When I was young, my dad seemed to abhor the idea of things. It was an abstract way to shape one’s worldview, so I never really understood it at the time.
“Stuff,” he would say, while standing at a garage sale or the toy aisle in Wal Mart, his lips turning up in disgust. “It’s all just stuff.”
I was a simple boy, and I was befuddled. Why this hatred for stuff? We needed stuff. Stuff was what made the world go round. Be it sports gear or video games or cookware or my GI Joe action figure…stuff was important, dammit! (Or dangit, in those days.)
I loved stuff as a kid, and to some extent – much like the majority of the American population – I still do. But the older I get, the more I start to believe that my dad might not’ve been insane.
This past summer, at the recommendation of my friend Megan, I read a book called Everything that Remains. Well, listened to it. I was driving across the country and needed something to keep me occupied and AUDIOBOOKS DO COUNT, PEOPLE! But I digress. The book is about the concept of minimalism, and I’d recommend checking it out, not because it made me want to convert to a new way of living and go nuts and throw away all my crap – it didn’t – but because I think the concept of simply using less can have a powerful, positive impact on anyone’s life, no matter how far you take things.
So I’ve been trying to use less shit. In brief, here’s a few reasons why I think it’s a good idea:
It’s good for the world.
As in, the earth itself, and the people that live on it. I’ve been on the recycling bandwagon for awhile, because of its positive effects on energy and natural resource consumption. (Plus they make it so damn easy now. I can literally throw everything that’s remotely recyclable in one huge bin and let the city deal with it. There’s even an adorable name for it: co-mingling. Do they do this everywhere or just the hippie commune where I live? Anywho, digression.)
But if recycling is a good thing, using less is even better. Recycling a plastic water bottle only uses a portion of the energy it takes to make a brand new one. But not using it at all uses none of the energy. It’s like twice as good.
And I assure you this isn’t liberal Boulder crap. Once upon a time, I voted McCain. Using less isn’t a political angle or social statement, it just makes sense. We routinely use more than we need, and not until we start cutting things out do we realize how little we need them.
It’s Cheaper
Seldom do I come across physical things that do not require me to trade money in order to own them (the glaring exceptions being pens and lanyards at trade conventions). In general: more stuff, more money. The more things we accumulate, the more we put ourselves in the hole of financial obligation (i.e. debt), the less flexibility we have in life. Can’t switch jobs, can’t go on vacation – gotta pay the bills.
Fewer things = fewer bills = fewer obligations = fewer worries.
It Makes You Happier
It’s been proven time and time again that people who spend their money on experiences are considerably happier than people who spend their money on material things. We all know that in the end, more shit isn’t gonna make us happier, but for some reason we keep hoping it suddenly will. It isn’t working.
(True, I’ve never seen someone frown on a jet ski, but you can only realistically own one or two of those before storage and maintenance begin to become an issue. Plus, how much of the year can you use jet skis in most regions? Half? A third? What do you do the rest of the time? Snowmobile? Snowmobiling and jet skiing are totally different experiences. If you think you’ll get a similar experience between those two activities, I have sour news for you, Jack. You won’t. And it’s going to piss you off.)
Bottom line? Even jet ski’s can cause heartache. Or something like that. All I know is that Jerry Neumann was on to something, and that’s why I’m trying to use less.