When You Have Quality You Don’t Need Quantity

Issue No. 22 : A few simple advice on decluttering and a new idea for a masterclass about simplicity and sustainability

Photos from my recent road trip to San Clemente, California; now memorized in body, mind, writing, and on photo. Photo: Per Håkansson.

Recently I’ve been asked if I could put together a masterclass in decluttering life and work. So I thought I could test the waters by sharing a recent conversation I had with a friend and check the potential interest. This masterclass would be everything I’ve learned over the past 20 years distilled and actionable.

My friend lives alone in a big 2,700-foot house on a large lot. The house got four bedrooms and four bathrooms with a few garages and an outdoor swimming pool. I’m sure you can imagine the amount of work that goes into maintaining this house, even with the support of gardeners, cleaners, and other professionals. Not to mention the financial cost and mental worry of all this maintenance.

She expressed the desire to live a simpler life but didn’t know where to start; everything was so overwhelming that instead she was thinking about getting an second car. I know, that might sound surprising but it’s not unusual that the aspiration to declutter ends up in acquiring more stuff you don’t really need.

My first advice to this empty nester was to stop consuming. Period. You have everything you need by now and now you need to focus on getting rid of stuff that doesn’t matter to you, from stuff you never use to stuff you don’t like, I said. You need to make a plan and realize that is going to take some effort, I continued.