Overcoming the Impulse to Own
April 2, 2008 – 6:01 pmI almost bought all of the classic BBC comedy Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em on DVD earlier, but managed to stop myself, thankfully. Not because I don’t like the show - I love it - but because I realised that: a) I wouldn’t have time to watch it b) I don’t really have the space to store it c) I do not need to own something just to show that I appreciate it!
I’ve not always thought this rationally - which is one of the reasons I am running out of space in my house! - and I very rarely do think this rationally, especially when going into entertainment stores like HMV and Zavvi: the typical scenario being that I see something I enjoyed watching on TV once and think “I really liked that, so I’m going to buy it so I can watch again soon” … but of course I won’t have time to watch it soon because my life is so busy at the moment and I already have a large stack of unwatched DVDs, unread books and unplayed games.
So how can I avoid making this mistake in future? Well, I’ve decided my alternative to buying things out of appreciation and storing them (unused) in an actual room of my house is to create a virtual storeroom of items on this website. Look out for it appearing in the near future, along with a separate virtual storeroom of items I have decided I no longer want that will remind me to put them on Ebay or Amazon Marketplace add them to my Amazon wishlist. I will periodically review and prioritise my wish list and only buy stuff that has been high priority for a long time.
One Response to “Overcoming the Impulse to Own”
UPDATE: I finally did buy Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em on DVD with Christmas money, nearly nine months after putting it on my Amazon wishlist. I’ve watched a few episodes at work on my lunch break and it really is as funny as I’d remembered.
By Ian on Feb 4, 2009