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Whether you’d like to admit or not, we’re all consumers. We purchase food and water to sustain us, shelter to protect us, and transportation to get us around.
When we pay for goods and services that are both needed and improve our lives, this is an example of consumerism at its best.
However, when people purchase goods or services that don’t improve their lives, they are practicing excessive consumerism.
Excessive consumerism contributes to, “the destruction of traditional values and ways of life, exploitation of consumers by big business, environmental degradation, and negative psychological effects.”
If you’re interested in escaping excessive consumerism, consider these 9 benefits of eliminating excessive consumerism from your life.
What is Excessive Consumerism?
Excessive consumerism is purchasing material goods and services that go above and beyond what is beneficial.
For instance, let’s say you own a two-year old phone. It runs great and you haven’t experienced any issues with it. However, the latest and greatest iPhone just came out and your best friend just “upgraded” to the latest model. What do you do? Well, you “upgrade” as well.
In this example, you didn’t need a new phone and probably wouldn’t have known any difference if your friend hadn’t gotten one. Buying in excess of what you need just to fit in or impress someone is an example of excessive consumerism.
9 Benefits of Eliminating Excessive Consumerism
Less Debt
One of the most obvious benefits of eliminating excessive consumerism is that you’ll have less debt.
By practicing mindful spending and only purchasing those things that improve your life, you should spend less overall.
This leaves more money for paying down debt and saving.
Less Time Spent Maintaining Things
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
– Robert Brault
The more stuff you have, the more stuff you have to store and maintain.
Storing all of these items leads to clutter and anxiety.
Maintaining these items, especially those things that don’t add value to your life, takes precious time away that could have been better spent doing the things you love.
Less Desire to Inflate Your Lifestyle to Match Other’s
“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like”
– Will Rogers
In our current day with advertising invading every aspect of our lives, it’s more important than ever to avoid inflating your lifestyle to fit in or impress.
Eliminating excessive consumerism will require that you be better in tune with your values and needs as you’ll be purchasing through this lens.
By understanding and only purchasing goods and services that truly improve our lives, you’ll be less inclined to inflate your lifestyle.
Less Environmental Impact
“The most environmentally friendly product is the one you didn’t buy.”
– Joshua Becker
If you buy only what you need, you are both eliminating demand associated with products that don’t improve your life as well as the waste associated with disposing of packaging, materials, and, eventually, the product when it reaches the end of its useful life.
Less Need to Keep up with Consumer Trends
“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but religiously follows the new.”
– Henry David Thoreau
When you eliminate excessive consumerism, you begin to see consumer trends for what they are.
Typically, these trends are marketing aimed at getting you to spend more for various social reasons like status, identity, expression, etc.
The best way to avoid getting sick on the roller coaster ride of consumer trends is to get off of the roller coaster.
More Generosity
When you eliminate excessive consumerism, you’ll have more time, money, and energy.
This gives you more opportunity to know the joy of giving. Whether its donating money or your time, there is nothing more fulfilling than helping others.
More Contentment
“He who is contented is rich.”
– Lau Tzu
By giving up the constant desire for more and appreciating what you do have, you’ll start to realize that you need very little to be happy.
You’ll find that stuff isn’t what makes your life better, it’s the people, places, and experiences that give it meaning and are the source of your happiness.
Greater Ability to See Through Empty Claims
One of the downsides of recognizing and eliminating excessive consumerism is that advertisements will drive you crazy (even more than before).
You’ll see through the informational and emotional tactics they use to try and get you to purchase their products.
Greater Realization That This World is Not Just Material
When you give up excessive consumerism, it encourages you to discover what’s truly important to you.
You realize that the things you buy are just tools, a means to an end.
What’s truly important are those free things in life like love, family, faith, friends, companionship, hope, etc.
Conclusion
Excessive consumerism is a detriment to contentment. As long as you are constantly seeking things you don’t have, you’ll never be happy with what you do.
By eliminating excessive consumerism, it provides the freedom to make choices without the specter of consumerism hanging over you and opens the door to more money, time, and energy to pursue the things that are truly important to you.
Have you eliminated excessive consumerism? Why or why not?