I think the desire to have more has always been there for some. But like you kind of imply, and I tend to agree with, it has spread across much of our cultures and through social structures.
My brother and his wife I know are not that way. They have adopted a minimalist lifestyle. Some of it out of necessity, but mostly out of want. In fact, they lived that lifestyle before it was a thing.
We are attempting to do the same as we grow older, but is rather difficult as we have grown accustomed to our creature comforts and "things".
I look forward to your future posts.
There's a lot to be said for living more simply and I try to do the same buy thinking carefully before I buy anything, and looking after what I have so it doesn't need replacing. Trimming down ca be difficult though, as you say, however once you get some momentum on it I think it might become easier.
Becca 🌷
Being more critical of buying habits is something else we are starting to do as well. We did a clean out a while back of a couple rooms and I am getting ready to hit my old office/man cave tomorrow. It ended up becoming a catch all again after we cleaned it out once before. It is a work in progress, much like myself.
It's a constant task I guess, one that we need to attend to all the time. I'm doing a little of it myself this weekend, sorting through and finding out what things I need and don't need, in the kitchen and pantry. It's amazing how things accumulate in those areas.
Becca 🌷
It is crazy what you can accumulate over time. My wife did our kitchen a few months ago before we had some work done to it. It was amazing how much stuff we had that we never used and were able to donate.