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ADDICTED TO JUNK
I WAS HOOKED, UNTIL A GARAGE SALE SET ME FREE
Written by Lynn Biscott

I stood on my front steps, coffee mug in hand, and stared in disbelief at the sprawling jumble of merchandise filling my driveway. A plastic pear tree caught my eye. Why on earth had my husband and I ever bought such a useless thing? But it was just one of many expensive mistakes on display. Macrame wall hangings, scuba gear, and odd pieces of furniture formed a solid line from our garage door down to the sidewalk. Along the length of our driveway, I could see dresses, skirts and blouses flapping on portable wardrobe racks.

It was the morning of the garage sale that would change my life. A few months before, my mother had moved into a retirement home and left us with a bundle of odds and ends she didn't want. My husband and I had figured a garage sale would be a convenient way to get rid of her junk. And since we were having a sale anyway, we thought we would rummage through our own things to see if there were one or two items that we might possibly live without.

The result was the massive inventory now filling our driveway and spilling over onto our front lawn. The sheer volume of our unwanted and unused possessions was a revelation. My husband and I had no idea that we had accumulated so much stuff over 15 years of marriage until we saw the evidence in front of us. Looking back, it was easy to see how we had fallen into the consumption trap. We bought things because we saw them and liked them, not because we really needed them. For me especially, shopping was a form of entertainment. Now, as each item was sold, we shook our heads in amazement that we had bothered to buy it in the first place.

By the end of the morning, we had pocketed a tidy $1500. More important, though, we decided it was time to change our approach to spending. The timing of our decision was ideal. I was working as human resources director for a small financial institution that was in trouble. I devoted most of my days to letting other employees go and kept wondering when my own turn would come. I wanted to make a career change, but worried that I wouldn't earn enough money to support my lifestyle.

Now I realized there was a different way to approach the problem. Maybe if we bought less, I wouldn't need to make so much money. After all, what was more important - doing something I enjoyed and having more free time, or staying on the corporate treadmill, working longer and harder just to spend more money? For me, the decision was clear.

In the year after the garage sale, as a result of a few simple changes, my husband and I saved $25,000. To restrain my impulse buying, I had my pay cheque deposited automatically into a savings account and withdrew money only when absolutely necessary. We eliminated nearly all our spending on clothing, restaurants, and decorating. For our birthdays and anniversary, we cooked special meals at home instead of dining out, and did without presents. We rented videos instead of going out to movies. We cashed in our Air Miles points to buy groceries. We didn't resort to Kraft Dinner, but we didn't eat many steaks either.

It was a pretty grim existence, but knowing it wasn't forever made our regimen easier to handle. The way we saw it, we were buying my freedom from the corporate rat race. If we could cut back our spending for just one year, I would have the confidence I needed to make that career change. And that's exactly what happened. With a healthy bank balance behind me, I left my job and became a consultant. Once I started earning a reasonable income again, my husband and I loosened the purse strings. Ten years and a successful new career later, we spend our money more freely than we did during our year of saving, but nowhere near as frivolously as we did before our garage sale. Looking back, I'm amazed at the fruit we reaped from that plastic pear tree.

© Lynn Biscott