How to Not Circle the Drain: Keeping it Together in the 21st Century

Create External Space: Lose Some Stuff!

Could Less Really Be The New More?  Minimalism in a Nutshell

Everyone seems to hate moving.  My theory is that when you move, you actually have to touch everything that you own.  Maybe if you are fabulously rich, you don’t have to touch anything, but for most of us, moving leaves us no wriggle room:  we see how much stuff we possess.  I will out myself right here, and confess that I have a storage unit!  I returned to the States over one year ago from an extended overseas assignment, and went from a rather large apartment to a much smaller space.  It is a small storage unit, but I want to share that because I am not writing from some lofty idealistic bare bones existence- I have stuff.  My goal is to chip away at the hoard, and sell, donate, recycle, or re-purpose everything within the next three months.  The bottom line is that all of our stuff takes energy and time to maintain. 

When I was a teenager, I was very inspired by the famous photograph of Mahatma Gandhi’s possessions at the time of his death.  It was just a few items, including his glasses,sandals, watch, and eating utensils, the photo was certainly not densely populated.  At that time, I began to ponder the role of material possessions in my life.   I was influenced by the fact that Gandhi was born into wealth and privilege, and simplified his life, and obviously not just his material life, to the point where he was down to the spare essentials. 

There is no time like the present to contemplate our relationship with possessions.  The economic downturn in 2008 precipitated a closer examination for many of what the culture of conspicuous consumption can look like when it crashes.  The Earth has limited and finite resources, and the better, faster, more, way of living has not only degraded the planet, but has created other negative impacts in our individual and collective lives.

 Minimalism and voluntary simplicity are not new movements, but have become relevant in a new way.  There are some amazing resources available to assist us if one of our goals is to simplify our lives, not only externally, but in every way.  What would your life be like if you changed your relationship with your stuff?  What if you edited your life of energy draining activities and auto-pilot habits, and actually created more time for the life that fits you now?  It may be time to  act up against the culture of reality TV values and air-brushed images and gloss, the siren song of a more authentic life is definitely in the air!

 Editing our possessions can be a wonderful gateway into other changes that we would like to make in our lives.  The philosophy of minimalism is not about demonizing material goods, and it is not about seeing poverty as noble.  It is about being more intentional, choosing what stuff is in your life, on purpose, and with purpose.  It’s about your stuff not owning you, and freeing space and time in your life for other experiences, activities, and people.  It is about defining what “too much” and “enough” mean for you. 

Let’s face it, clutter is distracting.  It can be a drain on our energy and feels like a weight.  I went from a 10’ x 30’ storage unit down to a 10’ x 10’ and while I won’t be winning any awards with that particular accomplishment, I have to admit that it felt great!  I gave a lot of my stuff to someone who could actually use it.  The energy would be circulating, and not locked up in storage for someday when I might/ maybe  use it again.  At that point, I got the fever.  I starting consigning some of my fancy stuff from the past, that really did not fit the present-day me.  Some of the proceeds from selling these items, which at one point in my life seemed important, are financing some impending travel.  I would rather have the experience now than the dust-collecting stuff.  This is not an original feeling for our times!

James Wallman wrote a book called Stuffocation.  You can download the first chapter for free at stuffocation.org.  His premise is that the spirit of the times is minimizing the focus on materialism, and that experiences are gaining ground in our collective value system.  He gives a detailed rationale of the forces contributing to the cultural shift, including environmental, social, technological, demographic, and economic.  As a trend forecaster, he provides convincing reasons why the trend away from materialism is growing and is not going away. 

Graham Hill, the founder of Treehugger.com and LifeEdited, also LifeEdited.com, gave a brilliant TED talk in 2011 on “Less Stuff, More Happiness.”  He starts the talk sitting on a taped up box, and talks about how he has moved around with the box and is not sure what is in it.  He discusses the personal storage industry, and extols the joys of living with less, and with less actually being more.  He posits that “Editing is the skill of this century: editing space, media consumption, friends.”  The LifeEdited.com website always has interesting features on people “living small” and ideas for ways you can edit and simplify your own life.

The Minimalists, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus share their personal stories on their website, theminimalists.com.  Their focus is creating a meaningful life with less stuff, and they share their process of getting off the corporate treadmill and intentionally simplifying their lives.  They personify some of the grassroots momentum of the current zeitgeist and share practical tips for your own experimentation. 

Clearing  your own clutter can feel daunting.  Evaluating your possessions and clarifying  what is essential and value-creating is best done in small increments.  This adds to the intentional quality of creating your material world, of you owning stuff and it not owning and controlling you.  During the past year, I have given myself ample time to downshift and have taken multiple breaks in the process when it started to feel like an overwhelming drag.  It is sometimes discomforting to weed through our possessions, and the tug of old habits may be challenging to surmount.

 Just this weekend, I was torn about jettisoning a particular jacket, and reminded myself that my goal is not zero possessions, but really liking and using the things that I decide to keep.  I texted a photo of the jacket to my cousin who has worked in the fashion industry for many years and requested a thumbs up or down.  He gave a thumbs up, so it helped me decide to keep it.  Little things count!

Test Drive #1:

 Pick one drawer in your home, or one area of your closet.  Schedule the time when you will do it, and stick to it.  Evaluate the items and ask yourself if you need the item, and want the item.  Would you buy it today, right now, or not?  Is the item necessary, does it add value to your life?  Does the item belong to an earlier or outdated version of you, one that is no longer current or relevant?  Is the item useful or superfluous?  If you are conflicted, ask a friend or family member for their opinion.  You can always make a “maybe” pile and revisit later.  The point is to get started!  Then  you can decide if you can sell an item, donate it, recycle it, or have to trash it.  If you get in the habit of addressing one area at a time, at a pace that is comfortable for you, you will see the incremental clearing of your space and experience the benefits!

Test Drive #2:

This is not about your stuff, but about your schedule and your intentional use of your time.  Pick one area of focus.  This could be time spent on social media, time spent with people who don’t engage in a reciprocal flow of energy, time spent with emotional vampires, time spent mechanically doing things that no longer serve you or your vision for your life.   

One easy example that I picked was Netflix time, as it can be a seductive temptation to binge-watch, which has become a culturally sanctioned activity.  Again this is not about beating yourself up or criticizing yourself.  It is a simple evaluation of how you may tweak your schedule and habits to address the chronic feeling of “not enough time.”  If you feel like you need to cancel your Netflix subscription, do it.  I didn’t, I just decided that binge-watching is not a muscle that I want to flex, but a complete digital detox is not happening for me at this time.  I'm taking it slow!

Drowning in paper clutter is a common and needless condition in the twenty-first century.  Electronic opportunities abound for your print and other media.  Credit card offers and catalogs were clogging my mailbox, both unsolicited and unwanted.  Companies sell lists of names of customers, which initiates a paper deluge.  The free app PaperKarma provides a good method to diminish and hopefully eventually eliminate this waste of paper and resources, and waste of your time and attention.  It works by you submitting a picture of each unwanted item you receive, including catalogs, credit card solicitations, unwanted coupon offers, mailers, magazines, and other junk mail.  PaperKarma then assists you to unsubscribe from the applicable lists for unwanted items.  Then you may recycle the original item and feel like part of the solution, not the problem!

 Keeping it real and with a spirit of friendliness to the self is something I will continue to recommend.  Incremental change feels like sustainable change to me, see what works for you!  By intentionally creating internal and external space, we open our lives to the possibilities for the new to enter.   You certainly have plenty of company if your vision is a less complicated, more authentic, experience and time-rich existence!