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)
Joe Bam says
Yes, great post.
I would add that it is not only advertising. For advertising to be effective, first, there must be emptiness. If you are full, advertising is not as powerful.
On the other hand, advertising happens in a very subtle way. Even if you don’t watch Tv or magazines, etc, you are subject to it.
The moment you walk out in the streets you are being sold a world of merchandise, products and, most important, a lifestyle.
Im not talking about huge adds on top of buildings or stores advertising their products to the public.
Im talking an even more subtle way.
You see people that wear certain clothes, drive certain cars, use certain mobile phones, wear certain sunglasses. You don’t even need to know the brands of those stuff (cars, clotes, sunglasses, mobile phones) forget about brand naming.
It is just enough you like one of those products and you will look for it
“Oh, like thart car (nevermind you ignore the name of the carmaker or model)” “Oh, I like those sunglases” “Oh, I like those pants”.
The moment you like something is the moment you will try to know about it and sooner or later will be buying it. Once you buy it, you will like something else, and so on…
It never ends.
Ellie says
When folks don’t think they’re affected by advertising, I just ask, “What do you compare the generic product to when shopping?”
Yep – they compare it to the ‘brand name’ – advertising works better than we think! We can’t avoid it, but we can make ‘conscious choices’ by being aware of advertising’s impact.
Great post!
Mel @ Melba Says says
I remember when I was in my 20’s I often coped with stress and sadness by going shopping. Oftentimes I couldn’t afford to spend the money I did. Now I really don’t like shopping very much and only do it when I need to replace something that has broken or worn out (or at the moment something my son has grown out of)!
Paul says
convential wisdom has us purchasing things we dont need, to build a dream we cant fulfill, to feel let down that we never made it. It is wrong, it is a lie.
Great post!
Ruth says
#8: We can’t find what we already have in our house.
Brittany Bergman says
So much truth in this post. Thanks for always sharing such honest (yet gracious) thoughts. I recently heard Mark Scandrette speak on the dangers of our consumption habits, and this stat stuck with me: if everyone on earth consumed at the same rate as Americans, it would take the resources of 4-5 planet Earths to keep up. It’s frightening that the average size of our homes keeps growing, our piles of stuff keep growing, and the distance between family members keeps growing.
Rosalie says
I don’t agree with the last one. I don’t think human beings are hard wired to be selfish, if that was the case then how come human beings also have a great capacity for altruism and charity? I think selfishness arises from the fact that people are not getting their needs met from community and therefore focus solely on trying to meet their own needs to the point where it becomes out of proportion. It is also something that has been strongly encouraged in western individualistic societies.
I enjoyed the other points on your list.
ralf says
Just moved to a smaller house. Looking for people who’d like to buy things for which we don’t have use anymore. I’d even post them to America.
Deniz says
Online shopping….. Habit. Laziness. Procrastination. The ‘thrill’. Why were none of these mentioned? These are real reasons. For me at least.
Nancy says
Frustrated and in shock after moving out of my 2000 sq foot house after 30 years. I had everything moved into the garage for a tag sale, since we were moving out of state. Mortified seeing all the stuff in one place that was taken out of our cellar, and other storage areas.
We are living in a 600 sq ft condo, awaiting for our new house to be built. There is alot of stuff in our storage unit that will be moved into the house, but I am amazed at the little that we really need, We have one closet between us (not a walk in!), I have even had to purge while living here, From this I learned how little we really need and am sure I will be selling/giving alot of stuff away once we empty the storage unit, Its a challenge, but I like the idea of knowing what we have vs. I can’t find it so I buy another (I found this consistently when moving out of the house, “found” several of the things that we had gone out and bought again and yet again, because we could not find! Its refreshing. I also have given up the clothes shopping and coupon shopping i.e. coupon in mail, so I MUST use! I also have lost the “I might need it someday” concept. Never thought I could change this much!
Mel @ Melba Says says
Well done Nancy…..we have moved twice in the last 3 years, downsizing both times and we got rid of so much stuff and I haven’t missed any of it!