On one huge jade plant that was given to me by a friend in Raleigh, N.C, I could count 37 years of growth. In winter, it would have poor indoor light intensity and grow long and skinny stems. She would then put it outside in summer, and it would grow thick, succulent leaves. The result was a graceful cascading habit of growth. Then my son was learning to walk and pulled the edge of it, tipped the pot upside down and smashed it into 200 plants.
Jade plants propagate quite easily too.
If a single leaf sheds from a change in the light, you could stick it in the soil to form a new plant. Most of these really tough, hardy survival plants are easy to propagate. For philodendrons, you just need one joint with a leaf attached to it, and it will root in water. Then stick it right in the soil. Or you can pinch off a stem cutting and stick that down in the moist soil to root.