Fumio Sasaki is one of the hardcore minimalists whom we sometimes hear about: he’s a writer who lives in a tiny studio in Tokyo with just three shirts, four pairs of trousers, four pairs of socks and not much else. Minimalism has opened his mind to happiness he’d never experienced before.
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| Fumio Sasaki is someone like any of us, who struggled with what we’re also struggling with |
I found “Goodbye, things” heart-warming because Fumio Sasaki does not proclaim himself to be a minimalism guru or a decluttering expert: he’s just an ordinary guy. He’s someone like any of us, who was weighed down by too much stuff and struggled with what we’re also struggling with.
As a result, he set out to explore minimalism. He figured out that incorporating minimalism into your life not only transforms the physical space around you, but also can bring about a fundamental shift in life and lead to more happiness.
In the book, he offers 55 tips to help you say goodbye to your things and 15 more tips for the next stage of your minimalism journey. In addition, he sets out 12 ways in which he himself has changed since he said goodbye to his things.
His tips and his insights into minimalism are neatly packaged into short, compact chapters, which are written in a punchy and highly readable style. Special praise to translator Eriko Sugita!
In “Goodbye, things” Fumio Sasaki explores the philosophy and cultural history of minimalism from Zen Buddhism to Steve Jobs. It takes the reader on a fascinating journey into minimalism, which is defined as a lifestyle in which possessions are reduced to the absolute minimum that one needs.
Related links:
- Penguin webpage for “Goodbye, things” by Fumio Sasaki: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/131952/fumio-sasaki.html
- “Goodbye things, hello minimalism: can living with less make you happier?” (Guardian article of 12 April 2017): https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/12/goodbye-things-hello-minimalism-can-living-with-less-make-you-happier
- An in-depth look at “Goodbye, things” by Fumio Sasaki (book summary) (by Kyle Kowalski): https://www.sloww.co/goodbye-things-fumio-sasaki-book-summary/
- What I’ve learned from “Goodbye, things” by Fumio Sasaki (by Meziah Ruby):
https://medium.com/moychoy/what-ive-learned-from-goodbye-things-by-fumio-sasaki-d5a497823fa7
