When something breaks, I make a decision: do I fix this? Replace this? Do I need this?
The majority of the time I'm able to fix what's broken. If I'm not able to, I seriously question whether or not I need that item. The majority of the time I DO NOT so it goes to some form of recycling center and I live without it.
I have a lot less clutter, I have more money in savings (and investments) and not surprisingly, I'm actually happier.
I'm 54, in the final stages of divorce from a 30 year marriage, downsizing everything and I'm finding that the millenials are actually right about ONE THING: material things don't matter. Life Experiences do.
I don't think I'm unique in my "discovery" here and I think to a large degree that's why retail is failing. Amazon and sites like them are incredibly convenient and yes, we're seeing a major shift to online shopping and convenience but what's really happening here is a CONSOLIDATION of the "shopping experience." When someone comes along and figures out how to compete with Amazon, they'll suffer the same fate. That might take awhile but it'll happen --- it always does.
One last comment: the Millenials are also right about SERVICE being the key to the shopping experience. I frequent smaller places (family owned, local places/locally owned, owner works the store, etc..) and I tend to go back to where I receive PERSONALIZED service and am remembered. The Millenials, much as I malign them are right about that too. They shun the large retail establishments and go on Amazon for example because their shopping experience is personalized for them. Small mom and pop shops have learned this lesson pretty well from Amazon. I recently saw a small coffee shop doing free refills and a "points" system for customers simply by tapping their phones using every mobile phone system payment imagineable including ApplePay, Samsungs payment system, Google Pay, etc.. The place is constantly packed and beats the Starbucks down the road.
Maybe those millenials aren't as stupid as I thought after all. Still think they're lazy as shit though.
I think the Millenials’ parents were only one generation away from those who had grown up “going without” in the Depression and WW2, and the urge to compensate for previous physical hardships by those grandparents was transformed into an urge by the Millenials’ parents to fill internal voids with tangible things, aided in no small part by endless advertising and (comparatively) easy living.
In contrast, the Millenials have never known a comparable period of physical deprivation, and have instead known the literal and figurative “clutter” of their forebears’ material things...perhaps also seeing them as having eschewed “experiences”, their families—”life itself”—in favor of working their butts off...often (in cases of business failure, layoffs, premature deaths, etc.) for nothing.
I have had a similar experience. I used to be quite the collector. Music CDs (and earlier vinyl albums). Books. Magazines. Videotapes. DVDs. You name it.
Then around the mid 2000s, I came to this realization that pretty much everything I want to listen to, watch, or read is now online.
I now pay Apple $9.99 a month to have unlimited access to their music library (40 million songs) and I give Netfix and Amazon about $20 a month (total) to have unlimited access to their movies, TV shows and documentaries. Almost any other video is available on YouTube. Almost any magazine or newspaper article ends up online for free.
I still hold on to my books because they look nice on the shelves but everything else has been purged. Even newer books, I'm reading on the Kindle app. I might still buy a physical book every now and then.