Everyone’s interpretation of minimalism is different, but essentially minimalism is simply a philosophy of living with less and focusing on what truly matters, eliminating clutter and not putting value on material things.

Of course, we all need things to live but how many things comes down to each person’s choices and lifestyle.

The Link Between Material Possessions and Well-being

Studies have shown that the quest for material possessions does not lead to lasting happiness. While buying new things may provide a temporary feeling of joy, the feeling often disappears quickly, leaving us feeling empty. It helps to spend time questioning why you feel the need to acquire more and more.

Understanding the Consumerist Culture

We live in a world that largely favors consumerism, we are conditioned to believe that more is better, big homes filled with possessions, expensive cars and lavish lifestyles are considered normal and many people don’t feel complete until they “have it all”.

Consumerism promotes the idea that our value is tied to what we own, which can lead to anxiety and depression because it seems that enough is never enough.

Money Wasted

Americans’ total credit card balance is $1.211 trillion as of the fourth quarter of 2024, according to the latest consumer debt data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That’s up from $1.166 trillion in Q3 2024 and is the highest balance since the New York Fed began tracking in 1999.

Use your credit card as a tool to build credit and earn cash back. Pay your balance in full each month to avoid interest payments. Much of what we charge to our credit cards is wasteful and unnecessary. This can lead to a cycle of debt that can be extremely difficult to recover from.

Online shopping has made it so easy to buy things we don’t need without ever leaving our house.

Instead of spending on unnecessary items, carefully consider each purchase. Do you need it? Can you get by without it? So much money is wasted on “stuff”. Something that has helped me is I wait to buy anything unless I absolutely need it at that moment. Often, I find that a week later I don’t really want to purchase it. Instead of spending, put the money you were thinking of spending in a savings or investment account and watch it grow. Minimalism can help you grow financially and remain debt free, it changes your focus and awareness of how you are spending your money so you are more thoughtful about every purchase.

Bombarded with Advertisements

You cannot turn on the TV, go online or pick up a newspaper or magazine without being bombarded with ads for every product imaginable. This can leave us feeling like we need things we don’t. Billions of dollars are spent each year on advertising with billions more spent by consumers to purchase things they don’t need.

An article in Harvard Business Review noted a study done by The University of Warwick’s Andrew Oswald and his team. They compared survey data on the life satisfaction of more than 900,000 citizens of 27 European countries from 1980 to 2011 with data on annual advertising spending in those nations over the same period. The researchers found an inverse connection between the two. The higher a country’s ad spend was in one year, the less satisfied its citizens were a year or two later. Their conclusion: Advertising makes us unhappy.

Storage Business is Booming

The self-storage business is booming. There are an estimated 45,000 storage facilities in the United States, and new construction has tripled in the past five years. Individuals, not businesses account for 80 of storage rentals. It is estimated that the annual cost for storage rentals is $38 billion. Much of what is being stored is just overflow from our homes and most of it is not looked at or used for years, many people don’t even remember what is in the storage units they are paying for.

Jerry Seinfeld said “We have too many things. That’s the problem. There’s too many things. You have things. I have things. How many times do you want more things? I don’t like having too many things. I’m a “thrower-outer” That’s my personality type. I’m a “thrower-outer”. If I have something, I really don’t want it”. He compared storage as paying rent to visit your incarcerated possessions.

Things Do Not Bring Happiness

While buying new things might bring a temporary feeling of happiness and satisfaction the feeling is short lived. Once the newness wears off the happiness fades and we often enter a cycle of buying and spending to regain that temporary feeling. There is a temporary increase in dopamine, the happy hormone when you get something new, but it doesn’t last, the good feeling may be followed by a feeling of regret and sadness.

Adyashanti, a spiritual teacher, has a theory as to why the purchase of new things provides only a temporal feeling of happiness. “When we make a purchase and/or get what we want, we are temporarily happy and fulfilled. But the reason for happiness is not because we got what we wanted, but because for a brief period of time, we stopped wanting, and thus we experience peace and happiness”.

The Hedonic Treadmill Phenomenon

The hedonic treadmill phenomenon is a theory that an individual’s level of happiness, after rising or falling in response to positive or negative life events, ultimately tends to move back toward where it was prior to these experiences. When you apply the theory to material possessions it means that while we might get a temporary feeling of satisfaction when acquiring something new that feeling quickly fades and we return to baseline.

How Abundance Can Lead to Dissatisfaction

Having too many choices can lead to stress and decision paralysis. When there are too many options to choose from, we often struggle to make decisions and end up feeling less satisfied with the choices we do make. Minimalism offers a way out of this by simplifying our options and helping us to focus on what truly matters.

The Freedom of Minimalism

Minimalism offers freedom because you are no longer looking to acquire more stuff. Instead, you eliminate what is not necessary or needed. You have less to care for, maintain and worry about. Stop for a moment and consider how much time you spend taking care of everything you own, the more stuff you have the more time you spend on it. Freeing yourself from that is liberating. Embracing simplicity allows you to focus on the things that bring you joy and fulfillment.

Living with Intention

Living with intention means being mindful of your choices and aligning them with your values. Instead of focusing on buying and having more you can concentrate on what truly brings you happiness, the people you surround yourself with and life experiences are much more important than material possessions. Rather than being driven by societal pressures and external expectations minimalism offers a path to living a more authentic and purposeful life.

Minimalism Does Not Mean Owning Nothing

Minimalism does not mean owning nothing, instead you seriously consider each item you own. Ask yourself is it useful? Do I need it? Does it bring me joy? A storage tote sitting in a closet filled with items you have not looked at in years is serving no purpose.

Experiences Bring Happiness

If you think back over the course of your life and remember your happiest most meaningful moments how many involve something you own, something you purchased? Probably not many. Instead, you remember life experiences and times shared with the people you care about.

Being Grateful

When you have too many possessions it is hard to be truly grateful for what you have. Being grateful for the important things like our health, our friends and family, having a warm bed to sleep in and food to eat is what brings the greatest feelings of gratitude.

By simplifying our surroundings and letting go of excess, we cultivate a sense of gratitude for the abundance that surrounds us, leading to a more joyful and content existence.

Finding Joy in the Simple Things

Have you ever listened to a bird sing or spent time talking to someone you love and found yourself feeling a great sense of joy?Through minimalism, we experience the simple pleasures that often go unnoticed in our fast-paced lives. When we focus on the beauty of the everyday moments, we find joy and contentment in everyday things.

Decluttering Your Life

One of the first steps to becoming a minimalist is to declutter your physical space. Most of us start out in life as “collectors” collecting more and more as time goes by and then often find ourselves with an overabundance of possessions. When you make the conscious decision to become a minimalist it can seem like an overwhelming task to decide what to keep and what to let go but it doesn’t have to be. Take small steps, a room or an area at a time. Take everything in that area and make three piles, keep, donate and trash. Once you finish one area the sense of relief and satisfaction will encourage you to continue until you have decluttered your entire life.