Skip to main content

Too Much Stuff

Image
By

"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."

Related reading

Documentary: Less in Now

Why living differently is rare

Purchase distancing

Read more about:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monopoly, money and you

By
One of the most well-known board games can also be a great way to learn about money and investing - according to this book. Perhaps one way to teach kids (and maybe ourselves) about finance is to play a board game. In so many ways, the game parallels our own financial life - and we can practice financial decision-making without losing any real money. Is monopoly like life? Yes and no. We manage our cash, negotiate, make deals, make choices, go through tough times, make investments, pay tax and reap rewards. To do well we have to make investments. It's very hard to win just by collecting $200 each time you pass go. There are rules, and wise moves. The better we know them, the better we do. However, in real life, you can win without forcing others into bankruptcy. Principles that work in the game and life Diversify. You might have hotels on the two most expensive properties on the board, but if no-one lands on them, you still might lose. Investments have a price and a value. They are...
Post a Comment
Read more

Where is the best place to live?

By
Where we live determines a lot about our life.  So today I'm going to share a resource that can help you decide where might be a good place to live.  It started with an article ranking Brisbane suburbs from 1 to 260 . That ranking was based on a set of 17 factors. Here are some of them. But all 17 may not be relevant for you. And some might matter more than others. So they developed a tool where you can rank the 5 factors most important to you and it will give you a personalised list of Brisbane suburbs that would be the best for you - based on those factors. There are also  Sydney and Melbourne  versions. On the results page, there's also a map that colour-codes each suburb by star rating, for each factor. For instance here's the map for public transport. Five-star suburbs are in blue. When you click on a suburb, you get the name and the star rating of that suburb - for whichever factor you select. I find this to be so enlightening. I choose not to own a car. Some...
Post a Comment
Read more

Your Money or Your Life

By
Which is more important? Our money or our life? So why do we trade away so much of our life? Vicki Robin's classic book takes an in-depth look at how we can have a better relationship with money. Here are some of my highlights, though there's so much more great value in the book. I found it so inspirational after reading the foreword and the first chapter. While the backbone of the book is a 9-step plan, there are two concepts that really stand out - even if you never start the plan. One is the idea of "life energy" and our "real hourly wage". The other is the point of enough. Life Energy What is money? Vicki Robin comes to the conclusion that it is a form of life energy. It might sound a bit new-age, but it's like the old business saying "time is money". We exchange our time, and our physical and mental energy to get this thing called money. So when we use it we are effectively spending our life. The exchange rate Spending money is almost like...
Post a Comment
Read more