Freedom From Stuff

Lately, I have had several conversations about diamonds, expensive winter coats and a few other ‘fancy’ material items with friends and family. The conversation about diamonds stemmed from several things, a thought-provoking blog post, one of my friends who is planning her wedding, and another friend who is in the process of designing a wedding set.

Honestly, I think it was all the diamond ring talk that got me thinking about expensive material stuff and our relationship with that stuff. I have noticed a theme with people and their expensive material possessions.
I know too many people who put their stuff up on a pedestal and hold onto things they never use, because they don’t feel they should use them now. They’re saving it for a special occasion, a ‘what if’ moment to occur or some other emotional reason. If you’re doing this, than you don’t really need this stuff, you’re living your life fine without it, get rid of it!
I understand some things have a sentimental value, for instance an old piece of jewelry handed down from your grandma, I get that and by no means am I advising you to toss that. But if you’re not using it, because you don’t feel like you have somewhere special to wear it, get that out of your head now! Wear it. Wear it every day or at least once a week. I guarantee grandma would want you to wear it and not keep it buried in your jewelry box.
Another example is, I know someone who has a beautiful wool coat that she will not wear. The coat was a gift and she feels the coat is too nice and cost too much money to ever wear it. Instead of wearing the wool coat, she freezes every winter in a pleather coat (nothing wrong with pleather, but this coat is not made for winter, it’s more of a lightweight spring/fall jacket). She feels she should only wear the wool coat on special occasions. Call me crazy, but keeping warm during harsh Missouri winter days seems like a special occasion to me.
My point is, we have to stop giving stuff power. It’s there to be used, that’s its reason for existence. Not for us to hoard it or hide it for a special time further down the road.

So, let’s all take back the power from stuff. Let’s change our relationship with stuff. Stop waiting to live your life, stop saving your ‘good stuff’ for some special magical unknown date in the future. A date when your life will be complete and finally ‘worthy’ of using your stuff. Enjoy your life now!
There are two things you can do with your stuff you’ve been saving, use it or lose it. So you got fancy china for your wedding, but you’re waiting to use it for a special holiday or event? Either use it now, or lose it. Make some extra cash and sell your unused items on Craigslist or E-bay, donate it to a thrift store and get the tax write off or give it away to someone who you know will use it.
Because in the grand scheme of things, shouldn’t every day of life be viewed as a special holiday?