One of the simplest joys in life is the clean peel-off of a sticker. A price sticker, an A/B/C part description sticker, a brand label sticker, take your pick, that part doesn’t matter, I find them all equally amazing to peel.
Of course, there is a secondary benefit, one greater than the satisfaction of removing the sticker in the first place, that most people don’t actively appreciate. Every time you remove a label from your line of sight, you are removing a paid-for advertisement.
On a superficial level, we all know every label has been market researched and designed to grab attention. Over $500 billion is spent every year on marketing in the U.S. alone. We can all feel the chaos of a thousand brands screaming form crowded store shelves – what we don’t realize is we often make mini chaos simulators in our own homes.
Every label you see in your home is still grabbing & holding your attention. It’s geographical relocation from the store to your home doesn’t lessen the millions of dollars of research behind it. The box of cereal left on the counter, the package of crayons on the table, the cookies just visible on the tippy-top of the fridge. The rolled up bag of coffee beans, the loudly branded sweatshirt, the characters on the coloring books. They’re all grabbing at your attention in the background, whether or not you notice it.
I think one of the reasons our family’s home is so peaceful is because I try really, really hard to remove as many of the screaming labels from our lives as possible. If a sticker is removable, it’s coming off. I’ve taken stickers off books, furniture, dishware, and even bikes (yes, even the “decorative” stickers). Pantry goods get tucked into cabinets & out of sight. If a plain version of an item is available (not splashed with a brand or a character), that’s the one I try to get. To be transparent, both of my girls have disney princess helmets for bike riding, and I cannot wait until they need the size up so we can just buy their favorite colors instead. I don’t buy clothes that have large brand names displayed across them – I don’t understand the idea of paying extra to be a brands walking, talking billboard. Stripes, flowers, polka dots, patterns of almost any kind are A-OK with me, I’m not hating on joy or individuality here…I’m just advocating to remove the labels to make room for the joy, instead.
Disclaimer/Reality Check: Really, this could go even further, as every item in your home will grab your attention, the labeled ones are just unnecessarily louder. Books are a great gray-area example of this – the covers have a ton of market research being them, but displaying their attention grabbing covers as decoration is the point for many, many people. This column will be about motherhood, parenting, and homemaking for the most part. It’s a total mix of whatever’s on my mind at the time. Most importantly, I don’t ever want this column to make another mama think she’s not doing enough. If you’re reading this, I want you to know that you are, you’re doing great, keep it up. Sing it with me: no-one is doing it allllll!
