One barrier to minimalism is large, heavy possessions — too big to easily move or ship.  And since you’re a minimalist, you just sold your truck.  Doh.

Craigslist is spectacularly effective at quickly eliminating these white elephants — if you’re willing to take a haircut on price.

I didn’t bother to post this before, because I thought it too obvious. Not so: when I eliminated several large items yesterday — in less than 4 hours, with only a few minutes’ effort, and no heavy lifting — amazed friends and onlookers wanted instructions. So here they are.

• Find out what your item is worth: visit eBay, find similar items, and click “show completed items” to see final selling prices. In seconds, you’ll know what the market will bear.
• Post your item on Craigslist, with photos.
• Set your Craigslist price at half the eBay market price.
• If less than $25, just price it at zero, and post it in the “free stuff” section.
• In your item description, write, “This is cheap because I need it gone. I will not hold this item for anyone. The first person here with the purchase price gets it.”

You may not be aware that bargain-hunters are constantly trolling Craigslist, looking for situations like this. They are waiting in their trucks, motors running. If you set the price and description as shown above, the resulting feeding frenzy will move just about anything within a few hours. Or even minutes.

Last year, I got rid of a truly decrepit refrigerator in 40 minutes with this post:

“Free working fridge. It’s old, makes a loud buzzing noise, ices up easily, and the door doesn’t seal well. But it works, and I’ll give it free to the first person who can get over here.”

Yes, I might have sold it for $50 with more effort. But such optimizations take time. Consider the value of that time.

The best, and maybe most unexpected part of this gambit is that it makes everyone so happy. The buyer/recipient is ecstatic at getting a great deal. The seller/giver is relieved to be rid of the white elephant. Everyone walks away literally grinning. There is not just efficiency, but shared joy.  This is the essence of Fewer Nicer.

Following up on an earlier post, here is an example of what you can get by looking around a bit.  This cost $2, just like everywhere else, but is far tastier (fresher ingredients) and prettier (barrista training).

Typical Kean Coffee macchiato, this from March 27 2010.

You shouldn’t drink coffee.  But if you do, it might as well be this.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

— The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White

How many empty seats do you drive around with?  Be honest.

If you’re like most, your car is not just a top expense, but also a top activity, and thus a critical decision to get right.  Here is the Strunk & White perspective.

I have a spouse and three small children.  We thus need at least two cars, at least one able to hold the entire family, including three immense (and possibly counterproductive) plastic child seats.

So the first car must be a minivan or SUV.  I’ll leave that choice for a different post;  here, let’s focus on the second car.

Most choose a sedan.  Why?  Few sedans accommodate three plastic seats abreast, and the rest remain impractical compared to a van. So in practice, families never use the back seat of the sedan. Every outing with children happens in the minivan, while the sedan is used only to commute, alone, accompanied only by a forlornly empty back bench.

Which is why our second car is a 2-seat convertible.

We get interesting reactions from other families.  “Isn’t that impractical?” they ask.  Well, yes. But no more impractical than a sedan.  The only truly practical choice would be two minivans. Short of that, you might as well get the roadster.

We chose the Honda S2000, because it is the second-most minimal car you can buy today, truly a Strunk & White of motor vehicles. Here is a partial list of what it doesn’t have.

Rear seats. Rear windows. Navigation system. Satellite radio. Seat heaters. In-glass defroster. Controls on steering wheel. Cup holders. Cargo space to hold anything larger than a case of beer. Automatic transmission. Suspension control. Climate control beyond basic AC.

Except for the Lotus Elise/Exige — which we avoided due to durability issues — this is the leanest car you can buy. In return for such crippling inconveniences as the lack of in-dash DVD player, you get a car 500 pounds lighter than any competitor, and correpondingly more agile. An adult-scale, street-legal go-kart.

The dashboard is almost unnaturally unobstructed. No constellation of indicator lights. No whack-a-mole field of pushbuttons. There is basically nothing to do but drive.

And that ain’t so bad.

Savings:  $50/week, 1 hour/week, and health benefits.

The inaugural post of Fewer Nicer sings the joys of fine barrista-prepared espresso.