How much do we need?

[french frank]

Some couples of a certain age have a spasm of loft, shed and garage clearance because they don't want stuff to be a burden on their offspring when they die.

That's the bit that resonates with me. A friend whose husband was an indefatigable environmental campaigner hired a couple of skips and junked all his campaign 'stuff' when he died. There was an awful lot.

I suppose the point about the original article is how much more is available and we can afford to buy - and then never get rid of.

I plan on going through room by room, tidying and keeping what is 'comfortable'. I hate clutter.

[ardcarp]

Didn't Quentin Crisp make some timeless remark about resisting the urge to tidy and clean?

[amateur51]

Didn't Quentin Crisp make some timeless remark about resisting the urge to tidy and clean?

A neat summary of Mr Crisp's wit 'n' wisdom concerning tidying, dusting, dying and ... keeping up with the Joneses

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/last-will-and-highly-original-testament-of-quentin-crisp-esq-1127883.html

[ardcarp]

Thanks, amateur; this is the one...

"There was no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse," The Naked Civil Servant.

[amateur51]

Thanks, amateur; this is the one...

I remember his saying that after three (or four) years the dust doesn't get any worse but rather rolls up into balls so you can kick it out of the door.

The eccentric's eccentric.

[Ferretfancy]

A have a placemat on my table showing an industrious 1950s housewife cleaning the bath. The caption reads " A clean house is a sign of a wasted life" I try to live up to its precept.

[Serial_Apologist]

A have a placemat on my table showing an industrious 1950s housewife cleaning the bath. The caption reads " A clean house is a sign of a wasted life" I try to live up to its precept.

I bought the Snoopy PVC apron in Habitat for my mum back in the 1980s, with the legend "Everyone likes a little help now and then". Dad would then say, "Need any help with the washing up, dear?" It thus worked - up to a point.

[ahinton]

I bought the Snoopy PVC apron in Habitat for my mum back in the 1980s, with the legend "Everyone likes a little help now and then". Dad would then say, "Need any help with the washing up, dear?" It thus worked - up to a point.

Mightn't it have worked better had your mother responded "yes, please, dear - the latest Miele wouldn't com amiss"? (and you could have saved yourself the cost of the PVC Snoopron, too!)...

[Serial_Apologist]

That apron provided the necessary prompt, though.

[ardcarp]

We've got a fridge magnet [on the Aga, actually]....Make yourself at home. Do my housework.

[Serial_Apologist]

The Men Whio Made Us Spend - 9.00pm Sat 12 July, BBC2

"DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK New series Fancy an upgrade to your mobile handset? Thinking of getting a new sofa? Oh, you capitalist patsy, you! Jacques Peretti knows exactly why you're locked into a consumerist cycle of shopping and throwing away, and he tells us in another of his crisply argued series.

"The gist of it is that, once we bought stuff that lasted, and only replaced it when it was knackered, now consumer goods are designed to become obsolete, to be thrown away and regularly replaced in favour of something newer, shinier and more fashionable.

"This hasn't happened by accident but as a result of antiheroes whom Peretti names and shames, froM the 1920s light-bulb-makers' cartel to Swatch watches to Steve Jobs at Apple. The programme is full of striking images, too: one look at a post-festival field strewn with new tents that have been used once then discarded, and you see Peretti's point. DAVID BUTCHER".

Not one to be missed!

[ahinton]

"DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK New series Fancy an upgrade to your mobile handset? Thinking of getting a new sofa? Oh, you capitalist patsy, you! Jacques Peretti knows exactly why you're locked into a consumerist cycle of shopping and throwing away, and he tells us in another of his crisply argued series.

"The gist of it is that, once we bought stuff that lasted, and only replaced it when it was knackered, now consumer goods are designed to become obsolete, to be thrown away and regularly replaced in favour of something newer, shinier and more fashionable.

"This hasn't happened by accident but as a result of antiheroes whom Peretti names and shames, froM the 1920s light-bulb-makers' cartel to Swatch watches to Steve Jobs at Apple. The programme is full of striking images, too: one look at a post-festival field strewn with new tents that have been used once then discarded, and you see Peretti's point. DAVID BUTCHER".

Not one to be missed!

Whilst I agree with you in principle over the planned obsolescence thing (which has been going on for many years), even those things that are still capable of lasting a long time are still consumer goods purchased by people who some would label "consumerists who have bought - or been coerced to buy - into the materialist capitalist 'ethic'"...

[Serial_Apologist]

Whilst I agree with you in principle over the planned obsolescence thing (which has been going on for many years), even those things that are still capable of lasting a long time are still consumer goods purchased by people who some would label "consumerists who have bought - or been coerced to buy - into the materialist capitalist 'ethic'"...

Let's wait and see what, if anything, Mr Peretti has to say about durability in today's merchandise.

[Richard Barrett]

now consumer goods are designed to become obsolete, to be thrown away and regularly replaced in favour of something newer, shinier and more fashionable.

This hasn't happened by accident but as a result of antiheroes whom Peretti names and shames, froM the 1920s light-bulb-makers' cartel to Swatch watches to Steve Jobs at Apple.

It's not exactly rocket science is it.

Regarding how much we need, I recommend international house-moves, of which I've now had five, as opportunities for deciding how much stuff it is you really want to have dragging around behind you, partly because the less you take the less it's going to cost. In those circumstances it always ends up being FAR less than one thought.

[Anna]

Let's wait and see what, if anything, Mr Peretti has to say about durability in today's merchandise.

I bought my reconditioned Hotpoint washing machine in 2003 for £75. I had to have it repaired last year. Friends were amazed I just didn't throw it out but to replace the brushes, etc., only cost £25 and the local repairman (whose family have a shop selling washing machines) told me to stick with the machine which, if necessary, could be repaired cheaply and would outlast most new models.

My secondhand tv, acquired around the same time for free, is a 1994 Philips - ok it looks very old fashioned and people are aghast that I don't have a plasma flatscreen - but it works. I don't have a phone contract or smartphone, just a basic pay as you go Alcatel which makes phone calls and can text, cue utter amazement when I reveal it!

I just don't buy into the whole designer/consumerist/latest model mindset whether it's for domestic goods or clothes/shoes, it's all so unnecessary isn't it?