Bye bye Boden

Look what landed on the doormat today! How very fitting (unlike their clothes which often don't!). A bit miffed though, my friend Cath had a personalised version with her name on. Where's my special named one, eh Johnnie?

Normally a new Boden catalogue would indeed make me quite happy, as would flicking through the pages ogling all the beautiful new things, ordering some, looking forward to them arriving and then excitedly stripping through all the lovely spotty paper to get and try them on.

Not this time though. Straight in the recycling bin for my catalogue this time.

And that's for several reasons.

Firstly because my bank account is giantly unhappy at the moment thanks to tenants who have stopped paying rent. So any mention of money, spending, new clothes etc currently sends feelings of fear, anxiety and guilt, as intense as the feelings of excitement and anticipation it used to conjure up, racing through my body.

I think my husband prefers this new view point!

Secondly, and more importantly, I've worked out 2 things.

One is (and this won't be news to many people) that I have too much stuff. I don't need any more stuff.

I might still think I want it, but I know that the excitement will wear off soon enough and then I'll need to satisfy the 'wanting something new and exciting' itch again as soon as the next catalogue falls through my door.and the next one. and the next one.

slippery. slope.

So the second thing I worked out was that it's not really the 'stuff' I'm after anyway. It's the feelings the 'stuff' gives me.

But on closer inspection, I don't really need 'stuff' to get those feelings, do I? In fact all this 'stuff' actually sort of gets in the way of them. And if I'm really honest, those nice feelings normally get replaced by the guilty type ones pretty quickly anyway. Not least because ,even before my tenants stopped paying me, my bank account has never really been that happy!

So, Mr Boden, the upshot of all of this is thank you for your nice, shiny, happy, yellow catalogue, but I'm afraid you just ain't doing it for me anymore.

I've had enough of your stuff landing on my doorstep thank you very much (beautiful though it is). So back in the recycling it is for you.

I'm getting my happy elsewhere from now on. (and hopefully my bank account might cheer up a bit in the process too!)