The suffering economy may be leading people to couponing and cocooning, but we’re still suffocating in stuff. Gosh, when I recently took some high-quality clothes to a local consignment store, they rejected almost all of it. “We just can’t handle any more inventory; we’re stuffed!” the manager told me.
If the stuff surrounding you seems to be growing like a fungus, you’re not alone, as this Zogby Interactive survey suggests:
- 22 Percentage of U.S. adults who have given away more than 10% of their belongings because they were no longer needed
- 17 Percentage who said they gave things away in the past year because they have too much
- 28 Percentage who said they had given away more of their belongings in the past year than they had previously
Let’s face it: We’re not addicted to love (as the song says), we’re addicted to stuff! And shopping! No doubt there are cultural reasons (the buy-buy messages never stop, and shopping is social), and probably some psychological ones (retail “therapy” and oh, the joy of the purchase!).
Nonetheless, imagine how much more money we’d have if we could limit our addiction. And with that extra money, we could slow down, buy some time and give ourselves a BreakAway.
After all—as we say on this website over and over—the best investment you can make is in good memories. Because nothing appreciates more over time.
No, not even your stuff.
