Of all the popular –ists and –isms, minimalism is one that inspires much debate.  A hot topic du jour, minimalism was popularized,  in large part by Leo Babauta’s blog, Zen Habits. While I love Leo and most everything he writes, and have embraced much of the principles of minimalism, I have grown weary of the term. It’s lost its meaning and original intention—that of downsizing, ridding ourselves of possessions and things that clutter our lives, streamlining, ideally, to increase happiness and clarity around what is truly important and ...

In 2010 I was invited to join the fab team at the Unconsumption blog. The blog was started by Rob Walker, a NY Times magazine columnist, and the author of, among others, Buying In: The secret dialogue between what we buy and who we are. Unconsumption, as described by Walker is "...not about the rejection of things, or the demonization of things. It’s not a bunch of rules. Unconsumption is an idea, a set of behaviors, a way of thinking about ...