{"id":307031,"date":"2025-07-16T12:35:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T12:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/usa\/?p=307031"},"modified":"2025-07-16T12:35:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T12:35:05","slug":"one-object-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/usa\/journal\/one-object-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"One object for life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I\u2019m not usually up on TikTok trends\u2026 but there\u2019s one recently I\u2019ve found pretty shocking.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s called <\/span>stooping<\/span><\/a>. And it\u2019s definitely a new low.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every day across New York City, hundreds of precious items are thrown out of brownstones onto the Upper East Side pavements.<\/span><\/p>\n

People are chucking them out for curbside collection – sometimes because of a death or a house move, but more often because a wealthy socialite is having a redec\u2026 and last season\u2019s furnishings have become <\/span>declass\u00e9<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

As much as 80% of it will end up in out-of-state landfills.<\/p>\n

And it isn\u2019t trash. It\u2019s urns, china, ski gear, fur coats, fine art, pianos, antique bureaus, Ercol chairs, 1950s lucite vanities<\/a>. The waste is unimaginable.<\/p>\n

Imagine instead: the day you leave your parents\u2019 home, you\u2019re given a set of things.<\/span><\/p>\n

These things have to furnish your home for a lifetime (or, okay, maybe a reasonable time). Decades, not years. No impulse buys, dodgy Amazon electronics, or rickety flatpack shelving units allowed.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> need? How basic could you go? Would a sofa, a bed, a desk, and a good set of knives cut it (pardon the pun)? And what would the world look like if we all did this?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, obviously there are a few reasons why we don\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Most of us don\u2019t inherit a country pile full of antiques<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Most of us don\u2019t have the money to buy nice (so we buy twice – or more)<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Relentless advertising, the drive towards novelty, keeping up with the Joneses\u2026<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And sadly, most of us are still too comfortable with the idea of just \u201cchucking it away\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    But there\u2019s no such thing as away.<\/span><\/h3>\n

    I\u2019m thinking about all this because I did a very meditative knife sharpening course recently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Most household essentials are now built too cheaply to be \u201cworth\u201d maintaining. Even knives – literally tough as steel – often get chucked before they get sharpened.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    While the concept of \u201cthrowing away\u201d is familiar to anyone over 30, upcoming generations are painfully aware there is no \u201caway\u201d. \u201cAway\u201d is poisonous landfill sites in third world countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

    But pollution isn\u2019t the only problem. Owning everything we \u201cneed\u201d pulls us away from our communities\u2026which we actually <\/span>do<\/b> need.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The loss of gathering\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

    Before affordable washing machines, people met at the laundrette. Before hairdryers and electric shavers, we congregated in salons and barbers. If you\u2019ve ever gathered round a vinyl player or \u201cbackied\u201d a mate\u2019s bike, you\u2019ll know the feeling of necessary togetherness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Now, a cul-de-sac of 20 people own 20 lawnmowers. How often do you reckon they\u2019re all needed at the same time?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    We\u2019ll part with \u00a3300 before we\u2019ll knock on the neighbour’s door. Maybe because we don\u2019t know our neighbours well enough – or at all. Is there a \u201cdirtiness\u201d in the borrowed or used? Is there a bashfulness involved, maybe? A reluctance to bother people?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Things used to be so scarce they were community assets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Ovens, smithing tools, maypoles. Materials that felt alive – linen, sheeps\u2019 wool, clay, tree bark, rough iron. Now, things overwhelm us. Our polyester clothes charge us with static. Weightless tupperware pings violently off our shelves.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The loss of ritual\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

    It\u2019s the year 20,000 BCE. You walk from your hut to the ceremonial bonfire – your rainstick comes with you and back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    It’s 1980. You drive from your house to your office block – your prized fountain pen moves from your briefcase to your desk, and back.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Do our disjointed, digital lives, in which we switch coffee shops every week and houses every couple of years, create a kind of chaos in which keeping things is so difficult, any attempt at permanence feels pointless?<\/span><\/p>\n

    Or are we so disconnected from our things, we just don\u2019t really care? How many times have you lost a \u00a31000 iPhone? A nice pair of sunglasses? A piece of jewelry? I\u2019ll bet it\u2019s more than once in your life.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Tools and weaponry were the beloved companions of historic humans – we died without them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Now, the only tools we hold are our smartphones. And we don\u2019t love them, we\u2019re addicted to them. It\u2019s an abusive relationship. It\u2019s hard to care, to feel love, for an object that\u2019s designed to die as soon as you\u2019ve paid it off.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    (Although, people do seem to <\/span>love their Roombas<\/span><\/a>\u2026 so that\u2019s something.)<\/span><\/p>\n

    This may have been something of a preachy thinkpiece\u2026 but it\u2019s certainly not blameful. People do what they can, and they buy what they can afford.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    In the spirit of being a little more helpful, let me share a few ideas:<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    A way to think<\/span><\/h2>\n

    Next time you buy, try to calculate cost per use (CPU).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Cookware is a great opportunity for this. A \u00a350 set of pans will be burnt, scratched, and unusable in a couple of years. Ceramic or cast iron will cost 3 to 4 times as much\u2026 but last at least 10 times as long.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    A \u00a310 supermarket lamp might break after 1000 switches. A \u00a3100 Anglepoise should endure 10,000. (If it doesn\u2019t, we\u2019ll fix it til either you or we no longer exist.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    A place to shop<\/span><\/h2>\n

    My new friend Tara Button was inspired to create <\/span>Buy Me Once<\/span><\/a> when she received a Le Creuset cast iron pot as a gift. She curates objects of beauty and durability, where each purchase can be a lifelong possession.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Some things to buy\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

    A few of my top lifetime (or long-time) buys (and <\/span>I\u2019d love to hear of any favourites you have – drop us your recommendations at hello<\/span>@anglepoise.com and we might feature them in the next newsletter)<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    A Barbour Waxed Jacket\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n