Monday, December 21, 2009

Stuff

We all have it. Stuff. Things. Treasures. Junk. I know that I have too much stuff and am resisting the "need" for more. I stumbled upon the story of stuff project website and watched the short 20 minute video of where stuff comes from and where it goes. Needless to say, it was eye opening, frustrating, sad and inspiring.

I have always thought that I had too many "things" laying around. I don't need anymore things and I try not to buy in excess. Living out of a car helped with the emotional ties that some people build for things. "Things" don't boost our overall happiness in the long run and it is actually quite damaging to our mindset and life if our main focus in our job is to be able to get stuff. Then we work to buy and when we buy we have to work harder to pay for the things we bought. If we are lucky enough to get a raise, we won't see it because a lot of the time, we buy more expensive things and we are back in the same cycle.

There are things we can do about this. Let's buy less. Let's recycle. Let's donate clothes or buy used things. Don't trash what others might be able to use.

What happens when we throw something away? It's out of sight and out of mind. Or is it? I took this picture a week ago of our beach with the things we threw out of our hands and minds only to go right back in mine and now I hope, yours.

I hope it gets you thinking. I hope you start thinking about where things come from and where they go. Let's use less and live on less things. It will benefit us all.