The Perfect Balance of Having Just Enough
“When we let go of the chase for more, and consciously examine and experience the resources we already have, we discover our resources are deeper than we knew or imagined.” - Lynne Twist
Years ago I bought a book called The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist, and then I promptly got busy and shelved it. Recently I found it again and dove in. I’ve been truly loving her approach to examining and healing our relationship with money. She deeply explores the nature of scarcity and the deep-seated myth that there’s never enough to go around. As an antidote to this, Twist suggests working to cultivate a mindset of sufficiency. She explains, “Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough, and that we are enough.”
This really struck me because in many ways, this is why I created Space Camp. This never-ending quest for more and the insatiable desire to always be acquiring things, is what has created an epidemic of owning more than we can physically and mentally handle. The real magic of organizing isn’t just arranging things into boxes and bins: the real magic happens when you truly become acquainted with what you already have. The act of considering all of the items you own has the power to be incredibly transformational. Once you get past the uncomfortable feelings that can tag along during this process (such as fear, shame, and guilt), the light at the end of the tunnel is life-changing.
I have been thinking about this practice in my own life. While I’m an organized person, I still sometimes have the urge to buy too much stuff. One area where this happens in my life is with food. I think living in a scarcity mindset when it comes to food is a very human characteristic. You never want to run out of food and you feel safe and comfortable when you bring home several bags stuffed full of groceries. But there’s a fine line for me between the satisfaction of having enough and the frustration that comes with having too much. If I have too much food on hand, there’s nowhere for all of it to go in my house. We don’t have a real pantry, and my storage space is limited. On the other hand, when I take the time (and honestly, this is just a few minutes) to take stock of what I have in my pantry and fridge before I go shop, I find that there is often so much more to work with than I realized. I’ve been practicing this weekly for all of 2023, and it has cut down our grocery bill and brought more joy and fulfillment to both shopping and cooking. I honestly don’t miss the feeling of buying too much and going on a huge grocery haul. I much prefer the feeling of buying exactly what we need and what I know we can realistically use and eat in a week. And no, we haven’t gone hungry. In fact, I’d say we’ve been eating better than before!
This concept is applicable in all different spaces of your home and life. Clothing is another category where having just what you need feels so much better than having too much or too little. Knowing that everything in your closet fits you and looks good on you is truly life changing. Not having to sift through items you don’t want anymore or have grown out of frees up so much energy and time. This is true for other spaces as well: your bathroom, your office, your garage, your junk drawer, your email inbox…I could go on and on. I guess what I’m saying is that if you want to take the time to look at one space in your home today, even just a small one, and really consider what you have, the benefits of this practice will far outweigh the time it takes to do it.
