"When Spending Becomes You" Juliet Schor

We would all like to have it all, but for some people it is not enough to have the most expensive things, they need a lot of them, despite the truth of the matter being that they will not use most of them enough times for them to  even be considered "needed." People often like to collect things in order to make themselves feel better. Money can't buy happiness or friends, but it can buy people things to make them feel like they don't need the company of others in order to make them happy. But, at the end of the day, will all those unused "storage containers and kitchen utensils" make someone really happy? I would like to say no.

Some people often get in the habit of collecting unnecessary amounts of things and end up not knowing what to do with the excess of things that no longer satisfies their void of belonging. They often turn into hoarders without knowing it. My parents tell me they are not hoarders, but every single time I try to donate "the coat that has been hanging in the basement closet untouched for the past 7 years", they tell me I am a spendthrift. They do not need all the unnecessary things cluttering up their basement, but they are deathly afraid of throwing them out and make it seem that the pain caused by the loss of that item will equal the pain of losing a loved one. It makes me puzzled as to why they do this because I am not at all the same way. Every spring I open up my closets and shelves and throw out, or if possible donate all the things that I do not need anymore whether it's old receipts or clothing. I like to live an uncluttered life when I know where everything I own is and I don't need to feel like there's too much "stuff" all over the place. But, from the show "Hoarders" I have seen that people tend to put their emotions towards material things rather than facing the problems in front of them. Many people's addictions start with problems in relationships with their friends and family. So, in search of the happiness attained by maintaining positive relationships, they find material things which increase their happiness for a while and keep them thinking that they need more of those things to become more happy but, if they would have just worked on the problem in front of them and surrounded themselves with more positive people, they would have never obtain such an addiction in the first place.


On another hand, I do not blame the people who spend their money lavishly for things they might not necessarily need, but want. If they have worked for their money, then they deserve it, and it's not up to everyone else around them to decide whether they should buy something or not. Material things do bring people comfort, yet most of the time it is short lived and brings them further apart from the people that should matter most to them, but if the material things are not acquired in excess, then they do not have to become a bigger problem.