All 50 things that Rob Greenfield owns fit inside this (small) backpack

Environmental activist, humanitarian and minimalist Rob Greenfield’s mission is to get people thinking, and hopefully make positive changes to live in a way that’s more beneficial to the Earth, our communities, and ourselves as individuals.

Greenfield is an activist and humanitarian leading the way to a more sustainable and just world

This is our friend Rob Greenfield. He’s an environmental activist with the basic mission to get people thinking, to question the world around them and hopefully make positive changes to live in a way that’s more beneficial to the Earth that we live on, our communities that we are part of, and ourselves as individuals. Rob defines his self-worth not by what he owns, but by who he is.

Rob’s life is an embodiment of Gandhi’s philosophy, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”  In a time when many feel disempowered, he believes that our actions really do matter and that as individuals and communities we have the power to improve the world around us.

Rod Greenfield has simplified his life down to just about 50 possessions.

Everything Rob Greenfield owns is sitting in front of him in the photo above. He says the few possessions he does own all serve a purpose, allowing him to live simply and sustainably, meeting his basic needs and helping him to inspire others to live in harmony with our earth, our global humanity and all species.

“In monetary terms the value of these possessions is around $500 and I have about $5,000 cash. No bank account or credit card, no saving accounts or retirement funds, no car or drivers license, no physical home or mortgage. The earth is my home and humanity is my family. I am living in the present to be the change I wish to see in the world. With the state of the world we are in, I feel that we must act now and thus I have optimized my life to be in the now, for a chance at a sustainable future.

In another example of leading the way to a more sustainable life, for an entire year Greenfield grew and foraged all his own food—100% of it—No grocery stores, no restaurants, no going to a bar for a drink, not even medicines from the pharmacy. Literally everything that passed Rob‘s lips during the 12 months was something he either grew in his gardens or he went out into nature and harvested.

Rob hopes his journey will inspire others to live with more happiness, health and sustainability.

He says, “Yes, this is extreme. The message is not that anyone must do just as I do. My life serves as a counterbalance to the extreme society that we live in. I have designed my actions and my life to be a wake up call and an opportunity for others to self-reflect and align their values with their actions.”

Join Rob at: www.robgreenfield.org, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

Too much stuff!

Today, data is constantly being collected about our homes, our shopping habits, and our spending. The research is confirming our observation: we own too much stuff. And it is robbing us of life. For example:

There are 300,000 items in the average American home, while the average size of the American home has nearly tripled over the past 50 years. Yet, 1 out of every 10 Americans rent offsite storage—the fastest growing segment of the commercial real estate industry over the past four decades.

Meanwhile, British research found that the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 daily.

The average American woman owns 30 outfits—one for every day of the month. In 1930, that figure was nine (Forbes), and the average American family spends $1,700 on clothes annually (Forbes). While the average American throws away 65 pounds of clothing per year. Some reports indicate we consume twice as many material goods today as we did 50 years ago.

And according to The Wall Street Journal, Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually on nonessential goods—in other words, items they do not need.

Source: BecomingMinimalist.com