How Nicely Should You Treat Your Belongings?
Maybe we're overdoing it
Treating your belongings nicely is what we’ve been taught, but it that optimal? A lot of treating things well means keeping them clean and with minimal wear. But doing that isn’t easy. Ever had white shoes?
If you own a car it is probably something you use daily. However, I doubt you wash it after every drive. You could, and maybe Ferrari owners do, but it would be a waste of your time. On the other hand you could never wash it and it would still run the same. Yet there is quite a large industry around car washes, so it seems like people enjoy a clean car.
Just like cars, all your belongings can be treated anywhere from the utmost care to absolute disregard. How you treat each item is up to you, but I’m going to argue that in general we’re probably treating our belongings too nicely and that it’s a waste of time.
As a kid I would buy the new Harry Potter book on the release day. I was so excited to read the book and keep it pristine that I would wash my hands before touching it and anytime I inserted a bookmark I would align it to the right so it wouldn’t put pressure on the spine. However, as soon as I finished the book it sat on a shelf never to be touched again until I gave it away year later. You are probably the last person to touch a given book, so do what is expedient. Now I dog ear the pages. My father-in-law gave us a set of Waldo books and he circled in Sharpie all the ones he’d completed. At first I thought it was ridiculous that he “ruined” them. But there were still dozens of unused pages and honestly that’s more than we’d ever do so it was great that he saved himself the time of having to look through the images over and over again for all the smaller clues. Imagine doing sudoku but not being allowed to write on it.
If you ever want to know how protective of your stuff you are, just let a toddler near it. Taking my kids around places has made me aware of my feelings as well as others on all sorts of items. No, I don’t want my walls marked up. But if they want to play rough with their toys and drag them across the cement then that’s their prerogative. It’s still not easy seeing an item you paid for get scratched, but will it make a big difference? It’s probably going in the trash or going to be donated in a few years, so I’ll let them enjoy it now.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting you crash into the curb when parking or never shower because it’s faster. Instead, I invite you to think of your life and all your stuff. Are you spending more time than needed keeping it in good condition?