"My parents now fill their lives with people, not stuff." Well said. That's the secret. Fill your life with people, activities, travel, volunteer work, learning, experiences, not stuff. I still go to yard sales. Still enjoy trolling through thrift stores and interesting little shops. I just very rarely buy anything and I can do a basic dust and vacuum cleaning of my whole home in half an hour. Life is good. At the end of my street, someone is building a huge storage facility. If I stood on the roof of my building, I could throw a stone and hit two of these huge facilities, full of mostly stuff that nobody ever uses.