“There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” —Nelson Mandela
We own too much stuff. And it is stealing our joy.
Consider how our possessions deplete our most finite and valuable resources:
Money: Everything we buy moves our financial balance closer to zero, sometimes even below. The Average American with credit card debt lives with $15,956 debt spread out over 3.5 credit cards. But it is not only families with debt that struggle. Recent statistics report nearly 8 out of every 10 Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck.
Time: Our possessions rob us of precious minutes every day. They are required to be cleaned, organized, maintained, fixed, recycled, removed, and replaced. And that doesn’t even begin to account for all the time we spent working in the first place just to earn the money to buy the possessions that we take home to be cleaned and organized and maintained and…
Energy: Our excessive possessions demand our attention and mental energy. Clutter in our life contends for our eyes, our attention, and our focus. Our minds are subtly consumed with the pursuit of possessions. And the temptation to compare our possessions with those around us permeates our thoughts more than we’d like to admit.
But there is a far better way to live life. The removal of excessive possessions and the intentional decision to live with less offers countless benefits. In exchange for removing the clutter, we are rewarded with newfound finances, time, energy, freedom, and mental capacity. Our lives are lived with less stress, less anxiety, and less burden.
Life is immediately improved. Our finite resources become more available to us. In short, we are freed to pursue our greatest passions. And for some of us, it’s been a long time since we had access to the necessary finite resources required to chase our heart’s greatest delights—however we decide to define them.
For too long, we’ve bought into the lie that more is better. We’ve bought bigger houses and faster cars and trendier clothes and cooler toys, but we’ve traded far more than time and money to acquire them. We’ve traded the very passions and life we most desperately desire to pursue.
But they can be rediscovered. After all…
- Living with less offers more time to spend on meaningful activities.
- Living with less offers more freedom to travel and move about.
- Living with less offers more clarity in our spiritual pursuits.
- Living with less offers more mental capacity to solve our most heartfelt problems in life.
- Living with less offers more finances to support causes we believe in.
- Living with less even offers far greater flexibility in pursuing the careers we most desire.
Owning fewer possessions provides the perfect roadmap for living the life you’ve always dreamed of living. One that is lived pursuing the greatest passions in your heart. Maybe for the first time. Finally.
Clint says
My wife and I, two overspenders, just moved into my familie’s home. My dad had passed, and my mom is in memory care. We downsized by about 700 sq ft when we moved plus had to deal with all my parents stuff. Thank God there was a barn (which is jam crammed). It will probably take me a year or two to get things down to a comfortable level (unless we just bring in a dumpster) but I am determined to have less… CRAP in my life.
We’ve got a good start. We are out of debt, and we have donated a LOT to the local Goodwill and Community cupboard. Still… so far to go. It’s overwhelming.
Kush Sharma says
Great read as usual. I think credit cards can actually help us lead a minimalist lifestyle provided we know how to use them as intended. If the focus is on the needs and the not the wants, they can help in dividing the cost of living in a manner that is very targeted oriented, which can be easily attained because we are motivated by the fact that we are enjoying the purchase in the now.
Roser says
Any suggestions on how to strive towards minimalism when living with a borderline hoarder? Every time I try to recycle or throw something out my husband literally picks it out of the bin and argues why we need to keep it.
Karen Morgan says
What you write re our obsession with owing so much stuff and how it is so debilitating in living a free and authentic life has long resonated with me. As a Professional Organiser I see how the cleaning and continual organising of too much stuff takes over my clients lives, robs them of time to follow their passions, frequently overwhelming many to the point of desperation. I love sharing your words of wisdom with my clients whilst helping them declutter their lives. And yes, I really believe the answer is owing less.
Doreen Eves says
I really appreciate your posts. I have been following for a couple of months now. Before I found your page I was distressed with the way my life was …cluttered. I have been eliminating unnecessary items bit by bit, the procedure has been way over due. I now have an empty nest and suddenly wondered why I had so much stuff and what the heck had I been blindly doing all these years collecting and spending hard earned money on things. I have realized since I started my excavation, that somewhere in the journey of life I had lost myself and become part of the commercialization of who we are supposed to be instead of who we really are. I am a minimalist at heart and burying myself alive with junk, made me unhappy and produced a feeling of being confined. The more I release and let go the better I feel. One important fact I noticed was that my parents especially my Mother was a minimalist and we lived an abundant life with having and using only what we needed. We were not rich and we were not poor, we just lived well. I am now finding time to do the things I love to do again and am very aware of my shopping and collecting behaviour. I only buy necessities now and cherish and love the items I decided to keep. Thank you.
Betty says
I live your posts and have been following you for about a year. I’m the person that loves the sales ads and just has to go get this because it’s on sale. I’m the one that buys clothes that are too small for me, hoping by next season I will be that size-only to still have them left hanging in my closet. I’m the person who buys Christmas 6 months early because I catch stuff on sale. Well things are changing!
I read a few of your blogs and they made sense. I DO have a bunch of stuff! So last summer, I took one of your challenges about clothes. I started clearing out my two level walkin closet and made a commitment not to buy anything new for one full year. I’m about 8 months into that and have not been perfect but have only purchased a few items at resale shops because I lost weight. Now, I’m purging my house and it feels great!! I don’t know if I will ever be minimalist but I am removing some of the clutter of my life. Thank you!
Sheila says
I have been “de-cluttering” and minimizing what I own since I started reading your blogs. I donated 13 bags of items last week. There is still some more to go, but I’m now appreciating so much the value in seeing some empty space in places in my home. I’m loving the idea of a somewhat more sparse look. Not sparse to the point of being ‘cold’, but also definitely not cluttered. Just a more simple / streamlined look. And I was able to walk through the largest shopping mall in my province today without buying anything. :)
Jan says
Great posting! I am working wading my way thru my crap towards minimalism slowly one step at a time :). A friend of mine does something amazing. She takes every single pair of shoes out of the closets, boxes, etc and lines them up around the room side by side… This way she can see what she has, what she loves, what she hasn’t worn and purge.
Lori Ann says
I have gone through my “stuff” and purged, given to salvation army, sold some things, and yet come back and read this article and think…..’WOW, I have so much more I need to purge because I look around and see “stuff”, papers, clutter and I thought I had it all done. It just re-appears or something. It’s hard to go through and get it out of the house with children and a husband to care for every day, but I am hoping I can do a little at a time and get it out of here.
Vanessa says
I love your little posts that come up on my FB page- it brightens my day and constantly reminds me about something that I believe in. Im lucky that I am Australian and I think we have it pretty good here. I always try to buy anything that I may need from a second hand shop first and constantly, ‘de-clutter’. Being quite anal and tidy, I absolutely hate clutter and useless stuff hanging around. I also believe in using my money for experiences rather than possessions. I dont have much money, (being a poorly paid freelance journalist) but I work to live and would never work in a job where they expected everything of me- life should be a very healthy work/life balance but this can only be reached if you keep your simple and therefore dont need loads of money to live. I own everything of mine- I drive a 99 camry (safe and reliable and cheap to fix), I dont have the ‘best’ of everything, but I dont have any debt and therefore I can live pretty simply. Thanks for your great blog ;-)