Aibu to think everything is such a waste?

[AlpineButterfly]

I went into a home type shop this morning. There were fluffy blankets, ugly mirrors, elephant pictures,.dancing Santa's, colourful rugs, word signs. So much stuff. So much tat.

I'm right now babysitting a friend's boy. The telly is on. My god, the rubbish. Adverts, trashy tv. What a waste of time.

How much of life is a waste of time and materials? I'm right now on MN, also a.waste of time.

I wouldn't even know what to do to stop the waste of time and materials. We do buy mostly second hand but... I don't know. I'm not even able to articulate myself properly right that second

DH and I are having a major crisis about all this at the moment too OP. That and the endless stuff we seem to have to do all the time to maintain the house, kids clubs blah blah blah

I popped to B&M to stock up on chocolate and I literally felt sick just looking at all the pointless plastic tat. A dancing Christmas tree. An inflatable beer pong hat. A plastic cup with matching earmuffs. This is the crap we’re using the planet’s resources to manufacture?

Surely pot plants don't count?! They release oxygen into the air. And I'm sure (based on nothing) they are proven to calm the mind, unlike the teddy bear statue holding a balloon with "live, laugh, love" on it that my daughter was so desperate to buy from a charity shop the other day.

Agree with you OP. I used to enjoy walking around the shopping centre, now I can't imagine why, it's all so horrible and garish and pointless, and just so much of it.

I don't feel the same about time though. Time you enjoyed wasting wasn't a waste and all that. And I enjoy sitting down doing nothing!

I could have written this post. I feel exactly the same, especially just now, post Halloween: plastic tat, synthetic costumes that will be worn once, all of it mass produced in China then shipped across the world so that children can fill their plastic buckets with an obscene amount of processed sugary shite.

I hate it.

And it all feels like a huge confidence trick: the pursuit of mindless ephemera and brain-numbing entertainment, while gorging on artificial junk and watching nonentities performing faked 'reality' feels like a way of making everyone too dumb, lazy and disengaged to notice what's really happening in the world. Oh, and if the planet gets destroyed at the same time, never mind, eh?

The man that fitted it said his wife has a new kitchen fitted every two years

And perhaps a new sofa in time for Christmas, seeing as we're being pushed into thinking that's a thing now, too.

I agree! And I’ve started wasting loads of time on here too!

I hit peak consumption a few years back, we were struggling financially after redundancy and mat leave and I hated feeling envious about my friends fabulous holidays and lovely things. I started reading about Minimalism and my outlook changed. Adverts no longer affect me, I'm not impressed by expensive things.
I do think that people are waking up to it now and this is why the high street is struggling.

I read this article the other day..... exactly how I feel about the tat that surrounds us

www.monbiot.com/2012/12/10/the-gift-of-death/#.WgA4NptNI58.facebook

The woman who has her kitchen refitted every two years most like living in chaos a lot more than.I do.

Lordy, have a Lemsip and a wank apiece and cheer up.

I am going to sound awful saying this but one of my good friends has a spending problem (IMHO) and, in the past 4 years since I have known him, has bought and sold about 4-5 cars - including a brand new Range Rover Evoque - changed a lot of his first new build house that he lived in next door to me, including things like a new kitchen, dining room doors, front door etc... then decided to move house about 18 months ago to ANOTHER new build about 8 miles away. In the past 6 months, he has had the kitchen replaced, bathroom redone, and drive resurfaced - all in a sodding house that was only a year old.

As much as I love the man, he is a complete prat when it comes to money and I think he has massively squandered a lot of his money over the past few years needlessly. Most of the money was his inheritance from his dad, and now he is in the process of trying to adopt, he says to me that he is panicking they may be turned down as he has no savings left.

No mate... you effing threw the best part of probably £60k down the drain on needless home improvements, a house move and lots of cars you didn’t need to change.

As much as I truly wish him success in his adoption process, I really had to bite my tongue when he voiced his concerns about his lack of money. I’m sure he probably knows it deep down. It seems his spending is possibly some kind of psychological self-soothing (says me from my armchair psychiatrist office!)

Sorry - that was a bit long and slightly off topic! I do agree with the OP, plastic tat is totally unnecessary and damaging for the planet.

I’ve become more aware of the adverts for children’s toys now Christmas is getting nearer and it’s all plastic plastic plastic. My DH often buys plastic tat for our DC - things they will play with a handful of times that then end up getting thrown away only to sit on a landfill site for the next 500 years. DH recently bought Halloween tat during a trip to the supermarket plastic spider, bugs and a textured plastic ghost which sticks to the wall/ ceiling leaving a greasy mark that I was less than impressed by! We live in such a throw away society and I think that plastic is a catastrophe in the making and am astonished at the lack of action taken by governments world wide in adddressibg it. I can only assume that they choosing to ignore it - any drastic measures could have a massive economic impact which is why no one country is going to be brave enough and tackle this very real issue head on.

Love this thread. Completely agree. We all need to downsize and simplify our lives imo. Plastic waste infuriates me. My work (of adults, let me clarify) decorates the office for Halloween! Who does that! More plastic junk that will be used once then dumped in landfill. Disgusting.

I also feel that we all buy too much plastic crap. We have become a throwaway society. Fortunately, the current publicity on the growing plastic crisis in our world is beginning to focus everyones' minds. It certainly makes me think twice before using single use plastic bags,cling film etc. The sight of sea creatures being strangled by plastic bags makes me feel ashamed that we don't look after our planet better. Let's hope that things will begin to change soon.
Thanks OP for raising this important issue.

What's the point of replacing a kitchen in a house a year old? What was wrong with the kitchen in the first place. That's so wasteful.

Bananalanacake couldn’t agree more. It is shameful, yet he seems to have an obsession with replacing things and buying new stuff. It is sad in a way, and if it affects his adoption process, maybe he will really see how he shouldn’t have been such a spendthrift and wasteful.

The food waste is also a good point. A lot of people believe that so long as food is consumed, it isn't wasted. But that's not true! If you eat it when you didn't need it, or its a "food" nobody needs like diet coke, then it's still waste.

Ref the huge amount of plastic tat, I think pressure is rising to recycle plastic, now that more people are aware of the damage caused to wildlife through plastic pollution. Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down, but maybe that longevity could be an advantage if plastic is recycled into building materials, for instance? We need to stop demonising plastic, it's not inherently bad, it's the irresponsible use-it-once-then-fling-it-anywhere attitude that's causing the problem.
I've been gradually decluttering over the last couple of years. Not in an extreme way, but I hope to reach the stage where we only keep things that are either useful or beautiful (preferably both). There's a lot to be said for just having enough, where stuff is concerned. It's tempting to hoard things, just in case they come in useful one day. But the way I see it, if one day I suddenly need, for instance, some more china to cater for extra visitors, I can always pop back to the charity shop and buy some. Or borrow some. I'm happy the charity shop makes cash from things I don't need, and somebody else gives them a new lease of life.
It must be so difficult being a parent of young children nowadays, with so much pressure on all sides to buy them stuff. In the UK everything seems very materialistic and people seem to be constantly looking for a quick fix. Shopping seems to be the new religion, with people trying to fill the void in their life with stuff. I have no answers, I'm still searching for my own path, but am learning to be a lot more discerning about what I buy.

Well said OP.

For a start, Christmas presents need to be culled right now.

Apart from babies or elderly parents maybe.

I cannot for the life of me understand how adults either want or expect a present. That is just so needy and sad. Grow up.

Less plastic, less packaging and so on.

A bloody good hug is great instead.

I suppose (Christmas aside) What do we actually need as opposed to what do we want.

And then when our houses are cluttered with shite we open a thread to help get rid of the stuff we never actually wanted in the first place.

It's hitting me extra hard recently with the reports that we have 12 years to avert climate catastrophe. I mean, it's the planet we're talking about, not some far flung country we don't care about!

Told my 18 and 27 DC's that I won't be buying for buyings sake this Christmas. I try not to buy pointless tat anyway but making an extra effort this year. Just not sure what "experience" type things they'd like which are a bit more interesting that just gift cards. One's at uni and other works and his GF is partly away doing her PhD, so difficult. Any clever ideas would be appreciated!

I completely agree. But then I have been watching old David Attenborough docs on Netflix and have come to the conclusion that the human race is the worst thing to have happened to our planet and the rest of the plant and animal species would be much better off without us.

I do like the internet though, even though it is a waste of time. But if I didn't do the internet i would have nothing else to do, being tied to the house with disabled DS.

Good thread op. I agree !
I'm not one for over spending but still seem to get caught up with some of it for example the new Christmas traditions of excessive advent calendars , elf on the shelf , Christmas Eve box . We're has all this come from ? It's just spend spend spend and then boast about it on Instagram etc . Deffo cutting down this year at Xmas , we have our own traditions and i refuse to take on anymore if it means extra spends and extra stress !!

My main concern is technology tho don't get me wrong it has its place but I think people myself included have forgot how to just "be" without being constantly entertained

Majorly it's going to backfire for our dcs generation

*majorly worry I meant.

Says the woman on mumsnet at 1am !! Up for work at 7