Please help me with my struggle between materialism and minimalism.

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 08:58:50 -0800

This is not about me mistakingly thinking material possessions = happiness. (I don't.) And it's not about me running up credit card debt because of impulse shopping. (I haven't.) This is about my competing urges: materialism and minimalism. Mostly I try to pair down my belongings and live on less. But I never feel like I've paired down enough. I feel greedy for even having the stuff I have. But there's another part of me that does want that 46" Sony flat screen tv. That Pottery Barn sofa. That trendy $30 t-shirt that should really cost $3. These competing urges have rendered me unable to enjoy any purchase I make or don't make.

An example:

Recently, my computer broke and I had to buy a new one. I ended up getting a 20" Apple Imac. There's a part of me that feels guilty: Did I really need the 20"? No. Couldn't I have been happy with the 17"? I suppose. After traveling overseas and seeing people living in abject poverty, I feel guilty. I feel horrible, actually-- for the poor, for the starving, even for the workers in the Chinese factories earning pennies an hour to make me a stupid Imac. But how much can I do to help them? Don't I need some things to enjoy life a little?

But there's another part that secretly craves the bigger 24" Imac. So much screen real estate! So big and shiny! I know it wouldn't make me happier, wouldn't really change my life all that much but I still want it. I crave it! I secretly wish I'd bought it.

Is this normal?
How does one find a middle ground?
How do I find serenity from these two urges?

How do I become less materialistic? Should I become a luddite?

4ster — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 20:13:25 -0800

The things I own end up owning me. Should I become a luddite? I am thirty-five and have a wonderful life. I have been married for eight years to a wonderful woman who I have known as a friend for 17 years. I have a beautiful, charming, and brilliant daughter. I am successful, appreciated, and in demand in my field. I am well-compensated for the work that I do. I am in great health.

I really have everything. Yet I feel like I am sleepwalking through life. Despite all that I have and all of the opportunities before me, I feel like I am pissing away too much of my life.

I spend way, way, too much time reading Treo-related and other tech-related forums, browsing geekware online, in tech-related irc channels. I spend too much time and too much money on stuff I don't need. I check e-mail too much. I think about work when I am with my family.

I am really considering giving away everything I don't truly need (clothing, computer crap, books I'll never read, etc.) . I want to sell the Treo and go to pen, paper, and a cheap phone so I am not tempted to obsess over it all the time (and so I have an excuse to use Thunderbird). I am one of those people you read about in the forums who owns an embarassing amount of accessories for their PDA, and I hate it.

Years ago, I decided that I never want to own a car that I care so much about that I can't clean the snow off of it with a broom. I want to apply this mantra to my whole life. My fear is that I will divest of all of this stuff, freak out, start buying more junk, and be right back where I started.

Has anyone else struggled with the kind of screwed up priorities that come from being too obsessed with "stuff" and worked through it? How did you do it? What would you do differently?

I am a committed Christian, so I have a good framework for this (do not store up treasures for yourselves where moth and rust consume and thieves break in and steal...") but man, I am really struggling with implementing it in my life.

Anyone who has made it this far, thank you so much for reading it. This has been pretty hard to admit to myself. Anyone who wants to be my personal Tyler Durden, I thank you as well.

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Please help me with my struggle between materialism and minimalism.

How do I become less materialistic? Should I become a luddite?