We live in a world where the mass production of everyday household items is leaving our earth littered with broken garbage. Products are losing quality, so they are available at a low price. This is creating a disposable society, a world full of unwanted items.

Long ago, families bought household necessities in order to keep them for life. Even as an heirloom to pass on to future family members. Things were produced with care and quality in mind. In other words, they were built to last. Minimalist lifestyles were the norm.

Today, for conglomerates to get rich, the use of expiration dates on many of our everyday products is deliberately applied to force us to buy the same thing over and over again. It is a paradox. A contradiction. On the one hand, we worry about pollution and a growing concern for our future earth, but we fill our homes with more devices (some absolutely useless) than we will ever need. We buy cheap tools, kitchen utensils, personal items that have a very short shelf life. This is due to the use of poor quality materials in manufacturing. The industry has learned that people are more likely to buy a poorly made two dollar screwdriver, rather than a ten dollar Sidchrome screwdriver that will last for decades.

Take a moment and open a kitchen drawer. How many can openers do you have? How many vegetable peelers? Flip flops? Do I need to say more? We are all guilty of this affliction. We are drawn to buying products we think we need, we use them once or twice and then they squat at the bottom of a drawer for who knows how long.

Do you want our children and grandchildren to inherit a better planet? Then don’t fill it with garbage. Next time you shop online or visit a mall, think hard. Buy well. Ask yourself:

• Do I really need it?

• Is it of a quality that will last?

Up-selling seems to be another business norm. The old “buy 2 get 1 free” trick. Who Really Needs a Three Pack Vegetable Peelers? You only need a good one.

Two-dollar stores are flourishing, and the Internet is full of e-commerce websites with page after page of quaint ornaments, trying to sell a plethora of products cheaply. We are easily convinced. We are bombarded with offers from everywhere and on a daily basis. The media, the World Wide Web, and our phones. Very few websites are ad-free. There are an overwhelming number of attractive links that urge us to buy. The end result: homes full of broken appliances.

Before this post gets too lost in itself, I want to make its point clear. Buy Quality. Spend an extra dollar or two and buy things that last. You don’t need a house or garage full of broken household tools and implements. You just need a good rake, a good shovel, quality knives and kitchen implements, and furniture that is well made and lasts.

Using the excuse that quality costs money is a poor resource for justification. Why? Because you will be replacing cheap quality over and over again, in the end you will have spent the same amount on junk anyway. Fork an extra dollar or two, buy it once, and don’t clutter your life with junk.