The Simple Life

Part of being frugal and wise with your resources is learning the value of simplicity and order. Every Friday I will do a post on achieving simplicity. Today’s focus is the first of a two-part series on the perils of “stuffitis” and how to conquer it.

In this busy world of materialism, we can often get caught up in having “stuff”. This is detrimental in many ways to an orderly, peaceful home.

We had an eye-opening experience about “stuff” during the second year of our marriage, before children. We were moving from Idaho to Arizona for four months for an internship and job. We knew we could only take what fit in our Toyota Corolla and we put everything else in storage.

We ended up living in a small studio apartment. We bought a few pieces of basic furniture from Craigslist such as a dresser and an old couch. We used an air mattress as our bed. We didn’t have a microwave or many of our normal kitchen appliances.

Since we would be there only a short time we knew it would be pointless to accumulate stuff we couldn’t take back with us or sell when we left.

Yet the incredible part of this experience was that we didn’t notice most of the things we were missing that were in storage. We only had half of our clothes but we didn’t miss the other half. We only had half of our kitchen items but we didn’t miss those either. We could truly get by with less.

Now we are in a two-bedroom 1100 sq foot apartment and sometimes feel a little cramped. When we first moved here I was wondering how we would fill all the space but eventually “stuff” creeps up on you. Looking in my closets this week has had me reflecting on “stuffitis” and wondering if I have caught a bit of the bug myself.

I’ve learned that it takes time and money to purchase, store, organize and care for your stuff. The less stuff you have, the less time you need to find things, clean your home and organize your spaces. Also, if you have too much stuff and clutter you are more apt to lose things and then you’ll have to spend the money and time to replace them.

Also space is limited. If you have too much stuff you will need to spend money on either a bigger place a storage unit. Just like any limited resource you need to be wise about how you use space. 

For instance, a few months ago I bought two very large jugs of vinegar for cleaning. But now I’ve only used about 4 cups of one and the other is unopened. I thought that I’d be saving money by buying the larger item at a smaller unit price, but by saving pennies it’s costing more in space that I could use to store something else.

In addition clutter creates chaos and makes it more difficult to achieve a peaceful home environment.

There are different reasons people struggle with “stuffitis”. Some are trying to “keep up with the Joneses”. This quest is never-ending and only leads to discontentment and ingratitude. In addition, the compulsion to accumulate more often leads to buying more than you can afford and getting into debt. Contentment and gratitude are the keys to battling this quest.

Others struggle with “stuffitis” because they find security in “things” and can’t get rid of things because “someday I just might need this”. If this is you, take an honest assessment of items and how much you use them. If you haven’t used an item in 3-6 months, perhaps it’s time to donate it or toss it.

I find myself in the second group, keeping things because “someday I’ll use them”. However, my goal this next week is to do a deep inventory of what we have and what we could possibly donate, sell or toss to simplify our lives.

Similar Posts:

• The Simple Life
• The Simple Life
• Making The Decision to Change Apartments Part II
• Storing Water

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