Did you know it snowed today? Here in Massachusetts, for most of the day, the biggest fluffiest snow flakes I have ever seen came down and made their best determined effort to stick and accumulate on my still blooming mums. It's supposed to be 60 on Wednesday. How is this pertinent?
My husband and I have been on a major cleaning out of office, basement, garage and house in general. That story of stuff thing? That's us. The part where the house is so full of stuff that things are bursting out the windows? Yeah, one more Christmas (and it's not that far off people!) and we'll be out on the streets while our stuff is all cozy inside...everywhere....taking over and multiplying. Cuz it totally does that! It's like you go to bed with not that much stuff but when you wake up in the morning...more stuff! It was a very wet summer. Maybe I should be keeping my stuff dryer.
Anyway, so we've been on this mission to get our cars back into the garage before it snows (missed that). We've been moving things out of the house and into the garage, and then listing them on Freecycle or Craigslist or Ebay. Slowly but surely things have been leaving. And slowly but surely I have been discovering things like my daughter's 24mth snow pants and jacket as well as the 24mth snow pants and jacket that someone had given me when my daughter was an infant, so I could use it when she grew into it, ya know and not have to spend the money to buy a new one. Oops.
I'm not exactly sure where I was headed with this huge tangent.... sorry. I'm sure it would have
been an amusing tie in... Let me think. Nope, not sure. I did have a point here. Maybe I was trying to distract you from the original point of this blog post; my necessary spending. Well, I'll get back to it now and we'll see if I can link all of this together.We were out of pull-ups. Yup, no trash day is going to be more like low-trash day here. All three of my children are potty-trained-ish. As long as I set a timer for every 30 minutes and insist that everyone goes every time it beeps, we're good. That includes through the night. So...pull-ups. I decided to go get them, taking my oldest along for the ride.
We walked into our local KMart and picked up our pull ups. Then we noticed they had snow pants out, and just the size we needed for my oldest son. They also had spiffy looking Spider Man snow boots, how cool is that? Oh, and the cutest little brown boots with tassles with poof balls at the end of them for my daughter. We also snagged a box of crayons, a box of pencils, and some dry erase markers.
Hmmm....necessary? Yeah, so I was so caught up in the whole house purging thing that I totally forgot that today was don't buy stuff day and so I went to the store to buy something necessary but then I bought, well, stuff. Stuff that maybe
we needed eventually but definitely not today. Stuff that will hang in a closet for about a month and a half until real winter comes. Stuff that if I'd taken the time to look on Ebay, Craigslist, and Freecycle I probably could have picked up in used but good condition. I have a bin with over 300 crayons in it for my kids to use and color with. Is it necessary to buy a brand new box of 48 just because my oldest wants his "own"? Ugh!I failed the don't buy stuff challenge. I failed in my efforts to purge my stuff because in the middle of it I went off and bought more. I failed in being a thoughtful consumer. I walked in, and thought there's a deal! There's a bargain! There's a shiny new whatever!
I'm not even going to bring up the disposable pull-ups thing, because if that were really the only thing I had purchased today it might be a debate worth having, but pull-ups are the least of my worries. As good as I thought I had been doing to buy less, think more about what I buy, and reuse what's already out there, today proved that I can still be just as careless with my acquirement of stuff as the next guy. girl. whatever.
But I a
m trying. I have been buying less. I have been shopping MUCH less. I have been thinking more. I have been looking for alternatives. I have been pushing myself to think and to be conscious of my actions and to use what I have instead of looking for the new and shiny. Today was a day when I should have been at the top of my game, and instead it was an eye-opening example of just how much further I have to go. But the good news is...I'm on my way! And taking part in this experiment is just one more step I can take in the right direction.Please join the experiment.
1 comment:
Who can resist a new box of crayons? There's something oddly comforting/happy about it. They look so pretty - nice and organized and when you organize them into color groups, it's just bliss. I think that there is some 'bargain' gene that some people have and others don't so much. So, until they find a cure, I think you're doing a good job! :) Temptations abound.
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