Lugging the fourth green garbage bag filled with old clothes, pillows and blankets up the stairs, I’m starting to break out in a sweat. It’s spring and prompted by a phone call from Big Brother’s, they take away all my junk for free, I’m ruthlessly going through our house getting rid of our old, tired and no longer play-with items.

Surveying our front hallway, now crammed full with our cast-offs, I can’t help but feel a pang of guilt. ‘At least it’s not going to end up in a landfill site somewhere,’ I think to myself, ‘Or worse, at the cabin.’

It used to be these items would be stored until spring where they would find a new home at the cottage but not anymore. My cottage or “second home” is exactly that. The only things we take to the cabin these days tend to be brand new and nice. And why not?

With big boxes like Costco, Walmart, Superstore and Target all selling cheap chic, consuming has never been so easy. Cheap and cheerful have resulted in what I believe are the two laws of consumption.

They are:

Laws of Consumption

1. You fill the space you live in - the bigger the home, the more stuff you’re going to have
2. The cheaper things are the more you’re likely to buy.

I became aware of this second law when I owned my flower store, Anne Paterson’s Flowers, in Calgary. Every Friday afternoon from 3 pm until closing, I would sell all the cut flowers for half price, a “happy hour” so to speak. It wasn’t long before word got around and my store was packed with people buying bargain flowers.

People who didn’t normally spend money on flowers were dropping at least $50 every week. They loved “saving” so much money. In reality, they were actually spending more money.

I know the cheaper something is, the more I end up buying. I can’t resist a good bargain. I think I need to change my approach, especially given the environment’s increasingly fragile state. I’m going to start shopping for more expensive items. I won’t likely buy as many, and if I’ve paid a lot of money for something, I’m less likely to toss it.

Agree or disagree - send me your comments.

Cheers,

Julie

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 10:09 am and is filed under Décor, Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.