When the Gospel of Minimalism Collides With Daily Life

Minimalism as a lifestyle creed is pretty simple: The less you own, the happier you’ll be. Pare down and declutter, the thinking goes, and your mind will have room to exhale. Minimalists say that it’s about spending more energy on living, less energy on having. With more than six million Instagram posts tagged #minimalism, and four million more tagged #minimalist, it’s a trend that won’t die.

And understandably so. The impulse to step off the consumer treadmill can be quite tempting.

In theory, minimalists have more time and money to amass something that researchers have found to provide far more satisfaction than material items: memories. Experiential purchases, psychologists assure us, offer deeper emotional sustenance than any new gadget or piece of furniture. Studies suggest that even the perfect Danish modern chair fades into the background after daily exposure. Yet our brains never quite get over the thrill of, say, hiking Bryce Canyon, which yields more psychological bang for the buck.

But those who have tried the minimalist way have found that it’s not always as satisfying as design websites and tiny-house blogs insist. For some people, purging did not bring Shangri-La. Like most things, living minimally is more complicated than it may seem. In fact, some people found that their compact homes and minimalist manifestoes came with different challenges, and that the trade-offs were not always worth it. Sometimes, they realized, a little more stuff actually brought them immense comfort.