A mans life (or woman's!) does not consist of the abundance of his possesseions

Someone famous once said "a man's life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions", yet in America it seems thats what we are all about.  It has not made us any happier, just more in debt.  Recently we "downsized" from the big house to a smaller one, and to make that happen I had to do a lot of purging of stuff and furniture (I am still having stuff sold, picked up and given away!).  The new rule is that if I don't have to have it (useful) or I don't absolutely love it, it goes.  Taking care of a big house and all the accouterments is exhausting and expensive, and like I said before there are better things in life than things...