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Page added on August 8, 2016
Have we finally reached the limit of owning stuff?
WHEN a book telling people to throw out piles of their possessions becomes a best seller, it might be an indication we’re consuming too much.
Japanese writer Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying has been one of the biggest-selling books on Amazon for months with more than five million copies sold worldwide.
While Kondo has devised her own method of stacking clothes and organising drawers, the basic message is simple.
Do you love it – or as Kondo puts it, does it ‘spark joy’? No? Then you don’t need it.
Converts to her way of tidying have spoken of purging their belongings, taking bag after bag of clothes to charity shops, throwing out kitchen utensils, selling half the contents of their house on eBay.
Although before you throw out that pair of novelty Christmas socks Kondo says you should thank them for their years of loyal service. Possessions, she believes, have feelings.
But it’s not just Kondo who feels we have too many possessions and could do with lightening the load.
Earlier this year Swedish company Ikea’s head of sustainability, Steve Howard, said the western world had reached “peak stuff” – in effect we have so many things we can’t buy any more.
“If we look on a global basis, in the west we have probably hit peak stuff,” he said. “We talk about peak oil. I’d say we’ve hit peak red meat, peak sugar, peak stuff … peak home furnishings.”
His comments seem ridiculous given that so many families feel they are barely keeping their heads above water.
And yet many consumers in western countries feel they are drowning under mountains of possessions, most of which they don’t need and no longer really want.
A friend who plans to move abroad said she has put most of her belongings in storage until the sale of her house goes through.
Boxes of carefully packed books and CDs and crockery are sitting in a storage unit in an industrial estate, waiting to be taken to their new home.
She said recently that she wouldn’t care if she never saw any of those belongings ever again.
We’ve never had so many material possessions. Objects that were once seen as a luxury are now necessities.
Twenty years ago almost no one had a mobile phone – now the few that don’t are seen as Luddite oddities.
Within a generation it’s become almost impossible to find a job or complete homework without access to the internet.
And internet means paying for broadband and buying your own laptop, tablet or smartphone that will inevitably need to be replaced within a few years.
We’ve access to dozens, if not hundreds, of television stations on Freeview, yet almost three quarters of homes in the north pay for a television service.
Technically services don’t fall into the category of “stuff”.
Yet anyone who’s ever had to wrestle with a faulty cable connection knows that most technology comes with its own set of special leads and chargers and boxes with blue lights that incessantly blink when you’re trying to read a book.
The internet might be a necessary evil, but as our living standards have risen, so have our expectations of what we should own.
Advertising is incredibly adept at making us feel we not only want, but desperately need that car or brand of gin or particular type of wallpaper.
Arguably the most successful advertising campaign of the last century was run by the De Beers diamond cartel.
At the start of the century, few engagement rings were set with diamonds. In fact few people could afford or even contemplate buying an engagement ring.
But by the latter half of the century De Beers’ adverts, with the tagline ‘a diamond is forever’, made an engagement ring an essential part of getting married.
Now no engagement is complete without a trip to a jewellery shop. Some consumer experts believe our obsession with stuff is slowly changing.
A recent survey on household spending suggests we’re slowly moving away from acquiring objects to spending money on ‘experiences’.
Official statistics show that since 2010 households are spending less on clothes and food but more on eating out, holidays and cars.
Why don’t we just say no – no to stuff? Let’s fill some bin-bags and take them to the nearest Oxfam.
Let’s give away that DVD box set you’ll never watch again. And no buying anything new to fill that sad gap on your shelf. Anyone with me? Anyone?
33 Comments on "Have we finally reached the limit of owning stuff?"
Plantagenet on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 6:35 pm
I’ve been carting pick up loads of stuff to local charities all summer. Mostly old climbing gear and skis, books of poetry, out-of-date science textbooks, and 50 pairs or worn out jeans.
I’m starting to sort through the internet stuff now. Does anybody need 800 used CDs and a couple of old keyboards and monitors?
claman on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 6:40 pm
There is no doubt she is chinese the way it is all split upp in to short sentences.
I think the chines should learn how to speak in a more elaborate way.
claman on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 6:54 pm
It turns out that she s japanese, but her way of expressing herself is just like a chinese government statement, A sentence that absoutly must not cover more than two lines.
And no way can there be a space between to different matters.
It’s all old chinese stuff , being communistisc or old emperial.
makati1 on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 6:56 pm
claman, do you have a China phobia or is the US brainwashing complete? LOL
“Japanese writer Marie Kondo” is the books author.
Clare Simpson is the author of the article.
NEITHER are Chinese. Your ignorance is showing.
claman on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 7:13 pm
Mak, each sentense is exactly two lines, just as it is in official chinese statements.
I don’t think that is the traditional japanese way of writing .
ghung on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 7:20 pm
Playable CDs And DVDs are like currency in certain economies; highly trade-able. Easy to store and don’t take up much space. When other forms of entertainment go poof, people will be hungry for any kind of media.
Boat on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 7:22 pm
mak,
China will have to back down over the island claims. The reason dozens of other nations don’t have nukes is they trust the US to have their back. The US is not allowed to back down. N Korea should keep their eyes on the sky. Hillary will be wanting to show her toughness.
farmlad on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 7:26 pm
Mak I just had to drop in and see if your still posting. If not I would have guessed you were one of the thousands going to jail.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-08/meanwhile-philippines
Go Speed Racer on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 7:28 pm
I like my stuff.
makati1 on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 7:31 pm
claman, that is the style of several writers that I read regularly. They are American and English. So what? Writing style does NOT indicate nationality. On;y a brainwashed America would think so. Your leaders are taking you to slaughter and you are running all the way. lol
claman on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 7:36 pm
Ghung, is that inside talking, or did you just miss the subject
claman on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 7:40 pm
Mak ,this is just so typical chinese style that you can’t deny it. But OK you will denie it any time
Kylon on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 7:44 pm
People are simply buying the wrong kind of stuff, and the wrong kind of services.
Malinvestment, so to speak by the consumers, who bought something they shouldn’t have because they failed to spend the proper time getting to know what was really valuable, what provides the greatest utility, and what will continue to have high utility in the future.
Part of it has to do with skilled marketers and manipulators selling a dream or an image, what might be otherwise seen as a puff of smoke to people instead of reality.
People often want X or Y or Z associated with something they truly want, so they purchase that, rather than going after X or Y or Z more directly.
eugene on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 7:55 pm
Interesting how an article re buying stuff instantly turns into anti-China rants. And we wonder why we’re at war all the time. If there were a market for hate, Americans would have a corner on the market.
ghung on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 7:57 pm
claman asks; “Ghung, is that inside talking, or did you just miss the subject…”
The article is about limits to stuff. Didn’t take you guys long to go off-topic, eh? What’s the matter? Got too much stuff? 😉
I admit to having an issue with what stuff to keep and wht to toss away. Since there is no ‘away’, I just keep most of it, gift it, or trade for something I need.
makati1 on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 8:32 pm
farmlad, go “take care of” your sheep. If you believe all of the propaganda you read and see on US MSM ‘news’ you are a fool.
I support his efforts to stamp out illegal drugs and corruption.
How many millions in the Us would be suffering the same death/jail fate if Obama made the same kind of “war on Drugs”? Millions.
Do you know that there are over 24,000 gangs in the US with over 1,240,000 members? And most are involved with illegal drugs.
http://www.statisticbrain.com/gang-statistics/
Did you bother to check on how many deaths PER DAY happen in the US because of illegal drugs? ~17,000 per year or 46 per day. ~10,000 annually on heroin alone. They wouldn’t happen if there were no drug pushers.
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Causes_of_Death#sthash.rEswCSuP.dpbs
I have nothing to fear as I use no ‘recreational’ drugs and, with the exception of trying marijuana a few times, never will. And prisons are supposed to be bad. Bread and water and breaking rocks while sleeping in a cold cell is a good deterrent. Not thew “home away from home” that the Us has today.
BTW: There are also more than 38,000 deaths from legal drugs each year in the US. Perhaps the Pharmaceutical corporations should also be illegal?
makati1 on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 8:34 pm
Boat, you an Claman should live together, your indoctrination is complete. The Empire is preparing you suckers for a war with Russia and China, and it is obviously working. Come out and see the real world if you dare.
makati1 on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 8:37 pm
BTW: When I moved to the Philippines, I moved with two suitcases of “stuff”. Over the 8+ years I have been here, I have only accumulated necessities and a few DVDs and books. I am investing in preps and the future, not junk.
jedrider on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 8:51 pm
I get rid of a LOT of stuff. I have a motto: No new STUFF unless I get rid of old STUFF. Sometimes, I like to buy used, as other people’s discard can be my treasure. Yep, we have too much stuff. That’s why we need TWO earths to be sustainable currently.
ghung on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 9:00 pm
Mak said; “I am investing in preps and the future, not junk.”
One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. I could bore you folks all night long talking about how much stuff I’ve re-tasked into something useful and lasting.
My solar mounts/trackers are old C-band satellite TV dish mounts. My cisterns for the garden and greenhouse are old 6500 liter tanks from a chicken hatchery ($300 for two); heavy DOT plastic tanks used for collecting egg shells in another life. Underground, they should last for decades if not a century. Many of my drip-irrigation feed lines are old garden hoses salvaged from the dump. My firewood trailer is a rescued 1943 Navy T-6. I’ve been offered about 6 times what I have in it. Found it on a junk pile, and it looks great behind my wife’s Subaru or my little tractor.
claman on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 9:12 pm
ghung, I guess I got of the subject. Sorry bout that.
Davy on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 9:37 pm
I have no problems with stuff that is related to the new age of less we are entering. There are so many wonderful products and designs that have a future in a collapsed world. These are the things I invest in. The normal shit people are obsessed with today has no place in my world. I live in a 12×40 log cabin so I don’t have space for much but I do have two barns I can store prep items in. I have lots of tools and hardware. I have devises and equipment. I have cloths and gear. I don’t have a problem with stuff because we are near a time of few new things. If you collect the right things you are going to enrich lives around you in the poverty of our soon to be collapsed world.
GregT on Mon, 8th Aug 2016 10:13 pm
Just finished building a 12 x14 shed, and unpacked all of the boxes full of stuff that I’ve been amassing for the last several years. I shouldn’t need to go to a hardware store now for much of anything, but if I do, I’ll make sure to buy extra.
Anonymous on Tue, 9th Aug 2016 2:29 am
We are in the middle of a move here, and the amount of ‘stuff’ we have, is …hard to fathom at times. Clothes, tools, cookware that seldom, if ever gets used, endless boxes of….things and stuff. It gets worse when I have to listen to my elderly mother talk about what a frugal, modest lifestyle and how shes been so good at shedding stuff recently.
Except its not really true. Yes, shes been willing to part with a few things here and there, but it is still too much. And its not like we haven’t been through this before. Years ago we thinned down the possessions and it filled, I think, about 1/2 or so of a large standard trash bin(the commercial ones). She was all bent out of shape about how we were only throwing out ‘her stuff’. I asked her later on if she could even remember, or if she missed, what we had tossed out.
She couldn’t really give me an answer.
Today I wrote off a bunch of perfectly good electronics that you cant sell, except to give away @ rock bottom prices to the local professional garage sale surfers. Less than a week to go and still too many things we have no real room for at our destination and no buyers either.
makati1 on Tue, 9th Aug 2016 2:51 am
Anon, when my mother passed this Spring at age 89, she had a walk-in closet stuffed with “stuff”. Mostly clothes that were antique and she had not been able to wear for decades and never would. They all went to Goodwill after her death. I don’t think she ever threw anything out. I would say, “typical American”.
How many two car garages can only hold one car? How many backyard sheds are full to the brim with “stuff”? Why do Americans need to rent storage space for their “stuff”, sometimes miles from their homes and that are full of “stuff” used rarely, if at all?
Collective insanity? Greed? Or the result of the advertising / brainwashing they have been subjected to all of their lives? Maybe all three, but especially the last one. All of that stuff clutters up more than the basement, garage, and shed. It clutters the mind and creates unconscious stress. I took two suitcases of my “stuff” when I moved to the Philippines. It was a delightful experience to not have a house full of “stuff” to move or worry about. If you haven’t used it for a year, you do not need it.
Danny on Tue, 9th Aug 2016 8:24 am
My two car garage has never seen a car.
Davy on Tue, 9th Aug 2016 9:41 am
Systematically it is too late for anything other than a collapse gradient. This will be a process that is inclusive but also local dependent. Some nations will fail before others and locals will likewise be affected. We know the common denominator of collapse for nations and locals. What we do not know is the process trend and momentum. We do not understand the time element although we have likely decadal triggering of severe climate instability and the dead state of oil. The economy could stop at any moment with horrific results.
You can do something with what is left of your life. You can do something for your family and local. This is simple and this is vital for you and your local. Time is running out so locate properly and once located prepare. This sounds simple but it is not. You will find that once you engage this process your options become overwhelming and this is because we do not have a firm idea of the details of the collapse gradient we are on. A perfectly well planned relocation and preparations can be foiled by an adverse fate. The important thing is to get decisive and start the process. Mobilize your faculties and resources. You don’t have to do anything because you may be in the perfect place already or you may be unable to do anything anyway but if you start this process you will be determining this condition.
I will acknowledge that some will choose to seize the day and enjoy life as is. Nothing wrong with this but there are consequences to being cavalier about what is ahead. This also may be negligence if there are those that depend on you. I would say have both and you should live both. The prep process can be both.
As far as the statement above on cars. Cars are the main reason for our collapse gradient we are on. At least the reason for the speed of our collapse. Cars allowed us quickly to overshoot our carrying capacity. The best thing you can do if you want to be green is limit car use. The very best is no car at all. This is good from a prep point of view because it forces localization.
Downsize now with dignity and in place if you have found the right place. Find the right place if you have not. If there is nothing you can do then make the best of life daily. Pain and suffering is ahead. If you can practice relative sacrifice for Nature and your common man do that because that is a higher human value. Begin to incorporate adversity into your daily routine to strengthen yourself for the trials and tribulations ahead. Work out and eat right to strengthen your body. See a doctor and dentist because they will be in short supply soon. Learn to grow food and learn to store it. Ge the deadwood out of your life. Abandon the status quo search of enjoyment and leisure. The status quo will make you fat and lazy. Be heroic in your own little world. Time is of the essence and cannot be replaced.
penury on Tue, 9th Aug 2016 11:20 am
Davy, very good advice. However, have you ever found a propensity for following good advice among your friends and neighbors? How if you could just show people how to make money off of downsizing you might convince a few. Notice I said make money, not save money.
ghung on Tue, 9th Aug 2016 11:57 am
penury; “Notice I said make money, not save money.”
A penny saved isn’t a penny earned? I always found the term “make money” a curious one. None of us “make money”. We just move it around, and that system of arrangements with all the hidden costs and intermediaries taking a cut likely isn’t nearly as efficient as most folks give it credit for. Over the last 20 or so years I’ve discovered that keeping money out of the system can be quite efficient over time. Fiat-based gridweenies with all of their hyper-complex dependencies may call that “downsizing”. Funny, that.
Davy on Tue, 9th Aug 2016 12:04 pm
Pen, I am learning daily with farming and country living. I am learning about welding and carpentry for example. I have learned many basic mechanical skills. I am learning about taking care of cows and goats. There are old timers around here I spend extra amount of time with when I can. I help them out when I can just so I can hang out with them and learn some of their skills. I also really enjoy their accounts of the local history. I found out recently there was a Civil War Union camp site very near my farm. The locals back then were rebels around here and I learned about their guerrilla activity.
In regards to doom and prep I have little support. I am the one that teaches others. I only do this indirectly because it is a subject that most people can’t handle. If someone has genuine interest I open up and give them the full story. I am not interested in making money. I have enough money. One of the reasons I have enough money is I downsized per my position in life. I realize if I offered my skills for hire I may reach more people but I don’t care for dealing with the general public. I owned a bar restaurant for 4 years. I bartended as the owner. I had a great time but I don’t care for dealing with the general public. I learned that from that experience. I am basically an introvert and prefer to be alone. I have a few good friends and very blessed with wonderful family. That is all I need.
PracticalMaina on Tue, 9th Aug 2016 2:50 pm
I like being a cheap bastard, the less I can get by on, the less I get to contribute my tax dollars to the reckless actions of the government.
Davy, that is the way to do it, such abundant knowledge on survival and self reliance in the generations that saw the depression and ww2.
pinkdotR on Wed, 10th Aug 2016 7:33 am
“Do you love it – or as Kondo puts it, does it ‘spark joy’? No? Then you don’t need it” – the problem with stuff is that it does ‘spark joy’ the moment we decide to buy it and then we love it for the first few days/hours/minutes of owning it. Later we just keep it and seek for a new source of joy.
Is giving stuff away a real solution of the problem or just another way of cleaning our house and making room for new stuff? Maybe we should rather try to ‘spark some joy’ with our old stuff? Try to bring back our love to the stuff we already have and spend some time enjoying it instead of going shopping again?
I am going to listen to some of my old CDs or LPs tonight 🙂
derhundistlos on Thu, 11th Aug 2016 1:38 am
BAGHDAD — Record-shattering temperatures this summer have scorched countries from Morocco to Saudi Arabia and beyond, as climate experts warn that the severe weather could be a harbinger of worse to come.
In coming decades, U.N. officials and climate scientists predict that the region’s mushrooming populations will face extreme water scarcity, temperatures almost too hot for human survival and other consequences of global warming.
Washington post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/an-epic-middle-east-heat-wave-could-be-global-warmings-hellish-curtain-raiser/2016/08/09/c8c717d4-5992-11e6-8b48-0cb344221131_story.html?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_3_na