How To Thrive with Fewer Things

Posted On 25 June 2023

Last updated on April 5th, 2024

While visiting family in Colorado, my sister invited me to attend a meditation session at her Yoga studio Sunny Isle Yoga. During that session, it came up about letting go of things that we don’t need anymore.

We all bring things into our lives for various reasons. Often these things fill a need or solve a problem in our lives. Sometimes we receive things as gifts, other times we get them as souvenirs. Then, there are things that we buy impulsively because of the way they were displayed in the store. How these things came into our life is not the focus of this post.

I say things, but they can be intangibles – such as habits or services. While we bring things into our lives to improve our life, we can’t keep everything. In this post I am writing about how to keep things in our life that are beneficial to us. The things that no longer serve us, we should purge them from our lives.

Bureaucracy

To see bloat, all we need to do is look at just about any bureaucracy. I’m sure there are some efficient government agencies, but they tend to become less efficient as they grow. Milton Friedman said, “in a bureaucratic system, useless work drives out useful work.” It might not be useless work, but it does not improve production or profitability. There is a great article you can read about government bloat.

If we are not on guard, we can fall into the same trap. We can find ourselves doing more, but not getting more from it except more expenses and more work. They can become a financial and emotional drain on us.

Things Weigh Us Down

We tend to add things to our life to make our lives better. Then, we add some more. The problem comes when we keep collecting these things. We need to figure out a way to get rid of the things that don’t meet our needs any longer.

Clutter tends to collect clutter! More room is needed to store the stuff that we have. We can even start to lose track of what we do have. Sometimes people even upgrade to a bigger house only to find that the bigger house gets filled, too!

This tendency to collect things is natural. The more we collect, the slower we can move. We also start to waste time looking for things. If we have clutter around our house, it can be an energy drain for us.

Everything Has a Cost

Not only do we spend money to buy things, but it also costs us money to store them. There are also the on-going costs of maintaining these things.

For example, when we get a second car, our car expenses double with additional insurance, gas, and repairs. Yes, a second car can be beneficial. It allows a couple to go separate directions at the same time. They can increase their income, or transport kids to where they need to go.

The important thing is to be intentional with what we add to our lives. Knowing that they can add more expense to our life, we should ask ourselves if it will be worth it for us.

Things Can Be Services

A lot of companies have switched to a subscription business model. Why? They can have better cashflow. This cashflow comes from us – the consumer!

We have cellphones, streaming services, and gym memberships. They provide value to us. The question to ask is, “Are we getting our money’s worth from all of these?” Are we still using that particular service? Have things changed in our life that we should make changes to our phone plan?

Habits Can Hold Us Back

Children and adolescents get in the habit of waiting to do something until they are told. That habit doesn’t serve adults very well. We need to develop the habit of seeing what needs to be done – then doing it!

Our habits are often done unconsciously. We often need the help of others to see our bad habits. Like bad breath, we can’t smell it even though it is right under our own nose!

Cleaning Up Our Act

We need to be aware of a problem before we can fix it. A note of caution! Nature abhors a vacuum. The most effective way to get rid of something in our life is to replace it, not just remove it from our life.

We need to be deliberate about what it is we are doing. For example, using the verbal filler “um”. If we are aware that we are saying it, we can replace it with silence instead of that filler.

If we are starting a diet, we need to replace the food to avoid with good food. That way the temptation is not in front of us. We need to do what we can to help ourselves because we are driven by emotion. Humans are not as logical we would like to think. Basically, we need to learn how to outsmart ourselves.

Is It Important?

In our quest to clean the crap out of our lives, we need to ask ourselves some questions. The first question is, “Is it important?” If the answer is yes, keep it! These important things are vital documents such as birth certificates, licenses, diplomas, and certificates. Pictures are also important (and not replaceable!).

The important things can also be something that is important to you, personally. A family heirloom. Maybe a letter from a friend. It’s up to you to decide what is important.

Does It Bring Me Joy?

We all have things that bring us joy. For me, pictures of our kids when they were young brings a smile to my face. Keeping some favorite books, movies, or music albums is encouraged. We all need joy in our lives.

Does It Meet My Needs?

A lot of people have things in their lives that don’t fill needs. I try to only keep pieces of lumber that are still useful. The 30 pieces of 2×4 that might make one 8-foot piece? I keep a couple pieces for projects, then burn the rest!

Was It Used It in the Last Year? …Or the Next Year?

You know those favorite pants you will wear again when you lose those 20 pounds? They’re the same ones that haven’t been worn in five years! Getting rid of things like this in our life makes room for better things in our life.

Sometimes we find something that we can use. That is awesome! Now that we found it, we can put it to use. (Or we can get rid of it.)

Is There a Better Alternative?

We can upgrade things like small appliances with new ones that can combine small appliances into one. Let me tell you about a time we did that.

I got my wife an Instant Pot as a present. (Too bad they didn’t name it InstaPot, since that’s what everyone calls it!) She LOVES it! After a while, we decided to get rid of our well-worn Crock-Pot. Why not? The Instant Pot can also serve as a slow cooker.

The battle against clutter and bloat is a real thing. I am not perfect. We still have more stuff than we need. Over the last couple of years, though, we have been working at cleaning out the things in our life that we don’t need.

I would not call myself a minimalist, not do I aspire to become one. The term essentialist, which I learned about in Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism. His book is included on my list of recommended books. Let’s work together and clean the crap out of our lives so that we can live better.