Skip to main content

We Own Too Much Stuff

I borrowed this book, Life At Home in the Twenty-First Century a few weeks ago after reading about it in an article. It's an ethnography carried out by the Center of Everyday Lives of Families by UCLA. They observed 32 families in California and their findings were very interesting to me. I tried to talk to my husband about it and he questioned if this was a book that was aimed for people to get rid of their stuff. I explained to him that it's a collect of findings of families of today, and if historians were to look back at us now, this is the kind of reports they would make for the way we are living.
Here are a few of the things I didn't know about prior and thought they were very intriguing:

  • The majority of houses are child centered, with art and toys filling all spaces of the home
  • Having a child in the home increased home possessions by 30%
  • Parents expressed stress with the mess in their homes as well as not having time to clean
  • Homeowners were unable to use their garages because so many objects are in them
  • The amount of objects a person has on their fridge equates to the about of objects in the home-The more objects on the fridge, the more possessions in the home
  • Families are spending money to have nice yards, but are not spending time in those yards
    • Most spent about 15 minutes outside in total a day
    • Several stated that they did not have time to go outside
Overall, this was a good fast read. It was eye opening and inspired me to clean my fridge off, and to go outside more! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Decluttering-Getting Rid of Facebook

I have a month left of maternity leave. To say that I'm overwhelmed is an understatement. I've spent the last year decluttering my house. I recently realized that I need to declutter my social media as well. I don't have a Twitter or Instagram. I only recently got a Snap Chat. I joined a decluttering group about a month ago. At first it was very helpful. I was glad to find other people who were on the same journey as I. I noticed a few shared blogs of their journeys. I thought that was a fantastic idea and shared three posts of my own. It was then announced that posting your own blog wouldn't be allowed. I panicked. I felt like I was in trouble, that I did something wrong. I am in a state right now where I am struggling postpartum so what some may have seen as not a big deal, was a big deal to me. I apologized for sharing my blog, trying to explain that my own posts would be too long so that's why I shared it. But I continued to panic, and with fight or flight, I...
1 comment
Read more

Makeup Declutter-Why It's Important to Take Pictures!

I'm sure everyone else who is decluttering has already been doing this, but I wish I would have taken before and after pictures of my progress! Sometimes I feel like decluttering is like losing weight; sometimes you can't see your progress and it can become discouraging. I've been decluttering and minimizing for a year now, and some days I feel like my house looks the same. But I know that I have come a long way! I wish I would've taken a photo of our crazy then office with all of the papers that were hoarded in that room. It's now my baby's room and is quite clear. I would love to compare the two though! I was feeling like I could minimize my makeup some more, because it still feels like too much. So I tried to remind myself that I've come a long way. I still had my containers that used to hold my makeup, so I put the two I emptied out next to my makeup bag. I could see that I did clear out a lot of makeup! It's reassuring to see, but I plan on ...
Post a Comment
Read more

We're debt free! We Paid Off $39,000 of Debt in A Year and a Half!

$39,359.38 to be exact!      In 2016, I took a year of maternity leave which forced our household to rely on one income. This was a big life alerting moment as we were barely making it. After looking at minimalism stuff for inspiration  to declutter, eventually I was lead to Dave Ramsey, which let us to enroll in Financial Peace University. We are now debt free and also have completed baby step three, which is having an emergency fund. Here is what we owed: Couch- $710.05 My daughter's saxophone: $1324.30 Credit card #1: $2166.17 Credit card #2: $4,009.05 Credit card #3: $9,833.40 Car: $18,072.65 Braces for Our Teen: $3,243.76  Since November 2018, we have been debt free!  We do have a house payment, but we can finally breathe a little! If we can do it, so can you! Communication is important! Here's some tips from a former blog I wrote that on how we were able to get out of debt . And to update, we did finally cut our cable! Thanks for...
Post a Comment
Read more