Today’s young adult generation seems to have far less clutter than their parents or grandparents have (or had). I think there are a couple of reasons for this.
First
off, they’re not faced with the level of temptation that my generation was when
it comes to buying things. Many of today’s young people have no experience of
wearing well-made clothes. They’ve grown up with poorly made clothes, cut from
skimpy cloth. They see clothing as almost disposable. My children buy cheap
clothes for their children because they’re readily available, and cheap in
price as well as in quality. They’re too busy to search for high-quality
clothes for their kids, and they can’t really afford designer kiddie clothes.
As
for furniture, they’d just as soon buy a few cheap pieces from Target or IKEA
and be done with it until it breaks. They have no interest in the solid oak
furniture we have. Just the other day, I saw a 1980s entertainment center on
the front lawn of an apartment building with a “Free” sign on it. It had
stained glass windows and was made of oak; I remember when those were popular,
and I’d guess the original owner paid several hundred dollars, maybe even a
thousand, for it. But today, no one wants it.
Second,
malls are dying, and even free-standing stores are disappearing. Everyone
blames online shopping, and there’s no doubt that it has made a big dent. But I
think the loss of the enjoyable shopping experience also bears some blame, and
then there’s a third factor: these days, many adults are literally addicted to
their smartphones. They don’t have time to go shopping, and they don’t see the
need to spend money on lots of store purchases besides food and personal items.
If
they need anything, they can buy it online, but they prefer to spend their
money on experiences that they can document on social media. They’re too busy
taking photos of their latest restaurant meal or vacation experience to go
shopping. As a result, they don’t collect anywhere near as much “stuff” as
their parents or grandparents did.
In
addition, many of them can’t afford a house because of the huge disparity
between housing costs and income in many places. Previous generations were able
to afford a house when they were fairly young, giving them that much more time
to fill up every nook and cranny. But many of today’s young adults live in
condos or apartments; some still live with their parents. Also, quite a few of
them have to move frequently for their careers, so they don’t want a lot of
stuff weighing them down.
For
those reasons, most of them probably won’t have the problems with clutter than
many of their elders have. That’s wonderful, but that also makes it more likely
that they will be completely mystified by our
huge collections of stuff. And if we don’t go through it all and get rid of
what we no longer need before we die, they’re not going to be very happy to do
it for us after we’re gone.
