Over the last few years I’ve developed an exercise to help make purchasing decisions. It is quite easy and in general is very effective.
Here it is: picture you are at the end of your life. One last thing you have to do before you enter the next is look at the pile of trash you generated during your lifetime. Imagine the things you would see! Some good things like childhood toys, mementos, that pair of jeans that fit just perfectly but you finally wore out beyond repair. The shoes you’re wearing in every picture of you from college. You will be happy to see these again. They added something to your life.
Then there’s the real garbage. The stuff that was halfway to the trash when you bought it. The cheapo utensils. The paper plates. The fast fashion clothes. The toaster with an LED screen that doesn’t get hot enough to burn you. Thirty or forty smart phones full of gold and cobalt that cannot be repaired once broken. Thirty non-stick pans that each lasted about two years. These are the things you will be filled with dread upon seeing. It’s embarrassing to go through so much garbage in a single life. This pile contains so much plastic.
Looking closely, you might notice there are some things conspicuously missing from the pile. Your cast iron skillet is being used by someone else back on earth. Your guitar(s) have passed on to your son who has taken it up. Your father’s watch is still ticking, or at least kept on a dresser as a memento. The vintage Stanley planes you collected and used in the woodshed [my 2nd person ruse is breaking down here] were already a hundred years old when you got them. They easily have another century in them. The good kitchen knives you got for a wedding present just need sharpened up and they are ready to go for at least another lifetime. On it goes. Some of the things you used the most have not worn out.
So before you buy something just ask: do I really want to see this on the garbage pile of my life?