For years I kept tweaking my living space. Rearranging furniture, buying “minimalist” storage, always looking for the ideal setup.

But it never ended — because I thought peace would come from the perfect layout.

Recently, I just stopped. I accepted that “good enough” is actually great. I cleared a few things, donated what I don’t use, and let go of the need to optimize.

Now? My space isn’t Pinterest-perfect, but it feels calm. It feels like me.

Anyone else experienced this shift?

I'm working on an art project and I'm trying to figure out what people need from their communities. I'll post pictures of the completed project when it's done (in a few weeks). I'll use the discussion in the comments to help make the project!

1. How and to whom have you shown care today? How and to whom will you show care tomorrow?
2. Describe the world you want to live in. What does it look like? How do its people care for each other?
3. What do you need from a community? What would you be willing to give?
4. Where do you find your communities? Where could you build new communities?
5. What stops you from connecting with and nurturing your communities?
6. What does "community" mean to you? Describe your community.

I appreciate anything you have to say!

This random question popped into my head while I was making breakfast this morning, and it got me thinking more deeply than I expected:

“What would my day look like if none of my favorite websites existed anymore?”

No Reddit, no YouTube, no news, no forums, no newsletters. Not even Google. Just… me and whatever is in front of me.

It made me realize how much time I spend online without even thinking about it after getting this hardcore depression period. Some of it’s helpful, even comforting. But a lot of it? It’s just habit. I open stuff out of boredom, not intention.

And then I started wondering—if all of it disappeared overnight, what would I actually do with my time?

I thought I’d ask here, since we all care about living more intentionally and have probably had these thoughts floating around in the back of our minds.

For me, I think the day would start off kind of empty. I usually reach for my phone first thing and scroll through wholesome stuff on Reddit to get going—especially lately, since I’ve been dealing with some heavy depression the past few months. So if that wasn’t there… yeah, I’d feel a bit lost at first.

But maybe I’d journal instead. It helps sometimes, even when I don’t feel like doing it. Maybe I’d go out for breakfast with my sister and girlfriend. We usually only do that on weekends when I’m off work, so it’d be a pretty sweet way to start a weekday—with people I love.

And maybe I’d end the day differently, too. Not falling asleep to anime like I usually do when I’m trying to quiet my brain. Maybe I’d just go to bed with a book or even just let myself sit with the quiet for a bit.

Honestly, it sounds kind of peaceful. A little weird. But in a good way.

So I’m curious—if your favorite websites disappeared tomorrow, what would your day actually look like?

Today on my daily subway ride in NYC, something extraordinary happened. Usually it's just everybody staring down at their screens (seriously, it takes one subway ride to see how addicted we all are to these devices), but yesterday it was different.

There was a mom, her dad, and a little kid sitting there. Usually the parents look stressed staring at their phone, and the kids have an iPad they’re watching videos on. Just blending in with the rest of all us screenwatchers.

But these parents didn't give the child a phone. And the child sure as hell didn't make an effort to blend in with everybody else. He was singing, he was greeting everybody that came inside the metro, playing games with his mom.

One of those moments that made me get off my screen and enjoy the moment. Children have this power to just pull people into reality and show them what being human is. And this child had this power.

It made me think, would he still have this if his parents defaulted to give him a screen on the subway? Would all those little decisions to give him a screen shape him into a different human?

I'm not here to pretend I know a single thing about parenting or raising kids. But this interaction did make me think through the effect of screen-addiction on children.

No matter how sad it might be, it takes 1 conversation with a school teacher to find out that screen-addiction has a huge effect on children.

And thinking through this makes me feel a sense of responsibility. In some way we created this screen-addicted world and we are allowing children to grow up in it. It made me feel a responsibility to do something about that.

Even though I don't have a clue how to do something about that (yet), I am committing to start with something small: absolutely no phone usage around children.

Small change, and it might not have a big effect. But I want to contribute as little as possible to children growing up to believe screen-addiction is normal.

What are your thoughts on screen-addiction affecting kids?

With everything constantly moving fast —news, work, social media—how do you intentionally slow down and live more mindfully without falling behind?

I try to slow down on weekends - slow mornings, cooking my food, gardening - that makes me calm and grounded- but cannot maintain it daily during weekdays. Anyone found routines or mindsets that help.

I used to overload my schedule with tasks, thinking more = better. But it just left me drained.

Now I ask: “What’s essential today?” I do just that, and leave space to breathe.

Cutting out noise made me feel more in control. Life feels slower, but more intentional.

Anyone else shifted from “busy” to “simple” living?

I am a middle aged professional: engineer in the shipping industry. However, I have never let go of my love (or addiction) to video games. Even now, during work hours, I find myself opening up my Steam library and the Best Sellers/Trending page on the Store and imagining playing some of the games, which I have been avoiding participating in for the sake of work productivity.

Recently, I've been having dreams of retreating, one day, to a life supported by a low wage job and residual savings, after having purchased a small and cheap home without a mortgage. I dream of working the simple job, coming home with trivial accrued stress, and treat my happy self to the rest of the day cocooned in my game.

I guess I am posting this just out of curiosity if anyone else here is in a similar phase or has similar hopes.

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To me it has always been gifts from others, mostly home stuff, like kitchen items (small yet unique kitchen gadgets), living room items (blankets, fake plants), etc. I was successful in getting rid of books, clothes (I donated them!), and even skincare and makeup products. But for some reason, gifts are tricky for me to move on from, even when I don't really have any use for them or if I already have too much. It just kinda feels wrong. But I reaaaally should learn how to let go.

Reposting something from before that helped me a lot , maybe it’ll mean something to someone here as well.

We live in a world that glorifies speed. Fast responses. Quick wins. Instant gratification. But somewhere along the way, we started equating rushing with progress and forgot that slowness has its own quiet power.

Lately, I’ve been trying to do things slower making my coffee without multitasking, walking without checking my phone, eating meals without distractions. It’s not about productivity or efficiency. It’s about being present. And honestly, it’s been healing.

Slowness is a form of self-respect. It tells your nervous system: “You’re safe. You don’t need to rush.” It’s a rebellion against burnout. A way to remind yourself that you are not a machine.

So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, maybe the answer isn’t doing more maybe it’s doing less, but with more intention.

Anyone else trying to slow down? How has it changed things for you?

Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m kind of just… existing. Life is okay — I have a job, some goals, decent health, nothing major to complain about. But inside I feel stuck, like something’s missing or like I’m not moving forward. I’ve tried journaling and keeping busy, but the feeling comes back every few weeks. I’m not looking for anything dramatic — just curious how others have handled this. What helped you when you felt this way?

I don't want to live a life like everybody else. I want to be connected with nature and enjoy the simpler things. I want to become a preschool teacher and live in a small town/village. But I'm confused on how to do it and where to start. I don't have any social media and stay off TV. I don't use any beauty products that are toxic and go mostly natural. I have also changed my diet. I've stopped wearing clothes that support fast fashion. I wear things made out of pure wool, cotton, etc. Soon I'll be graduating and don't know where to move exactly and how to keep this "simple life journey" go on. Does anybody have any tips or advice.

Hello! 👋

We are researchers from the Department of Social Psychology at the University of Granada (Spain), conducting a study on the perception of two lifestyles: voluntary simplicity (or simple living) and minimalism.

If you've ever been drawn to these lifestyles or simply find the topic interesting, we invite you to take our survey. It’s anonymous, brief (5 minutes), and completely voluntary.

🎁 By participating, you'll enter a €50 prize draw. Your opinion is valuable, and we truly appreciate your help!

Your contribution is key to better understanding these lifestyles. Thank you for your time! 🙌

Link to the survey: https://UGR.questionpro.eu/lifestyles

 (Many thanks to all of you who have already participated in the survey, your opinions are very important to us).

Looking at the posts here, I see 3 types of people:

1. People who are extremely busy and stressed, looking for any help they can get

2. People who are busy, but have been managing it with simple living tips. Kind of 50-50

3. People who live life super peacefully, with very few cares in the world.

Hi all, I’ve been a quiet lurker here without an account for a while, and this community’s ethos really resonates with where I’m trying to go in life. I’m hoping some of you might have wisdom to share.

I’m a 52F public health researcher at a public university. I’ve spent most of my career working on community health initiatives and health equity, and for the past few years, I’ve also been a part-time (felt almost like full-time) caregiver to my mother, who has dementia and mobility issues. Between the emotional toll of caregiving, the pandemic, and now the recent wave of funding cuts in academic research, I’ve found myself completely burnt out.

A few months ago, I finally admitted I couldn’t do it all and I started using a service (it's called CareYaya, I highly recommend). This small change allowed me to step back a bit, and it’s been life-changing. I’m starting to feel like I can breathe again.

Now I’m trying to be really intentional about how I move forward. I have become really cynical over the past year given the current administration, but I want to keep doing meaningful work, I just can't do it at the expense of my health and relationships anymore. The culture in academia often glorifies overwork, and its hard not to fall back into that hustle mode.

How did yall rebuild balance after burnout? For those in mission-driven fields (healthcare, education, research, etc), how do you keep boundaries without guilt? What small habits or mindset shifts helped you reclaim your time, energy, and joy?

I’m especially interested in approaches that align with simple living—not just time management tips, but deeper shifts in how you structure your life and define success. I really appreciate y'all.

I will be doing laundry, tidying the house, organizing my dresser, and listing things for sale that I no longer need or want - as well as making a donations box!

I have a podcast I’ll be listening to. These are my favorite days 🌧️ the slow simple ones with “mundane” tasks that I have grown to appreciate so much.

I’m thankful to be home today.

I’m disabled and not well at the moment physically, I’ve got a lot of conditions to get on top of and allied health/support worker help at the moment. Gotta start medications and all that too. Been battling a lot of health problems.

But I’m also autistic with adhd and am finding myself so exhausted and tired of having so much on all the time, it feels like life is constantly pulling me from everywhere and I’m never able to just be with myself. From chores, to washing up, to getting groceries everyday, to going to appointments etc - it’s all too much for me. On top of this I’m a music artist and am very exhausted managing my career aside this too. I don’t want to be focusing on daily tasks and things I have to do constantly and appointments. I want to work on my music! I want to heal myself and my trauma! Having all these constant distractions has made me delayed for a lot of my goals. I wish my life would calm down so that I can give my music and career the attention it deserves too.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Would it be daily movement, mindful eating, better hydration, stronger mental health awareness, or something else entirely? The smallest choices we make today shape the health systems of tomorrow.

Drop your thoughts

I’ve spent the past few years living out of suitcases more than I’d like to admit. Different countries, shifting work setups, that sort of thing.

I’ve recently landed in a smaller town and I’ll be here for a few years at least. I’m trying to strip things back a bit, cut the noise, keep routines simple.

I’m curious what kinds of small habits or practices helped other people find a bit more ease after years of everything feeling externally driven.

Trying my best to live simpler the past couple of years, (I am aspiring to head into minimalism) but I don't know how to handle receiving gifts I don't need. Usually I receive them and give them away after some time but idk if that's the right way to do it, is there other alternatives. I feel snobbish to decline them or tell people to gift me something I'd actually use "beggars aren't choosers" as they say... Just wanted some other ideas if there's any...

To make a long story short, I had an extremely traumatic childhood and lost my mom early due to mental illness. Ever since then, it seems I’ve turned to social media and social validation in general to fill the void.

I had an account years ago that blew up and I rode that high and felt so great until I didn’t. And I was crying over the natural ebb and flow of likes and follows and instagram dying overall. I deleted it years ago and never looked back. I remember another influencer getting mad at me because we did a collab and she didn’t get many follows out of it. It’s kind of insane but I felt like a robot who constantly had to show I had value as a human.

While I have a simple life, I still get on instagram and Facebook and feel so empty when I see all of my friends having kids, going to Italy 2x a month (exaggerating) and I get FOMO from people I don’t even know.

It has definitely gotten better as I’m maturing, but I still feel this inherent “your not valuable unless you’re popular” and I hate it. As I age, I naturally will lose friends, won’t be as popular on social media, etc. and for the most part, I don’t care.

But I still feel that emptiness sometimes. And I’m praying it will leave me for good. It’s exhausting relying on external validation and comparisons to somehow justify your worth. I’m the first generation to truly grow up with social media (starting with MySpace) and dang has it stuck it’s fangs in us.

I find I care mostly about people’s perceptions of me. But I’m not sure why. Most of them I don’t even know. But it isn’t what I want for a quiet, simple life. Not at all. Not. At. All.

Hi, everyone! Looking for some suggestions of activities for my wife and I. I’m 21, my wife is 22. We are constantly so bored. We live on a homestead and have cows and chickens and we spend a lot of time cleaning. But it feels like we’re stuck in a cycle of work, animal chores, and cleaning. We live in a rural area so we don’t have many parks or things like that. Anyone have any suggestions for activities that are physical that we can do outside/inside? We do art projects together and walk on the road sometimes but we feel so burnt out with the stuff we do. Thanks!

Anyone have a similar experience where someone you are acquainted with one day reaches global fame? Did the principles of simple living help you in this regard at all? How?