The Simple Life Guide to Decluttering Your Life: The How-To Book of Doing More with Less and Focusing on the Things That Matter

By Gary Collins

Overwhelmed with unnecessary stress and piles of useless stuff? Discover how to ditch society’s expectations and live by your own rules.

Exhausted from chasing ill-fitting definitions of success? Struggling to manage your daily to-dos while failing to make progress on what truly matters? Author and digital nomad Gary Collins has thrived since walking away from a stable, unfulfilling job to build a joyful, debt-free, and off-the-grid lifestyle. After teaching thousands of people to step off the burnout treadmill, he's here to share the step-by-step process for living your dream.

The Simple Life Guide To Decluttering Your Life: The How-To Book of Doing More with Less and Focusing on the Things That Matter provides realistic solutions to guide you toward a genuinely happy life. With straightforward, no-nonsense advice, Collins demonstrates how to overcome crippling frustration to reorder your priorities. The book's path to your new purpose will help you once and for all usher in a healthier, better way of living.

In The Simple Life Guide To Decluttering Your Life, you’ll discover:

- What freedom really looks like and how to harness it

- Inspiring models for uncovering your purpose and vision

- A healthy money mindset to make your assets work for you

- A fresh outlook on your physical and mental health to invigorate you for your new lifestyle

- How to tidy up your life inside and out with actionable solutions, and much, much more!

The Simple Life Guide To Decluttering Your Life is the third book in an eye-opening series that provides time-tested steps to create your new definition of success. If you want to break free, be true to yourself, and live your best life, then you’ll love Gary Collins’ transformative advice.

Buy The Simple Life Guide To Decluttering Your Life to gain more by letting go today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Second Nature Publishing
• Release date: Jan 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781543962970

Gary Collins

Gary Collins was born in Hare Bay, Bonavista North. He spent fifty years in the logging and sawmilling business with his father, Theophilus, and son, Clint. Gary was once Newfoundland’s youngest fisheries guardian. He managed log drives down spring rivers for years, spent seven seasons driving tractor-trailers over ice roads and the Beaufort Sea of Canada’s Western Arctic, and has been involved in the crab, lobster, and cod commercial fisheries. In 2016, he joined the Canadian Rangers. Gary has written fifteen books, including the children’s illustrated book What Colour is the Ocean?, which he co-wrote with his granddaughter, Maggie Rose Parsons. That book won an Atlantic Book Award: The Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration. His book Mattie Mitchell: Newfoundland’s Greatest Frontiersman has been adapted for film. Gary’s first novel, The Last Beothuk, won the inaugural NL Reads literary competition, administered by the CBC, and was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award. Gary Collins is Newfoundland and Labrador’s favourite storyteller, and today he is known all over the province as the Story Man. He lives in Hare Bay with his wife, the former Rose Gill. They have three children and seven grandchildren.

Book preview

Introduction

What is This Book About?

If you want less clutter, less drama, and more happiness, you’re going to love this book. 

Not because I have the perfect system for organizing your closet, keeping your house clean, or clearing out your garage. My guess is you’re smart enough to figure that out on your own. The world is already cluttered with books on those topics anyway. But maybe you’ve noticed this too. . . .

Most of them miss the great big elephants in the room.

By this, I mean organizing your choices and freeing yourself from unnecessary clutter, anxiety, drama, and distractions. This goes far beyond getting rid of the piles of crap in your garage or your spare bedroom. 

Don’t worry. We’ll talk about organizing, getting rid of, and even some tips on how to sell your stuff online . . . if that’s your thing. But your home is only a small piece of the puzzle. My guess is your life is full of things that aren’t making you happy and are probably stressing you out. Our goal is to get this stuff out of your life, so you can be happier, more effective, and enjoy more inner peace. 

What Does it Mean to Declutter Your Life?

Everyone has their own definition of clutter. Since this is my book, I’ll give you mine and see whether you agree. For me, decluttering is about removing the unnecessary internal and external stressors from your life so you can live the life you really want. 

For some people, decluttering could mean living in the woods, in a house off the grid. Others define decluttering as getting rid of stuff and possessions and downsizing their lives to upsize their happiness. 

No matter what your definition of decluttering is, or what lifestyle you’re living, I think everyone could use at least a little bit of decluttering in their life. Don’t you agree?

It’s no secret today that we’re bombarded by outside stressors. Many of which were unfamiliar to even the previous generation: social media, smartphones, streaming TV shows, Netflix, text messages, emails, and pop-ups on our web browsers, to name a few. At first, these were a lot of fun, but now that the novelty has worn off, most of us struggle to deal with these new types of stressors. 

Every time we open a new screen or look at our smartphone, tablet, or laptop, we’re blasted with marketing messages that promise us happiness if we buy what they’re selling. From the time we’re born, we’re taught that we must be the ultimate consumer. We’re encouraged to buy, buy, buy to fill the void of our unhappiness with shiny objects. Could this be why we’re witnessing an epidemic of obesity, depression, anxiety, and overall dissatisfaction with our lives today?

I’m guessing we agree on that point. I bet that’s why you’re reading this book. And since we seem to agree that having more items doesn’t equal happiness, let me show you some of the absurdity of our consume everything in sight model. . . .

It’s estimated that in 2018, close to $200 billion was spent on marketing in the United States. Yet, we’ve become so conditioned to this constant pushing of products; we don’t realize that it’s gnawing away at our happiness. In fact, some of these products are making us less happy or even hurting us. I’ll give you one example, which I’m pretty sure we’ll agree on.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 2016, $9.5 billion was spent on marketing cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in the United States. This translates to about $26 million each day, or more than $1 million every hour. Isn’t it amazing that this much money is spent to get us addicted and slowly kill us? But I think we’ll agree that the tobacco industry wouldn’t be spending that kind of money if it didn’t make them a fat profit at the expense of people’s health and finances.

Nearly $170 billion a year is spent to provide medical care for adults who smoke. These smoking-related illnesses in the United States cost more than $300 billion each year. But it doesn’t stop with the impact on our health. We absorb $156 billion in lost productivity, including $5.6 billion in lost productivity due to secondhand smoke exposure.

Okay, so maybe you’ve never smoked in your life. But my point is that a LOT of money is spent pushing a product that’s been medically PROVEN to kill people. I’m showing you these numbers to prove how successful targeted marketing works and how it can influence people to do things that are actually harmful. And I would argue that we would probably never buy these things if it weren’t for the guerrilla-style marketing tactics used on us.

With $200 billion spent on marketing every year, you have to ask . . . what about all the other products that are supposed to make us happy or cure our anxiety, depression, or lack of fulfillment? How about pharmaceutical drug commercials?

Did you know pharmaceutical companies aren’t allowed to advertise on television in Europe? This is because governments in Europe have realized how influential these advertisements are. But in the good old United States of America, we’re blitzed with constant pharmaceutical ads telling us they have the cure for whatever is ailing us, even when we didn’t know it was ailing us to begin with! 

I know the above examples are primarily focused on health. But guess what the largest elephant in the room is today . . . our failing health!

Don’t take this as a jab at the American lifestyle. This is a jab at consumerism, which, as you might know, is a value that’s been pounded into us by people who think they know what will make us happy. And it just so happens that these same people get rich selling us these products. 

I know this first-hand, as I was once a foaming at the mouth member of the Cult of Consumption, which eventually led me to the Cult of Clutter. 

As a matter of fact, I used to follow the shopaholic mantra just like everyone else. It took me four decades to figure it out. But I finally made the change and decided to live the life I want. I’ll share my story here, along with what I’ve learned while on my journey to a life of ultimate simplicity and happiness. But our primary goal is to help you declutter your life from unnecessary stuff, drama, and anxiety, so you can make room for what you and I both want more than anything: happiness. 

This means we’ll be poking around in some unexpected areas of your life. This holistic approach is the only way to truly declutter your life. During my years consulting with clients about their health, I learned they were having daily struggles outside of their health. As with all my books, my goal is to motivate, educate, inspire, and help you master all the habits that will make your life simpler and happier. 

As with any changes in life, there’s usually some pain involved. But from my experience, if you’re willing to put up with a little discomfort (or in some cases, a lot) to make those changes, I believe we’ll accomplish great things together. And believe me, I’m no one special. I have no superhero powers. If I can make these changes so can you. You might even do a better job than I have. 

I want you to realize that, even though we’re all part of a bigger system that influences us in one way or another, we’re ultimately in control of our lives, and more importantly our results. Politicians aren’t responsible for making our lives better. The news media isn’t responsible. Celebrities—aren’t responsible. We are responsible, and that’s a good thing. 

In the end, we’re all imperfect people who want to have more happiness and less stress. To me being fifty pounds overweight, in debt, having little or no savings for retirement, being stressed out, working a job you hate, or worrying about how many friends you have or how many likes you get on social media, has nothing to do with having less stress and more happiness. 

Pursuing happiness on another person’s terms certainly isn’t consistent with being happier and less stressed. As with most things in life, a happier, more peaceful life comes, not when there’s nothing more to get, but when there’s nothing left to weigh you down. If you agree, I think you’ll enjoy this book . . . a lot.

With that said, I want to leave you with my favorite quote from Albert Einstein:

Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius‑and a lot of courage‑to move in the opposite direction.

In other words, true genius is not the mastery of complexity, but of simplicity. That’s the direction we’ll be headed in this book. So, let’s get moving. . . .

1

My Story - How I Decluttered, Simplified, and Happified My Life

In the next two chapters, I will explain my journey to living a simpler, happier life. I have included this story in some of my previous books, because it outlines the valuable lessons I have learned. If you’ve read those books, you can skip ahead to chapter three. However, the telling of my story below will focus on its relevance to the theme of this book. Even if you have read some, or all of my other books, it might be a good refresher.

My Life in the Cult of Clutter

As most of my readers know, my journey didn’t start on a whim. I constructed the foundation of my present lifestyle over a decade ago. It started with my desire to live more remotely and simply. Over time, it evolved into a complete lifestyle change and a steady exercise in the art of decluttering.

First, I think it is important to understand that I grew up in a small town in the mountains of California. So my plan of living off-the-grid in the Pacific Northwest is not as drastic a stretch for me as you might think. I didn’t start my personal decluttering adventure entirely in the dark. 

During my life, I have lived in numerous cities across the country. As I have aged, I have become more disenchanted with, and disengaged from that type of living. Urban living is not a bad lifestyle; it’s just not for me anymore. Too much noise, too much drama, and too much of all the mental and material clutter we’ll be talking about in this book. 

Don’t worry if you don’t have the desire or ability to live in a more rural area, everything I cover in this book can be applied to any life setting or situation. 

Growing up poor in a single-wide trailer, with very few neighbors, you would think I’d never want to return to such a lifestyle. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Growing up that way gave me a different perspective on what matters. Sure, things were tough at times growing up, but it made me appreciate everything I had that much more. I now look back and consider myself incredibly lucky to have had these experiences. I was fortunate enough to know most of the people in my town. When I waved at them, they’d wave back. That’s all but vanished from today’s urban settings. Is it any wonder that thirty percent of millennials admit to having zero real world friends? I think social media has a lot to do with this, which we’ll also cover in this book. 

I have fond memories of racing home from football practice before sunset to catch an hour of bird hunting. Heck, I would have my shotgun behind the seat of my truck to save time. Yes, that would mean I had a shotgun on school grounds, and I wouldn’t have been the only one. A lot of us were hunters. That’s just how it was. Can you imagine what would happen to a kid doing that today? 

All this activity was based on pure simplicity. I didn’t wear any special hunting outfit—just the clothes I’d worn to school. My shotgun was used and inexpensive. But it worked just as well as a shotgun ten times the price. Matter of fact, I still own and use it today forty plus years later. This practice of keeping useful things for decades is another habit that has all but vanished from our society. Yet another reason so many are caught up in the Cult of Clutter. 

At eighteen, I left for college. I had few opportunities to do the things I enjoyed growing up—hiking, fishing, hunting, or just being in nature. For many years, I yearned to return to that type of living. It is hard to explain to someone who didn’t grow up experiencing this lifestyle. But I’ve always been the happiest when I had time to spend outdoors. 

To me, living in highly congested areas has become completely overwhelming. Why sit in traffic if you don’t have to? The thought of going to the mall makes me cringe. I’m not saying you should cut these activities out of your life. My point is to get you to question how much these (and other everyday experiences) clog up your mind with mental and emotional clutter and gnaw away at your happiness, like a lab rat chewing on the cage that it is trapped in. 

Now I can’t state this enough: a lot of planning went into my escape from The Cult of Clutter. I had numerous false starts and made many mistakes along the way. But I wouldn’t change a thing. Well, maybe I wish someone had already written these books! That would have made my life much easier. 

Like most people today, I was locked into the day-to-day grind—living in what I call The Grid. At this point, I’d spent almost half my life working for the government in one form or another. Needless to say, I was utterly burned out and questioning many aspects of my life. I remember sitting at my desk, after another joyous meeting with one of my bosses, thinking . . .

What the heck am I doing with my life?

My mind was often too cluttered with other nonsense to even think about an alternative answer to this question. Too much of my mental bandwidth was jammed up with worries about things that looking back, didn’t matter that much. If you can relate, I know you’re going to love the rest of this book. 

I was living in congested Southern California. I had a ridiculously expensive house—crammed with stuff I never used. I had more debt than I’d ever wanted or was even necessary . . . I was slowly losing my mind. I knew I needed a plan. But what was that plan? Again, I’m sure you can relate to this. Every time you start to think about pursuing a better life, a long list of other crap starts scrolling through your brain on autopilot.

Although I know now that my dissatisfaction wasn’t unusual, I remember thinking . . .  

Is there something wrong with me?

If you feel this way, you are not alone. Since publishing my Off-Grid and The Simple Life books, I have spoken to and received emails from hundreds and hundreds of people who feel the same way. More and more people are searching for a way to live a simple life of their own. They’re no longer willing to accept the modern-day societal expectations, which force us to grind ourselves to oblivion chasing someone else’s idea of happiness. But most of them just have too much other crap going on in their lives even to take a minute to think about escaping The Grid.

Thankfully, there is a better way—a simpler, happier way.

How My Mission Began Sort Of

My original plan was simple—find someplace quiet to get away from the noise. Somewhere I could think, plan, and live my life without unnecessary distractions. I started looking at remote land or cabins in Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and Montana. It was just a cursory look. Since it was the middle of the housing boom, remote properties were just as overpriced as the typical family dwelling in more populated areas. I called a couple of Realtors to get some basic information, but nothing serious came of it. At that point, I was a little discouraged that my plan seemed like a mere dream.

And, of course,