Mail order blues. Again

Still figuring out why the mail order catalogue made me sad.

It's not about having only things useful or beautiful in your home. It's not even about Thoreau and being rich in proportion to what you can do without.

These are not luxury items, not the apotheosis of conspicuous consumption.

And it isn't about taste. People like different things, and that's fine by me, even when it comes to pet steps.

Fluffy camouflage

Damp and hangdog

Baroque

Insane

The thing is that these are solutions looking for a problem. If ancient Fido can't make it onto the sofa, you could put cushions on the floor, use a versatile plank, buy a large inner tube. Keeping Fido on the floor will also save money on the super-suction pet hair remover on page 6.

I get really excited at innovative and off-the-wall solutions to problems.  They are always a buzz. But finding solutions and then working out a problem seems daft and otiose.

Nobody really needs stuff like this, and it feels a bit sad that they think that they do. 

Suddenly I am looking round the house with new eyes, wondering what I have that falls into pet step territory.

Aaarrgghhh.....