Minimalism, Kondo effect may lead to end of hoarding
Limiting accumulation hits home with millennials who are selective about purchases
The spread of self-storage units should have been the first sign. People had so much “stuff” that they no longer could fit it in their homes.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that authors like Marie Kondo, the Japanese organization maven, hit a nerve with their suggestions on how to downsize.
A trend toward minimalism and conservation helped propel the downsizing movement.
And shows like Netflix’s “Tidying Up” highlighting Kondo’s techniques showed people how to do it. Shed belongings that no longer spark joy, it advised, even though for many the need to declutter is more practical than philosophical.
“Everybody has too much stuff. It’s an
epidemic,” said Sheilah Sable, owner of the personal concierge service Call Sheilah!. “It’s very hard for people. The majority of my clients are attached to things in a way that makes it really, really hard, no matter what options I offer.”
Other Capital Region moving consultants said they regularly encounter hoarder-like homes so cluttered with objects that the living conditions become unhealthy.
“We’ve opened kitchen drawers full of mice droppings,” said Linda Gross, of Organize Senior Moves, a Delmar-based business that manages moves for senior citizens. “When they’re piling things up like that, it’s dangerous from mold growing in places, and we’ve had people who live in a house, and we wonder how they aren’t extremely ill.”
Francine Frank, 86, is a former linguistics professor at the University at Albany who for more than four decades lived in a three-story brownstone on State Street, across from Washington Park.
She moved from that home to Beverwyck, a senior community in Slingerlands, nearly two years ago to downsize and clear out items she’d gathered over the years.
Frank said she initially felt nostalgic about leaving her longtime home, and found it difficult to part with the large book collection she had amassed during her career in academia.
“When I lived in a very small apartment with no room, I didn’t accumulate anything. Then you have a lot of space, you see something you like, you buy it, or somebody gives you something. It just adds up,” Frank said.
“For me it was mostly books, but a lot of other stuff — junk. Little souvenirs, and T-shirts,” she added, echoing the experience of many people who face a challenge clearing out their longtime homes.
Sara Melita, an arts educator, sought Sable’s help two years ago to clear out the excessively cluttered basement of her Bethlehem home.
She said after several two- to three-hour sessions of cleaning, the basement was cleared, and Sable helped Melita emotionally detach from decades-old Halloween costumes and a childhood teddy bear.
“Even when I didn’t go down into the basement but I knew that was kind of down there, that mess, it occupied space in my mind,” Melita said. “I definitely felt like my life just moved smoother, my household life, and going up and down into the basement for things — it was just not a frustration looking for some thing. It just really made things so much more efficient.”
“The therapeutic side of what (Sable) did was unexpected,” Melita said.
But some experts say the accumulation of
“junk” could change as younger, millennial consumers strapped with student loan debt and a higher cost of real estate become more selective about what they purchase.
Suraj Commuri is a senior associate dean at the University at Albany School of Business, and an expert in consumer behavior. He said the trend to minimalism by younger consumers “started a few years ago” and can be partially attributed to the psychology of control.
“There’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty
... in the economy, a lot of uncertainty in the world,” Commuri said. “So much of the world is out of (consumers’) control, so they want to say ‘I have control over my space, my life, my future, my time.’ If you feel that you’ve made a major decision to clear everything up, it gives you a sense that ‘I’ve got things on track.’”
He also said that donating or throwing away unused items can offer the simple benefit of freeing up more space in one’s home or apartment.
But one major problem arises as people clear their homes: Where does all the stuff go?
Thrift stores in the United Kingdom, for example, have had to tell donors they can no longer accept copies of the “The Da Vinci Code” after it has for years been the most donated book in the country.
“Accumulating stuff that is made cheaply is ridiculous in today’s economy and environment around climate change. There’s not enough room for it,” Sable said.
That could lead to changes in the way chains like Walmart and IKEA operate — the latter of which even plans to rent out furniture to prevent it from being thrown out, according to the Financial Times.
That highlights another trend among young consumers geared toward a reduction of waste — renting.
Ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft have skyrocketed in popularity, and even things like clothing rentals have become popularized in recent years.
“The stress associated with ownership is becoming a salient issue. If you’re used to Uber or Lyft all the time, the minute you think about a car, you look at just the insurance without anything, and say wait a minute, $300 a month?” Commuri said. “The whole idea of what you pay for is changing. (The idea of ) ‘I pay and hold onto something even when I don’t use it,’ it’s absolutely going away.”
Commuri also said younger consumers may seek to not necessarily avoid spending, but spend more on fewer items, or even on experiences.
“Instead of spending on four things, let me spend on one,” he said. “Instead of buying an 1,100- squarefoot apartment in an OK building, let me get an 800-square-foot in a nicer building with a view. You’re allocating money differently. The quantity has come down.”
And while many people are finding that their children just don’t want that set of family china anymore, the idea of ridding yourself of clutter makes sense for anyone, at any age, Michelle Kavanuagh, the owner of Organize Senior Moves, said.
“I don’t care what age you are, when your home is set up in an organized fashion or everything has a place and you can find something, you’re going to feel you’re in a better state of mind. Our homes are a safe haven,” Kavanaugh said.
And whether younger consumers develop increasingly minimalist shopping tendencies, Kavanaugh said happiness will always be derived from people — not things.
“What is true happiness? It’s sitting down and having a cup of coffee (together), the companionship that’s more important than having stuff in our lives,” she said. “We make each other happy, that’s what happiness is. People need to see and really focus on that, not their stuff.”