Why do people buy stuff? Lately Oprah has been helping people reclaim their homes from clutter. (I’m looking at Oprah.com because her demographics are similar to the demographics of the customer my company attracts.) One family had 75 tons of clutter in their home! 75 freaking tons!!
I grew up with a local charity calling weekly for a pick-up and generally we had a garbage bag or two of donations for them to pick up. It seemed the norm to me. Something in. Something out. I used to be disappointed in this because I don’t have any of those cool bell bottom pants or go-go boots from the 70s that my mom stowed away. But I didn’t really give it another thought.
Then, google reader popped up this blog for a family that is not buying anything for a year. I realize this idea isn’t new. What did catch me off guard was the matriarch’s comment:
“I often feel, (felt?) that most of the things that I bring into my house are only being rented not bought. I buy stuff. Bring it home. And then a year later, sometimes sooner, I put it back into bags and bring it to Goodwill. What a waste. Not only of money, but my time and energy. ”
How true is this? I can name a few items I’ve “rented” in the past year. I can also name a several items I’ve had for ages and love. I find it interesting that the items I’ve “rented” are usually cheap or on-sale. The items I keep are items that are higher quality. Yet, in spite of knowing this, I tend to gravitate to the cheaper items in the stores because it seems better for the family budget. Thankfully, Eric refused to let me shop at a less-expensive grocery store because he saw their pre-processed food as toxic. We may spend a bit more on groceries now, but want to eat out less, which saves money, because we are actually enjoying what we are eatting from the grocery store.
Maybe I’m interested in this subject because I’m in week 6 of the Artist Way and the topic is money–and treating your “inner-artist”. Speaking of which, I bought a friend in NYC. Her name is Maud (pronouced “Mod”). I’ll show you photos soon.
Hrm, hrm, hrm indeed.
Any thoughts?
^-^Katy