The Things We Own End Up Owning Us
The photo above is from a 2012 UCLA study of domestic habits of roughly 30 different families from 2001 through 2005.
In the photo, there is a layout of one of the homes that was used during the case study. The red dots in the photo represent where a family member was located most often inside the home.
The study made sure to have good variety of incomes and professions but all of the families studies had 2 working parents and 1+ children. The families movements were monitored for four years by a team of ethnographers. Sounds pretty crazy right? Having a team of people tracking your every moves over the course of 4 years?
What is even crazier is the results that came from this study:
The families studies lived with a lot of “domestic clutter”. Aka stuff that they bought to fill the rooms. Like extra chairs to fill the empty space, paintings to hang on the blank walls and furniture to tuck away in the corners.
The families spent the majority of their time in one area…the kitchen. BUT only 1 out of 6 meals was eaten together as a family. The second most common place was the family room. The living room, dinning room and porch are rarely used.
This case study always interested me. It is interesting to see where the typical family spends their time and I begin to reflect on where I “think” I spend my time. Think about how you spend your time inside your house and it will start to make you think about the different rooms and things inside.
But for the purpose of this blog, let’s start to dissect this study and how it impacts you on your path to financial independence.
The majority of the families time spent is in the kitchen; both together and separately
This study was done back in 2001 - 2005, so your DoorDash, UberEats, GrubHub so services weren’t around yet. The individuals in the family spent the majority of their time in the house in the kitchen. Assumingely preparing meals, cooking and eating together.
This is actually great. Cooking meals at home leads to saving money and avoiding going out to restaurants or ordering take out.
What about the other positions of the house? The family room - the dinning room - the porch. Relatively untouched
These portions of the house remained relatively untouched yet these have some of the most expensive items in the house.
That large dinning room table for guests who come over once a quarter.
The fine china plates to serve those guests who come once every 3 years.
The hutch to store all of these things that just gather dust and barely get used.
These are all costly items that add up very quickly, over the months and months that we continue to buy these. But we barely use them or spend time in these areas. Why? We are too busy working to pay for these things.
As we move to other areas in the house, we start to see the “domestic clutter”. Things that we purchase to fill the blank space that is in our place of residence. We rarely sit on that couch, go out on the porch to use the furniture or go downstairs in the basement for that huge wine cellar.
The things that we own…end up owning you - Tyler Durden Fight Club
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp-eEVkKh60
During this scene, there is sequence in which Brad Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, talks to his friend (Ed Norton) how as consumers, we continue to buy more things to fill the voids in our life.
Does this sound familiar? Personally, I have been guilty many times in life thinking that one extra “thing” no matter what it is, will make me happy. We are set up for failure with the marketing machine that is all around us.
What ends up happening is that the things that we own, ending up owning us. They are purchased on credit for which we have to work to pay for, which leads to more stress which makes us purchase more things to make us happier. Thus the cycle continues.
Now let’s shift focus and take a look at another study: the average home size in America continues to grow
The average home size from 1983 through 2013.
The average house in 2018 is closer to 2,700 total square feet. That is 1,000 additional SQFT larger in just 30 years!
What is the cause of this? Lifestyle creep aka keeping up with the jones
We care more about showing off the size of our house to our “friends and families” to help justify the number of different excuses for how hard we work, stressed out we are or share our happiness.
What do we fill these large homes with? More domestic clutter
How much do we spend times in these homes? Very little
This is how we get stuck in consumerism and the endless cycle of buying more/larger things to bring us happiness. We are stressed out from our jobs or large loan payments from things that we own.
The lesson from this study: Spend less, invest your money instead and determine what makes you happy.
