December 2025 Wrap-Up: Off-grid and Minimalism Philosophy, Fit in the Wild, and Off-Grid Consulting
December was epic! I shared a couple of important thoughts on minimalism, back to nature, solitude, and living deliberately. I also launched a new product.
December is coming to an end—in fact, the whole year is ending, and what a great year it was. Time for a little wrap-up of The Rich Minimalist’s articles December edition.
December’s topics were a bit more philosophical and “soft.” Christmas time is the quiet time we should use it to reflect as they say. I shared my thoughts about the mindset and benefits of minimalism and living deliberately, the role of solitude, and how to build a sane body for a sane mind.
I launched the Off-grid Tiny Consulting service—more about this at the end of this post. This service is related to my book Solar Serenity: Designing Your Off-Grid Tiny Home (Amazon best-seller). Subscribers to The Rich Minimalist get this book for free.
If you haven’t received the book yet, or if you have any other feedback, send me a message:
Happy reading,
Manfred
On to the summaries of the other December’s posts:
Fitness in the Wild: Ideas to Use What You Have to Stay Strong and Healthy
Practical strategies for building strength and health using bodyweight and minimal gear, tailored to nomadic and tiny house life without gym dependency.
Helen Thayer: Walking to the Edge of the World (and Finding Herself)
Inspiring profile of explorer Helen Thayer’s solo Arctic treks and global adventures, highlighting resilience and the importance of choosing your “compass”.
Feeling Lonely – Social Isolation and Connectivity in Off-Grid Tiny House Life
Strategies to combat off-grid loneliness (and the difference to solitude) through meaningful relationships, balancing alone time with community in minimalist setups.
You’re in for a Treat: Get Thoreau’s Walden for Free
Thanks to Project Gutenberg, this post compiles Thoreau’s “Walden” and “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” into a beautiful, free PDF download to inspire deliberate simplicity in minimalist living.
Excellent Walden Film
Review of excellent documentary on Thoreau’s Walden Pond experiment, highlighting lessons in deliberate simplicity, nature observation, self-reliance, and escaping modern desperation for minimalist freedom.
Thoreau’s Walden: Living Deliberately in a World That Sells You Lies — The Rich Minimalist Path to True Freedom
Thoreau’s Walden lessons on simplicity, observation, and self-reliance applied to modern rich minimalist living as a way to get out of the modern life trap.
December Podcasts
Deliberate Simplicity and the Rich Minimalist Life
Explores intentional living shifts to reclaim freedom, health, and happiness through reduced consumption and purposeful choices.
Loneliness in the Off-Grid Tiny House Life
Candid look at isolation challenges in remote living, with tips to foster connections while preserving independence.
Offgrid Tiny Consulting Launched
When I got my tiny house off the grid, I had to learn a lot about solar power systems and how to specify and build a system that perfectly meets my needs. I found out that this is still a very niche area and accurate information is hard to find.
I built this service to share what I learned from my research and practical experience.
Essentially, you add a range of details about your house—like energy need, location, budget, and preference—and I delivers a report to you outlining the ideal solar system setup for you.
No more guessing. No more spending hours and days searching the Internet.
Below are more details about what’s included:
Click the button below to find out more about Offgrid Tiny Consulting:
Thank you for being part of The Rich Minimalist community! My goal is to share practical insights into minimalist living, health, and freedom.
Revisit these favorites, and let me know any feedback. Please share with friends:
Stay healthy, stay free,
Manfred
Love that you're tackling the solar sizing guesswork with real consulting. Most off-grid content is either too theoretical or just spec sheets, but nobody talks about matching system design to actual lifestyle patterns. I burnt through way too much time overengineering my first setup before realizing winter cloud cover mattered more than summer peak output. The gap between "how much power do I need" and "how do I size for resilience not averages" is huge and underserved.