Recently, I got to thinking..."a lot of the stuff we have is old and jankity". I voiced this thought to Sonya and we decided to make a list of all of things that we could categorize as such. If you know anything about the two of us, you should know that we both absolutely LOVE to make lists. It's one of our favorite things to do. Sometimes, we even make lists of lists that we want to make in the future!And I digress. What I was getting at was the fact that we've got a lot of dated things in our collective life. Here's a short list of some of the things I'm talking about:
- We use a VCR to record television shows
- The VHS tape we use to record television has been fully copied over at least 4 times
- We have a tube television that weighs about 200 lbs
- My cell phone does not have a camera on it
- I have a drawer full of cassette tapes in my van to which I still listen
- In my closet, among many other similar shirts that I wear, you'll find one which says "1999 College Basketball Champions"
- Every pair of jeans that I own has at least 1 hole (and they're not "fashion" holes)
- I've been riding the same snowboard for over 13 years
- Sonya drives a '93 Volvo station wagon with ripped seats
- I drive a '96 "Mercur" Villager van with ripped seats (the letter 'y' fell off the word "Mercury")
So, after we made this list, we started thinking "why do we do this to ourselves"? And therein lies our question to you, our 2 readers. Respond to the poll on the right about why you think we live this way. Then, comment with your suggestions about which one of these things we should change/update and why.
7 comments:
i figure if you're actually using the stuff...then why get rid of it. brett is going through a "clean out" mode and our new standard is "if we haven't used it in the 2 years we've lived here....we probably aren't going to use it....give it away!" -a
Yeah, we are using all of this stuff, so there really isn't a "need" to get rid of any of it. I'm sure we've got boxes up on our attic that we haven't even opened since we moved in and could do the same as you guys. Maybe we should?!
I started thinking about all of this stuff because I'm such a tech-nerd and usually like to be up on the latest and greatest (especially tech gadgets). However, in most cases I usually heed the words of The Fresh Prince, when he said in his song Summertime "if it aint broke, then don't try to fix it." (can you finish the song from there?)
Sadly, I think there was a hint of jealousy in me that wanted the new car and the ability to watch movies that I've recorded on my DVR in HD. In reality, I know that we are EXTREMELY blessed and there really isn't a need for all of that stuff. That being said, I don't think that there's anything wrong with having the finer things in life. It's just good for me to think on these things every now and then to get some perspective.
To me, it's a challenge: How long can we continue to use this old stuff and get the most out of it? It's the ultimate form of recycling (not needing to get rid of stuff at all!) I do realize that at some point, we might actually begin harming the environment more than we're helping with our two older vehicles...I hate to think of how much gas we guzzle up each month! But, for now, it's where we're at. I'm sure we'll re-evaluate once I'm finished with school and we have a little bit more income. Until then, I'm proud to "live this way", as Erik put it! :)
Fun blog! My favorite part is Erik's use of the word "jankity". ha :) I think you guys are in the norm. We have lots of similar stuff. If you get rid of the old stuff and replace it with all new stuff, you're going to be way boring! I like the jankity stuff. Way to go!
We've recently gone through all our stuff, too, and cleaned out what we don't use. Elijah convinced me to finally get rid of all my holey t-shirts from high school. So, I vote you buy yourself some new pants. : ) Miss you guys!
The one cool thing about having old stuff is if you keep it long enough, it becomes "trendy". We're SO cool!
I think you guys like all that "old" stuff and you like saying that you still use it. Which is cool! If you still enjoy it and use it, than what's the big deal! No need to fix what is not broken....so the saying goes! Keep it real!
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