About a decade ago, I loaded a couple of midsize suitcases, three large Ikea bags, a pair of 10-gallon Rubbermaid totes, a laundry basket, and two heavily sedated cats into a U-Haul and moved from Toronto to New York City. All my belongings fit neatly into my tiny new Brooklyn bedroom, with plenty of square footage to spare. Turns out, my relative lack of stuff was right on trend.

At the time, millennials like me were buying and owning less, purportedly breaking the mold of American consumerism. We Instagrammed our sparsely furnished, overly beige interiors. We eschewed car ownership and suburban McMansions in favor of bikes, car-share memberships, and big-city apartments with roommates. We were spending our money not on things but on experiences — and blogging about it, too.

"If the millennials are not quite a postdriving and postowning generation, they'll almost certainly be a less-­driving and less-­owning generation," declared a September 2012 article in The Atlantic titled "The Cheapest Generation." Our reputation quickly found a nifty shorthand: Millennials were a generation of minimalists.

As I write this from the same tiny Brooklyn bedroom, I can see my closet doors straining against the weight of a nearly bursting trash bag filled with cast-off clothing I keep meaning to recycle. The three Ikea bags are stacked full of dirty laundry, which my partner or I would probably get around to washing if we didn't have plenty of other stuff to wear. Our dresser top is strewn with impulse buys you'd find in a drugstore checkout line. I can think of a few descriptors for the state of my surroundings, but "minimalist" isn't one of them.

While my fellow 28- to 43-year-olds have yet to shake our association with less-is-more living, that old stereotype doesn't quite stand up to scrutiny anymore. Consumer-spending data suggests we have no trouble dropping our hard-earned cash on goods and services — experiences and things. As we've built careers and started families, our buying habits increasingly resemble those of Gen X and boomers when they were the age we are now.

Millennials haven't been minimalists in years. In fact, we may have never been minimalists at all.

The minimalist-millennial myth began in the early 2010s in the aftermath of the Great Recession. As the "next generation" of leaders, workers, and spenders, my contemporaries' behavior was of keen interest to marketers, business leaders, and economists. So when my generation, rattled by a catastrophic recession, wasn't buying as much as our predecessors, concern spread that our diminished purchasing power — or worse, our somehow radically different priorities and values — might signal the end of the consumer-spending spree that had powered the nation's economy since the end of World War II.

Throughout the decade, a breadcrumb trail of survey data seemed to back up these concerns. In a 2016 Harris Poll, 78% of millennials said they would rather pay for an experience than material goods, as opposed to 59% of baby boomers. A 2015 Nielsen survey similarly found that millennials went out to eat at nearly twice the rate of their parents — they would rather eat their riches than stockpile them. The 2014 English-language translation of Marie Kondo's "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" sold over 9 million copies, spawning a cottage industry of aspiring millennial declutterers.

The minimalist trend wasn't entirely bogus from a cultural standpoint. "The recession was a real force for people fetishizing simplicity and turning frugality into a virtue, making the best of what you have rather than prioritizing consuming more or consuming flashier things," said the writer Kyle Chayka, whose 2020 book "The Longing for Less" digs into the perennial appeal of a more pared-down way of living.

The postrecession era also saw the rise of smartphones, which ushered in digital sensory overload. Seemingly overnight, apartments and Instagram grids were awash in the clean lines and open spaces of midcentury-modern design (or, at least, Ikea's approximations of it). "There's so much chaos in our phones," Chayka said. "Why would you want more chaos in your physical surroundings?"

Millennials' minimalism became an economic-anxiety Rorschach test. Depending on the beholder, our perceived underconsumption might have signaled a virtuous departure from the poisoned cycle of production, purchase, and disposal. For others, it affirmed the widely held suspicion that we were a generation of coddled Peter Pans who refused to put down the avocado toast; buy some cars, houses, and house-sized volumes of stuff; and just grow up already. Though it was largely an aesthetic trend, the myth of millennial minimalism was so central to my cohort's cultural identity that it may as well have been real.

But in reality, this theory of arrested economic development was always a bit of a mirage. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, consumer spending accounted for roughly 60% of US GDP; since the early 2000s, despite millennials' purported lack of spending, it's held steady at just under 70%.

Take one of the most talked about large purchases that millennials were eschewing: cars. Automobile ownership has been a central tenet of the American dream since the '50s, when the health of the automobile industry became closely tied to the country's economic growth and prosperity. No longer needed for building tanks and munitions to ship overseas, factory assembly lines "newly renovated with Uncle Sam's dollars" were repurposed to build tens of thousands of new cars, which American consumers eagerly bought up, the Harvard historian Lizabeth Cohen wrote in her 2004 book, "A Consumers' Republic." Even now, demand for cars is looked at as a bellwether for consumer spending and the US economy more broadly.

It's no coincidence then that millennials' apparent resistance to car ownership, in particular, jumped out as evidence of our radically shifting consumer ethos. One widely circulated data point came from a 2010 CNW Group analysis, which reported that 21- to 34-year-olds in the US were responsible for just 27% of new-car purchases, down from a high of 38% in 1985. News outlets cited this data as proof that millennials, as a whole, were less interested in buying cars than their boomer parents or their older Gen X siblings. What they failed to consider was how present circumstances — such as the ripple effects of a then very recent economic crisis, especially among young adults just entering the workforce — might alter how people spent their money, especially on big-ticket items like brand-new cars.

In 2016, the Federal Reserve Board issued a report that sought to set the record straight by pointing out that the anti-car narrative about millennials didn't take the Great Recession into account. The report argued that the economic downturn almost certainly shaped people's spending as much or more than the technological and cultural changes that were happening at the same time. Proving the point, young adults were back to buying cars by the mid-2010s. Nowadays, millennials have fully caught up: Since 2020, we've accounted for almost 30% of the nation's new-vehicle registrations, a rate that's roughly on par with baby boomers and only slightly below that of Gen X, Experian research found. But by the time the Fed report was released, it was already too late. The truism of millennials as minimalists was entrenched.

So if millennials aren't minimalists, what exactly are we? Sociologists would likely tell you that's the wrong question to ask — people's behaviors and lifestyles change over time, as do societal norms and priorities. The question isn't how to best define millennials as consumers but whether millennials' young-adult spending was markedly different from that of prior generations.

For answers, we can turn to consumer-spending records. Since 1984, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been conducting its Consumer Expenditure Surveys to see how different American age cohorts spend money. Granted, the picture it paints is somewhat incomplete; by 1984, most boomers were well past their early 20s, making a direct comparison with millennials challenging. Still, it offers a useful baseline for comparing different age groups' spending over time. Sure enough, when adjusted for inflation, Americans under 25, between 25 and 34, and 35 to 44 have spent roughly similarly across most major consumer categories for the past four decades, with momentary dips overlaying periods of recession followed by bounce backs. While it's true that millennials are spending more of their budgets on airfare and vacation rentals than older generations did at the same age, the same can be said for Gen Zers, Gen Xers, and baby boomers — everyone is splurging on travel right now.

Because younger adults tend to have fewer family responsibilities and far less wealth than adults in their professional prime, they spend less overall. As their expenses and income accrue over time, they spend more — especially once kids enter the picture, bringing new mouths to feed, bodies to clothe, and hobbies to equip. Now that millennials have families of their own, they're even more overwhelmed by clutter than their boomer parents before them, buried under piles of ever-cheaper toys.

In other words, millennials' style of spending isn't special; it's cyclical.

To further the point, millennials now account for the largest share of homebuyers, making up 38% of the homebuying market, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. Our tilt toward homeownership isn't new, either. We'd nearly caught up with our boomer parents way back in 2019, according to Freddie Mac; 43% of us owned homes, just shy of the 45% of baby boomers who were able to buy their first homes between 25 and 34. Whatever we weren't buying in our 20s, we are making up for in our 30s and 40s.

"There's the ongoing narrative that millennials can't afford housing or don't own houses, that they're renters, but when you look at the data, 25- to 34-year-olds are just as likely to be homeowners now as they were in 1993," said Bryan Rigg, a BLS economist who oversees Consumer Expenditure Survey microdata for public use. "Really, a lot of the expenditure patterns are similar." One major exception is that today's 20- and 30-somethings are a lot more comfortable taking on debt to buy things — like cars and homes — than in the past.

For better or worse, public memory is short. Many of today's young adults might not even be aware that the current crop of 30-somethings were ever considered minimalists in the first place. There's evidence that the rest of us are starting to forget, too. Maybe you've read about the new TikTok trend sweeping Gen Z: a mindful alternative to the "haul" culture that's grown around ultrafast fashion and ultracheap e-commerce platforms. It's a whole new approach to stuff. Some have said it might even slow down the economy. This time around, we're calling it "underconsumption core."

Kelli María Korducki is a journalist whose work focuses on work, tech, and culture. She's based in New York City.

Patrick Mahomes kept the promise he made to his wife, Brittany, as the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday afternoon, 29-10.

Brittany Mahomes is pregnant with the couple’s third child and is due very soon. The star quarterback said he told her the Chiefs would get the top seed in the playoffs so she could have the baby with him being there instead of on the football field.

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"I told my wife, my pregnant wife, I was gonna get the No. 1 seed so we can go have that baby," he told Netflix’s Stacey Dales. "We got the one seed."

Brittany Mahomes was watching the game with her children and other family members. She responded to her husband’s comments on her Instagram Stories.

"Always keeping his promises," she wrote in a post.

RAVENS ROUT TEXANS ON CHRISTMAS, INCH CLOSER TO DIVISION TITLE

Kansas City moved to 15-1 on the season. They have one more game on Jan. 5, and it doesn’t appear the team will put their starters out there for the whole game.

The wild-card portion of the playoffs begin Jan. 11 with the divisional round. In theory, Mahomes could have a lot of time off to be with his wife as she gets ready for their next child to be born.

The Chiefs have had a wild season filled with injuries and some off-field turmoil. The team has only scored 30 points once in a game and yet still have only one loss.

A chance for three straight Super Bowls is alive and well.

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The Kansas City Chiefs gave their fans a gift on Christmas with a win that clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs. 

The Chiefs rolled over the Pittsburgh Steelers, 29-10, clinching the No. 1 seed in the AFC on Christmas Day.

Kansas City started out fast and never looked back, going up 13-0 after scoring touchdowns on their first two possessions. 

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It looked like the Steelers were going to respond immediately when running back Jaylen Warren had an 8-yard rushing touchdown, but it was called back due to a holding penalty.

On the play after the penalty, Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson threw an interception in the end zone, and the Steelers missed out on a chance to cut into the lead. 

Despite getting stopped in the red zone, Wilson had success on the next drive.

The Steelers quarterback scrambled for a 1-yard rushing touchdown, capping an 11-play, 72-yard drive to make the score 13-7. 

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After halftime, the teams traded field goals to make it 16-10, and then the Chiefs pulled away. 

Patrick Mahomes engineered an 11-play, 77-yard drive that ended with a Kareem Hunt 2-yard rushing touchdown to make it 22-10 after the Chiefs' two-point conversion was unsuccessful. 

On the ensuing drive, Steelers’ tight end Pat Freiermuth fumbled on the Steelers 34-yard line, setting up the Chiefs with great field position. 

Mahomes capitalized on the fumble, finding a wide open Travis Kelce for a touchdown to make it 29-10. 

Kelce’s touchdown reception was the 77th of his career, passing Tony Gonzalez for the most touchdown receptions in Chiefs franchise history. 

CHIEFS' XAVIER WORTHY HIT WITH PENALTY AFTER TOUCHDOWN, SPARKS FAN FRENZY

Mahomes completed 29 of 38 passes for 320 yards and three touchdowns. 

Kelce had eight catches for 84 yards and a touchdown, while rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy had eight catches for 79 yards and a touchdown in the Chiefs' win. 

The loss for the Steelers is critical for their AFC North title chances. If the Baltimore Ravens win over the Houston Texans in the second half of the NFL’s Christmas Day doubleheader, the Ravens would have the inside track over the Steelers for the AFC North title. 

Wilson threw for 205 yards and an interception and ran the ball six times for 55 yards and a touchdown in the loss. Steelers wide receiver George Pickens had three catches for 50 yards in his return after missing the last three games with a hamstring injury. 

Both teams were playing their third game in 11 days. 

The Chiefs’ final regular-season game will not matter since they have already clinched the No. 1 seed, but it may matter to their opponent. The division rival Denver Broncos might be fighting for their playoff lives, depending on Week 17’s outcome. 

The Steelers host the surging Cincinnati Bengals in Week 18. 

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The Kansas City Chiefs got the scoring started early in their Christmas Day game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday afternoon.

Rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and the Chiefs went up 6-0. 

Worthy appeared to do a Christmas-themed celebration with his teammates, then lifted up his shirt.

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NFL officials penalized Worthy for the play. But fans were confused as to why the flag was thrown. Some suggested Worthy may have been pretending to have a gun on him. Gun-themed celebrations have been a point of contention with players.

Mahomes threw his second touchdown pass of the game, an 11-yarder to wide receiver Justin Watson, later in the first quarter.

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The Chiefs have had struggles all season but still had a 14-1 record entering the Week 17 matchup against the Steelers. 

Worthy has been a bright spot for a receiving corps that’s been decimated by injuries. He has 51 catches for 559 yards and five touchdown catches this season. He also has three rushing touchdowns.

Last week, Worthy had seven catches for 65 yards and a touchdown catch against the Houston Texans. It was the second straight week he received double-digit targets. Before the game against the Cleveland Browns, he hadn’t had more than eight targets in a single game.

Kansas City will lock up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with a win on Wednesday.

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• The NYC townhouse where Bob Dylan lived quietly with his kids from the 1980s to 2005 is for sale.
• The enclave, with only 20 homes and a shared garden, remains a favorite haunt of actors and musicians.
• It's just a coincidence that the movie about his life is in theaters now, the listing agent said.

A New York City home where Bob Dylan lived quietly for years is for sale.

The legendary singer-songwriter rented the townhouse on East 49th Street in Manhattan in the 1980s — then loved it so much that he bought it under a business associate's name in 1990 for an undisclosed amount.

In 2005, he sold it to the current owners for $4.45 million; they have put it on the market with an asking price of $7.25 million.

The five-story home is in Turtle Bay Gardens, a landmarked enclave of 20 1860s-built townhouses on East 49th and East 48th whose backyards lead to a shared garden for residents only.

Dylan, one of the best-selling music artists of all time, had young kids at the time and liked the privacy, "Dylan's local fix-it man at the time" told real-estate news site Curbed.

Turtle Bay Gardens has long attracted creative types, including Hollywood and Broadway greats. Previous renters of Dylan's home, at 242 East 49th Street, included Mary Tyler Moore.

Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim called No. 244 home for 60 years until his death in 2021; it sold for $7 million in 2023, according to property records. Katharine Hepburn lived next door, at 244 East 49th Street. Child actor turned fashion designer Mary-Kate Olsen and her ex Olivier Sarkozy owned 226-228 East 49th Street from 2024 to 2022.

The current owners of Dylan's home used it as a pied-à-terre, according to Sotheby's International Realty agent Lisa Larson, who has the listing with her colleague Angela Wu.

"They just weren't coming to New York very often, so they rented it out, and now they've just decided to sell it," Larson told Business Insider.

It hit the market on December 5. The Bob Dylan biopic, "A Complete Unknown," with Timothy Chalamet as Dylan, is released in theaters on Christmas Day, December 25.

Larson said that the timing is a happy accident.

"I didn't even know there was a new Bob Dylan movie," Larson said. "It was totally coincidental, because we were just waiting for the last tenant to move out."

Take a look inside Dylan's former house, which has a mix of old-school features and modern amenities, and the secret garden on which it sits.

A house Bob Dylan lived in from the 1980s to 2005 is on the market for $7.25 million.

Starting in the 1980s, Dylan rented the home from a married couple: screenwriter Garson Kanin and his wife, actor Ruth Gordon.

He started out renting, then liked it so much he bought it.

The home is located in a somewhat hidden micro-neighborhood called Turtle Bay Gardens.

"It's got a pretty esteemed history," Larson said. "It has a lot of playwrights, writers, actors, and musicians who have lived in this enclave of 20 homes."

Owners of the 20 townhouses on East 49th and East 48th Streets can access a residents-only shared garden via their private backyards.

Turtle Bay Gardens was named a historic district by New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966. It was built with a fountain modeled after the Villa Medici in Rome.

"It's got this unique feeling of being this special little enclave in the middle of a whole bunch of hustle and bustle and high rises," Larson said.

The current owners bought the home from Dylan for $4.45 million in 2005 and then renovated it.

"They did a more modern kitchen, they redid all the bathrooms — they did a lot of capital improvements," Larson said. "It's got all the conveniences of a modern house, but yet it still retains a lot of its old-world characteristics."

According to Larson, Dylan had installed a lot of mirrors around the townhouse that didn't survive the renovation.

The current owners used the home as a pied-à-terre and visited New York City less than five times a year.

The owners had rented out the townhouse for the last year, Larson said.

The ground floor features a patio and garden that lead to the shared garden.

The parlor level also has a terrace that leads to the lower level.

"It's not super unique to have necessarily a small terrace or a balcony on the parlor floor, but for you to be able to walk out onto it and then walk downstairs to access the garden below is pretty unique and pretty special," Larson said.

A unique feature of the home Dylan owned is the brick staircase from the private patio that leads to the shared garden.

"In my opinion, the backyard is one of the prettiest in all of Turtle Bay Gardens because it has that bi-level aspect to it, and just beautiful brickwork and stonework," Larson said.

The five-bedroom, 5½-bathroom home has around 5,400 square feet of interior space.

The library has a fireplace — one of seven in the home.

The archways throughout the five-story home are original. The elevator, though, was added on after Dylan sold.

Larson said the home is 19 feet wide.

"Some 19-footers have elevators and some don't," she added. "Having an elevator is huge."

The status of Patrick Mahomes' ankle was widely discussed leading up to Saturday's game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans.

While there was some doubt during the week whether the star quarterback would play against the Texans, he was able to fully get through the Chiefs' practice Thursday. 

Mahomes was cleared to play and finished Saturday's 27-19 victory over Houston with 260 passing yards.

But the three-time Super Bowl winner turned some heads when he managed to stay on his feet after nearly being tripped and sprinted into the end zone for the first score of the game.

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Mahomes was sidelined in the fourth quarter of the Chiefs' Week 15 game against the Cleveland Browns. Backup quarterback Carson Wentz stepped in for Mahomes and finished the 21-7 win over the Browns with 20 passing yards.

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Mahomes' 15-yard scramble Saturday marked the longest rushing touchdown of his career. Moments after Mahomes crossed the goal line, broadcaster Noah Eagle wondered, "What bum ankle?"

This was not the first time Mahomes dealt with an ankle injury. 

During the 2022 NFL postseason, Mahomes sustained what appeared to be a high ankle sprain in a divisional round playoff game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

The win over the Texans improved the Chiefs' record to 14-1. Kansas City had already clinched a playoff berth after winning the AFC West a ninth straight year.

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Patrick Mahomes remains undefeated against ankle injuries.

The Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback took the field on Saturday, battling through an ankle sprain to deliver a 27-19 win over the Houston Texans. Mahomes passed for 260 yards with one touchdown pass and one touchdown run. 

Mahomes was never a guarantee to play after leaving last Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns with the sprain. But it didn't even stop him from missing any practice this week, as Mahomes went through his typical routine despite the injury. 

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It was familiar territory for the three-time Super Bowl champion. Mahomes has played through an ankle sprain in the 2022 playoffs, when he returned in the AFC championship after suffering the injury to beat the Cincinnati Bengals and then played two weeks later to beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl. 

Mahomes' most recent ankle sprain was said to be mild, which typically still takes two to four weeks to fully heal. However, Mahomes has proven to be a player who returns from injury more quickly than expected. 

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The last time Mahomes missed a game due to an injury was 2019 when he missed just two games after suffering a dislocated patella against the Denver Broncos.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid told reporters during the week that he was "amazed" by his quarterback's ability to return from injury so quickly. 

"I've been through it with him before, and he amazes me every time he does it," Reid said. "He's so mentally tough. It's a mindset he has going into it. Where he was a few days ago, I'd probably say it was a longshot. He's done well with it."

Mahomes, meanwhile, under-promised and over-delivered on his availability this week. He suggested to reporters on Tuesday that he wouldn't play unless he felt he wouldn't "limit the game plan" with his injury. 

"I don't want to limit the game plan," Mahomes said. "That's another thing for me. I want to be able to still be able to move around the pocket so we're not just sitting in one spot the whole entire game and leading the D-line to get after it. So, it's about me finding that balance and seeing where I'm at and, like I said, I won't know until closer to the end of this week."

But with the win, Mahomes and the Chiefs close in closer on history. For vanity's sake, they have won their 16th straight game by one possession, breaking a tie with the 2004 New England Patriots. 

More importantly, they are now just one win away from securing the No. 1 seed in the AFC. That would grant the Chiefs a first-round bye and home-field advantage en-route to the Super Bowl. 

Mahomes and company are looking to become the first team in NFL history to win three straight Super Bowls. Their road to achieving that just got shorter with Mahomes' latest heroics. 

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Earlier this week, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said he didn't want to put himself in "harm's way" and wanted to "protect" himself after sustaining an apparent ankle sprain.

Now, it seems Mahomes has nothing to be worried about.

The two-time NFL MVP is off the Chiefs' injury report and is good to go for Saturday's game against the Houston Texans.

Kansas City head coach Andy Reid told reporters on Thursday that Mahomes will "likely" play.

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The injury comes at an inopportune time, with the Chiefs set for a stretch of three games in 11 days due to playing on Christmas Day, a rare Wednesday NFL contest.

"It’s not a good feeling," Mahomes told reporters last week about the schedule. "You never want to play this amount of games in this short of time. It’s not great for your body. But, at the end of the day, it’s your job, your profession. You have to come to work and do it."

"All you can do is focus on the game. The practice you have that day," he added. "I try to prepare my body all year long for this stretch. That's tailoring my workouts, tailoring how you practice and prepare, and the coaches do a great job of taking care of us on the practice field. We practice as hard as anybody, but they know how to dial it back when needed."

Mahomes injured his ankle in the fourth quarter on Sunday during the game against the Cleveland Browns. X-rays were negative, but backup Carson Wentz entered the game for a brief period.

Mahomes said he wanted to "be able to move" and "get out of the way" if he were to take the field this weekend.

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"You don't want to go out there and put yourself in harm's way. It's football. You're going to take hits, but you want to be able to protect yourself," Mahomes said this week.

"I don't want to limit the game plan," he said. "That's another thing for me. I want to be able to still be able to move around the pocket so we're not just sitting in one spot the whole entire game and leading the D-line to get after it. So, it's about me finding that balance and seeing where I'm at and, like I said, I won't know until closer to the end of this week."

The Chiefs are looking to maintain their hold on the top seed in the AFC. At 13-1, they have the best record in the league and have a two-game lead over the Buffalo Bills for a first-round bye. But the Bills would hold the tie-breaker over the Chiefs if they finish with the same record because Buffalo beat Kansas City, 30-21, on Nov. 17. 

A win would improve the Chiefs to 13-1 and edge them closer to clinching the top seed in the conference.

Fox News' Ryan Gaydos and Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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