This morning I made two sizeable purchases. One via a Belgian storefront for stuff like an automated cat feeder, some kitchen supplies, another air filter since allergies are whooping us, and some cat treats. The other purchase was from the US Amazon storefront and represents something like three+ months of stored-up shopping cart. Possibly the biggest Amazon order I’ve ever made but maybe not [not four digits big, just a lot of stuff at once, then with shipping and international handling fees and currency conversions and whatnot].
To explain the latter, when we moved I lost a decades-long history of streaming movies. Upwards of 200 movies. Most likely upwards of 300 movies. Stuff I’ve watched a lot. Genre classics. A fairly joyously curated list. And stuff from streaming services like Shudder which is not available here.
Something I started doing was picking up, through various methods — largely online — was high quality physical replacements of my favorite bits of that lost digital media. Some US versions but also UK, Belgian, French, German, Australian, Japanese, and so forth releases. I am finally at the effective end of that and today’s order was more or less wrapping it up.
Only, as soon as I clicked order I got kind of a icky feeling.
Not for what I ordered. Not for my at least momentary rampant consumerism. While this is something like twenty movies and that’s a fair lot, it does represent a fairly curated list and mostly definitive editions of everything on the list.
It’s just… I hit this moment where I’m kind of tired of buying things. Combined with stuff like pre-ordering the next year’s worth of Big Finish audios and some collector’s edition books — though of the “a lot cheaper” variety than my old indie book collecting days — it does represent a fair amount of money spent in the past two weeks.
Consuming media can be a black hole. Stuff where you spend more and more and then always look to a horizon. I am 100% opposed to the “clutter free” lifestyle that tends to prioritize streaming and the dissolution of ownership. I am also aware of my tendency to packrat and curate past the obvious choices. Stocking up on just-in-cases.
Anyhow, while I will no doubt enjoy and rewatch everything I ordered today multiple times, I think this vibe is a sign for me to call it quits right there. There are some pre-orders and outstanding crowd-funding. I have enough stuff to spend a good couple of months just enjoying.
Thus, from now until my birthday (30 May), I am going on a spending holiday. Taking a break from being a consumer whore, as it was.
While I promote ownership as a concept, especially curated ownership, you do really want to prioritize the stuff you will use and love.
This is my two months to do that.
And then maybe more but we’ll see.