:Like:
Looks good, kattsand!
I have been on both sides of this spectrum before, ironically. As a child, I had every material thing I could ask for but never felt like it was "enough". As a teen, I was given free reign with my parents' credit cards and, well. I had all kinds of cool stuff and no concept whatever of its value or cost, relatively speaking. Then I got pregnant, and found myself getting married and booted out. I thought I knew minimalism at that point. More than once I had to sell numerous possessions to scrape together enough cash for rent or food. We never had anything nice for long.
Then I got divorced, and he kept most of my things. I had no bed, very few clothes, only a few DVDs (what I'd managed to stash in my purse). I had a PC and the bare necessities for my children, but virtually nothing else. We lived in a 1000 sq ft apartment for a year, and we thought it felt huge! No couch or chairs, no lamps, I slept on the floor, cocooned in a comforter. No bookshelf--we had piles of books all over the floor. We didn't even have a trash can for months and months.
It was profoundly freeing and deeply maddening, all at the same time, LOL.
I think that experience made me a little mental, because I really overcompensated once I had the funds to do so. It was as if I was on a mental crusade to never feel a want for anything material in the world ever again!
Since then, it's come full-circle and we have downsized considerably--but this time it's voluntary. It's coming from a place of generosity, and a desire to live more harmoniously with our surroundings, instead of feeling owned by them.
It turned out that the fabulous couch I bought fit even more perfectly in my friend's lvr than my own, so we sold it to her. I only got a fraction of the purchase price, but that's okay. I like to think that I really bought it for her all along.
Just some random insights of mine on the topic!