Less stuff means more time, focus, intention, and peace.
1 Acknowledge the Fear of Loss
The first step is to recognize when loss aversion is influencing your decisions. Are you keeping an item because
it moves you toward your purpose? Or are you giving extra weight to the fear of what you may be losing?
2 Redefine ‘Loss’ and ‘Gain’
Rather than focusing on what you are giving up, shift your perspective to what you’re gaining through owning
less. Minimalism is about addition more than it is about subtraction—more space, more calm, increased focus on
what truly matters. The loss of physical items pales in comparison to these gains.
3 See Marketing Strategies for What They Are
Be aware of marketing tactics designed to trigger your loss aversion. To help with this, ask yourself, “Am I
considering this purchase out of a genuine need or fear of missing out?”
4 Take Small Steps for Big Changes
Start with decluttering small areas or items you’re less attached to. This gradual approach helps mitigate the
sense of loss while highlighting the benefits of owning less.
It is one of the central tenets of the method of owning less that I teach online.
5 Celebrate Your Progress
Acknowledge and celebrate each step toward minimalism. Progress is progress, and you can’t reach your goals
without it. So celebrate every step in the right direction.
Again, this positive reinforcement helps shift your focus from what you’re losing to what you’re gaining.
6 Embrace the Joy of Letting Go
The joy of what we will find ahead is much greater than what we leave behind.
Keep that thought in mind. Every item you let go of is a step toward a more intentional life. This mindset can
help counterbalance the initial discomfort of parting with possessions. And although our tendency may be to
overvalue the loss, we can overwhelm that tendency with the promise of something better. So keep focused on it.
7 Visualize the Benefits
Lastly, to help with Step 6, regularly remind yourself of the positive effect that minimalism has on your life.
Articulating what you’ve seen and visualizing the future can be powerful ways overcome hesitancy created by
loss aversion.
“One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” —André
Gide I once had a friend. Let’s call him Jim. Jim was just an ordinary guy living an ordinary life, much like
many of us. He had a steady job, a modest home, and a family he loved.
One sunny Saturday afternoon, Jim decided to tackle a long-overdue task— cleaning out the clutter in his
garage. It had become a messy storage space over the years, filled with old sports equipment, unused tools, car
accessories, plastic toys, and countless boxes of who knows what. The clutter had reached a point at which he
and his wife could barely park both cars in the garage.
With much excitement about the possibility of a tidy garage, Jim started sifting through the items.
He picked up an old bicycle, covered in dust. Memories of long-forgotten bike rides with his kids flashed before
his eyes.
“I should keep this,” he thought, even though nobody had ridden it in years.
As he continued his decluttering mission, Jim came across a collection of CDs. He used to be an avid music
collector, and these CDs had once brought him hours of entertainment. But with streaming services at his
fingertips, he hadn’t touched these discs in ages.
“I can’t get rid of these,” he muttered, “I love these bands.” And he placed the CDs back on the shelf.
Hours slowly turned into an entire weekend, as Jim worked tirelessly, trying to make sense of the mess.
He often picked up an item and placed it back on the shelf, hesitating to let go of items that hadn’t even seen the
light of day for years.
It was as if the mere thought of parting with them triggered an inexplicable fear—a fear of loss.
Did you know that there’s actually a name for this phenomenon? It’s called “loss aversion.” Once we
understand what loss aversion is, we begin to see it at play in our minds during countless everyday experiences.
Loss aversion, simply put, is our tendency to prefer avoiding losses rather than acquiring equivalent gains.
It’s a concept that often appears in conversations of behavioral economics, analyzing why people make the
financial decisions they make. In economics, it is seen over and over again that the pain of losing is
psychologically about twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining.
To illustrate, in our minds, it’s better not to lose $20 than to find $20.
On paper, it shouldn’t matter. But in real life, it does.
Understanding loss aversion is so very powerful in overcoming its influence—in many areas of life, but
especially if you are struggling to own less.
As we let go of the unnecessary, we make room for so much more— more time, more clarity, more joy. And isn’t
that a gain worth pursuing?
As we seek to let go, we encounter any number of invisible barriers that hold us back, and loss aversion is likely
chief among them. Understanding how to overcome it is a worthwhile pursuit that will help us declutter a
garage or bring about many other long-desired life changes.
One of the most revealing studies on loss aversion was conducted by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and
Amos Tversky. In their experiment, half of the participants were given a mug and told When it comes to
decluttering, loss aversion is often rooted in fear of losing a part of our past, our identity, or potential
future use.
they could sell it if they chose. The other half were not given a mug but were told they could buy one.
Interestingly, the price at which those with the mug were willing to sell it was significantly higher than the price
the buyers were willing to pay. This gap demonstrated a fascinating phenomenon: The sellers felt a stronger
attachment to the mug simply because they owned it, perceiving its loss as more significant than the buyers did
the potential gain.
Other studies (even globally) continue to affirm the theory. In one study, the question was asked, “If you were
given $1,000 to play a game, would you accept a 50 percent chance to double your money or a 100 percent
guarantee of gaining an additional $500?” My guess is that you, like most people in the study, chose the sure
$500.
That’s because we tend to be risk seeking when maximizing gains, but risk-averse when minimizing losses.
Understanding the principle of loss aversion in everyday contexts, such as Jim’s garage cleaning scenario,
highlights why it can be so challenging to declutter and let go of possessions.
We hold onto items not because of their utility or joy they bring, but solely because of the perceived loss of
parting with them. That overlaps somewhat with the endowment effect, which is the assigning of more value to
things merely because we own them, such as the people above did with their mugs. Sometimes, this is also true
of certain hobbies, activities, or even our jobs. We may deeply want something else but be unable to let go of
what we have to make space to pursue something else. When it comes to decluttering, loss aversion is often
rooted in fear of losing a part of our past, our identity, or potential future use.
Retailers and marketers are skillful at exploiting this tendency. They lure us with trials, rebates, and refund
policies, framing our purchases in terms of loss if we don’t act. Even the potential loss of a good deal or a
limited-time offer can overshadow our rational judgment, leading us to acquire things we don’t need, further
cluttering our lives.
Perhaps most importantly, this can explain why some are slow to embrace the benefits of minimalism in their
life. Minimalism, in most cases, requires us to confront loss aversion head-on. It requires us to lose something
in order to gain something better.
The minimalist journey isn’t just about discarding physical items; it’s a tradeoff. We let go of material
possessions to gain something more valuable—time, focus, intention, peace. It’s a process of exchanging the
tangible for the intangible— a concept that becomes even more difficult given our inherent aversion to loss.
How then can we overcome loss aversion?
This is an important question—not just in the pursuit of owning less, but also in countless other areas.
For the sake of this article, let me offer some ideas based around the concept of minimalism and owning less—
and allow you to draw parallels wherever might be necessary in your life.