Why less is more

This never shocked me in the past, it was my normal. I too was someone that had a lot of things. I found myself asking, do we really need to choose between 50 different types of cereals?

This is not to say that consumerism is non-existent in Spain, because it is a global phenomenon that affects every country. Americans are known to live beyond their means , with some people having more debt than savings. In addition to social problems, consumerism is linked to increased anxiety and comparison, as well as contributes to destroying our environment.

The need to produce goods to keep up with demands- affects our forests, climate, and natural resources. In a world of constant change, we buy things because we think it will make us feel secure and happy. Less is More Examples After our basic needs are met, do material possessions really bring us a real sense of security? Have we stopped to consider that if we had less of something, that it could actually turn out to give us more? Not only applied to physical things but mental and emotional capacity as well.

The spaces we surround ourselves with can impact our lives more than we may realize. The value of things loses its worth over time, but the feeling of guilt and debt is here to stay. We tend to feel more positive when we are saving money instead of spending it.

It leads to a real sense of security and preparation for future circumstances. Before you receive your next flash sale email from a store you are subscribed to, simply unsubscribe and see how you feel. I happen to be guilty as charged! Having less clothes allows for more closet space for you and your partner to share, and results in less arguments as well! If you are unsure of how to downsize and figure out what you really need, you can learn more about building a capsule wardrobe here.

In a city like Tokyo, which is home to over 10 million people- respect for space is deeply rooted within their culture. When you have less furniture. More room means a clearer and calmer mind. If you find yourself laying in bed at night scrolling through social media feeds- consider downloading the kindle app or leaving a book by your nightstand to read instead. Thanks for continuing to inspire Joshua!

I enjoyed reading this so much. Joshua your blog has been an inspiration. Thank you for sharing. Hi Josh, Sad for your neighbor. Fast forward some years we live in a 2 bedroom condo without space to serve an army. But a year ago a friend made a comment that really made me realize I had it wrong. Our extended family switched to heavy duty paper plates and heavy duty plastic ware.

No one has complained. We brought up one son and are bringing up another. As pieces break, I go to the thrift store and buy a replacement that I like. No one coming over has every complained! Thank you for the wonderful postings each and everyone. I was a hoarder of unique items…clothing, household goods and anything I deemed unique. I shopped everywhere, thrift stores, flea markets, high end stores, you name it, I shopped it.

At first, my home was lovely, I received many compliments. I dressed beautiful and received many compliments. If someone needed something, I had it, most of the time, I had several items of the same. Currently I own over pairs of shoes, just for me????? I only have two feet….

All the closets in my home are filled with my clothing, a room filled with tots, containing my clothing alone. I am now coming to my senses realizing that I must fix this mess. Less for me is best. I have slowly began to rid myself of this demon. Thank you for all of the postings and please pray that I will defeat my weakness. I know I will. When I vacationed at a Florida Timeshare on year, I was so impressed how nice the set-up was, minimalist and functional to enjoy our stay.

I make it my goal now, to live to a minimal and I know now never to fall for the donut maker, the slushee machine, the other stuff that ends up at Goodwill anyway. My husband and I do not have any children, which makes us the last in line of a relatively large family. As the older generations passed away, some of the younger generations decided that we should keep their heirlooms here at our house.

We would like to move in 5 years to a different climate and semi-retire to a much smaller house. Now that all of the elder generations have passed on, we are finally free to dispose of some of these items without guilt it is still very difficult.

The process has started, but it is so overwhelming! I never had a chance to become a shopaholic because there was no room left after everybody bestowed their possessions upon us! I feel your pain. Sell it, give it away Or enjoy. Had a small mortgage left and figured, why not buy smaller, older with cash and be debt free at 50 : We ordered our pod the week of the moving sale…and made a deal we would only be taking that which fit in the pod ; Everything else sold…I had over tubs of holiday decor..

I downsized to a mobile home from a large ranch style home. Thank you for this article. My father is a minimalist and we inherited his attitude.

He said the less you have the richer you are. My family and i moved into a big house about a year ago. Since i was the only one in charge of packing, i try to downsize on things and took only what we still use and gave the rest to other relatives, but furniture wise, we need to buy more. Anyways, since the move made everything seem like we are so much better off, a i say a for we believe it is the same person burglar had tried to invade our house twice.

Now, we are so afraid to open and get out of the house without thinking that he would come back. My husband and I downsized three years ago and it felt great to purge so much of the stuff we had collected over many years. When I came across a treasured item that I really had no use for other then the memory it held I took a picture of it and put it in a memory book, then let the item go.

We are in a happy place with much less stuff. Superb article…it really makes u think and we need to be responsible for our fellow human beings in need. If you can live a simple life, it makes your life so joyful!!

After years of shopping, I g o t divorced and sold my house and most of my things. Now I have met a wonderful man, but he loves estates sales and garage sales. If your man is wonderful as you stated, he will listen to you and compromise…… Talk to him. I am very new to this minimalist ideology but I am so excited about it!

The distressing quantity of stuff my children received for Christmas a few days ago has brought this issue to a head for me. I wanted to share a wonderful idea I came across to solve a problem, but first a bit of back story…..

My two children have their birthdays at the same time of year and two years ago they each had a party with school friends and the parties were a week apart. The vast quantity of mostly rubbishy gifts that entered my house was highly distressing. Someone else gave my daughter not one, but four craft kits!

I made a new rule: only one party per year. It worked! We got one gift, everyone else brought coins. A few people thanked me for making it so easy. They love it. They are still under the age of 10, it might change when they are older. This reminds me of a sweet story and my kids from years ago. We live in a modest neighborhood in an affluent town. Our house is on the same street as the elementary school and so my children walked.

The children who lived on the peninsula with mansions and oceans views lived far enough to take a town bus to school. As the bus drove by us one afternoon while we were walking, my youngest said I feel bad for them they have to take the bus kind of far and we can walk right down the street. And we still are! As they enter the teens there is far more comparisons to those families who travel more, have more, do more, but I hold on to that story.

This post is great and so important. Interesting thread of thought here, Joshua. I was working on a draft exploring a thought about something last night because I am making the transition to full-time minimalism. I have identified what I need and what I want. Final Thoughts At the end of the day, less may seem basic, but simplicity is the key to a content life.

You focus on the things that matter instead of focusing on having everything, all at once. Choosing less is the key to a happy life. I look forward to reading all of your articles. Thank you so much for sharing your incalculable wisdom and advice. Stay safe and well! We often pile our closets, rooms, and homes with pointless stuff. Instead of discarding in its due time, we just keep on adding to that pile and hiding some of it in the attic in closed cartons for some later day use. However, that later rarely comes and the extra things just keep sitting for years without offering you any benefit.

So why add to the amount of storage in your shed, garage, or attic? When the time comes to clean the garage, attic or storage shed, it will only make you stressed, and you will keep avoiding it. However, when you discard things on a timely basis and keep fewer possessions, your stress levels reduce.

You will be done with the cleaning and sorting in no time when you have fewer things to go through, leaving you with more free time on your hands to do the things you actually want to be doing. You can spend the same time doing things you actually enjoy doing and the things that bring you joy. This means you obviously have too much to worry about and fewer things to work on.

Working smart does! We tend to measure our success with how much time we have invested in doing something rather than on how much has been accomplished. Working less but smart also makes us realize that it is okay to fall behind as long as the most important things get done. It eliminates the guilt that comes with doing less as we begin to view the importance of doing things differently. Our focus shifts from doing more to working less but smart.

Less planning equates to more doing. Although, to-do lists are great by all means; however, when we have so many things to organize and do, we often get caught up in the planning excessively. Doing things get things done. Avoid planning so far ahead instead, make plans for the day only. Short-term planning is a better way of getting things done as we tend to get carried away or overwhelmed when we have more than ten pointers to-do list.

Divide your focus in between a few tasks only so that you can give each one the amount of thinking and focus it deserves. When left with a plethora of choices, our decision-making ability also suffers.

Conversely, when there is less to stress about, we become more confident about the things we want to do and the things we should do. Conscious living leads to conscious buying. When we buy things that we need, we build healthier spending habits. Wanting less validates the futility of just-in-case items. It also eliminates our obsession with staying prepared all the time. When we adopt such an approach, it becomes easier to overlook even the most appealing of clutter and hold back on all those purchases without any value.

At the end of the day, you have more time to enjoy me-time and spend it like you want to. Less clutter equals less time wasted on maintaining it.

It also means more free time to enjoy the things you love doing. It can become a great source of strengthening your relationships with friends, spouse, and family. After all, these are the things that really matter.

Advertisements have us believing that to lead a successful life, we need the latest and greatest of everything. Own a big TV, get the fastest speed connection, the biggest house, the largest bed, the most expensive paintings, and whatnot. A smaller TV works just fine, a slower connection also opens up the same content, a smaller house offers the same comfort level, a smaller bed still houses two people and cheaper paintings or wall art also gets the same appreciation.

So what realty is the point of spending so much on things with more or less the same value? When we start thinking in such a manner, we reduce the amount of impulsive buying. We are no longer fascinated or excited about sales, discounts or billboard ads that remind is now is the time to buy the best.