An empty drawer is like money in your pocket. You could fill it, but you won’t, and you could spend it, but you don’t.
Emptying a drawer or clearing off a shelf symbolizes the changes we’ve made to live more simply. Keeping too much stuff weighed us down; it was a burden. This is living lightly. Enjoying the spaciousness (without feeling a need to fill it) is a wonderful thing to celebrate!
An abundance of space makes daily life easier
It’s simple to maintain order and keep things clean when there is so much less to deal with.
Creating more space by clearing away things we aren’t using, means more opportunities. We may decide to begin new habits or hobbies, or choose to reorganize our possessions to make it easier to admire and find everything. Best of all, the spaces we have cleared could simply remain cleared.
An empty drawer can stay that way. It doesn’t need to be filled.
There is a striking similarity between appreciating an abundance of space and enjoying an abundance of money.
A friend told me about a trick to having more money. He said he imagines all of the things he could buy, but then he doesn’t buy any of them. As time passes, his savings increase, and things he could own if he ever wanted them become more and more impressive. Rather than going shopping, he luxuriates in the potential options he has created, with far more joy than actually buying and then being burdened with the ongoing chore of caring for that stuff.
He said he discovered this shrewd information from The Millionaire Next Door. According to 20 years of research, millionaires tend to be less flashy and more frugal than we’ve been led to believe. The millionaires they interviewed were not ostentatious or extravagant. The regular family next door with the used car and bagged lunches could be millionaires. They are more focused on their long term freedom, security and health, than on conspicuous consumption of short term social status items.
This book is well worth reading with timeless information that can help anyone to become more wealthy.
Continuously crowding ourselves with new items does not bring success or happiness. In fact, it’s very counterproductive. Like that empty drawer, accumulating fewer things means we are giving ourselves more financial abundance and leaving more possibilities open in our lives
The millionaire next door gets a thrill from having money and not spending it, and in precisely the same way, minimalists enjoy clearing space without feeling the need to fill it.