Design your life to include more money, health and happiness with less stuff, space and energy.

Design your life to include more money, health and happiness with less stuff, space and energy.

What Are Your Favorite Things?

Love people, use things. The opposite never works. –The Minimalists

A few months ago I was asked by the MIJLO Blog to name the favorite thing I owned. I told them it was my Gillette Atra razor handle. I bought it when I was 13 and it is the only razor apparatus I’ve ever owned. Its shaft is made of heavyweight, machined stainless steel and looks like something my grandfather would have owned. Its prongs have worked now for 20+ years. It uses Atra blades, which seem to no longer be patented, thus you can pick up a year’s worth of generic cartridges for $5 (I know I could use a straight razor, but at this point, it seems more hassle than it’s worth). Maybe the new vibrating, pivoting, six-blade, wünder-razor shaves a micron closer than my old thing, but their blades get clogged easier and cartridges cost $5 each, and that micron grows back about an hour after I shave (don’t get me started on what a scam most razors are).

To be clear, this is a favorite thing. I don’t love it or anything I own–certainly not the way I love my wife, son, family, friends or even a good movie. But it works for me on a functional, aesthetic and philosophical level. I thought about other things I’d put on that list:

  • My Macbook Pro (though it hurts to give a free plug for one of the world’s largest corporations). It just works so well in so many ways. My iPhone 5 deserves an honorable mention because of its amazing capabilities and intuitive interface, but unlike the MBP, battery life stinks.
  • My EMS Fader soft shell jacket is durable as hell, water-repellent and has the amazing ability to feel comfortable in temperatures ranging from 20-65 degrees.
  • Outlier pants and shorts. I have four pair of their pants and two pair of their shorts. They’re elegant, versatile as hell, technical, durable and made with integrity.
  • My bike. Took me a while to put it together, but pretty worth the wait.
  • My Ortleib backpack. Super rugged and waterproof.
  • Baggus.

As the holidays with its attendant material excesses quickly approaches, we thought we’d celebrate the stuff we have and appreciate, the stuff that we want to keep around for a good long time.

We’d love to hear from you. What are your favorite things? Please let us know in our comments section. Feel free to post pics.