"You know, when you boil life down, it’s funny just how little you need, isn’t it?" - Rip Wheeler - Yellowstone
I agree with that line above; people feel the need to have so many things but in truth much of what people have is unnecessary. I'm not talking about third-world countries where having a fifteen year old mobile phone and a handful of jolloff rice is considered a lot...I mean in first-world countries where people can often have whatever they want.
But life isn't that complicated really, we just make it that way...and call it progress. We don't need all of what we have but it feels nice to have it.
Food | Shelter | Warmth | Social Interaction
They're the basic human needs in life although everyone has way more.
I get it, living a spartan life of only the bare necessities wouldn't be very nice and society is geared towards consumerism but in my opinion people have far too much and far more than they need; I don't just mean you, I mean me too. Everyone.
Ok, maybe everyone except those Medieval folks in the image above.
What do you think about this and what are your own experiences?
Do you have too much stuff and if so what could you discard and go without? Are you a slave to consumerism and lack the ability to say no to want-spending? What changes could you make? Do you feel life could be more simple and if so how? How did life get so complicated in the first instance? What advice would you give to someone wanting to uncomplicate their life and why?
Any thoughts or comments you'd like to share?
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
[Original and AI free]
Image(s) in this post are my own
I will be living like that soon enough - pillaging and plundering.
That's the way to do it. Axe, shield and sword, no fixed location. Want something, slay those who have it and take theirs.
The son of my boss at work is the perfect example of a dumbass slave of consumerism, he browses every day Amazon to check the offers, if he finds something in offer half interesting for him, he buys it, he bought a portable USB air frier, he bought a card opening lockpick for the house cause he couldn't be arsed to turn keys, he bought a phone then he didn't like it and bought a new one after a week... I find it so annoying even if it doesn't harm to me in the end, but so idiotic
That's nuts, browsing just in case something comes up. He sounds like a dumb cunt.
He sure is, being smart is not a quality of his for sure
Lol.
I started watching the series The Madison.
A rich man from New York (Kurt Russell), who spent his whole life going on wild fishing trips with his brother, lived in a wooden cabin with a field toilet on those trips.
He died in a storm, and the story follows his wife (Michel Pfeiffer), who for all the years of marriage did not want to give up comfort and spend a day in nature with him, so that after his death, she came to live in that same cabin.
We need little in life and all that has spoiled us are habits.
We are used to soft, comfortable, warm, without scarcity, a full fridge and drinking water from the tap.
And the fact that we have opportunities for all of the above.
I have heard about that show, seen the preview, and it looks ok.
As for the rest, I have nothing against nice things but work pretty hard to have what I need rather than on acquisitions for the sake of it. Yes, I have nice things, more than a lot of people, but rarely do I give in to want items and rarely do I buy things that I have already just to have the "new one". I think that's responsible and it has certainly helped me get into the strong financial/comfort position I enjoy. (That, and a lot of hard work)
It is a great happiness to live in a country where, for hard work, a person is adequately rewarded. And who can afford nice things.
You mentioned, there are parts of the world where a man can barely feed himself and his family with his hard work.
That man dreams that he has things that we throw away as "old", when we buy "new", which we really don't need, because the old ones are just fine.
I have a colleague who took wardrobe, mobile phones and tablets to an African country that we separated here for recycling.
The children (and their parents) were happy when they received tablets and mobile phones over 5 years old this year.
And we are thinking, I have an iPhone 16 Pro, should I take the orange or the dark iPhone 17 Pro...
Yeah, there's many countries like that where corruption seems to be a national sport. The thing is, I see people whining about it but then acting in a similar manner themselves.
Give a man opportunity, money and power, to see how he will behave.
That's where you can see what our ethos is and how much we, who already have (more or less) opportunities, are really strong to continue and stay on the same path - not to waste resources more than necessary, not to litter our environment with unnecessary amounts of clothing, equipment and gadgets... Not to destroy nature and to try to live in harmony with it.
Even in third world countries, people tend to accumulate unnecessary things—myself included, of course; after all, I am people. A few days ago, I was reorganizing things at home and felt overwhelmed by the number of junk I don't need. I have some items there that I will take to the landfill, where there's always people collecting anything they find useful.
Most people are the same in that they have things they don't really need; I guess the trick is to see what's not required before one acquires it...not always easy.
Hey!
Sometimes I think it is partially the life you are born into. Either you continue what you see or you didn't have enough and become determined to have more. Where I am at this time in the world's existence, what I have would not be considered wealthy at all and yet I live in a small house by myself with plenty room for 1 ... or maybe two if you are close...ha..... and enough to eat and a car and the biggest pile of art supplies that I play with for my hobby. A person certainly doesn't need more and likely not this much and yet here....in America in the area that I live, this is not consider anywhere close to high living.
To people somewhere else, this might be high living!
The thing is, this isn't unusual, it is just normal for this time and place.
Yeah it's situational for sure and even in the same location people will have different needs/understanding of life.
I kind of vaguely do the KonMari thing I guess but I'm terrible at decluttering (I have a lot of stuff I need to sort through at the moment but efforts keep stalling because apparently I have to mental load for everyone in the house -_- and also there are so many other things I want to do).
We don't buy too many things but J is a tightarse and I have really, really, really long and in-depth conversations with myself about how much I need this thing and how much use I'll get out of it which usually results in me not buying whatever it is.
I'm a lot looser with stuff I buy for the kids even to this day wheree I only have one minor left as I still approach things from a homeschooling perspective which is probably why Youngest keeps asking me to buy Warhammer stuff for him because the only time I will say no to more art supplies is if I have no money at all x_x
I think what matters is that a person puts some thought into it rather than simply buying what they want. I know people with a lot of money and they all do that with their purchases; it makes sense.
Probably why they have a lot of money XD I wish I could say the same x_x
I mean we're covering food and bills easily, anything outside of that we have to consider carefully, we don't have enough money to just buy stuff on a whim because we happen to feel like it at the time and that sometimes irks me (even though I would still be carefully considering the purchase regardless).
The cost of living is out of control, inflation and all...shrinkflation. It all leads to people struggling a little more week on week. We are pretty careful with what we do financially and everything is discussed usually; I don't mean to the point of ridiculousness but we find that discussion helps curb dumb spending.
Example: We went to Bunnings the other day for a tool that will help at home. Started at the AEG, Makita and Milwaukee area, went to the Ryobi area (much cheaper) and walked out with nothing deciding we'll make do with the current situation. We do stuff like that all the time.
I'm mildly concerned for some people I know of who would genuinely be struggling with food and bills never mind anything else.
Yeh sounds similar to what we do though if we're going to Bunnings it's usually for a bunch of stuff so we never walk out with nothing (just maybe not everything we went there for, and occasionally with something else we "needed" or actually needed).
Old Bunnings huh? Easy to go there, difficult to walk out with nothing. 😊
Good gif that.
My life became simpler a long time ago, when I moved to another country. It was hard, really hard. I had to work on letting go of my possessions; many of them had been hard-won, but once I’d done so, I felt a sense of liberation. Today I live a simple life, with a few comforts, but I enjoy other things more. I only buy things when I need them or to reward myself for a victory; I still remember that I must buy that victory cup!!
There's freedom in letting go of materialism and consumerism.
It’s true, at least for me, that life feels... a bit lighter.
I could probably discard most of what I have and still live comfortably. Not sure about the wife though. We have really cut back on spending and really had to talk ourselves into purchasing "new" car when the old one started having issues. One change I would like to make is moving away from the concrete jungle. It makes it too convenient to buy something. If I had my way, I would downsize to a camper or RV next to a river or a lake.
Yep, I'm with you there, living is cities is shit. Too many people, not enough nature.
Live in a little neighborhood on edge of small town. The town and neighborhood have been encroached on significantly by larger urban srpawl.
Yeah, "progress" they call it I guess but it feels somewhat like the way pond scup proliferates a pond to the point of strangling itself to death.
My wife is really good and living on the bare minimum. We still probably have more stuff than a lot of people, but we have far less than some. We are recently in the process of moving her parents from one house to another and it's just crazy how much stuff you accumulate through your life. I'm sure we will be weeding more stuff out from our house over the next year.
The accumulation of stuff is crazy, especially after years of living in the same place.
I was a collector of shite for many years in the USA then I moved to Thailand where having stuff was pretty untenable because almost nobody had transport larger than a motorbike. I had a new outlook on life and decided that I wasn't going to accumulate stuff. But I ended up accumulating stuff anyway and when I finally had to move somewhere far away again, I realized that I had done it again and most of what I had was stuff that I didn't need. I gave away a ton of stuff and made my whole life fit into 2 suitcases. I have probably managed to get myself up to 3 suitcases since moving to Vietnam but again, most of this is stuff I could easily give away and it seems everyone accumulates such as having far more t-shirts that I will ever wear.
But yes I agree that we don't really need much stuff. Sometimes I am jealous when I see a friend state-side that has a large Lego collection or something like that but mostly I don't really aspire to have those kinds of things anymore.
It's sometimes difficult not to accumulate things, for me too I guess. I look at something and think I paid good money for this and keep it rather than throwing it out...but sometimes a new one is required and I have two. And so the story goes, on and on.
In fact, the mentality you are sharing here is what would have made our world better. It is greed that cause the many problems and afflictions that people suffer.
But in most cases, we are forced into living that kind of flamboyant lifestyle. For instance, there are so many ceremonies an festivities in my cultural background. In most of these events, there are uniforms. So, one just keep one buying expensive clothes for uniform which most you can't even wear for a whole year after the ceremony. You just have many clothes in your wardrobe which you don't know what to do with.
I'm fade up personally.
One could simply not buy expensive clothes right. It's a choice.