DVDs, CDs, video games, books…how much is enough? I have a feeling that if I could undo every purchase I’ve made in these categories I might be debt free today. Maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but there is no doubt I’ve burned a lot of money on this stuff. I’ve spent some time over the last couple of weeks going through what I own and figuring out what I can get rid of. If I am brutally honest with myself, I could get rid of all of this stuff- I don’t NEED any of it. If I lost my income and had to figure out how to survive none of this stuff would help- unless I built a shelter out of DVDs and burned books for heat and light. 🙂
Ultimately, there needs to be a balance here. We do need (lowercase need) a few items for entertainment and it is hard to argue with the value of a good book. The problem is our rabid consumerism culture drives us to always buy more and more stuff. If you buy a DVD and watch it 10 times, I’d say it’s a pretty good value. However, if you watch it once or never, what good does it do to have it on your shelf? Is a DVD collection some mark of pride or satisfaction? I imagine that it could be for some people, but it really shouldn’t be. I think the other problem inherent with large collections of ‘stuff’ is that we naturally must put less value in each individual item that we own. If you own 4 DVDs, there is probably a good chance you really like those 4 and you will watch them over and over. If you own 50, how many of those DVDs do you really like? Could you possibly name all 50 that you own? If not, what is the point? What if you could go back in time and turn 40 of those DVDs into $400 that was sitting in the bank right now or being paid toward your debt? I know which I would rather choose, though I probably would have made the wrong choice not too long ago.
So…what is the point of this little rant? I’m trying to practice what I preach and spend some time cleaning out my collections of stuff. Currently, I am spending a lot of time listing things on Ebay and preparing some boxes of things that wouldn’t sell for very much to take to a local used book store to cash in. I have literally found so much stuff that this is going to take at least a couple of weeks, but look for a report later this month on how much cash I’ve turned this junk into and what I will do with the money.
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