Consumerism has got to die!

So its been a while, i apologize i have been preoccupied with school and other things.  (i have an exam tomorrow) but i needed to do something to take my mind off school and those other things.  I want to elaborate on points i mentioned in earlier posts.

1.  Buying shit.  Women and men buy things that are in fact useless pieces of junk.  If you do not believe me watch the TV show hoarders.  People need to understand that there are only a few somewhat essential things for living.  Fridge, Stove, Washer, Dryer.  But even the washer and dryer are not really that essential.  the dryer certainly is not.  A Clothesline is a cheap and effective drying mechanism!  A washer can be the kitchen sink.  TV's are not important, a bed is not even that important.  i once had a roomy who slept in a sleeping bag on a hardwood floor for almost a year.  never once did he complain, of course he was from china and i have no idea what conditions he was in while he lived there.  Having a walk in closet full of clothes and then using another closet in the house for your clothes is a bit too much.  I know women will get pissed off, i was just describing my wife's way of storing clothes. you do not need buy all those clothes.  Now there are other things you may need in the course of daily living.  like pots and pans, a briefcase, and shoes.  I would make this suggestion: buy things built to last, like cast iron pots and pans, a leather briefcase that is guaranteed to last a lifetime and those leather cowboy boots or shoes.  Now it is certainly more expensive to buy things that last forever or at least as long as you will last.  But the benefits outweigh the costs.  I myself am a backpack guy, i never liked briefcases.  i don't know why but they just don't feel good to me.  anyway i bought this backpack recently.

I have to say its a solid backpack.  The whole reason i bought it was simply because i was buying too many backpacks over the years and my current backpack made by SHIFT motorcycle gear was falling apart.  The manufacturer of this leather pack (a small operation in San Antonio Texas) www.saddlebackleather.com guarantees this backpack to last 100 years.  Every time i pick it up i have more of a belief in the 100 year promise.  I have been using this backpack for a month and it still has not worn in yet!  That is how tough it is.  Now how much money have you spent on backpacks, or briefcases, or luggage over the years?  I know i have spent close to 600 or 700 dollars on backpacks since the beginning of high school 16 years ago.  it does not make sense to continually buy so much crap when you can buy something once and have it forever.  So splurge for something that is going to last as long as you will.   I know my next waste saving purchase is going to be a straight razor, i do not want to buy replacement cartridges at 20 bucks a set when i can spend a 100 on a straight razor and 20 bucks on a strop one time.  My whole point is that financially it makes sense to buy something that will last, and things that will last forever are greener than plastic mass produced crap that falls apart.

Also growing your own food is somewhat hard where i live, even though we have some small crops it should be easy.

 However the gardeners came around and destroyed the little seedlings that had a rougher time starting up because presumably they looked like weeds.  The only things that are growing in our garden is garlic, cilantro, and corn.

 everything else was killed off by the gardeners.  The cool thing about the gardeners is that they take care of the lemon and orange trees in our yard, so we can harvest them whenever they are available.

Lemon tree on the right behind the small palm, orange on the right, behind the lemon, and also lemon on the left.

Because i rent i cant just go digging up the grass like id like to.  but we do have a small space to grow things.  The garden is moving and should be up for its first harvest in about 2 months.

So what simple things could you buy that will last forever and you will actually use them?  Or more importantly, what do you buy that is useless crap? And what are you growing your garden?

Just for the record i find myself buying useless crap sometimes too.
Ryan