For a Happier Life, buy less stuff

Liza K. was at a dinner party recently when table talk turned to travel. It was a welcome relief from the last hour’s conversation which had revolved around who’d bought what lately, online. Liza remained quiet for most of the past hour, but now she was brimming with enthusiasm as she shared details of her recent 2-week trek along the El Camino de Santiago trail in Spain.

Recounting that lonely first hour, she says “I just sat there. I had nothing to say. I can’t remember the last time I bought something online. Even though they were my friends, and hadn’t seen each other in months, I felt lonely and was actually making up excuses to leave”.

A growing movement

Liza’s experience isn’t unique. She’s part of a growing movement of people who have consciously decided to downsize, declutter and decamp to smaller living spaces as they learn the joy of living a happier life with less stuff.

“I was working 60 hours a week as a Manager in a bank back-office, overseeing a settlements team. I got sick and remember lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling and stressing about everything waiting for me at work. Then I started to question why I was working so much. What was it all for?”

“I switched on Netflix and a documentary called ‘The Minimalism Film’ caught my eye. My intuition told me to watch it. And then I watched it again and I thought ‘I need this’”.

Joining the Resistance

For Liza, that film led her to a growing movement of resistance fighters who are determined to live happier, simpler lives through the pursuit of happiness and the conscious avoidance of material possession-accumulation.

It’s hard to say where the movement began. Some point to the American duo Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields Millburn whose website TheMinimalists.com has become a beacon for those lost in a sea of material discontent. The pair, who became burnt-out and left lucrative corporate positions in 2011, published their first book titled ‘Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life’ around the same time. In it they describe how they took back control of their health, happiness and habits by applying their principles of minimalism. The pair later produced the same film that Liza watched on Netflix.

Thoreau was a minimalist

The movement has earlier origins though. Henry David Thoreau’s ‘Walden’, first published in 1854 is an ode to the simple life, detailing his experience of living for 2 years, 2 months and 2 days in a log cabin by a lake called Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Lamenting the mindless addiction of his contemporaries to work and accumulation at the expense of all else, Thoreau established himself on land owned by his friend and mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson and lived almost entirely on the proceeds generated from only six weeks of work per year.

As Thoreau himself put it, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived”.

Less stuff, more life

For Liza, books like Walden and the many modern writings, podcasts and videos produced by a growing band of bloggers and broadcasters have inspired her to transform her life.

“I started by looking around my house at everything I owned, and I realised that I used maybe 10% of it. I couldn’t tell you where most of it came from”.

Liza read a book by Marie Kondo and in the next 3 months she gradually sold, gave away or got rid of around 70% of her possessions.

“I thought it would be difficult, but once I got over the initial shock of parting with useless stuff, I actually became kind of addicted to it. It gave everything I kept a higher value and meaning. It’s like I’d consciously decided what was important to me”.

Kondo’s 2014 book ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’ has been published in over 30 countries and has sold over 4 million copies. Clearly, a lot of people are drawn to decluttering their draws and ditching their domestic detritus.

As Liza explains, “It’s not about the stuff. it’s about making way for more free time, less cleaning, less work, less maintenance, more conversations, more travel, more joy”.

Less stuff means less work

Liza downsized her job and now makes half her previous salary, but works only three days a week, and travels for two months a year.

“I make less money but I’m happier and healthier than I’ve ever been. Last year I hiked the El Camino. This year I’m spending 2 months traveling Thailand”.

Consuming less also means being able to get by with less debt.

Liza changed jobs and now makes half her previous salary, but works only three days a week, and travels for two months a year.

“I make less money but I’m happier and healthier than I’ve ever been. Last year I hiked the El Camino. This year I’m spending 2 months traveling Thailand”.

At the dinner party she told her friends about her upcoming trip. “I think a few of them were jealous. But I know now when to hold my tongue. I don’t preach to anyone about my life choices, but I’ll happily share my experience with them if they ask”.

Sometimes it seems, less is more.