Since the year end, I’ve been thinking really hard about how much I consume, and how much I hoard. The truthful answer is too much. I definitely don’t need any more, and I have too much to use it by the time I die (I think). But every time I see an ad for a new pen (The Wren Write Off is so pretty, and sustainable???), or for a book from authors I follow, or an ergonomic lightweight bag for work, I just add it to cart, and sit there thinking about how fun it would look like on my desk and in my shelves. The trouble is, I’ve done this way too much for the past ten years, and I’m really trying to stop.

Fueled a lot by Tom Sachs’ use to death ethic, and Bill Perkins’ Die with Zero, I’ve been rethinking my collections. There are things I am proud of having, and I consider as long term purchases. However, I’ve got a few too many long term purchases, and not enough space to hold them. The space I have at home to house these things are already organised in shelving, and the excess is spilling over into other places.

I don’t know if it affects mental clutter as much, but I definitely have no-buying remorse. “I should have gotten this bag when it was on sale!” or “If only I had purchased five more of these pens before they went out of production”. The truth is I’ve not even used up the ones I already have. The mental loading works on two fronts: having not bought items to use, and also not using the items I’ve gotten.

So my hope is to minimize buying new items I already have equivalent of. It’s hard because I’ve got multiples of the things I want already. I’m the guy with 20-30 black tshirts, because they’re all different in some ways, but also the same. I think I might not need to buy for quite a number of years.

But I still need to work on my non-buying remorse. I continually delete purchasing apps on my phone, like AliExpress, Shopee, Amazon. But the purchases still come through, and my willingness to jump through hurdles is not commendable.

Therefore, my mantra for myself this year is simple:

Getting more stuff won’t help me make more stuff.

The contextual phrasing would be:

• getting more pens won’t help me write more
• getting more shoes won’t help me exercise more
• getting more art supplies won’t make me create more
• getting more bags won’t make me more efficient at work
• the list goes on.

Alternatively:

I need to make more from what I already have.

The big theme being contentment with what I have. I’ll probably make some stickers of these for the book fairs coming up, and hopefully with the things I already have.

Wish me luck.