The Value of Things

So, I have discovered that my attention span for any given project/endeavor appears to be about 6 months. I suppose I would have guessed as much. No, I have not given up on my resolution, but I guess I have not followed it as faithfully as intended. I have found myself being lured back into the throes of consumerism. It started out as little things- my daughter wanted a gumball from the gumball machine and my son wanted a treat too but he can’t chew gum so I bought him a little toy from a machine instead. It was a useless little trinket. Then I bought some fabric, a pattern and such to make a new dress that I didn’t really need- I rationalized that I wasn’t buying the thing new, but only the parts- I was making it instead of buying- yeah right. Then a few more thrift store purchases of things that I didn’t really need because they are used not new… ha ha ha. It is discouraging to me how deep my consumerist nature runs. I have reawakened my joy for possessing and procuring so easily. I now question if there will be much change at all in my habits when the year is out. I hope there will be. I have no illusions that I will never want anything again. Many of the things that I want are wanted not just for what they are but the promise they hold of inclusion into various activities of society. That is part of the genius of product development and advertising- they tie the stuff into our ability to be a citizen of the world. Mostly what I hope for is that I will learn to live and be happy with less and that my primary definition of self is not as a consumer.


Anyway, I finished the book The Story of Stuff and it was a great book- I really recommend that everyone read it. There are so many things from the book that I want to talk about. Right now I want to talk about how we value things. As part of this whole process I have tried to reduce what I currently have. I have made monthly raids on toys, clothes and house wares to declutter and simplify. Since my son is young, when I decide to tackle the project of cleaning and organizing his room- it starts out as a huge sea of toy parts and upended bins that used to hold all these parts. It is really overwhelming. Recently as I was trying to get everything back in order and eliminate the things he doesn’t play with, the broken bits and such, I found myself throwing away a penny. I know I have done this before too. It is so silly because there is nothing wrong with the penny- it is still worth one cent, but in that moment of decision, I determine that the penny is not worth enough to put aside and later put in my purse. In the moment, the more important thing is just to get rid of all of the clutter. It is ridiculous that I should ever have even obtained all of that stuff to come to the point that it is so overwhelming that I am throwing away money just to be rid of it all.

Most of my clearing out ends up in a bag that will be donated to the thrift store so I don’t feel so bad about it, but I have often found something I purchased only a month ago at the thrift store, in the bag to go back to where I got it from. Still, not so bad because it will be reused hopefully. However, this got me thinking about an area that I used to spend a lot of money on- crafts. I did tons of crafts with my kids- often from a craft kit. They would make some useless piece of junk that they themselves did not value very much and it would soon end up in the trash. I’m not saying that children shouldn’t do crafts and be creative, but now I am reconsidering my materials. I think it would be better to have them paint rocks or pinecones or something from nature that can easily be returned to nature instead of plastic this and that that went through a long and toxic process to end up in my trash.

Now, as I go through the things I am getting rid of, I think, well at one point I thought this was worth the dollar I paid for it (a large amount of things easily discarded are purchase from the dollar section of various stores) but now it has no value to me. From reading The Story of Stuff I know that thing that I paid a dollar for actually had a much bigger cost, but the way that society is now structured, it is nothing, something to consume with little guilt because it’s only $1 and who cares what happens to it when I’m done with it. Those dollars add up to billions in money and in tons of trash.

One of the hardest things about not buying anything for a year is when something breaks. Then I have to have the debate- do I buy a replacement or is this something that I can live without? A while ago, my blender stopped working and as I was contemplating it, I could see how it could be unnecessary, how I could live without one- but I really didn’t want to. Miraculously, after unplugging it and leaving it for a while, it started working again. The same thing happened with the filter for my daughter’s fish tank and in a way I feel like I’m being blessed to have these things start working again. This however, brings me to a point about how our growth focused economy has structured things to make sure we keep buying. We all know that things are made more cheaply today- they don’t last the 20 or more years they used to. You’d be lucky if any given kitchen appliance lasted 5 years. On top of this, these things are made so cheaply overseas that it actually costs more to have it repaired by an American earning a US living wage than it does to buy a new one. So, most people make the financial choice of just trashing it. It is sad to think of how much we have trashed and how little we pay people in other countries just so we can get statistics that say that our economy is growing. That doesn’t make sense to me. Shouldn’t we reach equilibrium at some point? Nope, we get tricked into buying more things that we don’t need and into replacing things due to planned or perceived obsolescence. (That’s when a manufacturer creates something with the intention of introducing a product later that makes the first “obsolete” or due to advertising/imaging, makes you think you need a new one because the old one isn’t in the color of the season etc.)

Part of this problem comes down to changing our measures and goals for a successful economy- then onto manufacturers and their responsibility to make lasting products that can be reasonably repaired or updated. The responsibility for the consumer as I see it is to buy quality, long lasting items instead of opting for the disposable. After that, we need to take care of our possessions. Don’t leave tools, bikes and such out in the rain to rust. Clean things, put them away, use them properly… all the things we learned from our parents as kids because they were raised by people who went through the great depression and knew how important it was to work with what you have and make it last. I have had to change a lot of my habits this year as I have realized that when what I have wears out, I will not be buying another. Things seem more precious to me because I don’t have that mentality that it is just disposable and easy to replace. Because things are so cheap, that is generally how our society treats our stuff. Why bother putting any extra effort to maintain something when it can be thrown out and replaced? All the while, out of our sight, thrown away really means landfills that are overflowing to the point that we actually ship our trash overseas to poor countries- occasionally to be recycled, but often to just sit there and stink up their home. Clearly we have some hidden costs in what we buy and dispose of. What would you be willing to buy if you knew that you couldn’t ever throw it away- that you had to keep it in your home as long as you live? The whole earth is our home and even if we don’t always see the actual process of our stuff from production to disposal- it is always with us- the effect on our environment and health is reminder enough.