r/simpleliving

This sub has gotten ridiculous. Almost every post is AI slop written by a new account created in the past couple of days. They are always so generic, vague, and usually ends with a question at the end. Can the mods put an end to these (or at least limit them?) before so many people leave this sub it looks like an airport on a holiday??

pancake Subaru megaphone spaniel (for our ai friends)

Staying home all day, going out somewhere, watching movies, or just sleeping way too much?

With so many places charging high entry fees or expecting you to buy a $7 coffee just to sit down, it feels like free public places are disappearing.

I’ve recently rediscovered my local library’s reading room and a quiet bench by a park pond near my apartment as my go-to spots when I need to reset away from home.

Where do you go when you just want to exist outside your house without pulling out your wallet?

Hi everyone,

I worked in corporate for almost 4 years before finally leaving. During that time, I suffered from frequent tension headaches, and my anxiety skyrocketed. Looking back, I don't ever remember feeling stressed or anxious before taking that job.

Since quitting, several things have improved: the headaches are gone, life feels more hopeful, and my overall anxiety has decreased. However, I feel like my emotions are completely out of balance. I don't feel deeply happy or sad about anything anymore; it's almost like my ability to feel emotions has been numbed, which leaves me feeling stuck in a low-level sadness most of the time. On top of that, I overthink everything, struggle to stay present in the moment, and lack drive or motivation.

If you’ve experienced something similar, how did you overcome it? I know the idea of getting "1% better every day" helps, but I've really struggled to stay consistent with it.

Thanks in advance!

Since I got my first Android in 5th grade in late 2017, I took so many photos…of just benign everyday things, on and off vacation. I also got into anime in my senior year of high school, and tried drawing. By the summer after my Junior year of college, I had 30,000 photos between my Google Photos, notes, and photos on my Android.

I saw my parents’ photobooks they had as kids, and they told me how they have only seen 3-4 photos total of my great-grandparents, making those moments special.

A few days later, I pondered on it—I spend so many hours a day looking at old photos and wishing I had changed what I did in the past—why not just delete most of them and keep only 3-4 photos per person I know?

I did that, now I have deleted 99%+ of my old photos and have only 3-4 per person I know. It feels so much better. Now, I really try to cherish whenever I’m with my family and friends, and quit taking a bunch of photos.

Ofc, I still have the photos of my apartment leases‘ conditions saved, for legal documentation purposes, but that’s it.

Hopefully, this will be a stronger start to my senior year of college. It’s hard to believe it took me almost 9 years to do this.

Listen, I’m extremely lazy and unmotivated by money. But I genuinely love the lifestyle of basically just living inside a room alone with access to the internet and basic necessities.
How do I achieve this lifestyle without spending an arm and a leg on rent and other expenses?
I work full time and make $670-770 a week after tax here in central Oklahoma.
Im a hermit and minimalist. I love being alone and want an extremely simple and easy lifestyle.
I have no debt, I own my car, and right now im living with my family.
I want to basically have no monthly bills so that I can invest it all into Roth ira and retire early and live the rest of my 50-60s watching tv and playing video games.
Any advice or ideas so I can make this a reality would be greatly appreciated.

I've always been a homebody. I do like going around my neighborhood to thrift stores, having matcha at a small cafe and maybe going to a nearby beach but I have no interest in sight seeing like others.

I think people believe it's a waste of your life to not travel and visit new places but I would prefer being alone at my home watching something, taking care of my plants and maybe doom scrolling. I have travelled a bit when I was in my early 20s and younger but now my priority has moved to live a simple life which is this.

What do you guys think about it?

It's been a while since I started to make changes with my purchases and I've been trying to be more intentional with what I buy. I try to stick with meaningful purchases and what I actually need instead of just buying everything out of impulse.
That mindset came up recently when it was time to replace my prescription glasses. My initial plan was to go for an expensive designer wear frame because I thought they would last me longer or somehow would be more appealing aesthetics wise. And I wanted to upgrade and somehow get a decent pair. But while I was searching for them, it made me realise that I don't need to spend a fortune on a pair of glasses just because I feel like getting it and being fancy.
I decided to search online for a much more affordable pair of glasses that would equally be offering the same purpose. After comparing a lot of options, I got a cute pair of cat eyed shaped glasses from Firmoo. The prescription was accurate, and I had a lot of options to choose from. This made me realize that I possibly got the same prescription glasses at a much cheaper cost and the quality of the frames is also very durable. I have been wearing them at work and out with friends and I get a lot of compliments.
Simple living and trying to change the mindset of being simple and mindful about your purchases has taught me a lot to not waste money and give in to consumerism, whereas actually spend the money and have some savings as well.

I am a long time reader on Reddit in general. I have been using Reddit for many many years now on different accounts, and during that time I have noticed a certain well-known pattern that is common on this website which is the fact that discussions tend to steer towards elitism and details. This is most often observed on subreddits that focus on hobbies where only the very best gear and the most optimal routines are encouraged, and the rest are shot down. To a beginner, or someone not that interested in the subject, this will create a feeling of a barrier of entry. My thought was to write a post to remind everyone not to look too much into what others are doing, but focus on yourself, and take from others what is relevant to you and discard the rest, removing that feeling of a barrier.

When you see someone stating their way of simple living, do not be discouraged and think "I wish I could live like that". As the rules say: "-- every person here has a different personal interpretation of how to live simply." So be creative, be brave, and make your own simple live. Try the small thing you've been thinking about.

Sometimes a bigger change is necessary. You know your situation the best, and probably will not find much help here. Talk to people you know in real life for guidance. They are probably in a much better position to assist you.

I guess my entire point here is that don't become dependent on strangers on the internet to tell you how to live your life. Trust yourself. Because I believe that this subreddit is a guide to help you come up with your own way. Otherwise, we will turn this place into one of those hobby subreddits.

Is this not a better approach to actually moving towards simple live than the eternal comparison between yourself and others? Grass is always greener on the other side.

About 6 months ago I made a conscious decision to just slow everything down and strip away a lot of the useless noise in my day.

• I got a physical alarm clock
• started keeping my phone outside the bedroom
• picked up reading physical books again before bed
• downloaded an app someone recommended here that blocks politics and ragebait on social media
• started spending 15 minutes sitting on my back porch in the mornings just drinking tea without any headphones or distractions

It felt like such a small shift at the time, but looking back 6 months later, my anxiety is down so much and my days just feel way lighter. nothing crazy or dramatic, just feeling really grateful for the quiet for once and wanted to share.

First I just want to say how incredibly grateful I am for the privilege to largely control the life I want to build for myself and I will preface by saying I’m single and live alone so I have a lot of control over what items come into my life. I have too, over the last decade or so, really focused on decluttering, intentional buying and simplifying not only my space but also automating to do lists and systems and habits etc.

BUT I have hit a new level recently. I have finally got to a place where my space in particular holds items of use and beauty and not to many. Every night I get in bed and I have literally the same almost physical sense of gratitude for my simple life and cultivating beauty. That’s all just wanted to share!

I’ve always loved, loved, LOVED Fridays and Saturdays. I won’t say “the weekend” cause Sundays - I loathe. When I was a kid, Sundays meant sleeping early at night because the next day was school. Now, it means sleeping early at night because the next day is gym in the morning and work. 

I mean I guess you can never really escape the schedule of normal life. You shouldn’t even want to escape it. Because even routine is calm right?

So I was in North America for 2 months for a vacation - by the end of it, I just wanted to come back home and to my routine life. But now, it’s not even been 2 weeks since I’ve been back and already I want to go somewhere and escape my life. But I guess that’s not my routine’s fault - it’s the fault of some other elements going on in my life. Some other pressure. 

But I guess that’s selfish of me - everyone has things going on in their lives that’s not according to plan. So what do we do? How do we escape the problem that’s plaguing our lives? By finding a solution to it? If only life were that easy. 

But that’s what makes us human isn’t it? All of our wins, losses, our happiness, our sadness - everything combined - makes us human. 

I just wish it wasn’t so hard. Until then, I guess I’ll just keep looking forward to Fridays. 

Basically what the title says. After a burnout from which I'm still recovering, I'm starting to realize that some of the closest relationships in my life are very energy-draining. Sometimes we focus too much on simplifying things but what about simplifying relationships or even letting go of them in order to live a simpler life? I know this isn't a relationship advice sub, but I'm just wondering if anyone has been through the same realization and how they dealt with it.

I'm not talking about casual colleagues or people you've only known for a few months, but rather established long-term relationships.

I have been slowly but surely getting rid of various social medias, watching much less youtube, turning home pages or recommended feeds off of reddit, etc. and just reducing my overall screen time as much as possible.

I think it has probably been good for me? I have been slowly in this process for a year now and pretty much nothing is left to distract me other than reddit, but again, my home page is empty and all the suggestions are blocked.

But without all these distractions I just kind of find myself extremely depressed. Especially since as I have gotten older (i'm 24), I have less and less opportunities to see friends and whatnot. Everyone is busy, and somehow I am not. I frequently hike, have been reading quite a bit, go out to disc golf, go out to grab food on my own, draw, am trying to learn piano badly, etc. Yet with all of this it still isn't enough, my life feels hollow and pointless right now. I'm trying to be happy on my own, with myself, but it feels impossible.

I can't do any big trips until I am done with my master's so unfortunately that is off the table, as much as I would LOVE to just leave for a month or something to change things up. My life just feels so dull, and I have failed to adjust to this new boredom that follows me around. I just don't have the energy to do anything now. What can I do to enrich my life? It feels like nothing is happening, that I am stagnant, that all of my friends are passing me by.

I've stopped using all social media and am only watching long-format videos now and have never been happier. The problem is: I have a very specific type of YT content I would like to watch.

Let me try to put it into words.

I don't want to watch content designed to hold my attention. I feel so drained and tired from it. I don't want to watch videoessays with intense storytelling or dramatic narration, I don't want to watch mainstream documentaries with rousing music and fast-paced cuts and I don't want to watch aesthetic/performance content with staged environments and people self-displaying.

I want to learn something new about the world, anything. I want a window into something new.

So far I've only found two channels that (according to me) fit this. (I'm not sure if the community guidelines allow me to name them so I'll put them in the comments.)

Please tell me you understand what I mean and that more of this type of content exists.