Gary Collins, author of "The Simple Life Guide to Decluttering Your Life," shares his journey from bureaucratic life to an independent, clutter-free existence. He critiques consumerism and its costs to mental and financial health. Gary offers practical strategies for decluttering not just your home, but also your digital space and social life. He emphasizes mindful living, the emotional tactics of marketing, and the benefits of simplifying relationships and finances. With a refreshing, no-nonsense approach, he encourages listeners to embrace a simpler life.
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insights INSIGHT
Cult of Clutter
The "cult of clutter" is the mentality that we need many objects to be happy.
This is driven by consumerism, which makes up 70% of the US economy.
insights INSIGHT
Information and Technology Clutter
Besides consumer goods, we clutter our lives with information and technology.
Constant news and social media updates overwhelm us with information, much of which is negative or useless.
question_answer ANECDOTE
The Garage Boneyard
Gary Collins observed that most garages in his neighborhood were too full to fit cars.
This illustrates how pervasive clutter is in modern life.
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Free Yourself from the Chains of Debt and Find Financial Peace
Gary Collins
This book exposes the consumer-driven culture that traps people in debt and offers simple tactics to break free from the cycle of debt. It provides proven strategies for achieving financial independence and includes real-life success stories to guide readers towards stress-free fiscal security.
The Simple Life Guide to Decluttering Your Life
Gary Collins
The Simple Life Guide to Decluttering Your Life provides practical advice on simplifying one's life by overcoming unnecessary stress and clutter. It offers strategies for reordering priorities, achieving financial freedom, and improving physical and mental health. The book helps readers discover their purpose and live more authentically.
Before Gary Collins left a bureaucratic government job to pursue a more independent existence off the grid, he had to work on downsizing and decluttering his life. The lessons he learned in ultimately achieving that aim apply to everyone — even those with no plans to leave civilization — who would like to lead a simpler life.
Gary shares those lessons in his book The Simple Life Guide to Decluttering Your Life, and with us today on the show. We begin with why it's so easy to get caught up in the consumerism-driven "cult of clutter," how the clutter it generates extends far past a person's tangible stuff, and the cost it exacts from our lives in both financial and psychological terms. Gary then explains how to simplify and declutter every aspect of your life — the material, of course, but also the technological, informational, and even social. Along the way, this self-described "redneck hippie" offers no-nonsense advice that refreshingly departs from the kind of soft glow, artfully arranged, white background pictures of minimalism you might find on Instagram. Because Gary's not on Instagram. That would be clutter.
The Art of Manliness 
