33:54.657 --> 00:33:57.994
and when we should have it,
and if we should have to wait for it.

625
00:33:58.077 --> 00:34:02.373
[Dave] America, sadly, has gotten
increasingly emotionally immature.

626
00:34:02.457 --> 00:34:04.876
"I want it, and I want it now,

627
00:34:04.959 --> 00:34:07.128
and I deserve it because I breathe air."

628
00:34:07.754 --> 00:34:10.339
This is a four-year-old child
in the cereal aisle

629
00:34:10.423 --> 00:34:12.633
throwing a fit
because they can't have Froot Loops.

630
00:34:13.426 --> 00:34:16.888
And yet it's a 54-year-old woman
I'm talking to or man I'm talking to,

631
00:34:16.971 --> 00:34:19.265
'cause he can't buy
this little item he wants,

632
00:34:19.348 --> 00:34:21.267
'cause he doesn't have the money.

633
00:34:21.350 --> 00:34:25.354
Guess what? You're never gonna have
the money for everything you want.

634
00:34:26.105 --> 00:34:29.942
[T.K.] The kind of debt that creates
the most problems in our society

635
00:34:30.026 --> 00:34:34.072
comes from a felt need
to keep up with appearances.

636
00:34:34.155 --> 00:34:40.286
Placing unnecessary burdens on yourself
in order to maintain some kind of image.

637
00:34:40.369 --> 00:34:43.414
If I can't afford a BMW,

638
00:34:43.498 --> 00:34:46.626
but I go into debt
in order to acquire one,

639
00:34:46.709 --> 00:34:50.296
I'm doing that because
I-I want the… the social rewards, right,

640
00:34:50.379 --> 00:34:53.508
of… of being seen
as a certain kind of person.

641
00:34:53.591 --> 00:34:55.510
Once your basic needs are met,

642
00:34:55.593 --> 00:34:58.805
the way that we as humans
determine what is enough

643
00:34:58.888 --> 00:35:01.140
is relative to the people around us.

644
00:35:01.224 --> 00:35:04.602
Um, and so, that's where the saying
"keeping up with the Joneses" came up.

645
00:35:04.685 --> 00:35:07.313
We judge our furniture,
our clothes, our car

646
00:35:07.396 --> 00:35:09.398
based on the people around us.

647
00:35:09.482 --> 00:35:13.486
It used to be that the people around us
were of similar socioeconomic background.

648
00:35:13.569 --> 00:35:16.114
So we were like, "It's cool.
We all got the same stuff."

649
00:35:16.197 --> 00:35:19.742
But now, with the onslaught
of television and social media,

650
00:35:19.826 --> 00:35:23.329
they have what's called the vertical
expansion of our reference group.

651
00:35:23.412 --> 00:35:26.332
Now I'm comparing my hair
to Jennifer Aniston's.

652
00:35:26.415 --> 00:35:28.709
Now I'm comparing my house
to Kim Kardashian's.

653
00:35:28.793 --> 00:35:33.214
I think that we are more stressed
and discontented today than ever before,

654
00:35:33.297 --> 00:35:36.592
because we know so much more,
or we think we know so much more,

655
00:35:36.676 --> 00:35:40.388
about what's going on inside of the house
of our neighbors and our friends.

656
00:35:40.471 --> 00:35:44.851
And the comparison is so much stronger
than in generations past,

657
00:35:44.934 --> 00:35:48.771
and we're constantly comparing our lives
to other people's lives.

658
00:35:48.855 --> 00:35:51.524
And when we do that,
it rarely measures up.

659
00:35:51.607 --> 00:35:53.860
This generation,
more than previous generations,

660
00:35:53.943 --> 00:35:55.695
we have to learn
how to manage our attention,

661
00:35:55.778 --> 00:35:58.906
because there are so many people
competing for it

662
00:35:58.990 --> 00:36:02.034
and telling us, like,
"Look at this, and you'll be happy!"

663
00:36:02.118 --> 00:36:03.995
"Buy this, and you'll be happy!"

664
00:36:04.078 --> 00:36:07.290
And you have to step back from all of that
and say, "No, no, no.

665
00:36:07.373 --> 00:36:09.208
I first need time

666
00:36:09.292 --> 00:36:12.461
to come up with my own ideas
about what's gonna make me happy."

667
00:36:14.922 --> 00:36:17.175
For me,
it all started with that one question.

668
00:36:17.842 --> 00:36:21.387
How might your life be better with less?

669
00:36:21.470 --> 00:36:25.308
By answering that question, I was able
to identify the purpose of minimalism.

670
00:36:25.391 --> 00:36:29.687
Not just the "how to,"
but the more important "why to."

671
00:36:29.770 --> 00:36:31.606
I realized, if I simplified my life,

672
00:36:31.689 --> 00:36:35.318
I'd have more time for my health,
my relationships,

673
00:36:35.401 --> 00:36:37.403
my creativity, my finances,

674
00:36:37.486 --> 00:36:41.032
and I could contribute beyond myself
in a meaningful way.

675
00:36:41.115 --> 00:36:44.911
You see, I was able to understand
the benefits of minimalism

676
00:36:44.994 --> 00:36:47.830
well before I ever cleaned out
a walk-in closet.

677
00:36:47.914 --> 00:36:52.376
And so, when it came time for me
to actually declutter, I started small.

678
00:36:52.460 --> 00:36:54.378
I asked myself another question.

679
00:36:54.462 --> 00:36:57.798
What if you removed
one material possession from your life

680
00:36:57.882 --> 00:37:00.718
each day for a month?
Just one. What would happen?

681
00:37:01.344 --> 00:37:05.473
Let me tell you. I got rid of way more
than 30 items in the first 30 days.

682
00:37:05.556 --> 00:37:07.516
Like way, way more.

683
00:37:07.600 --> 00:37:11.520
It became this kind of personal challenge,
discovering what I could get rid of.

684
00:37:11.604 --> 00:37:15.483
So I searched my rooms and closets,
my cabinets and hallways,

685
00:37:15.566 --> 00:37:17.235
my car and office,

686
00:37:17.318 --> 00:37:19.403
rummaging for items to part with,

687
00:37:19.487 --> 00:37:23.324
retaining only the things
that added value to my life.

688
00:37:24.575 --> 00:37:27.161
Pondering each artifact
in my home, I'd ask,

689
00:37:27.662 --> 00:37:30.039
"Does this thing add value to my life?"

690
00:37:30.831 --> 00:37:33.834
The more I asked this question,
the more I gained momentum

691
00:37:33.918 --> 00:37:36.879
and embracing minimalism
got easier by the day.

692
00:37:37.588 --> 00:37:40.925
The more you do it, the freer,
and happier, and lighter you feel,

693
00:37:41.008 --> 00:37:42.551
and the more you wanna throw overboard.

694
00:37:42.635 --> 00:37:45.304
For me, a few shirts led to half a closet.

695
00:37:45.388 --> 00:37:50.476
A few DVDs led to deep-sixing
an entire library of unused discs.

696
00:37:50.559 --> 00:37:51.936
A few decorative items

697
00:37:52.019 --> 00:37:54.814
led to junk drawers
who shed their adjective.

698
00:37:54.897 --> 00:37:59.318
It's a beautiful cycle. The more action
you take, the more you wanna take action.

699
00:38:00.695 --> 00:38:03.197
Once I started to get rid of stuff,

700
00:38:03.281 --> 00:38:05.491
it was just like the momentum
just took over.

701
00:38:05.574 --> 00:38:08.452
It was a snowball that I could not stop.

702
00:38:08.536 --> 00:38:11.455
I was ready to throw out
as many things as possible.

703
00:38:11.539 --> 00:38:15.042
[Rechna] When you open up those drawers
and look at what's in the back of them,

704
00:38:15.126 --> 00:38:17.003
I don't think I even realized

705
00:38:17.086 --> 00:38:20.548
half the stuff that we had
hidden away in closets and in drawers.

706
00:38:20.631 --> 00:38:24.593
[Victor] It… It really helped by focusing
on just one part of the house,

707
00:38:24.677 --> 00:38:25.928
instead of just thinking,

708
00:38:26.012 --> 00:38:30.141
"Oh, wow, I have 35 years of things
in my house that I need to get rid of."

709
00:38:30.224 --> 00:38:33.019
[Michael] We got rid
of our storage rental.

710
00:38:33.102 --> 00:38:35.980
A huge storage rental
that we'd been paying for for years

711
00:38:36.063 --> 00:38:38.691
and didn't really even know
what was in there, gone.

712
00:38:38.774 --> 00:38:41.610
I remember going through my CD collection,

713
00:38:41.694 --> 00:38:45.614
and I couldn't even remember
if I had a CD player in my car.

714
00:38:45.698 --> 00:38:49.076
That was the one thing that made me think,
"That's probably a reason

715
00:38:49.160 --> 00:38:53.581
for me not to hold on to these CDs anymore
if I don't even know if I can play them."

716
00:38:53.664 --> 00:38:56.625
As I began to get rid of things,

717
00:38:56.709 --> 00:39:00.629
one at a time, I just felt so much freer.

718
00:39:00.713 --> 00:39:01.797
There was freedom.

719
00:39:01.881 --> 00:39:04.967
When I started going through it,
I got rid of 14 pairs of pants.

720
00:39:05.051 --> 00:39:06.635
I couldn't believe
how high the stack was.

721
00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:09.680
And so, I actually, you know,
went through and counted them,

722
00:39:09.764 --> 00:39:12.516
and I'm like,
"14 pairs of pants sitting in the closet!"

723
00:39:12.600 --> 00:39:14.143
[Michael] We put our house up for sale,

724
00:39:14.226 --> 00:39:17.146
because
we just wanted to really start fresh

725
00:39:17.229 --> 00:39:19.690
and just grab life, you know, and…

726
00:39:19.774 --> 00:39:20.733
and really be free.

727
00:39:20.816 --> 00:39:24.570
It was a very freeing feeling, um,
to just get started,

728
00:39:24.653 --> 00:39:26.405
and so I… I ran with it.

729
00:39:29.367 --> 00:39:32.536
[Joshua] Over the course of eight months
after my mother died,

730
00:39:32.620 --> 00:39:36.916
I deliberately jettisoned
more than 90% of my material possessions.

731
00:39:36.999 --> 00:39:40.920
Although, if you visited my home today,
you probably wouldn't walk in and say,

732
00:39:41.837 --> 00:39:42.755
"Oh, my God!

733
00:39:44.173 --> 00:39:45.800
This guy's a minimalist!"

734
00:39:46.634 --> 00:39:51.180
No, you'd probably just ask
how we keep things so organized,

735
00:39:51.764 --> 00:39:54.850
and I'd just tell you
that my family and I, we don't own much,

736
00:39:54.934 --> 00:39:58.354
but everything we do own
adds real value to our lives.

737
00:39:58.437 --> 00:40:00.398
Each of our belongings,

738
00:40:00.481 --> 00:40:04.193
our clothes, our car,
our kitchenware, our furniture

739
00:40:04.276 --> 00:40:05.403
has a function.

740
00:40:05.945 --> 00:40:09.073
As a minimalist,
every possession serves a purpose

741
00:40:09.156 --> 00:40:12.410
or it brings me joy,
and everything else is out of the way.

742
00:40:13.119 --> 00:40:14.787
With all that clutter cleared, I…

743
00:40:14.870 --> 00:40:18.082
I finally felt compelled
to start asking deeper questions.

744
00:40:18.707 --> 00:40:22.086
Questions like,
"When did I give so much meaning

745
00:40:22.169 --> 00:40:23.921
to all these material possessions?

746
00:40:24.672 --> 00:40:26.799
What is truly important in my life?

747
00:40:27.716 --> 00:40:29.468
Why have I been so discontented?

748
00:40:30.261 --> 00:40:34.598
Who is the person I want to become,
and how will I define my own success?"

749
00:40:35.182 --> 00:40:39.145
Now, these… these are tough questions
with difficult answers,

750
00:40:39.687 --> 00:40:43.524
but they've proven to be more important
than just trashing my excess stuff.

751
00:40:43.607 --> 00:40:47.945
And if we don't answer these questions
carefully, rigorously…

752
00:40:48.779 --> 00:40:51.615
then those closets
that we just decluttered

753
00:40:51.699 --> 00:40:54.952
will be brimming with new purchases
in the not-too-distant future.

754
00:40:56.579 --> 00:40:57.663
So, as I let go…

755
00:40:58.581 --> 00:41:01.917
and as I started facing
some of life's tougher questions…

756
00:41:03.043 --> 00:41:05.171
my life got simpler.

757
00:41:06.297 --> 00:41:08.591
The people around me
noticed something was different too.

758
00:41:09.592 --> 00:41:12.428
My best friend,
a guy named Ryan Nicodemus,

759
00:41:12.511 --> 00:41:15.222
whom I've known
since we were fat little fifth-graders…

760
00:41:15.931 --> 00:41:18.476
-he came to me one day and said…
-[thunder rumbles]

761
00:41:18.559 --> 00:41:20.478
[Joshua] "Why the hell are you so happy?"

762
00:41:21.812 --> 00:41:23.731
So I told him
about this thing called minimalism.

763
00:41:24.398 --> 00:41:27.610
And he said,
"What the hell is minimalism?"

764
00:41:28.110 --> 00:41:32.740
And so I said, "Minimalism
is the thing that gets us past the things,

765
00:41:32.823 --> 00:41:35.868
so we can make room
for life's most important things,

766
00:41:35.951 --> 00:41:39.580
which actually aren't things at all.

767
00:41:40.498 --> 00:41:41.499
You know what, Ryan?

768
00:41:41.582 --> 00:41:44.835
I think you might benefit
from this minimalism thing too, because…

769
00:41:46.462 --> 00:41:49.006
Well, because you've got a lot of shit."

770
00:41:52.259 --> 00:41:53.594
[engine turns over]

771
00:41:53.677 --> 00:41:55.554
[Ryan] That's when I remember really…

772
00:41:56.222 --> 00:41:59.475
really looking at what you were
doing different with your life.

773
00:41:59.558 --> 00:42:03.020
Like, I had to find out, like,
"Okay, what is Josh doing differently?"

774
00:42:03.103 --> 00:42:06.524
Because my life was so out of control.
I needed to make a change.

775
00:42:06.607 --> 00:42:08.943
You obviously had made some changes,
so that's…

776
00:42:09.026 --> 00:42:12.738
I remember that's when I invited you
for that really fancy lunch at Subway.

777
00:42:12.821 --> 00:42:15.533
-Yeah. [chuckles]
-And, uh, we sat down and…

778
00:42:16.492 --> 00:42:17.701
had… had our sandwiches,

779
00:42:17.785 --> 00:42:21.497
and I just remember asking you,
like, "Why the hell are you so happy?"

780
00:42:21.997 --> 00:42:24.667
And, you know, if it wasn't you

781
00:42:24.750 --> 00:42:27.002
-who told me about minimalism…
-[Joshua] Uh-huh.

782
00:42:27.086 --> 00:42:30.506
[Ryan] If it was anyone else, I don't know
if I would have been so quick

783
00:42:31.006 --> 00:42:33.759
to be willing to try it out.

784
00:42:34.760 --> 00:42:36.971
As we were sitting there,
having our lunch,

785
00:42:37.763 --> 00:42:41.267
he talked about how he'd spent
the last several months simplifying.

786
00:42:42.142 --> 00:42:43.310
Clearing the clutter.

787
00:42:43.894 --> 00:42:46.981
Making room
for life's most important things.

788
00:42:47.064 --> 00:42:50.025
So me, being the problem solver that I am,

789
00:42:50.568 --> 00:42:53.404
I decided to become a minimalist
right there on the spot.

790
00:42:53.487 --> 00:42:55.948
I looked up at Josh,
and I excitedly announced,

791
00:42:56.448 --> 00:43:01.203
"All right, man, I'm in. I'll do it!
I'm going to become a minimalist.

792
00:43:03.205 --> 00:43:04.081
Now what?"

793
00:43:04.164 --> 00:43:06.625
You see, I didn't want to spend
several months

794
00:43:06.709 --> 00:43:09.169
slowly paring down, like he had.

795
00:43:09.253 --> 00:43:13.007
I mean, that was great for him,
but I wanted faster results.

796
00:43:13.090 --> 00:43:16.427
So, we came up with a wild idea
called a packing party.

797
00:43:17.261 --> 00:43:20.723
We decided to pack all my belongings
as if I were moving.

798
00:43:20.806 --> 00:43:25.686
Then I would unpack only the items
I needed over the next three weeks.

799
00:43:25.769 --> 00:43:29.773
So Josh came over, and he literally
helped me box up everything.

800
00:43:29.857 --> 00:43:33.777
My clothes, my kitchenware,
my towels, my TVs,

801
00:43:33.861 --> 00:43:37.615
my electronics, my framed photographs
and paintings, my toiletries.

802
00:43:37.698 --> 00:43:41.493
Everything.
We literally pretended like I was moving.

803
00:43:41.577 --> 00:43:45.122
So after nine hours
and a couple of pizza deliveries,

804
00:43:45.205 --> 00:43:48.792
there Josh and I were,
sitting in my second living room,

805
00:43:48.876 --> 00:43:52.880
staring at these boxes
stacked halfway to my 12 ft. ceiling.

806
00:43:52.963 --> 00:43:54.506
Everything I owned,

807
00:43:55.007 --> 00:43:58.844
everything I had worked so hard for
over the last decade,

808
00:43:58.927 --> 00:44:00.971
it was all sitting there in that room.

809
00:44:01.055 --> 00:44:05.476
Just boxes stacked on top of boxes
stacked on top of boxes.

810
00:44:06.060 --> 00:44:08.437
Now each box was labeled really well

811
00:44:08.520 --> 00:44:11.023
so I'd know where to go
when I needed a particular item.

812
00:44:11.106 --> 00:44:13.192
Labels like "junk drawer,"

813
00:44:13.275 --> 00:44:14.985
"living room number one,"

814
00:44:15.069 --> 00:44:16.278
"kitchen utensils,"

815
00:44:16.362 --> 00:44:17.946
"junk drawer number seven."

816
00:44:18.030 --> 00:44:22.910
I spent the next 21 days
unpacking only the items I needed.

817
00:44:22.993 --> 00:44:25.412
My toothbrush, my bed and bed sheets,

818
00:44:25.496 --> 00:44:27.039
some clothes for work,

819
00:44:27.122 --> 00:44:29.124
the furniture I actually used,

820
00:44:29.208 --> 00:44:30.376
a tool set,

821
00:44:30.459 --> 00:44:31.502
some kitchenware.

822
00:44:31.585 --> 00:44:35.297
Just the things
that added value to my life.

823
00:44:35.381 --> 00:44:37.007
After three weeks…

824
00:44:38.133 --> 00:44:40.052
I had 80% of my stuff

825
00:44:40.135 --> 00:44:43.055
still sitting in those boxes.

826
00:44:43.138 --> 00:44:46.308
Just sitting there, un-accessed.

827
00:44:47.017 --> 00:44:48.727
You know, I looked at those boxes…

828
00:44:49.228 --> 00:44:51.438
I couldn't even remember
what was in most of 'em.

829
00:44:52.314 --> 00:44:55.859
All those things I brought into my life
to make me happy…

830
00:44:57.027 --> 00:44:58.612
they weren't doing their job.

831
00:44:58.696 --> 00:45:01.699
So that's when I decided to let go.
And you know what?

832
00:45:02.741 --> 00:45:06.203
I started to feel free
for the first time in my life.

833
00:45:06.787 --> 00:45:08.288
I got my time back.

834
00:45:09.415 --> 00:45:10.749
I got my life back.

835
00:45:11.667 --> 00:45:14.086
And as I changed my life,

836
00:45:14.169 --> 00:45:17.256
I was focused on community,
not consumerism.

837
00:45:18.048 --> 00:45:20.008
Giving, not taking.

838
00:45:21.051 --> 00:45:22.928
People, not stuff.

839
00:45:23.637 --> 00:45:27.975
It just made us really,
you know, reassess our lives,

840
00:45:28.058 --> 00:45:30.352
reassess our goals and our commitments.

841
00:45:30.436 --> 00:45:36.442
Friends, and family, and colleagues
have acknowledged a profound change in me.

842
00:45:36.525 --> 00:45:38.318
It's given me the opportunity

843
00:45:38.402 --> 00:45:42.197
to be that person
that I used to just talk about being.

844
00:45:42.281 --> 00:45:46.326
Because of the way that my values
have really been reorganized,

845
00:45:46.869 --> 00:45:50.122
I am grateful for every single second.

846
00:45:50.706 --> 00:45:53.917
Really, I began to find myself again.

847
00:45:54.668 --> 00:45:58.213
And for that, I am so thankful.

848
00:45:58.297 --> 00:45:59.423
Minimalism…

849
00:46:01.008 --> 00:46:02.384
it changed my life.

850
00:46:02.468 --> 00:46:05.888
This emotion washed over me.
You know, it was really overwhelming.

851
00:46:05.971 --> 00:46:11.477
And it was this feeling
of great abundance, you know.

852
00:46:11.560 --> 00:46:15.147
Like an abundance
where everything is fine.

853
00:46:15.230 --> 00:46:18.066
You have everything that you need,
all is well.

854
00:46:18.150 --> 00:46:19.359
And I don't think I'd…

855
00:46:20.486 --> 00:46:22.780
I get emotional
thinking back to it, right.

856
00:46:22.863 --> 00:46:24.156
[sniffles] Um…

857
00:46:24.740 --> 00:46:28.869
I don't think I had that feeling since
I was maybe four or five years old, so…

858
00:46:30.287 --> 00:46:34.082
This just deep knowing,
you know, that all I wanted,

859
00:46:34.166 --> 00:46:36.543
you know, all I was searching for,
all I needed…

860
00:46:37.419 --> 00:46:38.462
I already had it.

861
00:46:40.798 --> 00:46:43.342
[Ryan] A little over a year
after my packing party experiment,

862
00:46:43.425 --> 00:46:45.636
something unexpected happened.

863
00:46:45.719 --> 00:46:47.596
My boss called me on a Friday morning

864
00:46:47.679 --> 00:46:50.432
and told me to drive down
to Cincinnati that afternoon

865
00:46:50.516 --> 00:46:53.227
to meet him
at the company's Human Resources office.

866
00:46:53.310 --> 00:46:56.104
I walked into the conference room
and saw my boss

867
00:46:56.188 --> 00:46:59.650
and someone from HR sitting
on the other side of the conference table.

868
00:46:59.733 --> 00:47:01.568
My boss shook his head.

869
00:47:02.069 --> 00:47:03.654
"We've eliminated your position

870
00:47:03.737 --> 00:47:05.948
with the latest round of cuts,"
my boss said.

871
00:47:06.031 --> 00:47:08.492
"This change, it's effective immediately."

872
00:47:08.575 --> 00:47:11.912
After seven promotions
in less than a decade,

873
00:47:11.995 --> 00:47:13.956
I was laid off with no notice.

874
00:47:14.039 --> 00:47:16.500
And then I was surprised
by my next thought.

875
00:47:17.167 --> 00:47:19.920
"Isn't this the best thing
that could have happened?"

876
00:47:20.003 --> 00:47:22.756
It was like a huge weight
had been lifted off my shoulders.

877
00:47:22.840 --> 00:47:25.300
I knew it was time for me to move on,

878
00:47:25.384 --> 00:47:27.344
and this was the nudge I needed.

879
00:47:27.427 --> 00:47:29.346
My entire perspective had changed.

880
00:47:29.847 --> 00:47:33.183
And then I thought to myself,
"There might be some people out there

881
00:47:33.267 --> 00:47:35.310
who would find value in my story.

882
00:47:35.894 --> 00:47:38.438
Who would find value in our story."

883
00:47:39.273 --> 00:47:43.902
So Josh and I, we decided to do
what any two 30-year-old dudes would do.

884
00:47:44.862 --> 00:47:46.113
We started a blog.

885
00:47:47.281 --> 00:47:48.615
That was a decade ago.

886
00:47:48.699 --> 00:47:51.159
And you know what?
Something amazing happened.

887
00:47:51.243 --> 00:47:55.038
Fifty-two people visited our website
in the first month.

888
00:47:55.122 --> 00:47:57.916
I realize
that might sound unremarkable at first,

889
00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:00.460
but Josh and I, we were excited.

890
00:48:00.544 --> 00:48:03.130
And then other remarkable things
started happening.

891
00:48:03.213 --> 00:48:07.634
Fifty-two readers turned into 500,
500 turned into 5,000

892
00:48:07.718 --> 00:48:09.595
and now we have the privilege

893
00:48:09.678 --> 00:48:13.181
of sharing our message
with millions of people every year.

894
00:48:13.265 --> 00:48:15.767
It turns out,
when you add value to people's lives,

895
00:48:15.851 --> 00:48:19.563
they're pretty eager to share your story
with their friends and family

896
00:48:19.646 --> 00:48:21.690
to add value to their lives.

897
00:48:22.524 --> 00:48:24.526
It's fitting that we're back here.

898
00:48:24.610 --> 00:48:28.614
Not just in Dayton,
but here at Press, at this coffee shop,

899
00:48:28.697 --> 00:48:31.074
because this is
where it literally started for us.

900
00:48:31.158 --> 00:48:33.285
Even back
when we were in the corporate world,

901
00:48:33.368 --> 00:48:36.455
you and I would meet here,
and this was our place for creation.

902
00:48:36.538 --> 00:48:41.877
It was almost like we required this extra
space outside of the corporate world,

903
00:48:41.960 --> 00:48:44.254
outside of our cluttered personal lives,

904
00:48:44.338 --> 00:48:49.384
to come here, to figure out how to create,
how to simplify our lives.

905
00:48:49.468 --> 00:48:52.429
To take this sort of feeling
that we were experiencing

906
00:48:52.512 --> 00:48:54.389
and get it down onto the page.

907
00:48:55.057 --> 00:48:58.769
[Erwin] I think we should all be allowed
to Etch A Sketch our life and say,

908
00:48:58.852 --> 00:49:01.313
"I thought this is the life I wanted,
but it's not,

909
00:49:01.396 --> 00:49:03.148
and so I'm gonna start over again."

910
00:49:03.231 --> 00:49:06.485
If you have a longing, and a dream,
and a passion inside of you,

911
00:49:07.277 --> 00:49:10.781
why hold on to what you used to do
and who you used to be

912
00:49:11.406 --> 00:49:14.701
and… and lose who you want to become?

913
00:49:14.785 --> 00:49:17.621
No matter where we're at
on our journey towards less,

914
00:49:17.704 --> 00:49:20.457
we are always going to be pulled
in that direction.

915
00:49:20.540 --> 00:49:24.836
The direction of comparison, the direction
of being overwhelmed by the media.

916
00:49:25.420 --> 00:49:28.674
And the truth is
we have to constantly refocus ourselves.

917
00:49:28.757 --> 00:49:31.385
We make life unnecessarily complicated

918
00:49:31.468 --> 00:49:35.514
because we overlook or underestimate

919
00:49:35.597 --> 00:49:38.433
the… the sense of direction that can come

920
00:49:38.517 --> 00:49:42.270
from just taking a little time
to sit alone with ourselves,

921
00:49:42.354 --> 00:49:43.897
to sit in the quiet and say,

922
00:49:43.981 --> 00:49:46.858
"I'm not gonna get my ideas
about what a good life is

923
00:49:46.942 --> 00:49:49.611
from external sources of stimulation.

924
00:49:49.695 --> 00:49:53.281
I'm gonna listen to that inner voice
and see where that's guiding me."

925
00:49:53.365 --> 00:49:57.411
[Erwin] If people could just
make a decision to be fully alive,

926
00:49:57.494 --> 00:50:01.707
if they could just get rid of everything
that's sucking the life out of their soul,

927
00:50:01.790 --> 00:50:04.126
that's when you're gonna find
your passion.

928
00:50:04.209 --> 00:50:07.504
But your passion
will never be about yourself.

929
00:50:08.005 --> 00:50:12.009
Your passion will always be
about some good you can do in the world.

930
00:50:13.260 --> 00:50:16.471
That's why Josh and I
are right here right now.

931
00:50:16.555 --> 00:50:18.974
We really hope
we can add value to your life

932
00:50:19.057 --> 00:50:20.684
by encouraging you to let go.

933
00:50:21.184 --> 00:50:23.020
To imagine a life with more.

934
00:50:23.562 --> 00:50:26.565
More time, more meaningful relationships,

935
00:50:26.648 --> 00:50:29.735
more growth,
and contribution, and contentment.

936
00:50:29.818 --> 00:50:31.653
A life of passion,

937
00:50:31.737 --> 00:50:35.282
unencumbered by the trappings
of the chaotic world around you.

938
00:50:36.575 --> 00:50:39.911
What you're imagining
is an intentional life.

939
00:50:41.079 --> 00:50:42.330
Not a perfect life.

940
00:50:42.914 --> 00:50:44.124
Not even an easy life.

941
00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:46.001
But a simple one.

942
00:50:46.918 --> 00:50:51.798
And to get there, you might have to let go
of some stuff that's in the way.

943
00:50:53.175 --> 00:50:57.137
<i>♪ Clearing space</i>
<i>I found a moment taking shape ♪</i>

944
00:50:58.472 --> 00:51:02.601
<i>♪ Collect the memories</i>
<i>We put them into frames ♪</i>

945
00:51:03.852 --> 00:51:07.022
<i>♪ The beauty of our day-to-day ♪</i>

946
00:51:08.023 --> 00:51:13.445
<i>♪ Hung on walls inside this home we built</i>
<i>The life that we had made ♪</i>

947
00:51:18.158 --> 00:51:22.245
<i>♪ You kept my childhood</i>
<i>In a box beneath your bed ♪</i>

948
00:51:23.497 --> 00:51:27.584
<i>♪ My teenage years</i>
<i>Upon some shelves inside the shed ♪</i>

949
00:51:28.960 --> 00:51:31.922
<i>♪ My crayon portraits on your fridge ♪</i>

950
00:51:33.090 --> 00:51:35.467
<i>♪ You saved every souvenir ♪</i>

951
00:51:35.550 --> 00:51:38.220
<i>♪ 'Cause you were scared</i>
<i>You would forget ♪</i>

952
00:51:41.348 --> 00:51:43.934
<i>♪ You kept all of my stuff ♪</i>

953
00:51:46.228 --> 00:51:49.439
<i>♪ As if your love wasn't enough ♪</i>

954
00:51:52.984 --> 00:51:58.490
<i>♪ But I always knew your love for me</i>
<i>Was something glorious ♪</i>

955
00:52:02.327 --> 00:52:03.954
<i>♪ Glorious ♪</i>

956
00:52:08.625 --> 00:52:12.712
<i>♪ Want to make my life</i>
<i>A monument to you and me ♪</i>

957
00:52:14.172 --> 00:52:18.051
<i>♪ The everlasting us</i>
<i>The unrelenting we ♪</i>

958
00:52:19.511 --> 00:52:22.556
<i>♪ And when my body turns to dust ♪</i>

959
00:52:24.057 --> 00:52:29.187
<i>♪ Remember that my love for you</i>
<i>Was something glorious ♪</i>

960
00:52:33.024 --> 00:52:34.568
<i>♪ Glorious ♪</i>

961
00:52:38.321 --> 00:52:40.198
<i>♪ Glorious ♪</i>