I have often, over the course of the past few months, found myself conflicted. I would wonder if I was making the right choices. The choices varied, but I guess the easiest way to unify them is to say they were mainly purchasing decisions.
I have started being more aware of the way my choices as a consumer affect the world at large, and as a result, wondering at every step whether I should be making my consumer choices differently. Should I be buying more produce at the farmer's market? Should I go thrifting more? Should I frequent Craigslist?
My roommate has a thing for antiques and restoring furniture. She peruses Craislist and frequents the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in town, finds promising pieces, and typically refinishes them to make them amazing. My other roommate (who just moved out) was into a similar hobby, though in a slightly different style. She also managed to find amazing things on Craigslist. I totally admire and slightly envy their talent at this. It's an idea I can get behind.
My parents house is furnished with a combination of mismatched Target/Walmart bookshelves, furniture they got secondhand when my dad was a grad student (kitchen table and chairs, nice wood desk, nice wood chest of drawers, my dad's metal office desk). The secondhand pieces are actually quite nice, but they've never been restored, updated, or fixed, except for the kitchen chairs, which my mom reupholstered a few times. Point is, most of those decisions were made based on utility on a tight budget and not appearances or style of any kind. Which I totally respect, also; raising a family of 4-5 on a grad student stipend and a postdoc salary would not be an easy task!
So, between these two mindsets, one that I grew up with and one that I have been living around, and both of which I respect (choose high quality but used and restore it vs choose low quality but cheap and take care of it), when it came time to buy additional furniture for my new room, I found myself having issues.
I felt guilty when I didn't like anything on Craigslist or at the ReStore. I felt guilty when I did not like any of the cheaper options ($15 black bookshelf from Target, $100 metal futon). But what it came down to, for me, was that I wanted what I wanted, within reason. Frankly, if I couldn't find options that fit within a reasonable budget, I would probably have done without rather than get what I didn't like for utility alone.
I'm not on as tight a budget as my parents were. And now, when they are on a budget with more wiggle room, they are starting to get nicer things. Furthermore, I think I'm bothered more by things that look mismatched. On the other hand, I'm not as interested in tracking down deals or vintage items as my roommates. Carefully handled particleboard can last for years and years, as we have found, and I currently have too many projects lying around unfinished to add more to that queue, as much as it would be fun to work on some furniture. It's just too much effort for the satisfaction I would get; it would be more productive to fix my bike (which I still plan to do, instead of buying one, or before buying one, at any rate).
So, the upshot of ALL this? I need to remember that there's more than one way to make any decision, and what's right for my friends may not be right for me. This goes for more than just buying choices. Same goes for planning a work/study/workout schedule, choosing a diet plan and how to stick with it, etc. I feel like people are always advocating their systems and their values, and as much as those make sense to me and I can respect them, that doesn't mean they are right for me. Even the values I was brought up with.
I have started being more aware of the way my choices as a consumer affect the world at large, and as a result, wondering at every step whether I should be making my consumer choices differently. Should I be buying more produce at the farmer's market? Should I go thrifting more? Should I frequent Craigslist?
My roommate has a thing for antiques and restoring furniture. She peruses Craislist and frequents the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in town, finds promising pieces, and typically refinishes them to make them amazing. My other roommate (who just moved out) was into a similar hobby, though in a slightly different style. She also managed to find amazing things on Craigslist. I totally admire and slightly envy their talent at this. It's an idea I can get behind.
My parents house is furnished with a combination of mismatched Target/Walmart bookshelves, furniture they got secondhand when my dad was a grad student (kitchen table and chairs, nice wood desk, nice wood chest of drawers, my dad's metal office desk). The secondhand pieces are actually quite nice, but they've never been restored, updated, or fixed, except for the kitchen chairs, which my mom reupholstered a few times. Point is, most of those decisions were made based on utility on a tight budget and not appearances or style of any kind. Which I totally respect, also; raising a family of 4-5 on a grad student stipend and a postdoc salary would not be an easy task!
So, between these two mindsets, one that I grew up with and one that I have been living around, and both of which I respect (choose high quality but used and restore it vs choose low quality but cheap and take care of it), when it came time to buy additional furniture for my new room, I found myself having issues.
I felt guilty when I didn't like anything on Craigslist or at the ReStore. I felt guilty when I did not like any of the cheaper options ($15 black bookshelf from Target, $100 metal futon). But what it came down to, for me, was that I wanted what I wanted, within reason. Frankly, if I couldn't find options that fit within a reasonable budget, I would probably have done without rather than get what I didn't like for utility alone.
I'm not on as tight a budget as my parents were. And now, when they are on a budget with more wiggle room, they are starting to get nicer things. Furthermore, I think I'm bothered more by things that look mismatched. On the other hand, I'm not as interested in tracking down deals or vintage items as my roommates. Carefully handled particleboard can last for years and years, as we have found, and I currently have too many projects lying around unfinished to add more to that queue, as much as it would be fun to work on some furniture. It's just too much effort for the satisfaction I would get; it would be more productive to fix my bike (which I still plan to do, instead of buying one, or before buying one, at any rate).
So, the upshot of ALL this? I need to remember that there's more than one way to make any decision, and what's right for my friends may not be right for me. This goes for more than just buying choices. Same goes for planning a work/study/workout schedule, choosing a diet plan and how to stick with it, etc. I feel like people are always advocating their systems and their values, and as much as those make sense to me and I can respect them, that doesn't mean they are right for me. Even the values I was brought up with.
