Have you noticed how cheap stuff — that you once planned to replace — is still with you?

© 2018 Peter Free

 

09 April 2018

 

 

"Good enough for now" . . .

 

. . . became "here for a lifetime."

 

I imagine this happens to lots of us.

 

We're young and financially strapped. We compromise on quality and aesthetics.

 

Thirty to forty years later, some of those "good enough then" things are probably still populating the house. One thing or another having gotten in the way of replacing them.

 

 

Even when we could upgrade, we might not

 

My wife's career moves us a lot, geographically.

 

Owning nice things is not cost effective, when America's agents of casual destruction (movers) get their mitts on them.

 

 

For example — a plastic closet organizer

 

Picture of Sterilite drawers for comment about "good enough" cheap stuff. 

 

These two Sterilites embody frugality. Though unattractive and glitchy to open, they are too useful to get rid of.

 

They have been moved (full of heavier than designed for contents) multiple times, without breaking.

 

Something better looking and smoother in operation would not do the job that they do any more effectively.

 

 

And a bottom tier work bench

 

Photograph of inexpensive Kobalt work bench that is "good enough" for PCSing.

 

This inexpensive Kobalt workbench never did "work" that well. But it was what I could afford, and it has proven useful in other respects.

 

Movers mangle the Kobalt every time they touch it. Yet, it still stands, crooked and leveled with shims. A more expensive unit would probably not have held up any better. And it would have depreciated substantially more.

 

 

The moral? — Pick one . . .

 

Is it:

 

 

Be careful what you settle for because it will haunt you forever?

 

or

 

 

Be happy with what you've got?