It will come in handy some day!
The life and times of a belonging starts out often as the answer to a need. Hurrah, we have found that teaspoon set we needed, the MDF cutter to make portholes, the shoes that go with that outfit, the spice sauce we need for tonight's meal.
So we are happy. Relieved too. We may have shopped in the High Street or been on line and researched all the products first. When we have it in our house we know very soon whether it will really work for the reason we bought it.
Assuming it does, then we use it. And enjoy it.
After it has arrived in the cutlery tray, the DIY area of the house, the shoe cupboard or the fridge, it has landed in what could be a long term home. But, for example, how long will that spice sauce last? We need to be diligent to use it up before the sell by date if we have bought more than the needed amount. Often the producers make us buy huge quantities knowing that this indeed will happen - and they have made a good profit on the item. We on the other hand have paid double for the actual goods. I was in a supermarket recently and found that I needed some speciality rice for a recipe. I had to buy about ten times the amount stated in the recipe! That is quite some challenge!!!! Without careful meal planning, the spice sauce jar can languish in the fridge for months before we realise it is hundreds of days out of date.
But, say the shoes worked for that wedding outfit but are unlikely ever to be worn again, what happens then? Often the 'just in case' argument comes into play here. I recently worked with an elderly gentlemen whose reasoning for buying and keeping all his belongings was just this - they might come in handy so he wanted to keep them just in
case. He used to go to car boot sales and buy just because he liked the items without any idea what he would do with them. This is the same thinking as for the shoes but moved across all categories of life.
And while I was in the lateral thinking mode, I reverted to the spice sauce, and how we buy more than we need because often we have no choice, I reflected on the similarity between hoarding and overeating. Kerpow! The purpose of food is to sustain us through our days. The purpose of the large food producers is to entice us to eat their products instead of anyone else's. And not only do they produce items in as larger size as they can, knowing they can sell these, but they often add a hard to deny substance called sugar -some say a substance more addictive than heroin - to a huge number of processed foods which gives them an addictive quality.
Now here come the similarities between overeating and holding onto material possessions:
Firstly we are pressurised into buying larger sizes than we need, for the benefit of the supplier. So we might eat a little more than the recipe suggests as it is all right there.
Secondly we might be tempted to buy in bulk - protecting our supply of foods - the 3 for £10 items - just in case we might need them. We stock up our freezers full of 'I like food'.
And lastly eating what we want, when we want, irrespective of whether we are hungry is similar to buying things at a car boot sale not thinking whether we need these items or not. When we are doing this, we are failing to remember our lovely wardrobes, our shoes or our lifestyle really want us to eat when we are hungry, eat regular meals and look after ourselves so we stay the same sort of shape. However if we keep changing sizes, that God of Consumerism is going to win again as we will then need more clothes....
Sadly most of us find ourselves guilty of all these habits on occasion. (Spoiler alert - imperfection of writer). But what I find really helpful is just that. Watching our behaviour can be hard work in one area of our lives - but in another we can see it very clearly. So this can be really beneficial to both parts of our being.
