Let’s not underestimate value of ‘stuff’

There’s this commercial in heavy rotation right now starring Ewan McGregor and it’s trying to make me feel guilty for loving my TV, my smartphone and even my beer.

My beer. That’s hitting a little close to home.

It’s a commercial for a travel booking service and the idea is that we’re all idiots if we spend our money on “stuff” instead of experiences, namely travel. Sure, you could buy a beautiful TV with an amazing picture and enjoy using it every single day for the next 14 years but … for the same money … you could go to the beach for a week! That’s the message.

I’m with you. Travel is awesome. We still talk about our trip to Disney in 2006 and how we thought it would be a great idea after a full day of travel to head to the Magic Kingdom before closing time and our exhausted children were pushed over the edge when we stopped to eat and the iced tea wasn’t sweetened and they cried and cried. It was our fault. We tried to force them to have fun when we all should have gone to bed and started fresh in the morning. The unsweetened tea broke them.

It was still a great trip and there is nothing wrong with travel but I still take exception with Ewan McGregor making me feel bad because I also like stuff. We can’t all just spend our disposable income on trips. We need to spend some money on stuff because buying stuff helps the people who make stuff make even better stuff.

If hardly anyone bought an iPhone, we’d still be on the iPhone 1 and we wouldn’t have that “portrait” feature on the camera that makes me look like George Clooney instead of a potato with spiky grey hair and glasses.

We’re all about innovation and sometimes it’s pretty great.

One of the best things I ever bought is my salad spinner. I’ve had this thing for 13 years. I didn’t think much when I bought it — it was one of those office fundraiser things and I felt obligated to buy something so I picked this goofy little appliance.

But you know something? It fills a role. The salad spinner effectively dries your lettuce, and dry lettuce holds salad dressing better than wet lettuce. It’s a fact and it’s a great device.

A more recent acquisition is the air fryer. This thing is magic. We use it almost every weekend to make chicken wings and they come out crispy and tasty and it takes very little effort.

I think the air fryer can be used to cook other foods but I’ve never tried. If it was called a Chicken Wing Maker, I would still say it was worth the money.

But the greatest thing I’ve ever spent money on just might be my Dyson vacuum cleaner. Better than a cruise. Better than a fancy dinner. Better than an allinclusive seaside getaway.

Even Ewan McGregor doesn’t pick on the Dyson in his commercial. He knows better.

The beauty of the Dyson is that it works but also that it’s cordless so it just sits there on its charger, always ready to go. It is a very effective device at sucking up dirt but its real value is that it makes me look somewhat useful at times.

I use the Dyson any time I want something or any time I feel like maybe I’ve done something wrong. If I want to go golfing for a third day in a row, I’ll pull out the Dyson. Zip around the living room, blow through the kitchen, down the hall and around the bedroom. I take my time and I make sure the operation gets noticed.

Any vacuum can accomplish this because they are noisy machines and your work will get noticed. But the beauty of the Dyson is that it’s cordless and lightweight so while yes, you are doing something useful, it’s really not much more than strolling around the house.

You could go spend an hour cleaning a bathroom but if a toilet brush scrubs and there’s no one around to hear it, did it make a sound?

And more importantly, will it earn you points toward golfing with your boys?

It’s a chance I can’t take.