Sarah Morgan
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
This old saying is getting a lot of people’s attention lately, who are realizing that maybe it isn’t so old-fashioned after all.
This review of a book called Keeping It Straight had a passage in it that made me think – that, whenever possible, you should buy the best, least-likely-to-wear-out version of an item.
In this era of disposable-by-design, that’s harder to do than it seems at first look. Saving up to get the top-of-the-line next year instead of the mass-market version this week? That goes against how we think today:
- instant gratification
- convenience
- emotional shopping
And sometimes the flimsy version makes sense. On the one hand, I bought Ikea bookshelves to turn one room into a library, because I knew I was going to screw them together into one configuration that wouldn’t work anywhere else. But on the other hand, I saved up for a Stanley bedroom set because I knew it would work anywhere and it would last for decades.
What’s on your shopping list? Should you move it to the save-up-for list instead?
