Rambling: Acquisition Speedbumps

Her: "I could start sculpting again. I'm only truly happy when I'm sculpting."

Him: "That's a very good idea. That'll be... very time-consuming."
Beetlejuice (1988)

So, I have hoarder genes. I know this.

I like things. I like to acquire things. I like to own things. I like to play with and gloat over things. I love the minimalist look but I am not, at heart, a minimalist.

I can't eliminate all acquisition. Or maybe it's just that I won't. But my acquisitive urges need a speedbump, something to slow them down. Something... time-consuming.

So I have a strategy. It involves tapping into my perfectionism, a characteristic that normally aids and abets hoarding, one that I normally try to smother. But for specific kinds of acquisition, I let it out just a bit, by demanding some brand of perfection in the things that I acquire.

For example, there are a number of classic children's books that I'd like to own. I could go out and buy every single one of them that's still in print, plop them on the shelf, and, having filled a few precious cubic feet of storage space and spent far too much money, go on to rapidly fulfill the next acquisition urge.

Instead, I've decided that I want to own them in ex-library editions, with the original illustrations that I loved as a child, and if possible, with the dust jackets. A perfectionist goal, one that involves a lot of online hunting. In several years, I've acquired about ten books.

And it doesn't cost much money. That's where it's necessary to grab the perfectionism and point it in a slightly different direction - rather than longing for pristine first edition copies, I persuade myself that the ex-library status is what I really want.

The whole perfume collecting process is similar, when it follows the rules. According to the rules, the process for acquiring a new perfume is to get a sniff, then a vial, then a decant, then use up the decant, then use up another decant, and only then buy an actual bottle. Unless it's an expensive bottle, in which case I'm supposed to wait a full year for all of the seasons to roll around. Very time-consuming. And the fact that most of the perfumes that interest me aren't even available in convenient local stores makes it all the more so.

So far, planned perfectionism is doing a pretty nice job of roadblocking even non-hobby purchases like clothes. I've been looking for the perfect raincoat for five years. The perfect dead plain black sweater for two years. The perfect knee-high boots for twenty years.

Though ankle boots made their way into the house recently. I had no perfectionist standards for ankle boots. Oops.

But in general, it's working.

Cars photo: By Peng. Wikimedia Commons.
Bug photo: By Hannes Grobe. Wikimedia Commons.