Can new washi tape make you Happy?

True confession time: I balance between knowing that you can’t buy happiness, and then doing it anyway at times.

Yes, spending money on “things” can make a girls mood lift, just like doodling can. Some shop for clothes or shoes, or buy new towels in matching colors even though they already have enough of them… I buy art materials and patterned paper, and indeed, new washi tape makes me happy. So even though I am opposed the crazy commercialization of our lives, and very well informed that we as a culture buy too much “stuff” each year that we don’t need, I sometimes spend money too. I’m just a human you know.

Can I rationalize buying more washi tape by saying I mostly spend my hard earned money on things that gives me a broader creative outlet? Things I use rather than things I display and store away?

To live fully, we must learn to use things and love people, and not love things and use people. John Powell

Or do I even need to rationalize getting myself a few rolls of tape?

[Tweet “To live fully, we must learn to use things and love people, and not love things and use people.”]

I don’t have nearly as much as some collectors, that have boxes of tape they can’t ever use up, but I admit that pretty patterned tape finds its way to my home at times, from the office store or etsy. I doubt I even need to explain it to you guys. I think we’re pretty similar you and me. You buy it too, don’t you?

And I get silly plastic cups to store pens and tape in too. And then I photograph it all just because I love the way the light transforms though the cup, and I want to share “the pretty” with you. Sharing pretty things is on my list of things that makes me happy. Everyone should have such list.

Most of this washi tape haul came from Etsy, but I won’t recommend the seller since some of the rolls are so sticky that I couldn’t use the tape at all (you should visit my Shop instead, haha. I made a sale on Etsy today). Still pretty though.

I bought sticky notes on a roll from a shop called TGR in Stockholm:

I had no idea what to do with it, but I wanted it because it was pink. I have actually used it quite a lot, when labeling notebooks or folders temporarily. The things they invent to make us buy, huh? It’s crazy. I pass up a gazillion things for every choice I make to buy something and bring it home.

The older I get the more conscious I become over the clutter, trash and junk I create around me just by existing, but that’s another topic. Lastly, and I’ve written about it before, if buying tape makes you happy make sure you USE it.

Start by making yourself an Evidence Page (what is that you ask?):

Question of the day: Does new material, like washi tape or other stuff for creating, make you happier, and why do you think that is?

I don’t think buying things can bring long term happiness, but I know for a fact that creativity will make us happier in the long run. You can quote me on that.

[Tweet “I don’t think buying things can bring long term happiness, but I know creativity will! “]

/Hanna

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