Most of us, let's be honest, are drowning in stuff. While minimalist Joshua Becker's post was written several years ago, I suspect that the statistics he cites, described below, have only gotten worse.
TOO MUCH STUFF
1. The average household owns 300,000 items. Wow.
2. 32% of households only have room to park one car in a two-car garage (one in four can't park any car in their garage).
3. One out of ten of us rents offsite storage to deal with our excess stuff. As of March of 2020, there was 5.4 square feet of offsite storage space for every man, woman and child living in the U.S.
4. Even with all the stuff we have, we don't have enough money.
I created this blog to encourage us all to be more conscious consumers of clothing - to consider buying quality clothing second-hand and to be more thoughtful about how much of it we really need. The goal is to keep our clothing from becoming just more stuff that's out of control. Naturally, these concepts go beyond clothing. At this time of year, we can help ourselves and our loved ones by asking some hard questions:
Do our loved ones really need one more thing from us to add to their clutter? Do we really need to be part of the "demand" that is happy to deliver an endless "supply" - stuff that will ultimately end up in a landfill anyway? Can we be a little more thoughtful about what we give each other, or what we allow into our own household?
These are questions I ask myself each year, and I struggle to answer them well. I really like watching someone I love open my gift to them (and opening my own gifts, I won't lie!), and I'm not willing to give that up.
THREE IDEAS FOR GIFT-GIVING WHEN THERE'S TOO MUCH STUFF
1. Ask grandparents, aunts and uncles to donate to a college savings account for minor children instead of giving toys. A 529 college savings plan is incredibly flexible, easy to open and, after an initial decision about whether to have an age-based portfolio or an allocation-based one, you can basically set it and forget it. Here is information about 529 plans from Investopedia.
2. Institute a Kris Kringle approach and keep the budget small. The idea is that each adult in a family group chooses a name from an envelope (it helps to have a friend pull the names), and then only buys gifts for that one person. Perhaps wish lists are exchanged, but the idea is that you only have one person to buy for instead of having to buy gifts for every adult in the family group.
3. Institute "experience only" or "token only" gifts for adults in your family group. You might be getting gifts for multiple people, but you're focused on providing people with an experience. I had a friend give me a beautiful jar of sugar rub for the bath that she had mixed and labeled herself. My sister once gave us all Christmas socks for a laugh, but I drag them out every Christmas season to wear on chilly evenings.
Since I'm writing this during a pandemic that recommends we keep our distance from people not in our household, maybe the best gift we can give each other this year is to plan a big family get-together next year.
I hope you stay safe and well during this holiday season.
In my family we do option #2 with the adults (4 siblings & spouses + mom & dad) with wishlists and a $50 limit. We only give individual presents to the little boys, but those wishlists include practical items like fun matching PJs for the brothers, or "infinite" fun toys like magnatiles or Legos.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a fan of gifting experiences, like a family membership to the local zoo or children's museum. Even gift cards for "date nights" that include movie passes and restaurants are appreciated.
Consumable gift baskets are also great alternatives to "stuff" - like cheeses, wines, fruit, chocolate, etc. People don't buy those for themselves, so they are a real treat.
You're so right about not needing more "stuff"! Practical, experiential, or edible is the way to go for us. Merry Christmas!