74: Use less stuff – how to do it, why it’s hard
Want to use less stuff? Let's dig into a different way to look at the issue: the actual reasons using too much stuff started, why it happens in areas of our life we're not even aware of, and how that may be the key to helping us use less stuff. (Don’t want to read all the words? This blog post is also a podcast—just press the triangle play button on the little black bar at the top of this post!) This article is not about seeing if you can fit all your trash from the year in a tiny little box—this goes deeper than how much we're throwing away. This is about what comes before worrying about how things are packaged or what we're going to do with it all when we're done. Why do we use too much stuff? Because it's there. And it's cheap. I don't need coffee—really, I don't—but I drink a lot of coffee. And I got okay with drinking a lot of coffee because it didn't hurt at all to buy it. The "problem" is that now I've found some really great coffees (small business, small batch roasts like Holler Roast) that I really like that are more money than what I can get at the grocery store. And to buy that really great coffee would cost me a lot more money for the amount that I drink. What are my options here? I have two: buy cheaper coffee or drink less coffee. And the answer to this question is really what's underneath our issue of using too much stuff. In the past, things were more expensive and less readily available because giant corporations weren't the ones producing the things. Things got cheaper when we wanted the convenience of readily available options. And I don't just mean available for you and me, I mean for everyone. You know how a l-o-n-g time ago it was only the wealthy that could afford meat? And now, hundreds of years later, we have fast food joints pumping out more burgers and chicken sandwiches than we know what to do with? That's how we ended up with feedlots and giant chicken houses and cheap meat. It was the only way to supply for the demand. You know. We needed (cough) more stuff (cough). More stuff for less money. Years ago, this wasn't anything I considered when I questioned how to afford my favorite small batch coffee or locally raised meat. I just fell into the if I'm going to be able to afford to have all the things I want, I need to buy the cheaper versions frame of mind. Yeah, it wasn't fair. Yeah, I wished I could buy the better stuff and support my local peoples. But I "couldn't". But with age comes wisdom. And along the line I realized it's easier to afford the better stuff—the stuff that's priced at the true cost, not the cheap-labor-crappy-food-giant-corporation-version cost—when you're scaling down to what you actually need. Side note: I understand that some of you are in a stage of life where you have to buy the cheapest thing available. I've been there, too. I know what it's like to walk into the grocery store with $10 and wonder how to make it stretch. Please take what you can from this topic that works right now, and save the rest for when you're in a different place financially. Some people pay more for organic because they feel like they are voting with their dollars. Regardless of how you feel about the validity of the organic label, chances are that if you pay more for what you eat, you’ll be more careful with how you use it. I can spend $7 on a quart of conventional heavy whipping cream or I can spend $6 on a pint of organic heavy whipping cream. If I buy the organic, you better believe I'm going to use it sparingly. Which is really how I should be using it anyway. And maybe that's the point. Things are so readily available, and in the grand scheme of things, cheap, we sometimes pour/cut/use/eat more than we really need to. Read that again. Use less stuff? Ok. But I still expect what I want to be available... Have you ever been at the store when the shelves are bare? When they're out of an item? When a shipment didn't come in?
