The Benefits of an Edited Life

 

The more stuff we have, the happier we are, right? I certainly haven’t found that to be true.

Would it surprise you to know that Americans live in about 3 times the amount of space we lived in 50 years ago? You would think that with all this extra space we would have plenty of room for all our stuff, right?

Consider the $22 billion dollar, 2.2 billion square foot industry of extra storage space. So we have triple the space and we’ve become such good shoppers that we need even more space.

So where does this lead? Lots of credit card debt and a huge environmental footprint. It’s not surprising that our happiness levels have flatlined over the last 50 years.

There has to be a better way. A way where less equals more.

Most of us have experienced the joys of living with less. College — your dorm room, travelling — a hotel room, camping- where you had basically nothing. Whatever it was for you, I bet you it gave you a little more freedom, a little more time.

So can we say that a little less space and less stuff are going to equal a smaller footprint. It’s actually a great way to save some money and it just may give you more ease in your life. A smaller space will allow us to buy or rent it for less. We save money on utilities and also a smaller footprint.

So how can we “live little’?

The first step is to edit ruthlessly. We’ve got to “clear the arteries” of our lives. That shirt that you haven’t worn in a year? You’ve got to let it go. We need to think before we buy. We have to think “is that really going to make me happier, truly?” By all means, we should buy and own some great stuff. But we want stuff that we’re going to have for years. Not just stuff.

Second step, think ‘small is sexy’. We want things that are designed for how they are used the vast majority of the time and not just that rare event. For example; why have a six burner stove when you rarely use three?

We want things that nest and things that stack. We want to digitize paperwork, books and movies and make them disappear. It’s magic!

Finally, we want multifunctional spaces and housewares. I’m not saying that we all need to live in an average of 400 square feet but consider the benefits of an edited life. Go from 3,000 sf to 2,000 sf; from 1,500 sf to 1,000 sf. Most of us are pretty happy when we are living in a hotel room with a couple of bags.

So when you go home and walk through the front door, ask yourself if you could do with a little life editing. Would that give you a little more freedom, maybe a little more time? Maybe, just maybe, less might equal more.

So let’s make room for the good stuff.

An Idea (by Ingenious Piece)

Everything Begins With An Idea