Joneses to blame for today's frenzied home decor trend

IT IS said that moving house is one of the top stressors in life. As a case study, having carted stuff back and forth five times in less than 10 years, I should be used to it – but one never is.

Like ants, we hoard as we go, meaning that each move is more expensive than the last.

I'll be trekking again in just a few weeks and, instead of throwing out the hub's mouldering magazine collection and packing boxes, I have instead trawled second-hand shops for more "stuff".

I blame this utterly illogical course of action on the Jones Family – that fictional foursome used so well by beastly advertisers to persuade us that being on-trend and comfortable costs money. Once I thought only migratory types suffered from the Jones malady. If you're a "stay put" kinda person, you're unlikely to be desperate for a new dining table every couple of years, not so? Not so. We've become a nation of amateur decor divas, assaulted at every turn by reality shows compressing lounge makeovers into a 30-minute dream room which lingers in our fevered imaginations long after the programme ends.

There's nothing shameful about wanting pretty and durable things to sit on, eat at, lie across or cook with. After all, man must dine and sleep. But does it have to be such an expensive exercise? The hub and I have identified key things we'll need, since some of our furniture was in storage and is now ripped, dripped on and frankly rank. A bed, a table and chairs and possibly a fridge are necessities – everything else is just soft furnishings, as my mother, an interior decorator, says.

But not only have we not purchased the necessary yet – we've gone off at a tangent, noting that a fire pit, tangerine Persian rug and bits and bobs for the "snug" (a nice-to-have, but totally pointless spot above the stairs) must be fitted into the shrinking budget. None of this would have happened if we hadn't started buying home and lifestyle magazines – initially, just for fun.

My parents have had the same sofa and chairs since 1972. One day, when there are no more cats, my mom says, they'll have it recovered. But for now, it does the job. And that's the difference between then and now. We don't just buy things to "do the job". We buy to "have the look".

Thankfully, I am my mother's child, and so blessed with a nugget of sense, every so often.

I'm doing without the patio set at R9999 for the moment and boycotting the magazine that suggested I buy a toaster for R4299.