Less stuff more happiness

[lightspeed]

As I watch on the news people camping out in front of stores to be first for Black Friday, I thought I would share this great video:
Graham Hill: Less stuff, more happiness | Video on TED.com

 

[frayne]

Excellent short on why less is more. Too bad our generation didn't learn this concept about 60 years ago.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Very enjoyable! Thanks for sharing

 

[landover]

Good idea, It seems most of the things are custom designed or can we find such things in Ikea?

Other topic, I don't like videos, takes too much time for little information. I guess this is fashionable to put things on video. A writeup should also be included with video.

 

[pb4uski]

Excellent short on why less is more. Too bad our generation didn't learn this concept about 60 years ago.

+1 We visited some relatives in Spain and Italy a few years ago and spent a few days with them in their homes. The enlightening thing to me is that they had a lot less stuff than Americans typically do, but the quality of the stuff they did have was top-notch.

 

[Midpack]

I'd seen it earlier (love TED), but it's worth viewing periodically. Thanks for reminding me to watch it again.

Interesting landover: My retention seems markedly better with video than pure text for some reason. No right or wrong, good thing we have various forms of communication.

 

[W2R]

Over several years I tossed, donated, or gave away about 80% of my stuff in preparation for the interstate-move-that-never-happened.

I have to admit that I don't really feel bad about it. For one thing, my house suddenly has closet space that it never had before. Ample closet space is a wonderful thing. Also, my house seemed more spacious due to owning fewer pieces of furniture.

I am slowly buying back things as they seem necessary, so if I'm not careful I'll be living in a smaller-feeling house with no closet space again soon. I am not buying the multifunctional furniture that he talks about (I hate it) but just trying to cut back on what I have.

 

[Dreamer]

I think that his apartment is perfect, if I lived by myself. I love TED too. It is hard to get away from watching the talks!

 

[ziggy29]

We went through a round of getting rid of stuff when we moved out of Houston and into a house half the size. We held a "housecooling" party -- the opposite of a housewarming where we are (a) *leaving* the house and not moving in, and (b) where the guests are expected to take some of our stuff away instead of give us more. Managed to give away a lot of good stuff, but stuff we rarely needed and wouldn't have room for.

 

[lowflyer]

Good video.

I get lots of pleasure from regularly cleaning areas used for “long-term” storage. Have been on cleaning/throwing binge for the the past few months and feel better for it.

Living in an apartment for five years after getting married, we moved to a “starter” twin home and figured we’d move into the bigger single-family home after a few years. That was 30 years ago and we are still in our “starter” home. We absolutely looked and wanted to move up on many occasions, but never did. Things got a little tight with two kids, but we managed and now they are gone. The place is perfect for us now and the less expensive housing over the years has helped us to do many things, including ER. Part of living in a smaller home is the ongoing need to rid yourself of excess stuff.

 

[lightspeed]

When I think back to the fun times in my life, I actually had very little stuff. I was a student in Europe for a year, and brought everything I needed in 1 backpack. I was moving quite a bit with temporary military assignment for a period of years, and everything I owned fit in my Subaru. We lived in San Francisco for 3 years in a 500sf apartment. Now that were settled with 2 school aged kids, it is a constant battle to not accumulate a bunch of crap. I think we fell prey to lifestyle creep and junk accumulation with rapid career advancement, but now that early retirement is in our sights we are starting to focus more on what is important-- family and friends and experiences, not how much stuff we have in storage.

 

[travelover]

Given what is for sale on Craigslist at any one time, I'm convinced that we could shut down all manufacturing and imports for about 10 years and just swap stuff, with no real hardship.

 

[REWahoo]

Given what is for sale on Craigslist at any one time, I'm convinced that we could shut down all manufacturing and imports for about 10 years and just swap stuff, with no real hardship.

Hey, it worked for Cuba...

 

[HFWR]

I must be really happy...

 

[freebird5825]

I continue to find things given to me (over 27 years of living in the same house) in cupboards and closets. I delight in finding new homes for the "stuff". The rest gets donated to a local church for their periodic rummage sales.
The funny thing is the older "stuff" is of better quality than what is available at stores today.
I am keeping things of sentimental value (like the porcelain cat statue my Mom gave to me when I was a teenager) and things I bought myself. If it was a gift and is rarely used, it goes.
Little by little, the clutter is being reduced.

When I'm done with the house, next up is the garage and the 20'x20' storage building out back. I know lots of local contractors and will have no problem giving away tools and equipment that I am personally no longer able to use (tendinitis in hands) or have no future need of. My late husband loved to buy all sorts of power and hand tools for fix-up or new projects.
This storage building was built by him, a buddy, and me, from the ground up, in the late 1980s.

 

[Alan]

We are moving, and downsizing, again in 4 days. We will still be occupying 3 times the space shown in the video but it feels good to be getting rid of more un-needed stuff.

I even shredded all but my last 15 years of tax returns.

 

[ziggy29]

We are moving, and downsizing, again in 4 days. We will still be occupying 3 times the space shown in the video but it feels good to be getting rid of more un-needed stuff.

I even shredded all but my last 15 years of tax returns.

I did that for a few of my oldest tax returns, but I'll probably save 2005 forever. That was the year I forgot to include a cashless exercise of stock options on Schedule D (it was taxed at the time of exercise and proceeds were included as W-2 income, so the net effect on the transaction was zero and I forgot to go back and enter it).

In 2007 we got a letter from the IRS that said we owed $31,000 on our 2005 taxes. I freaked at first until I looked at it and realized what happened -- they counted the sale of the underlying stock as pure profit with a zero cost basis. I called the IRS back and explained the situation and they closed it surprisingly quickly and amicably -- so the letter I received a few days later which closed that case is one I'll probably never shred.

 

[Chuckanut]

Too much stuff clutters up life. We end up storing junk from yesterday that gets in the way of living today and tomorrow. I keep things that have emotional value from my parents, children, etc. If I haven't used something in years I donate it to somebody who can use it. I also find that I like the 'minimalist' look in my home. Less stuff but the things I do have are elegant and bring beauty to my life.

 

[brewer12345]

Hi All. I know that I already sent out our Xmas list and should have said this sooner, but [brewer] and I would like to request that you not get us gifts this year. Having just moved, we got rid of a tremendous amount of stuff and are trying not to fill up the new house. I would propose instead that you just get gifts for the girls, realizing that a book or a small dinosaur will be loved as much as something more expensive. We are planning on getting you gifts, but from the girls with their imput, so they will be smaller and perhaps even homemade. To us, family is really the essence of what the holiday season is about and getting to see you all in Jan. is more than [brewer] and I could ask for for Christmas. - Lots of love, [DW]

DW, who gets saddled with most of the Xmas shopping, finally got fed up with the consumerism pressure and sent the above to my side of the family. On her side we already have agreed that we will give gifts to each others' kids and just enjoy each others' company without too much stress.

DW was getting way ahead of herself and I told her that as far as I am concerned my gift is sitting in the driveway.

 

[Nords]

DW, who gets saddled with most of the Xmas shopping, finally got fed up with the consumerism pressure and sent the above to my side of the family. On her side we already have agreed that we will give gifts to each others' kids and just enjoy each others' company without too much stress.
DW was getting way ahead of herself and I told her that as far as I am concerned my gift is sitting in the driveway.

Mr. Money Mustache weighed in on the subject in a similar way with his usual low-key, laid-back, mellow, tactful, understated, non-confrontational manner:
Happy Thanksgiving – And Buy Nothing Day! (and Month?) | Mr. Money Mustache

 

[brewer12345]

Mr. Money Mustache weighed in on the subject in a similar way with his usual low-key, laid-back, mellow, tactful, understated, non-confrontational manner:
Happy Thanksgiving – And Buy Nothing Day! (and Month?) | Mr. Money Mustache

Amusingly enough, I had read that but did not mention or show it to DW until after she had told me she was sending out her email.

 

[Midpack]

Mr. Money Mustache weighed in on the subject in a similar way with his usual low-key, laid-back, mellow, tactful, understated, non-confrontational manner:
Happy Thanksgiving – And Buy Nothing Day! (and Month?) | Mr. Money Mustache

Makes perfect sense to me between adults say over 30+. Like Brewer, we enjoy giving gifts to all the children and young adults in the family, but the established adults don't exchange gifts any more - we make charitable contributions on behalf of each other. YMMV

 

[TromboneAl]

That video really had two subjects:

1. Describing how people have too much stuff.

2. Describing clever solutions for living in a small space.

Anyone know of a similar video that treats subject 1 in a non-preachy but entertaining way? If I could find that I could include it with an email to my family suggesting that we no longer exchange gifts.

 

[Nords]

Makes perfect sense to me between adults say over 30+. Like Brewer, we enjoy giving gifts to all the children and young adults in the family, but the established adults don't exchange gifts any more - we make charitable contributions on behalf of each other. YMMV

We did the same thing with our daughter for her 18th birthday.

I can remember that when I was her age I was constantly ambushed by my [-]mother's[/-] parents' expectations of birthday/holiday gift-giving. So spouse and I made it easy on our daughter by explaining the rules as soon as she'd started to leave the nest.

 

[PaddyMac]

I'm lucky that I only have to exchange gifts with DH. Our families exchange cards (if we're organized that year) but that's it.

But we both love opening presents on Christmas morning, after first cracking open a Terrys Chocolate Orange of course. After a few years of mad rushing around the week before Christmas trying to find "surprises" that would work, often ending up with stuff we didn't really want or need, now we have a simple solution for the Christmas stockings. As the year progresses, I add things to an Amazon wishlist and he does the same. Then we each pick items off it that top out at $200 total. Since we don't really know which items get picked, it's still a surprise! Takes the stress out of shopping but we get to upwrap lots of small surprises on Christmas morning. Then our business gives us both a nice Christmas "bonus" and we buy ourselves something special from that.

For the Christmas tree: I also got tired spending half a day hanging a tree. So now we wrap lights around the pine tree outside the dining-room window...

As for shopping, we also avoid Black Friday. Yesterday we bought some pottery at a craft show. This morning however, DH picked up an HDTV for the bedroom - gotta love Costco prices! I figured it would help me workout more as now the people on the exercise DVDs will be more my size!