Larvatus Prodeo

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” — William Morris

This year, my New Year’s resolution is that everything in my house must be either useful, beautiful, or both. If successful, I will waste less money and leave a smaller eco-footprint, simply by cutting out unnecessary spending on unnecessary products.

But I’ll be honest: while those are two goals that I very much aspire to, the only reason I am confident of keeping to it is because of a third reason, which is the joy I get from having things that I love, and the relief I feel once I finally rid myself of things that I don’t love. It’s a strategy that usually works well for me. I don’t do well with being told what to do, even when I’m the one doing the telling. So I’ve given up doing that, and instead look for better, more enjoyable alternatives. Rather than force myself to eat less dessert, for example, I buy better, more satisfying desserts that don’t leave me wanting more when I’m done.

Christmas is of course an excellent time to do this, providing an immediate source of both good and bad examples. The satisfaction that comes from a genuinely useful or beautiful item compared with the disappointment of taking home something that you neither want nor need has provided the necessary motivation.

Continue reading ‘Living in a material world’