Minimalism, Nice To Meet You – Goodbye Consumerism

Approx. Reading Time: 6 minutes

It is effortless to be consumeristic in the present day, where minimalism feels like a much harder feat. New products hit the shelves with promotional ads everywhere. We want to keep up with Jones’ even when it takes away from other happiness in our lives.

America’s Bloated Homes

According to a 2014 LA Times article, the typical American home contains 300,000 items. Considering the robust technological advances and boost in the economy since 2014, this quantity may be much higher. Despite the average home size tripling over the past 50 years, our homes became more cluttered than ever. Statistics show that only 25% of households with two-car garages can fit two cars, but 32% can fit one car alongside their overgrowth of possessions.

America is home to 3.1% of all children worldwide, yet they manage to own over 40% of all toys worldwide. Some research suggests that the average child only plays with 5% of the toys they own. North America and Western Europe account for 60% of private/personal consumption spending. Real estate in America holds more televisions than humans. 

One in ten Americans extend their possession beyond the home utilizing self storage facilities for excess goods. With over 50,000 self storage facilities in America, there is approximately 7.3 square feet of self storage space for every man, woman and child currently in the nation. 

Throw-Away Society

Cheap, plentiful goods are readily available, highly advertised, and often delivered to your door with the click of a button. Considering this drastic change in everyday convenience, it is no wonder we have become a throw-away society. Consumerism strongly influences daily life. We over-consume excessively produced disposable items rather than spend a bit more for durable and serviceable goods. 

Disposable Clothing

According to Forbes Magazine, the average woman held on to nine outfits in the 1930s. Since then, the average grew to 30. But, let’s be fair, we all know someone who never wore the same outfit twice. On top of this, the average American household spends $1700 per year on clothing. Unlike some other household items, excess clothing does get thrown away to the tune of 65 pounds per year per household. Not to mention, as a nation, we spend more on fashion accessories than we do on higher education.  

No Current Minimalism with our “Stuff”

Evidence from Story of Stuff shows that we consume twice as many material goods today as we did just 50 years ago. We lose money and time searching for misplaced items throughout our homes. Often, we rebuy things we know we have so we do not have waste time to search for it. The Daily Mail reported that over the average lifetime we spend 3,680 hours or 153 days searching for the nearly 200,000 items we’ve misplaced throughout our days.

When it comes to food, Americans throw away almost 40% of the groceries they buy. Based on a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), as a nation, we waste/throw away an average of 35 million tons of per year in food alone. This tonnage equates to $165 billion annually – money thrown in the trash.

Resulting Money Issues

According to a 2015 chart from Deutsche Bank’s Torsten Sløk, 47% of Americans do not save any money from their current income. With that said, materialism and consumerism possess the power to make high earners live paycheck to paycheck. Annually, Americans spend $1.2 trillion on non-essential items. No wonder most people are broke and in debt.

According to NerdWallet, the average American keeps around $7000 in credit card debt. Add in mortgages, auto loans, and student loans and the average household is responsible for over $130,000 in debt. These numbers should terrify everyone, the worldwide median income is just under $10,000 per year. 

Minimalism – Finding Freedom

Many people negatively associate minimalism with restrictions and limitations. However, I believe minimalism to be a useful tool that assists in finding freedom from things like fear, worry, guilt, depression, anxiety, being overwhelmed, worry, and debt. You know, actual freedom. In simpler terms, minimalism requires us to separate or not assign personal meaning from material possessions. The primary effort involved in minimalism is making more conscious and deliberate decisions on what you consume. 

My Transition From Over-Consumption to Minimalism

In the past, I held onto items I did not need due to sentimental value or limited funds to replace the goods if I needed it again. As a result, my space always felt cluttered which would ultimately lead me to waste time, energy, and money. Often, I would feel overwhelmed and depressed because of the extra necessary effort to just get started. All too often, I procrastinated until I no longer had time to bother with certain things. 

Over the past few years, I consumed far less than I had during my materialistic twenties. However, I never took the time to fully de-clutter my life from the years of stockpiled crap. The items I placed in storage bins years ago, I have not needed to use once since. I still wonder why I kept them as long as I did. 

Letting Go

In our recent move, we decided to downsize quite a bit which means finally dealing with those old stored items. What I once held close to me, I now feel relieved to let go of which resulted in an immediate impact on my daily life.

Since I’ve begun to practice minimalism, I get the opportunity to use and appreciate the products and services purchased. Less waste, stress, aggravation, and clutter. Likely clean less often with fewer items around to mess up the place. 

When It Comes to Food

As a carnivore, minimalism plays a massive part in my success. Food waste becomes excessively expensive when you only eat meat. Bulk purchases allow for cost savings, but only if the food gets used before it goes bad. I make more conscious and deliberate decisions when I buy groceries to ensure I do not let my delicious, healing meat go to waste. 

Consuming Responsibly Impacts the Environment

For me, minimalism involves having only what I need and often use for personal benefit, enjoyment, or profit.  Eliminating or extremely reducing consumption of wants naturally impacts the environment. The decisions we make vary person to person, but, ultimately, changing the focus to a minimalistic lifestyle benefits our lives and the lives of those around us.

A lot of people do not consider the long-term cost of buying cheap products. Replacing and repairing goods costs a lot more in the long run. Quality supersedes quantity when it comes to value.

I prefer to consume from local and small businesses. This preference allows me to enjoy the option of serviceability of goods I purchase. That product from, say, China seems less expensive until it breaks. I find that saving 20%-30% or more up front often costs double or triple down the road. Not to mention, buying locally and from small business is automatically better for the environment considering international transportation impacts the environment.

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