There's nothing quite like packing up and moving to remind us just how much stuff we have and how quickly it accumulates. I've been trying to figure out over the last couple of months where I even kept half of my stuff in my last apartment, and why, even with a whopping SEVEN closets, it still barely all fits in the new place. More than anything, I want to purge clean, which for me involves throwing out anything that I haven't used for the past year or two. And while this ritual might make me feel less guilty about having too much stuff, I am still haunted by the specter of the trash can full of stuff I just threw out. It's at that point I realize I shouldn't have accumulated all those things in the first place.
I think that most people suffer from consumer-itis to some degree. For some it may mean binge shopping, for others (like me) it may be a slow accumulation followed by a purge. Even if you make the responsible choice and recycle your unwanted materials, it is still waste, and will eventually end up in a landfill somewhere. My advice, though it can be a hard pill to swallow (even for me), is to avoid accumulating in the first place. Consider this as a challenge; rather than simply feeling that you shouldn't be buying something new, think about how you could acquire it used, or better yet, how you could make it out of materials you already have. Not only will this prevent the buildup of clutter, but it can also be extremely rewarding. How impressed will your friends be when you tell them that you built that dining room table entirely out of post-consumer recycled scrap wood donated by your local lumberyard? Okay, that is a little bit beyond my skill-level, but you get the point. Don't be drawn in by the "buy buy buy" mentality with which we are constantly being blasted by the media. Forge your own path, and discover you might have a great time doing it!
No comments:
Post a Comment