Joshua Becker's Blog, page 62

The Problem with Turning Your House into a Toy Store

“I just don’t know what to do, Joshua. He never seems happy.” This statement by my friend grabbed my attention and I sat up straighter in my chair.

My friend is a few years older than me and, financially speaking, more successful in every way: more income, more cars, bigger house, more toys.

We were enjoying some wonderful food at a downtown restaurant and talking about marriage and parenting. At some point, our conversation turned to his elementary-aged son.

My friend’s face was showing visible frustration. “I don’t understand. He has a whole drawer full of video games, a bedroom full of action figures, and a whole entire room in our house completely dedicated to toys. But he never seems happy. He’s constantly telling me he’s bored.”

His attention began to shift. As is so often the case when it comes to parenting, he began thinking about his own childhood.

“When I was young,” he said, “my family
didn’t have anything. I mean, Joshua, we were super poor. I only had three toys
to play with, and I shared them with my three brothers. But we made do with
what we had—and we had lots of fun. I don’t ever remember asking my parents to
buy me stuff.”

I was ready with my response to this. I had spent years thinking about this topic and had considered the topic when writing Clutterfree with Kids.

“Maybe your son is discontent because he has too many toys,” I told him.

“Think about it this way. When you were young, you only had three toys. But more importantly, you knew that wasn’t going to change. You had three, that’s it. You were forced to make do with what you had and find happiness in it. That was your only choice.”

My friend was nodding, so I continued:

“Your son, on the other hand, is in a completely different circumstance. Whenever he wants something new, whether it be from a commercial or something his friend gets, he just asks for it and then he gets it. You allow him to keep looking for happiness in the next toy, the next game, the next purchase. Heck, you practically encourage it.

Maybe if he was required to find happiness in the toys he already has, he just might find it. But for now, he is able to live under the impression that the next toy is going to bring it.”

My friend’s face grew sadder because he knew that what I was saying was true. His own decisions were contributing greatly to the unhealthy relationship his son had formed with possessions.

This is a reminder all of us parents need: our kids need boundaries!

If we don’t give them a sense of how much is too much, they’ll just keep wanting more. And if we let them grow up without considering the downsides of overaccumulation, we could be dooming them to repeat the errors of excess that are so common in our world today.

Don’t you want to spare your kids the bondage that comes with having too much stuff? Start early to teach them that less is more! It’s one of the best ways you can show them your love.

Someone Has More Than You. Get Used To It.

I write these words for everyone in the world except for one
person. This post is for the 7.52 billion people who are not the richest person
in the world. In other words, Jeff Bezos, if you are reading, this is not for
you.

To everyone else, I have some news:

Someone in the world has more than you, get used to it.

I once read a fascinating statistic about millionaires who
lost their wealth. A survey was conducted of people who once had a net worth of
$2 million, but now are worth less than $1 million. When asked how they lost
half their fortune, 40% responded, “We started hanging out with people worth
$10 million, and we lost our money trying to match their spending.”

The study, which I read years and years ago, has always
stuck with me. It reveals an important truth:

There is always going to be someone in the world with more than you and trying to keep up with them is a losing battle. Because there will always be someone else ahead of you in the game.

There is a co-worker in your office who has more than you.There is a neighbor down the street who has more than you.Someone at your church or community group has more than you.There is a family at your kid’s school who has more than you.And we all know there is someone on television right now who has more than you.

That is always going to be the case (except for you Jeff).

Now, it seems to me there are only a couple of responses we can have to this reality:

1. We get jealous and envious and bitter that someone has more.

2. We accept it and decide to find happiness with what we have.

The clear choice for a joyful and happy life is #2.

But too often, we choose #1.

As a result, we spend much our time comparing our things to
other people. We compare the size of our house, the year of our automobile, the
brand of our clothing, our last vacation destination, the age of our
retirement, or our paycheck with the person next to us.

Unfortunately, there is no joy to be found in these comparisons. Ever. Because there is always going to be someone with more.

There is no contentment to be found in comparing our stuff with other people. You may think that once you own a fancy house or nice car like so-and-so, you’ll be happy. But that’s simply not the case because there is always going to be someone else to compare yourself to… always a bigger house, a more prestigious neighborhood, or a fancier model car to own.

There is no end to the comparison game. There is always, always going to be someone in the world with more.

I fear making sweeping generalizations, but I am going to
for the sake of argument.

If you are reading these words, your needs are met. You have
clothes and food and shelter.

You may not have the most expensive clothes in the world, you may not eat at the fanciest restaurants, and you may not live in the biggest house on your block. But your needs are being met.

In fact, I may take this moment to declare another truth. Not only is there someone in this world with more than you, there is someone in this world with less than you.

There is someone in this world with less than you who is perfectly content and happy because they have chosen to be happy right where they are, rather than comparing their lives to someone with more.

There is someone in the world with more than you. But you have many reasons to be grateful. And you have everything you need to find happiness. So stop comparing.

Inspiring Simplicity. Weekend Reads.

F ill your life with stories to tell, not stuff to show.

The simplicity/minimalism movement is a beautiful community. And I enjoy any opportunity to promote writing that encourages people to live more by owning less.

So fix yourself a nice warm cup of coffee or tea. Find a quiet moment this weekend. And enjoy some encouraging words to inspire more simplicity in your life today.

Too Nice for the Likes of Us: Why Buying Fancy Stuff Makes Us Miserable | The Guardian by Adrienne Matei. Luxury purchases should make us feel like a million bucks but impostor syndrome is at work even while we’re shopping

Enough | pjrvs by Paul Jarvis. Exterior mindfulness (some call it minimalism) only works when we solve for enough.

Most of Your Stuff Is Worthless :: 3 Things You Should Be Doing NOW to Reduce What You Own | Dallas Moms Collective by Siobhan Kratovil. Most of the stuff in your house is worthless. Yes, even the stuff you worry the most about, the stuff you think is so good you don’t use it for fear of breaking it, has little to no resale value. 

Minimalist Fashion | The Minimalists. Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus chat with Courtney Carver about her new book: Project 333.

Simple Living. The Earlier, the Better. | Joshua Becker on YouTube

8 Ways to Get Rid of Clutter and Get Your Life Back

Note: This is a guest post by Allison Fallon, author of Packing Light.

It’s safe to say most of us wish our lives were less cluttered than they are. And yet when it comes to actually going through our possessions and getting rid of the stuff we don’t need, most of us get stuck.

Maybe we tell ourselves we don’t really have the time do that, or we convince ourselves we don’t really have that much clutter anyway.

But there is a significant amount of research that shows what common sense could have told us all along, which is that clutter causes more than just a mess. It causes us a significant amount of stress. It bombards our minds with stimuli and makes it more difficult for us to relax.

Not to mention, when we actually do get around to going through our possessions and sorting through what we need and what we don’t, our brain tricks us into thinking we’re more attached to those things than we actually are. A new study shows that the part of your brain that lights up when you get rid of clutter is the same part that registers when you experience physical pain.

No wonder it’s so hard for us to clear out the clutter.

I thought I’d give you a few simple ways to get rid of clutter—a guide you can follow—so that when you make the attempt to clear your clutter and your brain tries to protest, you have a solid plan you can follow, reminding yourself, “this will be worth it in the end.”

Here are eight steps you can take to start clearing out the clutter.

If you’ve been putting off this task, any of these places would be a great place to start.

1. Clothes you haven’t worn.

Go to your closet and clean out anything you haven’t worn in twelve months. Or if it’s in season and you haven’t worn it this season, give it up. If you’re anything like me, you have dozens of items hanging in your closets or stuffed in your drawers not only that you don’t wear, but that you actually dislike!

Get rid of them. Clear out space for something better. Side note: if you have a hard time getting rid of some of these things, tell yourself you can keep it for one more week but you have to wear it this week. If you wear it, and love it, keep it. If you wear it and remember to yourself, “oh yeah, I remember now why I hated this shirt” it’s time to let it go.

2. Kitchen appliances or tools you don’t use.

My guess would be your kitchen is full of things you don’t ever use. Aside from a few seasonal things, like a big pan for your thanksgiving turkey, for example, there is just no reason to keep things in your kitchen that you aren’t using at least four to five times a year.

Do you have a crock put you never use? Either use it, or get rid of it. Do you have a blender that couldn’t cut a scoop of ice cream on a warm day? Maybe you’re holding onto it because you haven’t wanted to invest in one that actually works. Get rid of the old one. You’ll either forget about it completely, or it will motivate you to start saving for something a little more effective.

3. Any duplicates.

Do you have two vacuum cleaners or two lawn mowers? Maybe you got a new one and you’re keeping the old one. Why? Just in case? Just in case of what? The running joke I have with myself is that if I need a second one of something I have, I know where to find it: the store.

That may sound wasteful or irresponsible to you, but the truth is we often overestimate the value of our possessions (ever tried to buy something on Craigslist?). More importantly, I rarely, if ever, have to go out and buy a second one of anything.

4. Expired products.

Most of us are holding onto products—in our bathroom, our kitchen, our medicine cabinet, or our refrigerator—that are expired, nearly gone, or that we used once and decided we’d never use again. Throw them out! It will feel good, I promise.

Just go through the space under your bathroom sink and get rid of all of those bottles that are nearly empty anyway, that hairspray you bought that you never liked, or the cough medicine from 1993. You don’t need it. It’s taking up space. The same is true with your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry.

One time for fun I tried to eat for a week on just what was in my freezer and pantry already, instead of grocery shopping. It was a total challenge, it saved me money, and it makes me think twice next time I think about buying that giant pack of tuna fish from Costco, just because its on sale.

5. Junk drawer.

I understand the need for a junk drawer as much as the next person, but every now and then it’s good to go through your junk drawer and realize that most of the stuff in it is (surprise) junk. You can throw it out.

6. Books.

When it comes to books, I divide mine into four categories. First, you have books you bought (or were given) but that you will never read.

Second, you have books you have read but that you would like to keep so that you can reference them. Or, maybe they’re a collector’s edition, or simply a nice copy you’d like to keep on your shelf.

Third, you have books you’ve read but that you will never look at again. And finally, you have books that you purchased and plan to read, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. When you are able to divide your books into these categories, it becomes easier to let the books go that you will never read, or that you’ve read but don’t plan to read again.

7. Under your bed.

Beware of spaces and places in your house that are “out of sight, out of mind.” What happens in these space is we tend to shove things there that we aren’t sure we want to keep but we aren’t ready to get rid of.

We put off the decision by saying, “I’ll just put it here.” The truth is if you went to one of those spaces right now and pulled things out, I bet you’ll find several things you didn’t even know where there. Sometimes you can put those things to use, or put them in a place where you won’t forget about them. Most of the time, you can put them in the “giveaway” or “throw away” piles.

8. Storage closet or garage.

This is on the border of becoming “not so simple” ways to declutter, but here’s the thing to remember with storage closets or garages. And consider the possibility that out of sight is not out of mind.

The clutter that builds up in the spaces we don’t see every day does absolutely have an impact on us—our mental clarity and peace of mind.

So consider doing a “mental” pass-through of your garage or storage closet before you actually physically look to see what’s in there. The items you remember and miss—keep those. Everything else, consider getting rid of it.

***

Allison Fallon blogs at Find Your Voice where she helps people use writing as a tool for their own personal growth. She is the author of a wonderful book, Packing Light.

Celebrating One Year of The Minimalist Home

One year ago in December, we released The Minimalist Home: A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life. The book sold out by the end of the first day and the second printing sold out a few weeks later. All told, the book has sold over 75,000 copies as it continues to inspire people to live more life by owning fewer possessions.

To celebrate its one-year anniversary, the digital version of The Minimalist Home is available for $1.99.

The book is currently #1 in Happiness, Home, and Motivational Self-Help.

The Minimalist Home is the most practical and comprehensive room-by-room guide to a decluttered, refocused life. 

In it, I’ve brought together all my key teachings on minimalism. Addressing all the usual concerns plus your entire house—every space you’ll find in a typical home—in methodical fashion. The book contains handy lists, inspiring stories, special topics that will help you form your own strategies for minimizing, and countless tools to make it valuable for you to turn to again and again. 

If you’re going to own only one book on minimalism to make a lasting change in your home and life, this is it.

The book has received praise from countless readers:

“Like a lighthouse on a stormy sea, The Minimalist Home appeared.” —USA Today“The most inspiring simple-living book I have ever read.” —Joy F.“Life-changing.” —Ann O.“This book was just what I needed to kick my butt into gear.” —Lauren R.

$1.99 is the lowest price the book has ever been offered.

The Minimalist Home can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple. If you are outside the US, check Kobo for the same price.

10 Things Minimalists Don’t Do

Note: This is a guest post from Melissa of Melissa Camara Wilkins.

You might think that minimalists are all about white walls and clutter-free countertops, but that’s not the whole story. Minimalists know that having less stuff offers more space for focus, gratitude, and meaningful work.

Whether your own desk is clear or your bookshelves are overstuffed, consider trying out these ten things that minimalists don’t do.

1. They don’t lose sleep over keeping up with trends.

When it comes to stuff, minimalists aim to own just enough. They might invest in fewer, higher quality pieces, but they’re not spending a lot of time and energy shopping for those shoes/tote bags/coffee table baubles everyone else is after, the ones that will be outdated and disposed of before the season is over.

That’s not to say that minimalists don’t pay attention to style—they just tend to invest more in their own personal style, not the style dictated by consumer trends. Instead of trying to fit in, minimalists focus on who they are and what’s right for them.

2. They don’t succumb to decision fatigue before noon.

Energy spent on inconsequential decisions—what to wear, what to eat for breakfast, where to look for the keys that are missing yet again—adds up fast. We all have a limited amount of decision-making power each day, and using it on details takes away from our ability to be decisive when it really matters.

When you pare down your wardrobe, your kitchen, or your clutter, you cut out unnecessary options. You can save your decision-making power for creative projects, for your relationships, and for productive work. By eliminating the unnecessary, you create more energy for what matters most.

3. They aren’t drowning in email.

Decluttering isn’t just for office supplies. Minimalists keep their digital lives clutter-free too, and that includes unsubscribing from emails that aren’t useful. Just like the mantra from William Morris, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful,” only invite messages into your inbox if they’re useful or delightful to receive.

4. They don’t worry about what other people think.

Minimalists have learned not to defer to the crowd when it comes to important decisions. Living with less is like swimming upstream, so minimalists get lots of practice at doing what they think is best instead of following popular opinion.

Most of us have a tendency to be overly influenced by other peoples’ opinions. What will they think about what I wear, where I live, what I do? Our best choices are made when we let go of that fearful inner voice. We could all stand to practice that more often.

5. They don’t spend Saturdays cleaning out the garage.

When you’re not using all those things you buy, they need to be taken care of: stored, cleaned, fixed, organized. Minimalists refuse to give up their free time for extra stuff maintenance. Instead of storing everything you’ve ever owned, let go of the things you don’t use anymore. Less time spent cleaning and organizing all that junk you’ve stored means more Saturdays spent doing what you love.

6. Or tidying up everything else.

Many minimalists say they love a clean home, but hate to clean. The easiest way to keep things tidy is to get rid of everything that clutters up a space. Clear counters are easier to wipe up. Clear floors are easier to vacuum. Don’t just reorganize; remove. And make sure that everything you do keep has a specific home in your house, so you can put things away when they’re not in use.

7. They don’t let the past dictate their future.

The things you’re surrounded by remind you of what you believe is important. If you don’t weed out the belongings you’ve outgrown, it’s like your past is living with you all the time. You don’t need to own everything you’ve ever used. Keep things that support who you are, who you’re becoming, and let go of the rest.

8. They don’t forget what their loved ones look like.

Minimalists have this crazy idea that maybe wanting less is better than buying more. They don’t spend time and money buying things they don’t need, to impress people they may or may not even like.

Whatever your budget, spending less will help it stretch farther—leaving you with more time to be with friends and family away from work, and less stress during your downtime so you can actually enjoy the people you’re with.

9. They don’t lose the habit of curiosity.

Creative thinking requires staying curious. Minimalists get to practice curiosity all the time, asking themselves questions like: Why do I own this? Why did I say yes to that? Is this habit still serving me? What would life be like without this? What’s really important to me? What can I let go of?

The practice of asking questions and seeking your own answers—not just the culturally approved ones—is helpful in all kinds of areas beyond dealing with desktop clutter.

10. They don’t skip out on great memories.

Many minimalists prioritize experiences over things. Instead of collecting knick knacks, they collect memories. Whether they’re having fun as a family, planning outings with friends, or going on solo treks, minimalists aren’t looking for the next great buy, they’re keeping an eye out for their next adventure.

***

Melissa Camara Wilkins writes a beautiful blog about giving yourself permission to be who you were made to be. You can also follow her on Facebook.

___

One last thing:

I want to let you know that Amazon has just marked down the price of The Minimalist Home to $1.99 (Kindle version only).

There is no telling how long the sale will last, but if the book would be helpful to you in your minimalism journey, now is the time to get it. This is the lowest price I’ve ever seen it offered.

*Please note, I have seen the sale price offered on Kindle, Nook, and Apple, but this price may only available inside the US. Apologies to all my out-of-country readers.

Joshua

How Minimalism Can Help You Find Wellness

I spoke last week at the University of Ottawa to kick off their Health and Wellness Week. It was chilly and cold, but a fabulous event to be part of.

I am thankful for the organizers and their forward thinking in connecting minimalism to wellness. Our pursuit and collection of physical possessions has a profound effect on the lives we live—and the level of life satisfaction we experience. I was grateful for the opportunity to help make that connection for both students and faculty.

As part of the presentation, I took some time to connect minimalism with the seven pillars of wellness. And I thought it might be helpful to share those connections here as well.

(I know there are different models of human wellness available and the number of pillars can change from one organization to another. But I’ll use the University of Ottawa model as the basis for this post).

The 7 Pillars of Human Wellness

1. Spiritual Wellness: Fostering a sense of inner peace and harmony while participating in activities that support one’s beliefs and values.

It is important to note, in descriptions of wellness, that spiritual wellness does not necessarily speak to the practice of a specific faith (or any faith for that matter). Spiritual wellness is about alignment—aligning one’s activities with their beliefs and values.

Within this definition, minimalism contributes significantly to spiritual wellness. In fact, minimalism is, at its core, about alignment. Minimalism is about promoting your values by removing distractions. Owning less allows us to direct our most finite resources (time, money, and energy) towards those things that matter most to us.

2. Physical Wellness: Adopting healthy habits and minimizing risky behaviors that may affect your well-being.

I can’t speak for every person who has adopted minimalism as a lifestyle, but I can speak for a large number of them. More importantly, I can speak for myself. I am a far healthier person today than before I discovered minimalism.

Intentionality in my possessions sparked intentionality in other areas of my life. As I removed the physical clutter from my home, I began eating healthier and exercising more. This occurred partly because owning less freed up my time to pursue those habits and partly because intentionality in one area of life tends to spark intentionality in other areas.

I am not alone in this experience. Courtney Carver, Joshua Fields Millburn, Leo Babauta, and Francine Jay have all written about similar experiences. Does practicing minimalism make you healthier automatically? No, but it does provide the opportunity and often the initiative to incorporate healthier habits. Minimalism encourages physical wellness.

3. Financial Wellness: Understanding your financial situation and your relationship with money, so you can make sound decisions.

The connection between minimalism and financial wellness is not difficult to see. As we own less and buy less, we are able to live on less money. This change in our financial obligations means any number of things for an individual: perhaps you are able to get out of debt, get ahead financially, give more, or even change your career.

“More money” means different things to different people. But in terms of wellness, having a good understanding of your financial situation and where your money is going (or not going) is a key step to being proud of the life you are living. Minimalism makes that easier to do.

4. Emotional Wellness: Being emotionally balanced, understanding yourself and seeking support, if necessary.

Minimalism brings about greater understanding of ourselves than most people realize.

Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value by removing everything that distracts us from it. In this way, minimalism forces questions of values upon us. As we begin owning less and identifying those items that support our purpose, we can’t help but ask ourselves where do we find joy, happiness, and fulfillment in life.

Additionally, the process of removing possessions from our lives invites us to dig deep into our hearts as we seek answers to the questions that inevitably surface: Why did I buy more than I need? What prompted me to waste so much money on physical possessions? Why is this item hard to get rid of? What emotions or fears are making this process difficult for me?

These questions are not easy to answer—and we don’t always like what we discover when we ask them. But they are important and they are questions that many people never ask themselves. Minimalism, without a doubt, brings about greater understanding of ourselves, our purposes, and what inner obstacles are keeping us from realizing them.

5. Intellectual Wellness: Inspiring a sense of curiosity by opening your mind to new experiences, concepts and skills that are mentally stimulating and creative.

For some people, the mere pursuit of minimalism becomes an exercise in curiosity and new experiences. For others, it opens the pathway.

Experiences result in greater life satisfaction than possessions. For one reason, as noted above, new experiences result in more intellectual wellness. And the less financial resources we spend on possessions, the more we have left over for new experiences.

For some, this may mean travel. In fact, many people become minimalist specifically so they can travel more. But there are other experiences that minimalism opens the pathway for: local concerts, cooking lessons, eating out, hiking, new hobbies, volunteering, or local community events.

Minimalism may not force intellectual wellness upon us like it does with emotional wellness. But it does provide opportunity for countless new experiences if we so choose to use our money in that way.

6. Environmental Wellness: Making efforts to protect and sustain your surrounding environment to promote health and well-being.

Without a doubt, minimalism contributes to environmental wellness (both as individuals and as a society). As we purchase and consume less, we begin living a life that is better for the environment around us.

We are not able to change the actions of our past, but we are able to change the decisions of our future.

And if we remove our excess possessions in a responsible way, we can bring even more good to the environment around us. Our excess possessions, through local charities, can become a blessing to others as we donate to organizations meeting needs of people in our community. Of course, donating or recycling our excess is not always possible, but the harder we work to discard our possessions responsibly, the more everybody wins.

7. Social Wellness: Making meaningful connections with people by taking an active part in your community and maintaining positive relationships.

I was once asked by a journalist if minimalism negatively affected my relationships with other people. I responded, “Absolutely not. Minimalism has had the opposite effect. It has made me a better friend and sparked more meaningful relationships in my life.”

If you know my story, you know that my reason for embracing a more minimalist lifestyle was specifically for the purpose of spending more time with my kids. But minimalism has also brought me closer to my wife and community.

Relationships take time and effort. When our lives are wasted chasing and accumulating (and caring for) unneeded possessions, it is our relationships with other people that often suffers the most.

For some, that may be because we wasted an entire Saturday cleaning a garage rather than playing catch with our son. For others, that might mean missing out on opportunities to spend with friends or loved ones.

Will embracing minimalism automatically make you a better, more positive friend to others? No, absolutely not. But if meaningful relationships are a value of yours, you will be surprised how minimalism frees you to experience more of them.

Minimalism and Happiness

I am asked from time to time, if minimalism leads to happiness.

In short, I believe the answer is, “No. Minimalism does not automatically make a person happier.”

What minimalism does is it frees people to pursue happiness in new ways. It recognizes that lasting happiness and fulfillment can never be found in material possessions. When we remove ourselves from that pursuit, we free our resources to begin pursuing happiness elsewhere. And in that way, minimalism contributes to our happiness, even if it is not our greatest goal in life.

As we reflect on the pillars of human wellness, we are able to see even more how minimalism provides a pathway to happiness and meaning.

While not delivering wellness by itself, minimalism supports and encourages each of the most essential pillars: spiritual, physical, financial, emotional, intellectual, environmental, and social.

—

Amazon has the Kindle version of my book, The Minimalist Home marked down to $1.99. That is easily the lowest price I’ve ever seen it offered.

Encouraging Simplicity. Weekend Reads.

For the last seven years, I have been compiling and publishing curated articles that inspire simplicity in life. At first, it was an exercise in communicating to Becoming Minimalist readers the most popular articles I sent out on Twitter.

But over the years, it has become more than that. It has become a place where people (every other week) come for a dose of inspiration. And it has become a place to promote and encourage writers around the world who are publishing content about minimalism, simplicity, and intentional living.

I think you will enjoy this collection of articles hand-selected for you this weekend. Grab some coffee, tea, or lemonade and be inspired to live a simpler life today.

The Heartbreaking Effects of Being Only Partly Committed to Most Things | Zen Habits by Leo Babauta. If we’re absolutely honest with ourselves, most of us are only half-committed to most things — in many cases, much less than half-committed.

This Is What Happens When You Simplify Your Life | Medium by John Weiss. The two things you need to get more out of life.

Stop Overdosing on Celebrity Gossip, The News, and Low Quality Information | James Clear by James Clear. Time and energy that is wasted consuming is time and energy that can’t be spent creating.

Advertising Makes Us Unhappy | Harvard Business Review by Nicole Torres. When advertisers pour money into a country, the result is diminished well-being for the people living there.

10 Minutes to a Clutterfree Morning | Becoming Minimalist on YouTube

Don’t Just Organize, Minimize

Minimizing is better than organizing.

Minimizing possessions is an act of permanence. It lays the groundwork for overcoming consumerism and forces questions of values and purpose. Minimalism provides the opportunity to pursue our passions:

I have recorded over 30 videos about minimalism and living your best, most intentional life. To see more, subscribe to Becoming Minimalist on YouTube.

You Don’t Need More Things In Your Life. You Need Different Things.

“When things aren’t adding up in life, start subtracting.” —Anon

Minimalism is based on a very important premise: Our lives and our resources are limited—so how we spend them matters.

If we had unlimited time, money, and energy, minimalism would be less necessary because we could do everything.

But we do not have unlimited time, money, and energy. When we spend those resources on things that don’t matter (excess physical possessions for example), they are wasted and we can never get them back.

That monthly bill you’ve been paying on your storage unit? Money gone forever. That Saturday you spent organizing your garage (again)? Time gone forever. Those hours you spent shopping online for yet another pair of pants or shoes? Energy you can never regain.

Possessions are needed for life, of course. But excess possessions quickly become a distraction. We are promised by marketers that our next purchase will make us happier, but their promises rarely come true.

Rather than bringing happiness into life, possessions often distract us from it.

That is my story. I discovered minimalism on a Saturday morning while cleaning out my garage. My son was 6 and asking me to play catch with him (as any 5-year-old boy would do). But I couldn’t play catch… because I had to clean out the garage that was full of junk.

After hours of working on my garage, and during a brief complaint session with my neighbor, she responded by introducing me to minimalism—a lifestyle that her daughter was trying to live out.

I remember looking at the pile of possessions in my driveway—dusty old things I’d spent all day cleaning and organizing. While looking at the pile, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of my son swinging alone on the swing set in the backyard. And suddenly I realized, my possessions were not making me happy. But even worse, they were distracting me from the very thing that did bring me happiness.

I had wasted my time and my energy on things that didn’t matter. As a result, I missed spending time and energy on the things that do.

We live in a world where the default thinking is, “If my life isn’t adding up, I just need to find what’s missing and add it.”

So we continue shopping and buying things: more decorations, different furniture, trendier fashion, bigger televisions, a remodeled kitchen, or novelties that promise to bring convenience into our life. All the while thinking, this next purchase will satisfy my discontent.

If we’re not adding possessions to our home, we’re scheming to add wealth to our pocketbook. We add more hours at work, chase a different position, start a side hustle, or read books about getting rich quick. We think, all too often, more money will make us happier. But it rarely does.

If we’re not adding possessions or money to our life, maybe it’s commitments. We enroll our kids in activity after activity hoping their success will shine a brighter light on us. Or we become people-pleasers agreeing to do everything asked of us at the school, in our community, or in our religious circles. We think more activity and accolades will make us happy and more fulfilled, but usually we just end up burnt out.

I hate to continue, but I probably should. Another thing we often add to our lives believing it will bring happiness are vices of every kind. Alcohol, sex, substances, television, sugar, social media, just to name a few. These vices that we believe will calm our stress or improve our day (and may perhaps do that in moderation) soon become controlling forces in our lives that rob us of money, time, energy, and self-control.

Indeed, our culture’s approach to making the most of our lives is to constantly add more and more to it.

Into that world, minimalism speaks. And it reminds us:

Maybe you don’t need more things in your life, maybe you need different things in your life.

Maybe the key to more fulfillment, meaning, and happiness is not found at a department store. Maybe it’s found at your local donation center as you remove the burden of unneeded possessions from your home and free yourself to focus on things that matter.

Maybe the key is not adding more commitments to your schedule, maybe the missing step is cutting back and finding more quiet evenings around the dinner table together as a family.

Maybe the key is not in adding more and more money to your bank account, maybe the key is simplifying your lifestyle so you can live on less.

Just to clear up any confusion, I’m not implying that there are never important seasons in life to be adding opportunities (or even possessions). What I’m saying is that if you’ve been adding and adding to your life thinking you’re going to find greater happiness, maybe there is a different approach that you haven’t considered.

Maybe you don’t need more things in your life. Maybe you need different things.