This is something that I NEED to get through my head!
We moved in to our new home on December 16th (2010) and I am still unpacking. I don't mean that there are a few boxes of rarely used things left to unpack. I mean that there are LOADS of boxes of rarely used things left.
What does this mean? It means we (or more likely I) have TOO MUCH stuff!
I have a horrible habit of buying things because they're pretty. I'm like a monkey attracted to shiny things! I buy note cards that are packaged in cute and pretty little boxes because I like to have them. Not because I use the box for something after I use up the note cards - nope! I do it just BECAUSE.
This also applies to clothing. I have boxes, and boxes, and BOXES of clothes I never wear, but they're too pretty to get rid of. So silly...
Then there's the difficulty of gifts. I have lots of beautiful gifts that I've been given over the years that are just that - they're beautiful (and often not all that useful). Sure I can store things in some of them, but do I NEED them? Do they add something to my life? (Other than another thing to unpack/dust/trip over?)
How did this start? Why do I (and many others) do this? I don't know, but I seem to remember having a closet FULL of empty tissue boxes. Yes, I collected empty facial tissue boxes. Why? NO IDEA. I should also mention that I collected empty sugar packages for a period of time as well.
I no longer collect anything. Nothing. Well, maybe money? (And it seems that I collect yarn, too.) But no teddy bears, elephants, giraffes, buttons, pins, thimbles, and DEFINITELY NO tissue boxes!
What do you collect (on purpose or by chance)?
I collect books... I have bought books just because the covers were pretty... sometimes books in other languages that I have no ability to read, just because they were so beautiful I had to have them. And books are a very heavy thing to collect.
ReplyDeleteBut you're absolutely right - are they really adding meaning to my life? Nope, just clutter. Beautiful, un-readable clutter.
Aside from books though, I don't collect anything, and I try to purge as much as possible to have things in the house that are only meaningful or functional.
If you think of all the resources that go into making "stuff" that people buy on a whim, that inevitably gets put in landfill; it's an atrocious environmental issue too.
I was buying a lot of candles for a while but haven't in a couple years and still haven't used up all the ones I have.
ReplyDeleteI constantly want to buy pretty things! I was just at Chapters and saw a box with recipe cards and wanted to buy it just because I loved the colours and pattern! I stopped myself due to the price and not the fact that I have a recipe box and use plain index cards.
Seeing this post made want to tell you to use the pretty boxes that the notes came in for storing recipe cards but you likely already have something for that.