My temperament has always agreed with the idea that keeping a lot of possessions is cumbersome and something which should be minimized. Hoarding goods is not just financially expensive, but can also be mentally taxing taking up space literally and figuratively, as well as adding to the list of things you're responsible for.
The Roman society, which in many ways was similar to our own, also had some understanding of this judging off of their language. In Latin the word for "stuff" or "baggage" is impedimenta—something that acts as an impediment or an obstacle slowing down ones progress in the direction they want to go.
Now, I say this without any sort of claim of adhering to the in vogue idea of minimalism, and I am well aware that not everyone is suited for this way of living.
Constantly bouncing from place to place during childhood made me accustomed to having to always move stuff around; and as I learned from those experiences: the less you have the easier it is to adjust to whichever conditions you find yourself in. The more attached I became toward certain items or even friends, the more I realized the harder it was to transition to my new environments. It has often paid off, at least for me, to carry on with light baggage.
The main issue is scarcity, scarcity of time to be exact; and even if it were possible to acquire every purchasable good you have the means for, there is still remains a finite amount of time to use and enjoy whatever stuff is in our procession. Depending on your goals at any given interval in your life, there will be different priorities you need to allocate time for. Trying to make the journey with bulkiness will surely lead to headaches down the road.
Perhaps this is plain common sense anyone can find out for themselves, although after observing humans for a little over a quarter of a century it seems we tend to not have this understanding lodged in our big heads. How often do you hear others complain about the frequent changes, mishaps, and general unpredictability affecting their lives; are these externals to blame or is it how they internally prepared for them?
There is also a limit in simple living, and he who fails to understand this falls into an error as great as that of the man who gives way to extravagance.—Epicurus
Still, it can go both ways. If you take minimalism and simple living to it's furthest limits, striving to maintain it like you would some dogma, you are doing the same thing as the ultra-consumerist does just in the opposite form. By denouncing certain pursuits like an ascetic would, let's say money making, you are counter intuitively making it harder on yourself to truly live a life of maximum pleasure and minimal pain; which is the goal right?
