How to find freedom with less...and be happier with less
More Americans than ever are living paycheck to paycheck, slaves to mortgages, auto loans, student loans, and credit card debt. Rather than bringing happiness, our over-consumption is creating lives filled with stress, worry, guilt, depression and discontent. And that’s not all. Our consumerist culture is impacting our planet in damaging ways as well. With each passing year, Earth Overshoot Day (the day each year in which the demand for natural resources exceeds the earth’s ability to produce them) creeps up earlier and earlier. We’re living above our means, using more resources than can be produced and it’s simply not sustainable.
As one writer put it, the “American Dream” is an expensive one. And when did this buy more, bigger is better mentality become the American dream?
Prior to World War II, non-essential items were not even being manufactured. Socks were darned, old bedsheets turned into rags, and even grease was saved in a can under the sink! In the past 50 years, the average American home has tripled in size and holds an average of over 300,000 items! And even our homes aren’t big enough for all of our stuff. The fastest growing segment of the commercial real estate industry is storage facilities—with over 50,000 of them in the United States—and the home organization industry is growing more rapidly than ever as we search for creative ways to cram our stuff into the space we have rather than eliminate any of it.
Tyler Durden’s sage reflection from the 1999 film Fight Club seems more pertinent than ever: “The things you own end up owning you”.
But there is hope. People are beginning to see the problem and there is a mindset that is gaining momentum and countering the trend of our consumerist American culture. It’s called minimalism. The idea is simple, ridding ourselves of life’s excess in order to focus on the things that are important to us. Some may cringe at the term, thinking adherents must live in a tiny house, own only essential items, five shirts, and giving up everything they love.
And while some extremists may go this route, many are discovering that even small changes towards minimalism can make a huge impact.
While the term, and the idea behind it, may seem new to some, minimalism has been around for years. But thanks in part to the popularity of a recent documentary, the idea is really starting to take root across the county and right here in Chattanooga. Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things which was released last year and made it to Netflix in December, was produced by the duo Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, known as “The Minimalist”, who now tour the country discussing the idea and bringing awareness to the minimalist lifestyle.
While it may not be mainstream yet, many Chattanoogans are discovering this documentary, hearing the term for the first time, and embracing some changes that bring greater happiness, fulfillment and freedom.
For some, like local Clea Klagstad who owns a business in environmental consulting, the film opened her eyes to the fact that minimalism wasn’t just something for “those” people—the tiny house dwellers who already had very little. She was inspired to take her own step towards minimalism in the form of examining her possessions.
Going through her clothing, she and boyfriend Daniel Cartwright eliminated over half of what they had. “We now have room for what we actually use and it is much easier to find,” she says. But beyond creating more closet space, the minimalism concept that most hit home with them was the message to “Love people. Use things. The opposite never works”.
This seems to be the message that is resonating with many. Local nurse practitioner Emily Prater, mother of a three-year-old with a second baby on the way, said she grew up in a household that wasn’t overly minimalist but talked often about how “things” are unimportant. “It is people and relationships that matter; things are replaceable and we can’t take them with us,” she explains.
She strives to implement the “less is more” lifestyle in her own family now. “We, as humans, get bored with excess and find ourselves wanting more instead of evaluating need.”
Making conscious, deliberate and intentional purchases is another form of minimalist living that many are choosing to embrace. Is this item something I need? Will it add value or joy to my life or will it end up owning me? Evaluating needs and thinking twice before buying something is an integral part of minimalist living. While there is nothing wrong with owning material possessions, the problem arises when we buy more than we need or can use, and give too much meaning to our possessions at the cost of our health, relationships, passions and personal growth.
“We, as a family, choose to live with less, enjoy the blessings God has given us, and not buy into what society tells us is important,” says Prater.
Beyond unnecessary accumulation or excessive consumption, others see the environmental benefits that minimalist living can offer. Local Chattanooga company green|spaces recently showed the documentary in partnership with Local Juice.
“I saw the documentary and thought there were many points that were relevant to the work of green|spaces,” says Director of Development Dawn Hjelseth. “Our definition of sustainability is to use a resource but not to use up a resource,” she said, adding that the film “did a great job in talking about how over-production and consumption, specifically in clothing, uses large amounts of oil and other natural resources only to end up in a landfill.”
Not to mention the fact that our oversized American homes create the need to buy more furniture, decorations, and “stuff” to fill up the space.
Rather than owning homes, our homes are beginning to own us. The Federal Reserve debt figures as of Q3 2016 show the average mortgage debt stands at $172,806, by far the highest category of debt. But some minimalists are starting to see tiny homes, or micro-apartments, as a great way to avoid excessive debt and accumulation.
Jeremy Weaver, Executive Director and builder for Wind River Tiny Homes (our own local Chattanooga tiny home builders) is one. While he says he would not consider himself a minimalist, he and wife Lindsay, along with their less than one-year-old baby,live in a 276 square foot tiny that cost only $20,000 in building materials (a mere fraction of the average mortgage debt that cripples so many).
“The tiny house is an external force that forces me to not be a hoarder,” he joked, saying that at his core he considers himself a hoarder who uses tiny house living as a crutch to not accumulate. “Excess is a sickness of the developed world” he explained, while also admitting that “some people pair their lives down so far that it becomes inconvenient.”
Finding that right balance is the key to happiness as a minimalist. Right-sized living is what he promotes and he believes this is a fluent concept that changes depending on the phase of life you are in. “For us, it’s not about live tiny for your whole life, it’s about being responsible, your house being a size that’s additive to your life rather than being detractive,” Weaver says.
So how much space do we need? It will be different for everyone, but Weaver believes there is a happiness benchmark of optimal living space similar to the happiness tipping point of income levels, where owning a bigger house may actually begin to detract from our happiness and well-being.
“My working theory is 150-300 square feet per person for optimal happiness,” he said. And though there is not much research on the subject yet, as the micro-housing movement catches on, expect to see a lot more attention paid to the “optimal happiness index”.
So where do we begin our own minimalist journey? Perhaps the key is to start small. Maybe we go through our closets or homes and eliminate items we’ve accumulated but no longer use or need. Ask yourself if it serves a purpose or brings you joy. If the answer is no, perhaps it’s time to throw it out. Maybe we simply become more aware and intentional when it comes to new purchases. Perhaps we start by cutting our living space in half.
Most importantly, I think it’s time to open our eyes and realize that the best things in life aren’t things—they are relationships with family and friends, our health, our passions, freedom from debt and so much more. Think of how our world and our relationship would change if we paired our lives down to what was important, made conscious, deliberate and intentional buying decisions and rid ourselves of the excess that only overwhelms us and sinks us further in debt.
What would happen if we learned to focus instead on using things and loving people? Maybe it’s time to live simply so we can simply live.