At 38 years old, I was a busy mother of three children, a wife to a busy fire captain and working full time my plate was full. Weekdays were slammed with work, kids sports practices, homework, dinner, showers, reading and bed. Weekends were for recovery after all the sports games on Saturdays.
What I started to notice is that our house was becoming a catch all for everything. Life was moving so fast that I couldn’t catch up. We were working so hard, running around like crazy people to be everywhere, have everything and do all. Why? The American Dream? Have it all? Buy everything? Consume, consume, consume.
Finding the time and energy on a weekend to go through our shoe closet of outgrown kids shoes was overbearing. Then I realized, it wasn’t just the shoe closet, it was the kids clothing drawers, my clothing drawers, our backyard of toys, THE GARAGE….
It hit me, I have been working so hard to buy all this stuff...for what? So it can sit in my house, take up space and clutter my life. I was angry. Very angry. I started thinking of all the money I have wasted over the years. Buying games my kids play once, toys they lose interest in after the first encounter, tools my husband used for one project, and the countless items our garage taking up space. I walked my neighborhood and talked with friends. It wasn’t just me! It was everywhere. I packed up as many items I could for 8 weekends straight and made countless trips to the Goodwill. I felt amazing! You know who didn’t feel amazing? My children. They watched me give away toys they no longer used but then instantly wanted to play with them. They pulled items out of my donation bags and took them back to their rooms. Weird right? Not really, it is human nature to be selfish, especially as children. Our culture teaches consumption at every level..through television, radio, online...it’s everywhere. Buy more. Have more.
So I experimented. I took my children with me to the GoodWill several times to drop items off. I never took them into the store to actually look at what they sold. Until that day...we dropped off bags of stuff then pulled around to the front of the store. I told them they each could spend $5 on anything they wanted. They were giddy with excitement at the idea of something new. We walked into the store together and I lead them through the aisles. To my surprise, all three of my children became weary and begged me to leave. What is going on I wondered. We left the store and my oldest explained that the store smelled and was making him nauseous. Dang it. I wanted them to like the idea of shopping at a place where we could buy used items for less. Unfortunately, the smell...and probably unorganization of it all altered their view of used goods.
I was determined there was a better way. I promote retail establishments for a living so I knew a few things about shopping. I knew my kids wanted what we all want...to open something new, to have a fresh experience.
After contemplating this situation for weeks I finally thought of what would become BREVVIE. The idea of fleet rental for consumer goods. The Enterprise Car model for everyday items.
A year and a half later, Brevvie has launched! The name stands for Briefly Rent Everything for a better life. Here is a video that will show you exactly how it works and why it will help the world consumer less.
#lessismore #brieflyrenteverything #livesimple #livesimply #thehustledaily #simply #simplify #smartconsumption
