The Practical Minimalists

Today we are serving up a fresh episode that centers around Kids and Minimalism. We get a lot of questions these days and so many of them center around kids. Although we did a kid focused episode last year, we are coming at you today with some fresh new idea, experiences and content all around the challenge and joys of having kids while being a minimalist or, at least "minimalist-ish."

Today we are chatting with Erin Loechner! Erin has been writing and speaking for over a decade and her work has been featured places like HGTV.com, The Huffington Post and The New York Times. Although she has done some BIG things, she very intentionally chooses slow living in a Midwestern town with her husband and kids. Our eagerness to share her with you guys can be summed up in her description of her life on her blog: "Erin strives for less in most areas except three: joy, grace, and goat cheese."

Today we are we are talking about a topic we think a lot of self proclaimed minimalist struggle with at times. And that is the question, when is minimalism harmful vs. helpful? Do you ever find yourself struggling to be the "perfect" minimalist? Do you ever feel like minimalism is oppressive? Do you ever find yourself struggling with minimalism and wonder what you're even doing anymore? If you answers yes to any of these questions, today's episode with you. We are talking about all this and more on today's show.

Today we are talking about something that may be a little controversial in the minimalist community….and that is when or is it ok to add more? We'll talk about when we've subtracted and taken away, the challenges this can cause and our opinions and perspectives on the issue.

Today we are continuing and finishing our clean green living series with guest Lara Adler and we are thrilled to have her onthe show today. Lara is a certified holistic health coach and self taught environmental toxins expert. Lara is committed to opening up the conversation around environmental toxins in an accessible way. We've actually gotten a lot of questions from our listeners about simple, non-overwhelming ways to start cleaning up our skincare products, water, household items, etc…and although we feel like we do know a fair amount about that process, we thought it would be great to bring in someone like Lara who is non-biased and pretty much and expert.