Fumio Sasaki

There’s happiness in having less. That’s why it’s time to say goodbye to all our extra things.

That’s the minimal version of the message that I’d like to convey in this book. I want to show you how amazing it is to have less, even though that’s the complete opposite of how we’ve been taught to be happy. We think that the more we have, the happier we will be. We never know what tomorrow might bring, so we collect and save as much as we can.

perfectly happy just as I am.

Minimalism is a lifestyle in which you reduce your possessions to the absolute minimum you need. Living as a minimalist with the bare essentials has not only provided superficial benefits like the pleasure of a tidy room or the simple ease of cleaning, it has also led to a more fundamental shift. It’s given me a chance to think about what it really means to be happy.

We all want to be happy. We all work hard at our jobs, studies, sports, parenting, or hobbies because when you get right down to it, we’re all just looking for happiness. The quintessential energy that drives us is the desire to be happy.

used to buy a lot of things, believing that all those possessions would increase my self-worth and lead to a happier life.

was always comparing myself with other people who had more or better things, which often made me miserable.

But one thing I’m sure of is that by having fewer things around, I’ve started feeling happier each day. I’m slowly beginning to understand what happiness is.

If you are anything like how I used to be—miserable, constantly comparing yourself with others, or just believing your life sucks—I think you should try saying goodbye to some of your things.

Everyone wants to be happy. But trying to buy happiness only makes us happy for a little while. We are lost when it comes to true happiness.

After what I’ve been through, I think saying goodbye to your things is more than an exercise in tidying up. I think it’s an exercise in thinking about true happiness.

Everyone started out a minimalist. Our worth is not the sum of our belongings. Possessions can make us happy only for brief periods. Unnecessary material objects suck up our time, our energy, and our freedom. I think minimalists are starting to realize that.

With our desire to have more, we find ourselves spending more and more time and energy to manage and maintain everything we have. We try so hard to do this that the things that were supposed to help us end up ruling us.

Tyler Durden said it best in the film Fight Club: “The things you own end up owning you.”