The amount of stuff we own these days is staggering.
The average American home size has grown from 1,000 square feet to almost 2,500 square feet. Personal storage generates more than $24 billion in revenue each year. Reports indicate we consume twice as many material goods today as we did 50 years ago. All while carrying, on average, nearly $15,950 in credit-card debt.
These numbers should cause us to start asking some difficult questions of ourselves. For example, “Why do we buy more stuff than we need?”
I mean, when you really stop to think about it, this becomes a fascinating question. What thinking would compel somebody to spend money on things they didn’t actually need in the first place?
If we could successfully answer this question, we could more easily free our lives and our resources for more important pursuits.
But this question can be difficult. It forces us to admit weakness in our lives. Consider some of the lies we have believed:
7 Reasons We Buy More Stuff Than We Need
1. We think it will make us secure. Our logic goes like this: if owning some material possessions brings us security (a roof, clothing, reliable transportation), owning excess will surely result in even more security. But after meeting our most basic needs, the actual security derived from physical possessions is much less stable than we believe. They all perish, spoil, or fade. And they can disappear faster than we realize.
2. We think it will make us happy. Nobody would ever admit they search for happiness in material possessions—we all just live like we do. We buy bigger houses, faster cars, cooler technology, and trendier fashion hoping we will become happier because of it. Unfortunately, the actual happiness derived from excess physical possessions is fleeting at best.
3. We are more susceptible to advertising than we believe. On average, we see 5,000 advertisements every day. Every advertisement carries the same message: your life will be better if you buy what we are selling. We begin to hear this messaging so many times and from so many angles, we begin to subtly believe it. This is not a complete condemnation of the marketing industry. This is simply a call to realize their messaging affects us more than we realize.
4. We are hoping to impress other people. In a wealthy society, envy quickly becomes a driving force for economic activity. Once all of our basic needs have been met, consumption must become about something more than needs. It becomes an opportunity to display our wealth, our importance, and our financial success with the world.
5. We are jealous of people who own more. Comparison seems to be a natural state of our humanity. We notice what other people are buying, wearing, and driving. Our society encourages these comparisons. And all too often, we buy stuff we don’t need just because people in our friendship circles have done the same. A culture fixated on praising excess will always misdefine true success.
6. We are trying to compensate for our deficiencies. We mistakenly look for confidence in the clothes that we wear or the car that we drive. We seek to recover from loss, loneliness, or heartache by purchasing unnecessary items. We seek fulfillment in material things. And we try to impress other people with the things that we own rather than the people that we are. But these pursuits will never fully satisfy our deficiencies. Most of the time, they just keep us from ever even addressing them.
7. We are more selfish than we like to admit. It can be difficult to admit that the human spirit is hardwired toward selfishness and greed, but history appears to make a strong case for us. We seek to grow the size of our personal kingdom by accumulating more and more things. This has been accomplished throughout history by force, coercion, dishonesty, and warfare. Unfortunately, selfishness continues to surface in our world and our lives even today.
Excess material possessions do not enrich our lives. In fact, buying things we don’t need keeps us from experiencing some wonderful, life-giving benefits. We would be wise to realize the cause and become vigilant in overcoming it.
There is more joy to be found in owning less than can ever be discovered in pursuing more. (tweet that)
Jen says
Thank you once again for sharing your gift as an exceptional talented writer who reaches so many x
Patti says
And, of course, the 3-car garage is the norm nowadays. When I was growing up (in the 60’s and 70’s), we had a single-car garage, which was pretty much what every home on the block had. When my husband and I bought our first home (late 80’s), we had a 2-car garage. Now, a home with a 2-car garage seems out of place. 3-and-4-car garages dominate the landscape…all so we can buy more stuff…or have a vehicle for every licensed driver in the family. Very sad!
Jo says
I totally understand the garage thing. I love my parents dearly- although I struggle with the fact they have enough garage space for 7 vehicles, being a 5 car garage plus a detached 2 car garage that is now used as a storage shed.
And they have to park one of their three vehicles in the driveway because there is no room.
EmeraldCityGirl says
p.s. Just pinned this to my Pinterest board entitled “Ah, the holidays” which is a tongue-in-cheek look at the overconsumption, overcommitments, and overindulgence that becomes our “holiday season” in the winter. :|
EmeraldCityGirl says
I might add one more: “It feels good” to buy. But it only feels good in the moment. I was married to a fabulous guy in my 20s whose sisters and mom would go shopping for their social outings. I was of course an outcast because I didn’t go along. It was like being the only guy in sales who doesn’t golf. I hate malls, hate shopping and to be honest didn’t have much in common with these women whose primary conversations were around products, style and the words “charge it!”
Freedom | Rethinking the Dream says
I think for us, it was a way to prove that we were successful. Add that to the feeling of “we deserve it” and we ended up with way more than we needed. We felt some part of each of the things described in this post and we ended up feeling anchored by our house and our possessions.
We finally did something about it and drastically downsized our life, including selling our house and downsizing to an apartment. In doing so we regained our freedom. We don’t feel tied down anymore and have more time and money to do activities that we enjoy.
aly d. chase says
shared this on facebook. very well-written, joshua.
joshua becker says
Thanks Aly.
Tracy @ OurSimpleLifeSC says
We spent so many years chasing that old mighty dollar and thinking the only way to be happy was to have more. It took a personal crash to make both my husband and I stop and realize we didn’t need things to be happy. Fast forward six years and now we have downsized to a 1200 sq ft house, live in the country where the nearest town is 30 minutes away, live a very simple life, and truly have found freedom in owing less…it was liberating to us. The best advice I can give anyone is to shut off the TV, stop trying to keep up with having the next best thing and turn back to your roots where people found happiness in nature and taking care of themselves. http://oursimplelife-sc.com/owning-less/
LL in Prescott says
Agreed. Not only shut off the t.v., drop cable. I haven’t watched t.v. in well over 10 years. I don’t sit near it at the airport or in a hospital. I ask if I can turn it off in a small waiting room. Right up there with no t.v. is drop all magazine subscriptions. Wow! That really made an impact in my life. Those of my friends who live by what is up to date in the design world spend a fortune on switching out their house, again and again and again, because that cycle can never end. And they are never happy. I think my mental image is of a puppy chasing its tail.
Ashley says
Oh magazine subscriptions are THE WORST! I opened the latest copy of O Magazine a couple of days ago and I can’t tell you how many things there were that I never thought about before that I suddenly felt like I couldn’t live without. Same with the mall…I don’t even go in anymore and do most shopping online because it just instills this sense of lack where before there was none.
Becky Hicks says
I’m retiring in 7 days and everybody keeps asking me where I’m going, what trip am I taking. I too live in the country and have a small farm house, it’s so peaceful, I love it. The best thing you can do for yourself is make your home a place you might want to vacation to. I don’t need to go any place, I’m pretty happy right where I am.
Alexander Stoimenov says
The best advice! Thanks!
Book lover says
Yes, I retired to a small town (to babysit a granddaughter while her parents work) and I’m 8 miles from a small town. I make a trip once a week and that’s plenty. My entertainment is watching the changing scenery from my windows, listening to nature, chasing a 2 1/2 year old and reading. Love my life!
Chris K says
To some extent I agree. I’ve watched people buy more than they need, then bemoan the fact that they can’t meet their bills. I am stunned that the average credit card debt is $15,000 +. WHAT? That is ridiculous! If you can’t afford to pay for it outright, don’t buy it! I have to admit that I can be an impulse buyer, but generally it is something I’d already been looking for. Advertising doesn’t phase me in the least, but then I tend to be skeptical of everything.
Joy says
Excellent article, we spend most of our life to earn though there lot of advice to restore the lifestyle of earn to live. We forgot to love, to help, to enjoy the life. This kind of articles are need of the hour.
BrownVagabonder says
I will start this comment with a story. My partner got me addicted to this TV series, called Burn Notice. In this series, the main character is addicted to this brand of yogurt. I would see him eat this brand every single time I watched the show, and eventually, the product placement worked. I went in search of this brand of yogurt. I found that hundreds of other people had searched for this brand of yogurt after watching Burn Notice.
I realized that I am more susceptible to advertising that I thought I was. I thought that advertising didn’t affect me anymore, but obviously this showed me that it did. I started noticing other subtle ways in which advertising was getting into my buying habits.
Even though I am now more aware of advertising and how it affects me, sometimes it is able to get me to buy things without me realizing it. It is definitely a long and conscious work in progress.
Erin says
Burn Notice is my fav show too! But I live in Australia and that brand of yoghurt isn’t available here, also I can’t eat dairy products. Would totally buy the stuff if I could though.
Lacy says
OMG, really? That’s statement that you just made is hilarious.
“I can’t eat dairy products. Would totally buy the stuff if I could though”
Why in the hell would you buy something that you can’t eat? That’s just weird. Sorry.
Deb says
It’s possible Erin meant to type, “Would totally buy the stuff if I could [eat diary] though”. That’s my take on it, anyway…. ;)