My new Living Room Furniture was delivered a few weeks ago. I waited about a month and a half for the sofa and loveseat I ordered the last week of November. There was a delay in delivery at the end of December because of the weather, the same weather that had people stranded in airports on the East Coast. But, it was worth the wait. I sat and lounged and slept on my old couch for over sixteen years. That couch survived my son’s childhood and two marriages. Now it is sitting in my garage waiting to be hauled off to a junkyard for its final resting place.
The selection of my new living room furniture marked an emotional shift for me. I had spent the previous six months searching online for a new kitchen table and a sofa and loveseat. The kitchen table was a fairly easy pick: I knew I wanted six chairs and a table that was as long and wide as the table I’d had the past eleven years. That purchase was made quickly and the delivery was just as swift. For the living room, I spent a week, after I had three options lined up, measuring and re-measuring my small living room space over and over again. But it wasn’t about the space. I knew my measurements were correct.
What it all boiled down to was which choice I would make: get exactly what I wanted or pick a cheaper alternative that I could have lived with, but would not value as much? When I finally decided to go for exactly what I wanted, a light bulb went off inside my head. I have spent a lot of time during the last three years working very hard and not feeling as if I was getting anywhere. Yes, my mortgage and other bills are paid on time, but there was still a sense of lack. Walking into my house every evening and seeing sixteen-year-old furniture didn’t help my outlook. Even though materials things don’t sustain us, when you work 50 to 60 hours a week, a shiny new something (along with accounts that are current) can be the catalyst for pushing oneself to work the next 50 to 60 hour week. As I write this post while seated on my new sofa, I can assure you that my hours of freelance work are going by a bit more smoothly now.
I know that my epiphany will not magically turn me into an impulse shopper. I will continue to place items in online shopping carts and visit them every few days just to see if the item and its price still sit well with me before I finally hit the check-out button. What will happen moving forward is that I will not cheat myself out of getting exactly what I want; the things that will hold value for me and remind me that my hard work is worth much more than a cheap second best choice.-MBL
The selection of my new living room furniture marked an emotional shift for me. I had spent the previous six months searching online for a new kitchen table and a sofa and loveseat. The kitchen table was a fairly easy pick: I knew I wanted six chairs and a table that was as long and wide as the table I’d had the past eleven years. That purchase was made quickly and the delivery was just as swift. For the living room, I spent a week, after I had three options lined up, measuring and re-measuring my small living room space over and over again. But it wasn’t about the space. I knew my measurements were correct.
What it all boiled down to was which choice I would make: get exactly what I wanted or pick a cheaper alternative that I could have lived with, but would not value as much? When I finally decided to go for exactly what I wanted, a light bulb went off inside my head. I have spent a lot of time during the last three years working very hard and not feeling as if I was getting anywhere. Yes, my mortgage and other bills are paid on time, but there was still a sense of lack. Walking into my house every evening and seeing sixteen-year-old furniture didn’t help my outlook. Even though materials things don’t sustain us, when you work 50 to 60 hours a week, a shiny new something (along with accounts that are current) can be the catalyst for pushing oneself to work the next 50 to 60 hour week. As I write this post while seated on my new sofa, I can assure you that my hours of freelance work are going by a bit more smoothly now.
I know that my epiphany will not magically turn me into an impulse shopper. I will continue to place items in online shopping carts and visit them every few days just to see if the item and its price still sit well with me before I finally hit the check-out button. What will happen moving forward is that I will not cheat myself out of getting exactly what I want; the things that will hold value for me and remind me that my hard work is worth much more than a cheap second best choice.-MBL
