Waste: Through the Generations

Throughout most of human history, people spent their lives making sure they had enough food, enough shelter, enough clothing, enough water, etc. In general, our ethics around material possessions reflect that. Examples include phrases like “Waste not want not” and “There are people starving in ________”

Things started to change with the industrial revolution and the tide really started to turn less than 100 years ago. While there are still many people in the world who do not have enough resources to survive, larger and larger portions of the population do have enough. In fact, we have too much.

Manufacturing processes have changed. In countries with developed economies, many of us can access adequate shelter, more clothing than we can wear, more food than we can eat, more water than we can drink, etc. 

When we apply the waste not, want not ethics that have served humanity so well in the past to this current environment of abundance, we get clutter.

Waste not + just enough resources = survival

Waste not + more than enough resources = excess

It makes perfect sense that we struggle to manage our homes, when the strategies we have for doing so no longer apply. To me, it’s not that we’ve forgotten how to care for our homes and ourselves, it’s that the world we live in has changed so much that we need to develop new strategies in order to thrive in this new environment. 

Let’s take a look by generation:

The Greatest Generation & The Silent Generation

If this is you, then you were directly influenced by the great depression. Either you or your parents lived through it. In the environment of the great depression, it makes all the sense in the world to carefully preserve as much as possible. Items from pantry staples to rubber bands to fabric scraps become precious when you don’t know when -or if- you’ll have an opportunity to get more. 

Waste not + just barely enough resources = survival

Baby Boomers

If this is you, then you were raised by parents who saw the success of “waste not, want not” in action. Your parents lived through very real scarcity and survived to teach you how to do the same. The trouble is, you are facing different challenges. Mass production, the internet, and dual income households arrived during your lifetime. Homes (and sometimes vacation homes) are getting fuller than ever before. 

As your parents have passed, all of the things they so carefully preserved have become your responsibility. For the first time in history, other family members are not lining up to claim all the possessions left behind.

There are very few people saying “I’d love to take the dark walnut bedroom furniture set,” and “Oh! Yes please. I’ve been dreaming of having a fine china service for 12 for formal entertaining.”

Instead, the passing of loved ones leaves not just the emotional weight of grief, but also the real physical weight of excess possessions. 

Waste not + more than enough resources = excess

Gen X and Millennials

If this is you, then you’ve likely experienced overabundance and overwhelm paired with the cultural wisdom of “waste not, want not.” In other words, you’ve lived in an environment in which the waste-not mindset isn’t necessary for survival. In many ways, it’s likely made your life tougher or added a sense of shame or confusion to your attempts to manage your possessions.

Waste not + more than enough resources = excess

It makes sense that we struggle to let go of material objects. Until less than a century ago, keeping things was one of our greatest strategies for our own survival and and the survival our families. 

It’s a new experience for humanity that we can, if we choose, have far more than the minimum necessary for survival, and it makes all the sense in the world that we end up with clutter as we learn how to navigate this new age. Learning involves making mistakes: buying accidental duplicates, saving hobby supplies that we will never use, and watching vegetables spoil before we can find time to cook them. This learning takes time and it can be painful, especially if we berate ourselves or each other for every misstep and consider it all a waste. 

To me, all of these struggles are completely understandable when we take the time to put them in context.

I hope thinking through this from a generational perspective brings you new clarity and compassion for yourself. I hope you’ll come back to read on for part 2, as I share another perspective from which we can understand clutter/waste: time.