- My friends, The Minimalists, are here
on the Rachel Cruze Show, you guys.
- Thanks so much for having us,
we're excited to be here.
- Yes, I'm so pumped you're here.
And I was telling everyone earlier about your documentary
and how much I just like watched it and became obsessed
with everything that you guys are doing.
So for those people that have not seen the documentary
or even heard of you guys,
just explain what is a minimalist
and how did you guys get into all of this?
- Well the thing with minimalism,
the way I describe it is minimalism is the thing
that gets us past the things so we can make room
for life's most important things,
which actually aren't things at all.
- (laughs) There you go.
- Ryan and I both grew up in Dayton, Ohio.
We were really poor
and we thought the reason we were unhappy growing up
is we didn't have any money.
And so when I went out, when I was 18,
I've got that entry level corporate job
and I spent the next dozen years,
sort of climbing the corporate ladder.
And say by my late 20's, I was living the American dream.
I had a six-figure salary, the luxury cars.
There was nothing inherently wrong with the stuff,
but I wasn't fulfilled, I wasn't happy
because of course, I made good money,
but I spent even better money.
- Yes.
- And so I, along with the American dream,
came the American debt.
And I was just consumed with almost half a million dollars
worth of debt at my peak, or I guess my nadir,
at that low point. - Whichever way you want
to look at it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- And I didn't feel like I had control of my time,
my resources, my own life.
I realized I was focused on the wrong stuff.
I was focused on success and achievement.
That's really where this thing
called minimalism entered my life.
- Yeah for me, you know, it's interesting,
if you were to have told my 18-year-old self,
what my 28-year-old self was going to have,
I would have been so excited.
And when I was 28, I found myself questioning,
I was the opposite of happy.
I was drowning in debt.
I had a lot of discontent.
I was depressed.
And I remember seeing Josh,
he had a major shift in the way he was living his life.
And I sat him down one day
and I was like, "Dude, what is going on with you?
Why are you so happy?"
And that's when, he-- - Why are you so happy?
- Why are you so happy? - What's happening?
- What is going on? (Rachel laughs)
And he was like, he introduced me
to this thing called minimalism.
So Josh and I came up with this crazy idea
called a packing party,
where we decided to pack all my belongings
as if I were moving and then I would unpack only the items
I needed over the next three weeks.
So Josh came over
and he literally helped me box up everything,
my clothes, my kitchenware.
- And you weren't moving at this point?
- No.
- This is just the exercise.
- [Ryan] Just pretending.
- Just pretending, you know.
- The idea was is if I packed up all this stuff,
and I really, really missed it,
and I really, really wanted to put everything back out,
I could totally unpack it
and put everything back in its place.
But of course, after three weeks,
I had a completely different perspective on my life.
A completely different perspective on my things.
And I remember going to Josh, and I was like,
"Man, this is a really, this is a really cool story.
There might be some people out there
who could benefit from this story."
So you know, we did what any two 30-year-old dudes
would do, we started a blog.
- Yeah.
(Joshua, Ryan, and Rachel laugh)
Spread the word, - That's right.
- via the internet.
- That's really where theminimalists.com started.
It was with that 21 day packing party story.
- So good.
Okay, that's just, that's such a brilliant idea,
'cause I even think, because I'm a, confession,
I have done the complete minimalist lifestyle,
but even when you said that, I'm like,
even my bathroom sink right now,
like I'm thinking about it, underneath.
I'm like if I took out all the lotions and the eye,
all this stuff and put it in a stuff to see for three weeks,
what do I actually use out of that?
You guys.
(Ryan and Joshua laugh)
It's probably like what, like four things.
Like it's, I'm feeling convicted right now,
as you're talking about all of this.
Because it is, that's such a smart way to think about it,
it really is.
And I love this concept that you guys live out so well.
That stuff, it doesn't fulfill you, right?
And I think we all know that.
And the contentment piece of that foundation of your heart
is so huge in this process.
So, someone that's hearing this,
what's like the first couple things that they need to do?
- If you do want to simplify your life,
the first thing you have to do is not an action.
We'll get to the action in a second.
The first thing you need to do
is ask yourself your question.
And that question is, "How might my life
be better with less?"
And by asking that question, you start to identify
what the benefits of simplifying are.
Because for me initially, it was finances.
I knew my finances were out of control.
I needed to simplify my life, so I could regain control
of my finances.
But then I uncovered all these other benefits,
like well I made more time for creativity
and people in my life and improved health.
And so what are the benefits for you?
And understanding that once just give you the how to,
it'll give you the why to.
Why am I simplifying my life?
From there, I think it's important to start small
and just start somewhere.
We have something on our website
called the 30-day minimalism game.
Here's how it works, you partner up with someone,
a friend, a family member, a coworker.
At the beginning of the month, you each decide,
the first day we're both going to get rid of one item.
Second day of the month, two items.
Third day of the month, three items.
It starts off really easy.
- Yes.
- It gets you that momentum you need.
But by the middle of the month,
it starts to get more difficult.
Day 15, you're like I have to get rid of 15-
- I was gonna say, 20 items, sometimes more than.
- Right.
- I'll do it in February.
(Ryan and Joshua laugh)
- Well, okay so by day 20, you're like I have to get rid
of 20 items, and then tomorrow, I have to get rid of 21.
- Right.
- Whoever goes the longest between you and
your friend, - Oh funny.
- you win, but if you both make it to the end of the month,
you both won 'cause you've gotten rid of about 500 items.
It's a really good start.
- Okay, so I'm just curious personally,
so what does your house look like?
(Joshua and Ryan laugh)
Like now, where y'all live, your closets,
like what, so yeah, so what's your life look like?
- So if you were to walk into our home,
it's not like you would jump up and say,
"Oh my goodness, minimalists must live here."
- Yes, yes.
- You probably would just look at our house
and say, "You know, whoever lives here,
they're pretty tidy."
And that's because everything that we have in our lives,
it serves a purpose or it brings us joy.
Everything else is gone.
- That's so great, so fun.
- We've got a washer and dryer.
(Rachel laughs)
We still like to use hot water.
- (laughs) Right, right, right, totally.
So there's kind of the extreme, I'm guess,
I'm assuming.
There's a range to be a minimalist.
There's like the crazy, extreme,
where you're like, you know, we laughed about this,
like a fork and a spoon and one plate,
just like something like here.
And then some people, they're like,
okay I like the idea but I'd rather be like minimalist-ish,
like I don't want to dive in all the way.
Can you go 50/50 on this lifestyle?
- We can determine what is appropriate in our lives
and I think everything
that we own fits into one of three categories.
It's either essential
and we all have the same basic essentials.
We're all wearing clothes right now.
- [Rachel] Right, right.
- We need housing, we need food.
We have the same essentials
and then we have the non-essentials.
Things that we could probably do without,
but they truly add value to our life,
they augment our experience of life.
They amplify our life.
And then we have this third category,
that category is junk.
Most of the stuff we own is junk that gets in the way
of the more meaningful experiences in life.
- Absolutely, well we went into our Facebook community
and people love you there in my Facebook community.
(Ryan laughs)
- So we have some questions - Let's do it.
- from people.
- Awesome.
- For you guys to answer.
Okay, Brianna asked, "In what ways can being a minimalist
help save you money and become debt free?"
- I know for me that was one of my biggest drivers behind
getting into minimalism.
So I'll tell you the first thing I did,
when I started going down this road,
is I took my brand new nice Toyota Solara,
you know real nice, brand new car,
just a couple years old,
I traded that in for a 2004 Toyota Corolla
that had no car payment
and I still have that car today.
So that's for me, how I really, you know,
appreciate what minimalism has helped me to do,
when it comes to my finances.
I was officially debt free back in 2015.
- [Rachel] Ah, I love it.
- And I certainly owe minimalism a lot of credit for that.
- [Rachel] Absolutely, so good.
Okay, the next question is from Emily, she asks,
"My husband and I like to think of ourselves
as minimalists.
I think one thing that we struggle with though
is do you buy quality, like expensive things
or do you buy cheap?"
I think the term minimalists and the term frugal
are very similar but they're also different.
- I think when we think of a minimalist,
we think of some guy living in a cave
with no possessions or something.
In fact, I tend to own really high quality items.
I owe far fewer items.
It's the weird paradox of minimalism for me.
I get far more value from the few items I own
than if they were watered down by 300,000 other items
that were sort of getting in the way, right.
I mean, wouldn't you rather
have one pair of really nice pants that's gonna last you
for two years as opposed to 10 pairs of pants that'll last
you for a month each?
- Right, so good.
- [Ryan] Absolutely.
- Katie asks, "What's the very first small step
you recommend to anyone
that wants to move toward minimalism?"
- Man, I think starting with that question,
"How might my life be better with less?",
that's definitely, you're gonna get the leverage
by getting to the why of that question.
But ultimately, you know,
there is the packing party approach
if someone is extreme.
The 30-day minimalism game, that is huge.
I mean Josh talked about that earlier,
that is amazing.
You just find someone else that wants to encourage you
to minimize and wants to minimize themselves
and you can have a lot of fun with that.
There's a lot of little small steps you
can kinda - So good.
- get started.
- I'm sensing another Chad and Diana challenge.
- Uh-oh.
- Date night challenge to the minimalism challenge,
so we'll see if that happens.
- So Nancy asks, "How to part with stuff when spouse
wants to keep it because we might need it for/when/if?"
- Well I think ultimately in order to get a spouse
or a friend or anyone else on board with this,
you really have to show them the benefits.
I mean, if Josh had come to me and said, "Hey Ryan,
you know what, your life's a mess.
You need minimalism."
I probably wouldn't have reacted so excitedly towards that,
but by seeing the changes that Josh made,
it made me want to ask him that question,
"What are you doing different with your life?
You seem pretty happy."
But ultimately by you know just kind of living the example
and showing the benefits of it, that's really how you get
someone to make a move with their stuff.
You can't force anyone in any of that.
- Totally.
Okay, last question, Lauren asks, "How to be a minimalist
with children"?
I'm actually very intrigued.
Well, me not having any kids,
it's very easy for me to project my advice
onto others. - [Rachel] That's right.
- I do like to use this one example.
We were at an event where one of the people who showed up,
they were talking about what they do with their child.
The example that they gave is,
they're five-year-old, six-year-old
would come home from school
and of course they got a piece of art that they've made
that they're very proud of
and they would go to their parent,
"Oh, can I put this on the refrigerator?"
And the mom was like, "Yes, you absolutely can put this
on the refrigerator."
So as they're walking over, like it's already covered
with you know other art projects,
just the whole refrigerator door.
And they'll say, "Now you get to choose which one,
you want to replace
this with?" - Oh that's good.
- And we will go over and we will get rid of this
so we're not you know having a bunch of clutter
in our lives.
So that's what they do.
They'll pick the one that they want to come off the fridge,
they put the new one up.
And then they go over and they might scan or take a picture
of the work and then toss it in the trash.
- Sure.
- But I though that was a cool approach.
- That is good.
Well, honestly kid craft stuff, I'm like, Amelia comes home
from like preschool, and it's just a crayon that's this.
I'm like, and you'll never remember that
and I'm like, unless there's like a picture,
or a hand print or a foot print.
I mean, like very small things to keep is kids crafts.
They're sweet, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
- I think it's important to realize that minimalism
is not about depravation.
And we need especially to keep that in mind with our kids.
I know with Ella, I first, she's five now,
but when she was really little,
I'm like, you're gonna be a minimalist,
and you can play with sticks and stones
and that's it.
I'm like, wait, wait, what am I trying to do here?
Like no, she gets a lot of value from the toys that she has
so having a big crate of toys that she really enjoys
is great.
Now if she's not gonna get more value
if I got her 10 crates of toys,
they're actually gonna start getting in the way,
just like us.
We just have our own toys as adults, right.
And so with her, I've realized once she's done with a toy,
the thing I want to instill in her is she's no longer
getting value from it, but some other kid can,
so let's go donate that together.
- [Rachel] I love that.
- And letting her realize the benefit of giving as well.
- Alright guys, well that was so great.
Thank you so so much for being on.
I so appreciate you guys and your advice and your wisdom
and everything.
- Likewise, thank you for everything that you do.
- [Rachel] Oh, thanks.
- Thanks for having us.
- Well, it's been fun.
So you guys, if you want to check out more about
The Minimalists, you guys are
on every social media channel, right?
Like YouTube, you have a YouTube channel,
Instagram, Facebook, and you have a great podcast.
And if you guys want more tactical ways
or encouragement as you're selling your stuff
to get out of debt, make sure to check out my book,
Love Your Life Not Theirs.
You can click the link below.