Why Less Stuff Brings More Happiness

Do your remember learning about inverse relationships in math class years ago?

They always seemed counter-intuitive to me. Why should less of one thing mean more of another? Don’t things get larger together? Example- eat more chocolate, gain more weight. This makes sense to me, even if I have trouble grasping it at 10pm most nights.

To have less, but be happier seemed unnatural to me. And that assumption kept me going for years. Years of buying things I didn’t really need, years of racking up debt I really didn’t need, and years of feeling not an iota happier for all the things that I owned.

Not being completely dense, I started to notice a few things. My husband made me happy. My kids made me happy. My new phone made me happy.. for a week. New clothes made me happy.. for a while. It seemed the things I bought weren’t nearly as enjoyable as I first thought, and definitely not as enjoyable as the people in my life and the things that we did.

You know how kids can play with a washing machine box for about two straight months and have the absolute best time? And the cool must-have toy that you got them for Christmas has dust on it by January? It could be that there’s something to be learned from our children.

They take their joy not from the thing, but from what they do with it. They create elaborate games. They play make believe with their siblings, friends, and even parents. They laugh, whoop, and holler with joy from what they’re doing and who they’re sharing it with.

Maybe instead of dusting, cleaning, and organizing all my stuff, I could be spending that time playing with my kids or watching a movie with my husband. Maybe instead of washing and ironing all those clothes, I could stick to the essentials and use that time to read that book I’ve been wanting to start. Maybe instead of two hours of giddy consumerism over my newest electronic upgrade, I could sponsor a child in need for the year.

A year or so ago, I started to reexamine not just my spending habits but the things I was keeping, too. I read blogs and books about the subject, intrigued by the idea of putting more value in people and experiences and finding freedom from the burden of clutter. But it was scary. It’s one thing to stop buying, another to get rid of what I already had. But I was willing to try.

My first attempt at decluttering began in our kitchen cabinets. I wanted to start small and painless, so I chose glassware. Sounds inconsequential but, I joke you not, we must have had close to a hundred drinking glasses. Where they all came from is anyone’s guess. After going through them and seriously considering what our family really needed, I found my cupboards were rather bare. But in a very appealing way. As I dropped off the box with Goodwill, I felt relieved. It was a feeling I was going to become familiar with, as well as the guy at Goodwill’s drive thru.

The first time I purged my closet, I thought I was going to have a meltdown. What If I needed that sweater? What if I could one day wear those size jeans I bought by accident, even if the width of my hips made it a biological impossibility?? What if I have no more socks and needed that one holey pair to make it to laundry day???

But like the glasses before, I survived it, and was happy with the results. Turns out, you really don’t need all that many sweaters in the desert, too-small jeans, or holey socks.

My kids helped, too, and they were surprisingly supportive of getting rid of their things. I let them fill laundry baskets with the things they wanted to give to other children and what they wanted to keep. We recycled lots of broken toys, I found out which items really meant something to them, and we discovered some long lost treasures that came back into regular circulation. There were some hiccups, like when I attempted to donate my eldest daughter’s Winnie the Pooh armchair that was collecting dust. She begged to keep it and I agreed if we got rid of something else in its place. Now that chair has a new lease on life and gets used every day.

Do you yearn for a less cluttered life, but not even sure where to start? Pick a room or area and ask yourself these simple questions to help put things in perspective:

1. Do I use this? Does this get pulled out often, used frequently? Would it be missed? The Winnie the Pooh chair I found out would be missed and does get used. My collection of knickknacks from places I couldn’t really remember that sat untouched for years on my bookcase? Nope.
2. Is it irreplaceable? Photos from my time abroad, porcelain statues from my late grandmother, and the hair from my kids’ first haircuts. These things I keep because they hold sentimental value or have memories attached that I will always want to keep.
3. Can I downsize this? This was what I used when going through my book collection. I went through the books I really, really wanted to keep and then checked to see if they were available for downloading for my

   

   Kindle. With the exception of only two obscure but fun books, all were digitized. (I even did this on the cheap by using Amazon gift cards I’d earned from Swagbucks to pay for them).

4. Can it multipurpose? Our storage bench is both the kids’ toy box and a place to sit. If I turn the lid upside down, it’s a tray for snacks when we’re munching in the living room.

I found that with each thing I got rid of, I actually did feel better. I liked the emptier shelves and rooms. I appreciated how easy it was to clean without moving a dozen things out of the way. I, surprisingly, preferred my limited clothing options because it cut down on decision fatigue.

The best part about giving up these things was that it allowed me to focus on what I had kept. Those were the things that really mattered, that had value and a use.

Decluttering has allowed me to experience more of the things I really need. Like spending time on the floor playing with my kids rather than cleaning. Spending our money on family fun instead of clothes or toys. And enjoying more time relaxing in my peaceful home.

 

 

How has decluttering affected your life and made you feel? Is this something you struggle with or approach with anticipation? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!