part3: Materialism
It is easy to get caught up in the materialistic lifestyle that insist you to buy expensive things to impress others. All these things are related to one another. You want people in your life that applaud you based on your belongings. When you have a big house, expensive cars and other materialistic things people tend to connect with you, but otherwise they think you are uncool. Remember you do not want such people in your life that are only going to last till you have all those things. I would rather stay away from such people really.
When I moved to Australia, I thought all these expensive brands are amazing. You go to those overpriced stores where they have a queue outside to go in, security guards, staff dressed in suits, everything locked up behind counters. It makes you think it must be good. When I got few of those things, they were exciting for few days after that it was just another thing sitting in the corner somewhere catching dust. I do not understand the concept of luxury brands, they put the prices up by 500% and people pay the price. Although it is not handmade anymore, because it is all mass produced in China. I know because I had an experience once from where I learnt. I have an expensive leather belt which was around $400. I hardly wore it. So after couple of years the leather strips from the belt started ripping off as I looked properly they were just glued on top. So I went to the shop, showed them the belt they kept it and we will send it to Italy and let you know. After a month I had to contact them to find out what happened? After going back and forth they gave me a quote of $270 to put the leather strips back. It is ironic, after spending all that money they still want you to keep wasting more money. I took the belt ripped the unglued strips and never looked back. That was enough for me I learnt my lesson. It does not add up, wasting hard earned money on overpriced cheap goods.
I have not bought any clothes for a long, long time. Shopping industry has turned people vulnerable. Since internet came shopping experience has drastically changed. People can shop 24 hours a day. People can even buy things even if they do not have any money using the option of afterpay and pay later on in 4 instalments every fortnight. I did that once and it is very annoying. New trends come up every week. Different clothes, shoes launch every week in different colours. Back in the day there used to be 2 seasons summer and winter. So you can go and get either summer or winter clothes according to the time of the year. But now you can shop any seasons clothes anytime of the year. Before sale used to be a special thing. You get sale once in a year and people looked forward for it. But now a lot of factory outlets are open so sales are on all year round.
At one instance of time you can only wear a single piece of clothing. If you have 50 shirts, how many can you wear at the same time? After having abundance of clothes people keep buying more and more clothes. People have wardrobes full of clothes, some of those clothes still have tags on them. People keep buying things and they have so many that they have no room left in their homes to put it, so they end up hiring a storage container and pay monthly fees for all that useless stuff. If you do not have room for something you do not need it. I have seen people with expensive kitchen set which they keep in boxes forever as it is for special occasions. So many people have collection of things, without them realising it.
I would highly recommend watching the Minimalism documentary. It is a movement started by 2 guys known as the Minimalists. They share views on how you can be the change. They help in bringing the awareness to people and helping them getting rid of your unnecessary things.
