Let me ask you this. How many people want less? How many truly want a smaller house, less clothes and less stuff? And if they do want less, how many do something about it?

I ask these questions because I just read an interesting column called "Blessed by Less."Writer Lisa Vogt wrote about the benefits of living lightly.She says living lightly is not just about the stuff we accumulate. Nor is it just for people in the second half of life."It's about an attitude of living with fewer burdens and encumbrances, whether your 21 or 65," she says.Why is it worthwhile to "live lightly" by living with less? Well, because "stuff" does more than take up space. It takes up our time, time we might want to be spending differently.Experts tell us when we deliberately lighten up and have less, we have less to worry about, less to care for. And yes, less to pay for.It doesn't take a so-called expert on living to tell us that many people spend much of their life accumulating.Accumulating a house.Accumulating things for the house.Then buying more stuff. Stuff we want, not stuff we need. And we no sooner accumulate it than we stop thinking about it. Then we go on to buy more stuff. Think about this. What would happen if we buy less? Obviously, we would spend less.One astute gentleman told me he realized he was working longer and longer to give his family more. But in doing that, he was giving them less - less time with him."I've been trying to tell my wife for a long time that if we stop wanting more and more I won't have to be working all those long hours to pay for it. We could actually do more as a family."His wife couldn't see the wisdom in that. Can you? Not everyone can.In her short essay on living with less, Lisa Vogt says as she continues to strip away the unnecessary stuff in her closets and mind, she's been able to see more clearly "how much is enough and how much is more than enough."Many of us never get to the point where we decide we have enough. It seems to be human nature to want more.More money. More things. Most of all, we want more satisfaction.But we miscalculate what it takes to find more satisfaction. When we try to find it in "stuff," whether that means a nicer car, a bigger house or a better wardrobe, we seldom find deeper satisfaction comes with it.Every now and then I have someone tell me they are downsizing because they want less to take care of. From what I've seen, few really do downsize unless they are forced to do it for a compelling reason. Those who move from a house to a small apartment definitely do downsize. They have to because there isn't enough room for all their stuff. And they seldom miss it.I have a friend who ran into financial difficulties after her husband died. There simply wasn't enough money to get by so she decided to downsize. She sold her nice three-bedroom house on the water and moved into a smaller, cheaper house."I discovered I gained much more than more money," she said. "I gained more freedom from stress because now I own my home. It doesn't own me."Not everyone can do that.Another woman who announced she was "downsizing" because she didn't need all that space invited me to see her new home. Much to my surprise, her "downsized" home was slightly bigger than the one she left.There's a big movement now, we are told, toward smaller houses. Shows like HGTV's Tiny Houses show people buying miniature houses so they have more money and more time to live life.But the National Builder's Association says it's erroneous to believe people now want smaller homes. They say the opposite is true: Instead of wanting "starter homes," people are demanding bigger homes with more of everything.More space. More bathrooms. Bigger rooms. More land.I don't think the Minimalistic movement is going to take over any time soon.(I married a minimalist so I definitely left the ranks of accumulators. But I still long for a boat whenever I pass any body of water so I haven't completely crossed over to David's side and I'm not sure I ever will.)There are people like my friend Bonnie who have gone that route and who tell me it's given them a renewed sense of freedom. In Bonnie's case it's also added more meaning to her life because she uses the time and money she used to spend on stuff to help the needy.In her book, "Give It Up! My Year of Learning to Live Better With Less" May Carlomagno says she went from "mindless consumption" to a more moderate lifestyle."I learned I could do without a lot of things and be happier and more fulfilled," she says.Maybe we all need to re-examine why we buy stuff. Is it bringing us happiness and fulfillment? Or, are we buying "stuff" in a futile attempt to fill the emptiness inside us? We'll all answer those questions differently. But it's worth thinking about.Contact Pattie Mihalik at

newsgirl@comcast.net.