<p>The following has been on my mind for a long time. I went to a dinner party yesterday and it just stirred in my brain.</p>
<p>I know this is the consumer economy, but really we don’t have to buy stuff.</p>
<p>I look around the house and I see plenty of stuff I don’t need. </p>
<p>I know this is the consumer economy, but there is no law that says we have to have that tv set, that piece of jewelry, that new outfit, the new sporting goods, the new cell phone, the new car, etc. It’s ok not to buy stuff.
George Carlin did a great routine about stuff. </p>
<p>Stuff gets in the way. If you don’t need stuff, it is very freeing. (And you need less money :)).</p>
<p>There are a couple of things I have bought that I don’t need. But hey, those things filled a psychogical need. </p>
<p>The older I get, the less I need stuff to satisfy psychological needs.</p>
<p>I sometimes think I would like to start fresh with no ‘stuff’. I am overwhelmed and my life is cluttered by stuff. I keep meaning to de-clutter but I look and don’t know where to start. Plus we have so much stuff I can’t find stuff when I actually need it so then, guess what - yep, I go and buy more stuff.</p>
<p>I come from a Quaker family where acquiring “stuff” beyond the essentials was always viewed as more of a hindrance than a goal. As an adult, I’ve raised my daughter with those values and have been pleased to see them take root in her. Consumerism run amok isn’t a good thing.</p>
<p>I like my stuff. I love my old cars, my art, my antiques. I look at them and I smile at their inherent beauty and timeless perfection. The idea the some craftsman 400 years ago touched what I have today and all the places that piece went before it came tome are very interesting. Even that fact that my old Porsche had a hand penciled swastika on the inside of a door panel I removed was interesting. I wonder about that worker in Germany and what he was thinking in 1969.</p>
<p>^Seems to me that anyone who would hand pencil a swastika isn’t thinking about anything that I would find remotely interesting. Disturbing for sure, but not interesting.</p>
<p>I like to buy quality stuff because they last a long time. But lately, the stuff that I’ve seen in the shops are not stuff that I like to buy. So stuff it for the retailers.</p>
<p>^Seems to me that anyone who would hand pencil a swastika isn’t thinking about anything that I would find remotely interesting. Disturbing for sure, but not interesting."</p>
<p>OT, but my husband and I were house hunting about sixteen years ago and were looking at a lovely old home, went into the basement (which was partially finished) and there was a huge swastika painted on the wall. The owners said it was there when they bought the house and they “just didn’t bother” to paint over it. They seemed rather unconcerned. It was odd to say the least.</p>
<p>I love the things that money buys. I’ve had more experiences at 23 than any king 200 years ago. The inexorable climb of technology & economic growth made that possible. Why have advanced specialization which lowers the prices on most goods if you are not going to buy the stuff?</p>
<p>Do I sense a “down with stuff” movement? Or is it a "“Stuff stuff!” movment? </p>
<p>Are we rebelling against new stuff, stuff acquired second hand for a reasonable cost, or free, recycled/reclaimed stuff? Are we to go stuffless?</p>
<p>I mean, I have a garage full of stuff, and a cellar full of stuff. Some is useful, like lawn care stuff, or camping stuff. Even cooking stuff. I admit I don’t have an acquisitive nature, and I’ve assembled this stuff solely on the basis of a utilitarian need, not avarice.</p>
<p>Some of this stuff is even older than I am, and I’m no spring chicken.</p>
<p>I have little duplication among my stuff. I tend to use stuff far beyond its useful life. I’ve been known to give away stuff I no longer have use for.</p>
<p>If I got rid of the lawn equipment, I’d need a sheep or two to keep the grass trimmed. But then I’d need sheep care stuff. It’s a viscious circle. We’re doomed.</p>
<p>I have a friend who likes “stuff”, she and husband have no kids yet, both travel alot for work, also like to travel as a “hobby”. They have so much STUFF collected from all over the world(I like to call it something else that begins with an S ) however, her parents two car garage is stuffed with their “stuff”, now they are paying RENT for a storage facility to hold all their stuff.</p>
<p>Our house has fewer furniture pieces than the average house in the US. Ten yeard ago H and I were stupid enough to move our household from a tiny house to a bigger house without any help. DIY move was a bad idea, really. It took us a lot of Advil to recover our sore backs. Ever since that move, we both developled “allergy” to furniture. If you do not have much furniture, you tend to accumulate less stuff. I regularly take the stuff I do not need to Goodwill.</p>
<p>We better buy stuff. Lots of stuff. Otherwise the current recession is going to get a lot deeper and last a lot longer. Consumer buying is the largest driver of the US economy. So Buy! Consume!</p>
<p>(PS: If your house is too cluttered you don’t need to keep the stuff. You can throw it away if you like. But please don’t stop buying stuff. We all need to do our part.)</p>
<p>If you were in India a swastika would be a good thing, Hitler stole the symbol from them. We have an Indian newspaper saved as an example of a different alphabet (H from there) and there’s swastika in an ad. </p>
<p>Regarding stuff- we are not packrats but we don’t go out and replace “perfectly good” furniture or even clothes (my definition is different than H’s or we may NEVER get anything). We have furniture left from when we were each single and I am looking forward to donating most of it and getting new stuff when we downsize after moving for retirement. We also have accumulated things over the years that will go when I know son doesn’t need them for an apt. Phases in life- the old cheap stuff (those brown plastic tables that served as end table eons ago but have been repurposed occasionally over the years for example- as speaker stands once) followed by long ago purchases that no longer work as intended (the 25 year old entertainment center modules I helped my then boyfriend now H choose- 2 of them still in use as a support for current tv but the original tv box to small…) and things for a family that outgrew them. I now understand why a retired couple moving to Florida got rid of their years of accumulated goods for their 6 kid family and started over. It’s scary to picture us as 80 somethings (if we should live that long) living in a furniture stuffed apartment of ancient things no one wants.</p>
<p>Looking at our house you wouldn’t know what we can afford. Sometimes I fantasize about decorator planned looking rooms but am unwilling to do so just for the sake of change. We have never been good at supporting the economy- maybe we should have, we would have had fewer savings to go down in value… I do donate things I see with no future use for us. Winter break son will have to decide which kid toys to save and go through those HS papers he still has- old math assignments have no value…</p>
<p>Final thought on buying stuff- sometimes I wish I didn’t already own some things so I could get the newer kitchen gadgets, dishes and other things to replace mine that are old, “out of date” (when does old become desireable again?). Somehow it doesn’t seem right that young people get all the new stuff I can easily afford but already own versions of.</p>
LOL. I know what you mean. For Christmas my 19 year old daughter wants a potato ricer from Williams Sonoma like the one I have. The handles of mine had a little trip down the waste disposal so look a bit tatty - I am so tempted to give her mine and get me the new one! As it is a Christmas present I guess I wont though.</p>
<p>I was able to give my father my perfectly good stove a few years back so I could get a better brand- his very old one had 1 or 2 working burners and the oven didn’t work but he would never let us buy him one (he got his first microwave oven from me when I got married and H had the newer model), this was the only way I could get him to replace his (too bad it was AFTER the last time we kids’ families got together at his house and brought hot food- never would have had such a nonfunctiong appliance if my mom were still alive). Too bad my refrigerator is too old and too big to give him…</p>
<p>We got hand-me-downs iPods from Ds, they got the new stuff a couple of years ago. Our family is iPoded out for now.
I do not care too much about aesthetics of my kitchen gadgets as long as they do the job. If they do not do the job, they are out no matter how wonderfully they still look.</p>
<p>Instead of not buying stuff, we should be looking into buying US-made stuff. A couple of weeks ago I annoyed the heck out of Nordstrom salespeople when I asked them to find boots or shoes that were made in the US. The pickings were really slim!</p>