When humans became gatherers, we started to accumulate food and other basic things for survival.
As we evolved and became more creative, we invented tools, discover beautiful things, saved stuff for harder times, etc. With this behaviour we then started to accumulate "things" other than just food, up to the innumerable "things" we can posses today. So it's in our nature that we want to HAVE more "stuff" for ourselves.
The issue is when we cannot stop accumulating and we let our lives be run by the sole adquisition of material possesions, becoming materialistic. In this case the best thing to do is not to stop aquiring the things we like or desire to have (BUT only IF we have enough monetary resources within our means), but a healthy detachment from them, thinking twice or thrice if we really need them or not, or if they are really going to make us happy, or if they are just filling an empty hole in our self-esteem.
So don't stop gathering, it is only natural, but we need to choose wisely before we get these stuff; think that yesterday we didn't have them yet, today we can enjoy them if we can afford them, and tomorrow they could be gone for any reason.
That's how we learn to detach and become generous, sharing what we have. By detaching we put people before "things".
