Tag: Consumerism

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attn: I’m a High-Functioning Hoarder

Ever scroll through your Instagram or Facebook feed, and come across an interesting two minute video that actually taught you something? It’s rare, I know. But then there’s attn: they’re a small big company creating daily content that – to paraphrase their by-line – tells us stories worth our attention.

And it’s not just do-gooder stories, they give you life-hacks, teach you about the food you consume, and tell you that in Switzerland, it’s illegal to have just one guinea pig or parrot because they get lonely. And now they have the added feather in their already full cap, of celebrities teaching you how to be better.

Better at relationships, better at understanding politics, better at sorting out the clutter-filled disaster that is your life.

This video of Jessica Alba teaching us how to declutter our lives popped up on my Facebook and Instagram feeds, and after the third time watching, I took up the challenge, and decluttered my closet.

Now I’m not your stereotypical woman, with 20 pairs of shoes, or the same t-shirt in different shades of amber, but I thought I’d give it a go, and see what needed to go.

With my declutter music giving me extra motivation (I suggest some Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and Queen), I tossed out the entire contents of my cupboard, and began the next step to improving my life.

via GIPHY

Turns out I have the same t-shirt in a rainbow of colours, way too many striped tops, and more than enough hoodies. So why do I keep buying more? And with that question, Jessica Alba was proven right; having too much makes us buy more, because all the clutter clouds our mental registry of our possessions.

Light bulb moment, right?

Well… kinda.

I’m donating most of those t-shirts and several other items to charity, but my cupboard is still full.

So thanks to attn: and Jessica Alba, I’ve learned that I am a high functioning hoarder (that tends to exaggerate). And now I know what to do about it.

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A Woman for All Seasons

Remember that comic strip, Cathy? She was the pre-Bridget Jones, pre-Spice Girls feminist.

And she said ‘Ack!’ a lot.

Cathy was a regular feature in the 90s Sunday papers.  I looked forward to Dennis the Menace’s antics, the marital spats of the Lockhorns, and then there was Cathy.

I was too young to fully appreciate her wit and neuroses. I was baffled by her relationship with food and shopping, and yet, because it was a ‘comic’, I read it, thinking that it must be for children.

But it really wasn’t.

Cathy was dealing with relationship, work, food, and weight-related stress. She was a caricature of the 80s/90s woman. She was dealing with low self-esteem, at a time when women had to prove their worth and capability in the sphere of womanhood. Yet, as her mania invariably surfaced by the second frame, Cathy was an independent woman, who struggled with her independence.

I realise this now, as I look back on those comic strips. Just think of all that shopping she had to do, which then became another revelation that she was ‘over-weight’ by society’s (and her mother’s) standards.  Cathy was dependent on material things, and societal norms. Yet she had a good job, good friends, a stable relationship, and her parents were still in her life.

She may have been relatable for women of her age, but to an awkward preteen dealing with weird hair and oversized spectacles, Cathy was a strange creature.

Continue reading “A Woman for All Seasons”