"What is enough?"

"I don't have enough, I need more." It doesn't matter whether this statement is just a thought in our minds or stated to someone, this is often the reason we use to rationalize a purchase. It is related to the idea that we can always use more of certain items due to the fact that we use that item with some frequency. Unfortunately, the speed with which we use items is often lower than the speed with which we buy the same item. So what is "enough"? Lao Tzu says, “He who knows enough is enough will always have enough.” Think about that for just a moment. Now let's explore a couple of examples:

• Milk: if you live near grocery stores, then having enough milk might mean that buying a of milk once a week will be enough for your family to have on breakfast cereal and a glass with dinner. Depending on the size of your family, it might be that one-half gallon of milk is enough for a week or that three gallons are required for each week. Then again, one gallon of milk for two weeks can work as well. But if you buy a gallon of milk and only use a cup a day, the milk might expire before you finish it.
• T-shirts: if you wear one t-shirt every day and do laundry once a week, then you only need eight t-shirts. If you only tend to wear t-shirts on Saturdays, then even if you do laundry once a month you only need five t-shirts. Given these parameters, even if you double the numbers (16 or 10), owning 30 t-shirts is definitely more than enough. Think of all the things you could do with the space if you deleted half of your t-shirt collection!
• Canned tomatos: if you usually use about eight cans of tomatos a month but you go to the grocery store once a week, then having six to eight cans of tomatos in your pantry is more than enough. If you like to stock up when they are on sale, only do so if you have room to store the extra cans (and I don't mean on the floor or in the middle of your kitchen island!)

I once had a client who had over 30 pairs of jeans, wore one to two pairs per week and did laundry about every other day. She asked me how many pairs of jeans was enough. I said that given her habits, three to four pairs of jeans should be sufficient. I realize that there are different kinds of jeans: blue, white, black, dressy, etc. In this particular case, we were discussing regular blue jeans. Although she had an incredible amount of closet space, it was jammed full of clothes and she had difficulty accessing them. Life became much easier when she decided how many jeans were enough for her.

So my question to you is "what is enough?" Really think about it. Whether you are talking about food, clothing, pots, silverware, jewelry or tools ask yourself: "what is enough?" You might be surprised by the answer!