I just had dinner with a friend who is moving back to North Carolina after living in Hoptown for three years. She is overwhelmed at the thought of having to downsize enough and fast enough to impact the weight of what the movers will have to transport, which ultimately translates into money. She is a collector: clothes, shoes, purses, books of all genres, DVDs and CDs, antiques, furniture. You name it, she has it, and probably several. She’s had two yard sales and has had countless appointments with individuals to give private viewings. She is exhausted. Time is running short; the movers are coming next week.

I credit relocating more than a dozen times to various parts of the U.S., living on a boat, and going through a hurricane with blessing me with a common sense attitude towards material possessions. I just don’t own a lot of stuff. Yet I have everything I need.

Stuff ties one down. Stuff insidiously multiplies and fills drawers, closets, and shelves, and when those are overflowing, basements, garages and attics are next. Owners of storage facilities are getting rich off of people who just can’t seem to let go of their stuff.

To be truthful, while living on a boat, our out-of-season clothing was housed in a storage facility. However, not once was something longed for so much that it necessitated a trip to the storage unit to be retrieved. And only once in the eight years since it happened have I found myself wishing for something that was blown away by Hurricane Katrina…an inexpensive kitchen gadget that would have been handy in a particular instance which I have since forgotten.

Not being tied down by a lot of material possessions is wonderfully liberating. While advertising and marketing companies would rather we be always wanting for the latest (fill-in-the-blank), it might be to our advantage to not take the bait quite so fast. After all, when it comes to stuff, having less can mean having more.