Consumerism – To Keep or Not To Keep

Mindful Acquisition

November 18, 2020August 27, 2020Consumerism, Find Your Why, Goal setting, Priorities, The Rightsize Approach, ThinkLeave a Comment

In 2017 on Joshua Becker’s website Becoming Minimalist, he revealed that the LA Times reported that, ‘There are 300,000 items in the average American home.’ At some point we have either bought or been given these items over the course of the home’s life cycle. Contemplating the true cost of what and where we purchase our consumer goods from will contribute to the wellbeing of not only ourselves but the health of our planet as well. Before we decide to buy something we should consider the ethics, including the carbon footprint this object made before we commit to adding this to the colossal amount of items we already own. Buying local items or objects that have been crafted from sustainable materials that also can be recycled is a positive move in the right direction for us as a global society. Even before we are at the check-out we should consider some of the following:

Mindful Acquisition Questions

Why did I come shopping today?

Is this object, item or product something I need or something I want?

Can I afford the space and the dollars it will cost to own this?

If I wait to purchase this what will be the consequence?

In the words of Reverend Billy from the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, ‘Give me the power to stop shopping!’ Knowing the answers to these questions will allow you to become a more Intentional Shopper. When you are an intentional shopper you purchase goods with clarity that are fit for purpose. By taking a moment to reflect on why, what and how we buy items we can reduce the fixed mindset of the Hyperconsumption cycle of work>buy>spend, allowing ourselves to progress into a more growth mindset using the Mindful Acquisition cycle create> live> share.

**2020 Special Book Pricing** Click here to order your copy for $20.00 plus $5.00 for shipping anywhere in Australia http://bit.ly/2020RightsizeYourLife

Why Give

October 28, 2020August 27, 2020Clutter Mangement, Consumerism, decluttering, Donations, Giving, Space in your homeLeave a Comment

After the mighty purchasing season that is Christmas, many gifts now can replace our older belongings. In 2018 many charity stores have reported that they will receive between 75,000 and 100,000 kilograms of donations in January alone post the Christmas season. During this time their volunteers can barely keep up with the sorting process. It’s no wonder our charity stores are brimming with second-hand treasure. These organisations help to reduce items that would end up in landfill and assist the most vulnerable in our communities. Giving to charity makes us feel empowered by knowing we are helping others. Brain activity is heightened when we give and registers more pleasure than actually receiving.

A study conducted by William Harbaugh, a Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon, calls this a ‘warm glow’. When we have a strong social conscience we feel compelled to help others where we can. By giving we are able to reflect our personal values through charitable acts which can help to increase our self-esteem and self-perception. Setting a positive example of giving will have a positive impact on others as generosity has the power to be contagious. Particularly with our children when they experience the act of giving at a younger age they will be natural givers as adults. Inspiring others to give can help to strengthen community bonds and even the smallest acts can make a big difference. One of the almost always positive human behaviours is altruism. When we behave in an altruistic way we are seeking to bring benefit to others by assisting them without requiring anything in return. By helping others in this way we seek no apparent gain or potential cost to ourselves.

Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘Unselfish acts are the real miracles out of which all the reported miracles grow.’ Somebody who donates time volunteering with an organisation or at an institution,gives blood or rescues somebody are all displaying acts of altruism. We often take many forms of altruism for granted in our daily lives. Chivalrous acts of opening doors, giving somebody on the street directions, or even making someone feel comfortable in a social situation can all be considered as altruistic behaviours. Australians are big givers, according to a study done by the Giving Australia project. They found that in 2006 13.4 million adults, which is around eighty-seven percent of all adults, gave $5.7 billion dollars to not- for-profit and private organisations in one year. This was more than given by adults in the United Kingdom and Canada but less than half given by adults in the United States.

Being altruistic can fill us with positive emotions and a feeling of empowerment. When we help without expecting anything in return we can, however, receive intangible pro-social rewards. When others in our social groups acknowledge our good deeds we are treated to a self-esteem boost and have others view us in a favourable light. This alone can be enough motivation to lend a helping hand. A positive way to assist our friends, family and local community members may be to offer to share our particular set of skills. Offer to assist someone with something you are good at, like gardening, cooking or setting up a social media page. We all have something to offer, no matter how small. Offer to collect friends’ children from school or take your neighbour’s dog for a walk. Share your Rightsizing experience with another person. Random acts of kindness in our communities restore our hope for humanity and can make you feel a part of something bigger than our own lives. This type of behaviour has the magical power of being reciprocated and repeated. Giving is a powerful act that can benefit all that are involved. Offer your assistance when you can, donate your time, your excess and your experiences with others to create a life of enrichment that is intentional and full of meaningful connections.

**2020 Special Book Pricing** Click here to order your copy for $20.00 plus $5.00 for shipping anywhere in Australia http://bit.ly/2020RightsizeYourLife

Wants

September 23, 2020September 17, 2020Balance, Consumerism, Design, Happiness, Home, UncategorizedLeave a Comment

As with needs our wants also hold a very personal measure of value. A large part of our modern lives are preoccupied with the ‘wanting of things’. This is largely due to extensive marketing campaigns from the advertising industry. They profit from our unending quest for happiness and social acceptance. They elude us into believing that we are somewhat inadequate if we do not engage in purchasing their products. In Roald Dahl’s 1971 film adaptation of his best-selling book, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, character Veruca Salt famously exclaims, ‘I want one. I want a golden goose!’ This precocious statement of ‘want’ shows the lust of instant gratification. In this moment of desire, there is minimal thought for the long-term impact such a purchase may have on the owner, or in this case on the goose!

Having or wanting is a concept of ownership. This abyss of wanting more is a shallow satisfaction that has us caught up in a cycle of replacement and acquisition. In our everyday lives, we have access to purchase many objects from a variety of sources. Anything you could possibly ever want is available from shopping complexes and websites. When Rightsizing, the question of ‘what do we want?’ will repeatedly be brought to the surface. ‘What we want’ will impact on the amount of objects that we decide to keep in our homes. ‘What we want’ will aid and hinder our projects as we begin to identify our needs in relation to how much space we have leftover to keep our wants. Before you buy something, to find out if it is a ‘need’ or simply a ‘want’, see how you feel about it before you make your purchase. If it’s from a store hold it in your hands and contemplate what value this will add and for how long; will it continue to do so? Alternatively, if it is an online purchase really think about this object before you frivolously click ‘add to cart’. Focus deeply on this object to see if it’s not just a token to symbolise something that may be missing from you emotionally or if it is just simply the vanity of owning the object in question.

The psychological ramifications of always wanting to own more things is addictive and leaves us increasingly empty as this compulsive dependency of ‘wanting’ takes over. As we saw in Chapter 1, having more belongings does not lead to an increased level of happiness. Looking for this fulfilment outside of ourselves will leave us with a lot of objects to maintain, look for and be responsible for in the long run. When we are in the PAUSE stage contemplating our wants it is important, to be honest with yourself about your self-worth in relation to the things you own. Begin to address your own feelings on how your possessions make you feel. Just because you own something are you more likely to feel either superior and important or inferior in the presence of others? Do you feel resentful or less worthy because you do not own something that someone else has? By investigating our relationship with our wants it will be easier to discard the excess in our lives.

**2020 Special Book Pricing** Click here to order your copy for $20.00 plus $5.00 for shipping anywhere in Australia http://bit.ly/2020RightsizeYourLife

Shopping

September 2, 2020September 17, 2020Consumerism, decluttering, UncategorizedLeave a Comment

Shopping is our modern sport of choice. Browsing till we find something we must have. Ordering or purchasing in-store has benefits from lifting our mood to the sublime satisfaction of owning that ‘something special’. These objects declare our belonging to an external group or class and fill a void by giving a representation of who we are. The consumption of mass-produced products is a part of who we are culturally in the Western world. Owning things conveys we have the means to buy. Plus shopping feels good because we like it, as it gives us purpose.

Shopping is a favoured pastime and could even be our hobby, giving purpose and destination to our daily lives. We shop for happiness to fill our lives with something we desire and it provides us with a distraction from our emotional wellbeing. We can all relate to feeling sad or lonely and buying ourselves something that will cheer us up. It gives our brain a chemical buzz such as dopamine or endorphins that make us feel good. This contributes to the cycle of spending and produces patterns of buying to fill our lives. ‘Shopping malls are cathedrals of consumption!’ wrote Paolo Magaudda in his article ‘History of Consumer Culture’ (2015). We now have the act of shopping right here in our homes. Online shopping has increased consumer markets and now we can do this 24/7 and have it delivered, all with the click of a button!

**2020 Special Book Pricing** Click here to order your copy for $20.00 plus $5.00 for shipping anywhere in Australia http://bit.ly/2020RightsizeYourLife

To Consume or Not To Consume

June 12, 2019June 12, 2019Consumerism, decluttering, Happiness, Rightsize Your Life! The Balanced Approach to Living Better With Your BelongingsLeave a Comment

Happiness

Economics plays a large role in what we can afford. We all can agree that we have been raised on the assumption that a consumption-driven acquisition is how we attain success, respect and happiness. We are working harder and longer to sustain this material model. The average home has the following: lounges, beds, tables—occasional, side and dining—rugs, TVs—at least two—laptops, desktops, printers, fridges—kitchen and bar—washer, dryer, blender, coffee machine, audiovisual equipment—sound bars, speakers, etc.—books, magazines, knick-knacks, souvenirs, framed photos, artwork, desks, shelves, cabinets, cushions, mirrors and lamps. This is what we can see. So how about what we may not see, such as our linens, medicines, utensils, appliances, toys, camping gear, hobby items—sewing, scrapbooking—bikes, gym equipment, DVDs, CDs, records—maybe you still have these—clothes—summer/winter/special occasion—make-up, hair products, tools, plant pots, gaming consoles, family treasures and your baby’s first shoes … this list could go on and on. Start to open drawers in your house and the list could fill this book!

Subsequently, we all had to work to pay for these fairly standard necessary items BUT statistically we are less happy than previous generations. In our modern age of excess, money cannot buy us love and ‘things’ are not making us happy. Tim Kasser, a psychology professor from Knox college in the US, produced a study indicating that strong materialistic values are in fact undermining our wellbeing, our life satisfaction and causing a reduction in our overall happiness. The physical afflictions associated with these states of being include depression, anxiety, and narcissistic and antisocial behaviours. What is ironic is that these feelings lead us to consuming more things to make us feel better.

According to an article in The Telegraph in 2017, Australia ranked the tenth happiest country in the world. A study conducted by the Warwick University found that happiness in the UK and US peaked in 1957. During this year it was recorded that only one in five households had a washing machine, one in twenty owned a refrigerator and only nine percent of households had a black-and-white television. Essentially, life without our modern conveniences, appliances and services of today was tougher … but happier. We have more money and more possessions than we did 60 years ago but we are no happier.

A report in 2004 by the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World found that once our essential needs are met, having basic material necessities will add value and increase our comfort levels for overall life satisfaction. However, the incremental increase in our happiness declines with the more things we accumulate. The more we have the less happy we are. To afford and maintain all these things in our lives we are working more and thus spending less time with family, friends and social groups. Economics aside, looking at the real cost of ownership bestowed on us once we bring these items into our lives, we are still paying out. Ancient cultures believed that every item has an energy and that this energy fills our homes and our minds with its purpose. If we do not need or no longer want these items then this energy in caring for them may cause an imbalance and take our attention away from what is really important in our lives.The maintenance of all our objects requires us to find, clean and store all these items which all adds to extra demands upon our modern lives.