This blog is all about simple living, unplugging, and exploring activities and places outside our routines. I made simplicity the central theme because simplifying our possessions, obligations, spending, and desires creates space for more of the things we truly value.
I first discovered simplicity in the form of minimalism—and rejected it. That bare, necessities-only, almost cold and impersonal aesthetic associated with minimalism didn’t appeal to me at all. But I came to many of the same habits through frugality, and my view of minimalism has changed somewhat. Buying fewer things became, in a way, a form of minimalism that I prefer to call simple living.
What is Simple Living?
Simple living is intentional living. Naturally, that means that one person’s definition of “simple living” differs from another’s. Common practices in simple living include owning fewer possessions, relying less on “smart” technologies, reducing one’s spending, and mindfulness. Those who ascribe to this philosophy tend to prioritize spending time with friends and family, finding joy in everyday moments, hobbies, and even environmental sustainability.
Simple living has existed for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. In the modern day, this philosophy is finding a new angle as a reaction to our overly consumerist culture. In a society that prizes material wealth, to live simply is to live differently.
Why Might You Try Simplifying?
1. You feel overwhelmed and trapped by your possessions.
Do you ever feel like your stuff owns you? The more possessions we have, the more work we have to take care of them. Cars need to be serviced. Clothes need to be washed and mended. Tablets and phones and computers need to be updated. And many of our possessions, once worn out or outdated, need to be replaced after a few years.
Our Stuff Takes Up Space
Our homes are full of stuff, and even that space doesn’t appear to be enough! In 2024, more than 11% of American households were renting self-storage spaces, which average about $114/month to rent just to keep our excess stuff.1 36% of respondents to a 2022 survey said they don’t have room in their garages to park their cars because of clutter.2 Take our clothes alone as an example: The average American buy 53 pieces of clothing every year.3 And yet, 65% of clothing items are thrown out within a year of purchase, and the average person wears only 50% of their wardrobe.4 What a lot of wasted effort in picking those clothes! All that closet space going to stuff we never use!
Your excess stuff might require you to pay for an offsite storage unit. It might fill up your garage, leaving your car sitting in the driveway. Your house might be disorganized because of the excess, making you feel tired the moment you get home and realize you need to deal with it. Even looking for that one kitchen gadget in cupboards full of gadgets you never use can add stress to your already-stressful day.
Our Stuff Drains Our Energy
Yes, some of our stuff is necessary. Some is unnecessary but improves our lives anyway. But I would bet that you—like me, like most Americans—own way more stuff than you need to live a happy, fulfilled life. And sometimes, our stuff just gets in the way.
Think about the amount of energy it takes to own your stuff. Then consider these two questions: If your house burned down, what items would you immediately re-purchase? If you had to move across the country, what would you need to take with you?
I would guess the answer to both of those is a surprisingly short list of things. You might want to keep old photo albums and mementos (if not already digitized). You’d want your phone and laptop, perhaps some favorite books. You’d take enough clothing to get you through a couple of weeks without doing the laundry. And, of course, you’d want basic necessities like cookware, dishes, toiletries, medications, and cleaning supplies.
Our Stuff Limits Our Choices
But the rest of your stuff—is it necessary to your happiness? And if not, it may just be weighing you down. If you got a job offer, a really great job offer, in another state or another country, would you turn it down just because the prospect of uprooting your life and all your possessions is too daunting? Simple living is the antidote to that feeling of being owned by your stuff.
2. You feel like you have no time.
In the section above, I asked you to think about how much energy you spend taking care of your possessions. Now think about how much time you spend on them. From researching an item, to comparing prices, to going to the store to buy it (or ordering online and then dealing with all the promotional emails that fill up your inbox), to finding a place for it in your home. You’ll need to repair it when it breaks and then finally throw it out when you want to replace it. Then think about the amount of stuff you’ve bought or received that you barely ever use, and ask yourself: Was the time expended on each of those items worth it?
We already have limited non-working hours every week. There are some things we can’t avoid spending time on. We need to sleep, cook, eat, go to medical appointments, and take care of elderly relatives or children. Being intentional about those remaining free hours is what simple living is all about.
Our Possessions Demand Our Attention
Our stuff demands our time and attention. The worst offender in this category is the smartphone. A 2025 survey showed that 91% of U.S. adult own a smartphone.5 Americans spend an average of 4.5 hours each day on their cell phones.6 And nearly 57% of Americans self-diagnose themselves as mobile phone addicts.7 In North America, people spend an average of 2 hours and 13 minutes a day on social media.8 That’s equivalent to 34 full days every year.
Purposefully simplifying our material possessions and time spent online frees up time to devote to our true passions—hobbies, time with friends, giving back to our communities. And slowing down our days by taking a break from our phones, simplifying our list of obligations, and living in the present can make the free time we do have feel longer.
3. You struggle financially because of your spending habits.
There are many reasons you might struggle financially. If you feel that your optional spending is out of control, try simplifying your lifestyle. The average U.S. household holds $105,056 of debt.9 About 70% of that is mortgages, which is understandable, but credit card debt is about $6,523, which is more concerning, as credit cards have particularly high interest rates and you’re not building equity by paying them off. In a 2024 survey, respondents said that the biggest reasons for their credit card debt were emergencies, including car repairs and medical bills (45%); day-to-day expenses (28%), retail purchases (11%) and vacations (9%).10 They also said that 34% of people with credit card debt have delayed creating an emergency fund, 23% have delayed investing, and 17% have delayed spending on healthcare. Other life decisions were also put on hold due to debt.11
The average American spends $11-13k on “optional” expenses every year.12 13 Getting our spending under control and establishing an emergency fund are necessary to a life with more stability and less stress over finances. For some, this is a short-term project of paying off debt and building up some savings before allowing themselves to resume some expenses they’d put on pause. For others, it means a permanent lifestyle change because they’re pursuing wealth and not just debt payoff.
Buy Less, Save Money
Simple living includes rejecting consumerism, which means buying fewer things. Simplifying your spending could mean frequenting your local library instead of paying for: books, ebooks, audiobooks, magazine subscriptions, CDs, movie tickets, and streaming services. It could lead you to challenge yourself to use up the items you have before buying anything new. Use up your skincare/make-up before you buy anything new. (Check expiration dates, though!) Read all the books you own before you buy any new books. Play through all your video games before ordering the next one. Clothes are a perfect example; often we tire of our clothes long before they’re actually so worn that they’re unwearable. If you can make the things you already own last, you’ll save money by not replacing them as often.
Be Social Without Spending
Simple living also asks you to find joy in the small moments. So if you’re struggling financially, remember that you don’t need fancy restaurants or events to spend time with your friends. A home-cooked meal, takeout, or a more affordable casual restaurant may be a better choice. You could meet your friends for coffee instead of brunch. In fact, you don’t need to spend any money to spend time with your loved ones. Try free events in your community, going for a walk or hike, visiting the beach, or even volunteering together. Simple living reminds us that it’s the companionship that we value. Friendship is not bout having an epic experience we can post on social media.
Avoid Advertisements
Speaking of social media, let’s not forget that these free apps make their profit from ads. Every time you log on, advertisements will push products at you. Social media influencers, too, sometimes make money off affiliate sales. Even when they aren’t pushing products for their own gain, watching influencers go about their days with their luxury brand clothes, fancy cars, fancy vacations, cool gadgets, and perfectly-made-up faces subtly creates in us a feeling of inadequacy that we try to fill by reaching for the same luxuries.
I tend not to watch these kinds of influencers, but even watching BookTube videos, I’ve almost purchased book-related items. For a brief moment, I was tempted by a book sleeve to protect my book in my backpack. I like reading physical books, and I’ve never had a problem with lugging them around. But I’ve seen so many BookTubers reading on Kindle that I’ve found myself considering whether I need one. And once, I even saw one of my favorite BookTubers wearing an amazing shirt and I thought, I need one of those. But of course I don’t need it!
Reducing our time on social media allows us to disconnect from the consumerism that’s being pushed at us, intentionally and unintentionally. Reducing our consumption and living more joyfully with the things we own and acquire requires us to simplify our desires. Marketing companies exist to create wants that don’t come to us naturally.
Don’t Buy the Hype
Just think about viral products like Stanley cups, Labubus, and those Starbucks bear cups—the reason people wanted them was the hype. Who, on their own, decided they absolutely needed that one style of water bottle? Who really couldn’t live without that one type of bag charm? Marketing and viral videos made people want those things. When everyone around you has that “It” item, dare to be different! Recognize the gap between the limited things that will improve your life and the mass of things you can do without.
4. You worry about your environmental impact.
As the world confronts the impacts of climate change, it is on all of us (in developed countries) to reduce our environmental footprint. Simple living often aligns with a more sustainable lifestyle. I say “often” and not “always” because simplifying some things in your life may not lead to more ecologically-friendly choices overall.
For example, someone who declutters their whole house, fits all their stuff into two suitcases, and decides to live their dream of jet-setting around the world is living their version of a fulfilling life. But they’re probably creating more pollution with all those flights than they did with a cluttered house.
That said, a common concern expressed by people who pursue simple living is their environmental impact, and simplifying your life can lead to better choices for the planet.
Minimizing your possessions is not more sustainable, but buying less is. Every item you buy requires resources to make and resources to bring that item to you. You can help the planet by reducing your consumption, making your things last, and fixing what’s broken instead of replacing it.
5. You are distracted from your goals.
Occasionally, I write down a list of the things I want to achieve in the next few years. And yet, despite knowing what I want to spend my time working toward, I find myself doing anything but that. Instead, I spend far too much time watching TV or YouTube, browsing my favorite brands’ websites for clothes I might want to buy, or reading travel blogs about places I could visit but probably won’t anytime soon.
Fewer Distractions, More Focus
Above, we’ve looked at the ways that simplifying your life can help you avoid wasting so much energy, time, and money on things that bring you no meaningful gains. These things also distract us from our goals and dreams.
Perhaps a lifelong dream is to travel in South America for four weeks, but you can’t afford the trip. Simplifying your shopping so that you’re buying less and spending less might make that dream possible. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to speak French, but you’ve never had the time. Simplifying your possessions, obligations, and reliance on technology might open up an hour every day to devote to this goal. Even twenty minutes of scrolling replaced by a short French lesson can go a long way, when repeated over time.
Simple living is about prioritizing the things that matter to you personally and cutting back on the rest to make space for those important things. Focus is something that we’re missing in our modern fast-paced, distraction-filled lives. A simpler life gives us more time and mental energy to focus on our priorities.
Conclusion
Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed, trapped in a constant cycle of buying, too busy to live the life you want, worried about your lifestyle’s impact on the planet, or unable to pursue your goals, simplifying can help. Getting rid of excess—whether material possessions, activities on your calendar, or distractions—is key to living a more focused, intentional life.
Simple living requires introspection, willpower, and a little bit of courage. When everyone around you is conforming to our consumerism-oriented culture, it’s not easy to swim against the current. But it can be mightily rewarding.
If you’re feeling inspired to simplify your life, you might like these posts:
Sources
- https://www.neighbor.com/storage-blog/self-storage-industry-statistics/ ↩︎
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/take-back-your-garage-american-garages-store-more-clutter-than-cars-according-to-craftsman-survey-301664129.html ↩︎
- https://fashionunited.com/statistics/global-fashion-industry-statistics ↩︎
- https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230227-how-to-recycle-your-clothes (and see footnote 3) ↩︎
- https://www.consumeraffairs.com/cell_phones/cell-phone-statistics.html ↩︎
- See footnote 5. ↩︎
- See footnote 5. ↩︎
- https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/average-daily-time-on-social-media ↩︎
- https://www.fool.com/money/credit-cards/articles/the-average-american-has-this-much-debt-how-does-yours-compare-2/ ↩︎
- https://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards/news/credit-card-debt-report/#credit-card-debt-pauses-major-life-decisions ↩︎
- See footnote 10. ↩︎
- https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cesan.pdf (counting food away from home, alcohol, apparel and services, entertainment, personal care products and services, reading, tobacco products and smoking supplies) ↩︎
- https://www.scaledfinance.com/insights/how-americans-spend (counting entertainment, clothing and “other”) ↩︎
