Why the big movement towards simplifying one's possessions?

Well, on a personal note it is because we are selling our house, downsizing and moving on and my wife worries that we will not be able to fit all our stuff in a smaller dwelling.

But, looking at the larger picture, maybe it is a reaction to (or of) the I/Me/Mine attitude of the previous generation. People are coming to the realization that we own nothing; it is our possessions that own us.

Good point!
Good luck with the move! :)

You can thank Jesus for starting this:

Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” – Mark 10:21

The other factor is baby boomers aging into retirement and downsizing there lives.

I resemble that remark! ^^^

Because many people are still reeling from the aftereffects of this crappy economy that has kept people out of work, restricted pay raises and add in the increase in the cost of living specifically health care costs. So when you have less disposable income you inevitably have less stuff.

The original Buddhist monks (500 years before Jesus) were allowed only 13 possessions:
3 robes
a bowl
a staff
a water pot
a sieve
a blanket/towel
a belt
a needle and thread
a toothpick
and a razor

But even they were successors to an already established tradition of stripping material encumbrances down to a bare minimum. This was seen as an antidote to the human tendency to seek fulfillment through acquisition.

Getting new stuff feels good, which creates the illusion that happiness is related to stuff. The problem, of course, is that the good feeling goes away and has to be constantly regenerated by new acquisitions.

The renunciant traditions (of which the modern simplicity movement is an ideological heir) saw giving up material possessions as a radical intervention to disrupt this illusion. By stripping down to the bare necessities, it became clearer that fulfillment is unconnected to the stuff in our lives. seeing this allows people not to waste their energies in pursuits that can’t bring fulfillment.

For a lot of us it is simply…(sorry, can’t resist)...simpler. Nothing to do with Jesus, or being Zen, or even moving.
After decades of acquiring stuff, I realized there is an impressive amount of redundancy of stuff.
I could clear out half of my kitchen gadgets and not still cook the most elaborate of meals.
I really don’t need all of those clothes that I haven’t worn in ages.
I have somewhere around 2,000 titles in paper books, and probably half of those are duplicated on my ereader.
I can give all these (and more) away and clear out at the same time.

and still cook… the “not” isn’t supposed to be there.

I wish I saw that movement where I live. My family of 5 do just fine in a 1100 sq ft house with one bathroom. Sure, it would be nice to have a second bathroom, but it’s really fine.

There are people I meet in my ridiculous town who live in 3500 sq ft houses with 3+ bathrooms and they talk with seriousness about having to expand or move because their 4-person family has run out of space. These people know the shack I live in and I really don’t know how to respond, other than to be with my nausea until it passes.

@thorninmud brings up a good point about how getting new stuff feels good. But I think most of us have also had the opportunity to purge our belongings and experience how good that can feel as well. It’s as though each discarded/donated item relieves a great weight, and we’re left with a lightness and freedom. But like many things, it’s a challenge to remember this.

I think I may have mentioned my crazy response to Christmas when I was a kid. For many years, I would get a ton of presents and it would be exciting. But invariably, I would gather all of my treasures Christmas night before bed and feel a deep sadness. I would cry, yet I didn’t know why. It wasn’t until years later that I connected to that feeling in a way that made sense to me. I felt tremendous emptiness among these possessions, and felt that I had lost something.

Because stuff is just stuff and too much stuff is an anchor.
Lightening the load makes for easier keeping of ones home, less time spent on dusting useless baubles, less maintenance, less laundry, less clutter. Less is more.
I enjoy a nicely decorated home and am not a minimalist but, I also hate clutter and crap everywhere.

Open space makes you feel good, and an uncluttered and aesthetically appealing home is good for ones mental state. As within so without. Those that live in cluttered chaos are usually living in a mental state of cluttered chaos as well.

Since life boils down to being mostly about maintenance, it’s simple to appreciate that the constant accumulation of stuff is a trap. I’ve noticed in the past 20 years here in San Francisco that there has been a huge increase in unbelievably ugly horrid shoebox condominiums along with the conversion of every former industrial facility to rental storage units. It’s depressing.

The ancient Romans called it being Spartan. We call it being a minimalist.

Before I was married I had just enough and it would full easily into a tiny studio apartment. Now I feel like I am drowning in “stuff”

@ARE_you_kidding_me I was the same way. Everything I owned after college would fit in the back seat of my ‘68 Camaro. Now drowning is an understatement.

Because materialism sucks. And it doesn’t make anyone happy. Maybe the show “hoarders” reached some people.

I read somewhere “We spend the first half of our lives acquiring stuff and the second half of our lives getting rid of it,:

The problem is women are the fuel for consumer society and men are the engines

Have you seen the show Hoarders? ‘nuff said.

I am having a hard time eliminating any of my books from my library. @Kardamom my wife would/does put me in this category because of my attachement to my printed material.

Taking it to hoarding status?
Too far.
Come back a few notches….

Have you seen the show Whoreders? Never ‘nuff.

I don’t eeeeven wanna know how they pay for it all…