This is part of my series on Decluttering Mental Models.

René Girard (1923—2015) was a French historian and anthropologist. One of his greatest contributions to social science was the concept of Mimetic Desire: we imitate others, and we imitate their desires. Spend enough time with someone, and you’ll want what they want. You’ll want what they have.

For example, if we see our five closest friends rush out to buy a novel, we’ll feel inclined to do the same. Or if our friends start intermitent fasting, we’ll find ourselves eating less often. And this is because we imitate the desires of others.

As a parent, I’ve seen this play out numerous times with my kids. For example, yesterday my son picked up his fidget spinner and started spinning it. When my daughter saw this, she instantly wanted it. She tried to pry from him and a fight ensued. And all of this is ridiculous because 30 seconds beforehand my daughter had zero interest in the fidget spinner. She only wanted it because my son had it. Monkey see, monkey do, as the old saying goes.

Girard postulated that imitating others’ desires is a fundamental law of human nature. We can’t get away from it. Girard also said one of the most important decisions in life is choosing who we imitate.

As I reflected on this cause-and-effect relationship and our propensity for imitation, I realized that we could consciously change our environment, and in doing so, change our behavior. We can change our consumption habits by changing whom we imitate.

My friend named Joel did just this when he wanted to become a vegan and lose weight. He primed himself by watching every documentary he could find about veganism and animal cruelty. He created a schedule and watched 30 minutes every day for a month. Over time, Joel adopted not only vegans’ behaviors but also their attitudes and aspirational goals. As a result, meat and dairy lost their appeal, going vegan became easy, and Joel lost weight. He changed his environment, which changed his behavior.

Now we can do something similar when we want to declutter. We can change our environment by immersing ourselves in decluttering/minimalist media. Maybe that’s podcasts, YouTube videos, or books. Whatever your preferred medium, there’s a wealth of media out there and it’s all just a Google search away.

Here are some of my favorites to get you started:

Books

YouTube channels

Podcasts

Blogs

Take action: Spend at least 30 minutes a day with decluttering and minimalist content. This could be a podcast that you listen to on the way to work. Or an audiobook that you listen to while getting ready in the morning.

Immerse yourself and in a week, you’ll feel your attitude toward clutter shift. In a month, getting rid of stuff will be easy. And in a year, the clutter will be gone forever.

More Decluttering Mental Models:

Top 10 Favorites

  1. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  2. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  3. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you earn $15/hour)
  4. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff
  5. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  6. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  7. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  8. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  9. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  10. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo

Get started

  1. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  2. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  3. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  4. Hold each item and ask, “Does this spark joy?”
  5. When the “Does this Spark Joy?” fails you, ask these 6 questions
  6. Create your “Discard by Feb. 2022” box
  7. Decluttering yearbooks? Ask these 8 questions first

Shopping

  1. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  2. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff - version 1 and version 2
  3. How a grocery shopping list saves me time, money, and pounds

Manage your clothes

  1. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you can earn $15/hour)
  2. Dear Dude with too many T-shirts: no one wants to buy them—just recycle/trash them
  3. Don't be like my friend Giorgio with his 400 Hawaiian shirts
  4. None of my clothes "spark joy"—so what do i get rid of?

Happiness & satisfaction

  1. Limit pleasurable things so they don’t lose their novelty
  2. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  3. Craving never stops and my potato chip addiction
  4. Reminder: happiness levels stay consistent

Get motivated

  1. Want to boost your motivation to declutter? Immerse yourself in decluttering videos, podcasts, & books!
  2. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  3. Imagine your ideal home… Imagine all the clutter is gone…
  4. Feeling unmotivated? Declutter with a 5-minute time box

Manage your money

  1. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  2. Save money by controlling aspirational identities
  3. I wasted so much money starting projects (and how I fixed it)

Manage consumption spirals

  1. How consumption spirals work
  2. Buying a house led to an enormous consumption spiral
  3. How craving completeness drives my consumption

Shift your Paradigm

  1. Change your environment, change your consumption
  2. 3 thought experiments to adopt a decluttering mindset
  3. Your home is not a storage unit for other people's crap!
  4. Before you buy stuff, do this little mental exercise
  5. Less space, less stuff
  6. That’s right, you and I pay for the privilege of seeing viagra ads
  7. Your home is an expensive container for your stuff. What’s your cost per sqft?

Manage your emotions

  1. Can you tolerate boredom?
  2. Fill the void with a long term goal

Control the Clutter

  1. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo