"Why is it so hard to resist new things even when we know we already have too much. Can we find an alternative to the more, more, more mentality?"
That promo got me hooked into the half-hour doco "Too Much Stuff". Australian viewers can see it online. Otherwise, here are some of my highlights.
Host Sarah Wilson sums up the problem right at the start. "At every turn we're urged to possess the next thing that will make us feel smarter and more desirable. Anything we want is available with just one click. We're filling up our lives with stuff; yet ultimately, many of us feel empty, guilty and stressed out by our consumption."
She sets out to explore an alternative. To see if "radically reducing our consumption" can lead to a better life. (Spoiler alert: Yes)
Sarah says many people call her a minimalist but she's not so much about getting rid of things, more about not buying stuff.
What's wrong with the Marie Kondo approach?
Each episode of Marie Kondo's hit show ends up with "mountains of stuff destined to be chucked out". Sarah wonders if it's just clearing space to buy more stuff.
Each year charities do a good job diverting goods from landfill. But we throw out 15 tonnes of clothes every 10 minutes. (I think those are Australian figures)
We're referred to as consumers. Technically, consume means to devour, waste or destroy. Australians are "epic consumers". If the whole world behaved like us, we'd need 4.5 earths. That's how much we devour, waste or destroy.
Psychologist Mary Hoang featured throughout the documentary. She says that "decluttering can be a form of cognitive dissonance". We want to be appear to be doing a good thing. But rather than look for a sustainable solution, we just get rid of the evidence.
2020
So how did 2020 change all that? Mary reckons people's values started to shift, but that we're still grappling with "realigning and reorienting ourselves to what really matters". We started to buy less, value people more, and have simpler lives (some even moved out of the cities). But then we felt pressure and went "back to old habits".
She reckons there's a "real undercurrent of people wanting change and not wanting to go all the way back to where they were before" but it's just that change is really difficult for people.
Kathy & Matt
Kathy and Matt used to work 16 hours days They earnt a lot, but also spent a lot on things they didn't need.
The illness of Kathy's mum was the wake-up call. They switched to living in a tiny home on her parents' property in the country.
Kathy says many of her friends are jealous, but they're scared - or think they can't do it.
What we really really want
Mary Hoang quotes a survey where people are asked if they are lonely. At least 1 in 4 say "sometimes" and half of people say "a lot". Mary says we need to connect with each other.
"Shopping and consuming will never fulfill the need we have. We have basic human needs of connection and safety. A product can't do that for us. We need to understand that, and stop looking in the wrong places."
Sarah puts it a different way. "Rationally, we own more that enough material stuff. And yet we are duped into believing that more and more material things will bring us love, connection, belonging - perhaps identity and status. When it doesn't, we buy even more stuff."
One solution
Sarah spend some of the documentary talking to people in the Buy Nothing project. In short, instead of decluttering into landfill, people give items freely to their neighbours through an online group. It replaces both waste and consumerism with local human-to-human interaction.
As one local organiser says, "Making sure a toaster doesn't end up in landfill .. doesn't solve the problem. But changing how we spend our money does."
Being free
In summing up, Sarah says that minimalism is not just about having less stuff. "It's also about not just filling your diary or home because there's space. It's being free to find out what you truly connect to. When we engage in this kind of action it reduces the overwhelm that stops us from living the life we truly want.
When we consume less we live more."
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