Thoughts of couch cushions

One of my oldest friends came to visit last week, and in preparation for her arrival I had to clean the house. As I was vacuuming the living room carpet, I decided to go the extra mile: tackle the couch cushions. This is not a job I relish, and I know I don't do it enough, but it was way overdue. With two kids and a dog, I could only imagine what kind of nasty conglomeration of dog hair and food bits that had settled in the cracks.

Thankfully it wasn't as bad as I imagined. While the amount of dog hair was insane (Jack sheds when he's nervous, and raucous, fast-moving children make him nervous, so ...), I managed to find only a Matchbox race car and a penny. But as I was vacuuming, I really took note of the condition of my couch. We bought it as a set from Storehouse furniture, along with a love seat and chair with ottoman, when we moved to our second church's parsonage in 2000. It's only seven years old, yet it certainly does not look as beautiful as it did when we purchased it. We fell in love with it when we first saw it: a deep, rich maroon chenille with a faint "gold" pattern in it. OK, maybe that sounds a little strange or tacky, but we loved it. Yet now, after seven years, it has faded in color a bit, there are definite worn spots, and the cushions are getting completely smushed, making you feel like you're sitting on a ship tilting sideways. Forget the firm support it once proudly offered.

I then thought back to my home growing up, and the furniture we had. Sure, it became seriously dated after a while, but I think in the course of my parents' 48 years of marriage, they have only had four couches. Their first was some kind of turquoise blue number from their early days of homemaking, followed by an orange and brown-patterned thing that was there for my early years. Then came another one, acquired in the early '80s, until their most recent purchase about 2 years ago. That 70's couch lasted about 20 years! Sure, it was ready for the heap toward the end, but think about that ... At a mere seven years, my couch is already looking worn.

And that's just the beginning. I can't tell you how many telephones we have been through in our 11 years of marriage; we are on our third TV (OK, our second one was just fine -- 20 years old and a hand-me-down from Don's grandmother. We gave that to my parents when Don came home with something "bigger and better" a month or so ago), and we're on our third car. We had to get rid of our Volvo wagon last year, at the ripe old age of ... 9 years??!! ... because it was falling apart and the repairs were killing us. I then thought of my parents' old Chevy wagon which lasted forever, refusing to die. Our living room end tables, purchased at the same time as our couch, are already nicked and scratched, not seeming very durable for its young age. Yet the end tables upstairs in my parents' house are 48 years old!! They've gone through four children and seven grandchildren and still they look great. My microwave is about my 6th, while my parents just received their second at Christmas, replacing their very first one given to them years and years ago. Don't get me started on other appliances ...

What the heck is going on with our consumer culture? Maybe this is a naive question, but do these companies purposefully make crap so we have to buy more? Did I just answer my own question? My parents have been able to hold on to things for years, and I'm replacing things left and right. If this really is the case, no wonder people around the world have some "difficulties" with America. We're terribly wasteful. Something as simple and mundane as vacuuming couch cushions can really make you think ...