PURCHASE LESS - LIVE MORE

If I can’t find a lid to a plastic container, I will usually throw the container in the garbage, giving no thought to the time or energy used to create it, or its environmental impact. My father in-law, on the other hand, saves yogurt containers and re-purposes them as food containers. Not because he is a staunch environmentalist, but because he sees value in his yogurt container. He sees no compelling reason for buying a new container when he has perfectly fine yogurt container. My mother would get angry with us if we ripped the wrapping paper on gifts, as she wouldn’t be able to reuse it. Does anyone reuse wrapping paper anymore? (Maybe that is a little strange? Were we the only family?)

 

When I look around my house, there are probably only one or two boxes of things that are irreplaceable. Other than that I have nothing that I value, it’s just stuff. I never purchased it because it meant anything. I most likely bought it because it was on sale. I have spent close to a decade mindlessly buying things that add very little value to my life. I am a gypsy at heart, and I am most content when I just have a suitcase of clothes. I remember that buying a refrigerator seemed like an enormous responsibility. Between the ages of 22 to 32, I lived in 13 different places. I never accumulated anything, and I couldn’t have been happier. I have to ask myself what happened.

 

Why did consuming become more important than spending time doing something you love or with people you love? I think because it’s easy. It’s a quick fix, and it’s easier to believe that material goods define you, as that requires little effort (apart from a few hours at the mall). When you choose to define yourself by how you live your life, that requires work.

 

I’m not sure if there is anyone that feels the way I do, but when I go to a large mall I feel my soul being sucked out. The more time I spend shopping, the more numb I become. I then engage in some fine food court dining which leads me to feeling numb and nauseous, which of course leads to the deep desire for a Starbucks coffee to jolt me back to life.

 

I have come to realize that my stuff doesn’t define me: I am certainly more than that! I plan to stay out of malls and spend more time enjoying the things that are irreplaceable, and that would be Antoine, Pete, my family, my friends and Matilda the dog.

 

“When we try in good faith to believe in materialism, in the exclusive reality of the physical, we are asking ourselves to step aside; we are disavowing the very realm where we exist and where all things precious are kept -- the realm of emotion and conscience, of memory and intention and sensation”. -John Updike

TIPS FOR CONSUMING LESS AND LIVING MORE

• Find a new pastime that invigorates you
• Reconnect with an activity you once loved
• Don’t go shopping
• Value the things you have
• Don’t purchase things you don’t need (even if it’s 75% off)
• Give your time to others
• Help someone less fortunate than yourself
• Evaluate who and what is important to you
• Move your body (mall walking doesn’t count)
• Get rid of things you don’t use, so you can appropriately take care of the things you do.
• Stop trying to keep up with the Jones’ (they are as messed up as you are)
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