Thrift Find - Terence Conran's Easy Living

Happy Tuesday morning to you, lovely friends. Ready to start a new week? I'm looking forward to the adventure. On a recent adventure I found this lovely book by the amazing Sir Terence Conran at my local thrift store. Easy Living is about 12 years old but the philosophy is more needed than ever and the photos still hold their own. Apparently I scored on this deal for $3.99 because this book is still retailing for $44 on Amazon.

Terence Conran is a visionary force and the man behind The Conran Shop. In the US you can find it in the basement of ABC Home and Carpet on Broadway in NYC with other shops in Europe and Japan. He is also the founder of other home shops and well-known restaurants. For a full bio click the Terence Conran link in the paragraph above.

On the back cover Conran says, "Easy living implies the sensation of coming through the front door and kicking off your shoes -- even if only mentally. But by "easy" I also mean the physical ease of simplicity, where practical tasks can be performed without frustration, fuss or muddle and there is enough space and light to go around."

In my quest for living a simpler life, I am happy to learn from such a master. You can see from the photos in the book that he gets it. The book is broken down in to four sections: elements, comfort, function and detail. Elements includes chapters on space, light, color and texture. Comfort includes relax, touch, sleep, bathe. Function focuses on order, cook, eat, work. And Details is it's own chapter.

I'm becoming more and more convinced that so much of what we spend our time doing it superfluous. These things are not making us happier, better, more balanced, healthier or saner. It's time -- it's time to make happiness, relationships, health, orderliness, well-being and goodness our top priorities.

I'm still on my way to learning how we do that on a daily basis, but recent events have taught me it's much easier to let go of all the non-essentials than one would think and you don't miss them.