"My precious" Syndrome

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Am I right? Whenever I find anything particularly detailed and pleasing to my eyes (for whatever reasons). Shiny new things (typically electronics), sentimental old 'artifacts', new books. I've finally learned to just accept that things happen to your possessions no matter how careful you are with them. I had a meltdown and f****d up my wrist for quite a while punching the wall 3 times because I got a scratch on the screen of an Ipod I had been anal about for at least half a year.
Punched something again a year later, broke my hand, couldn't play guitar. It's been 2 years and I still haven't punched a single thing. I have maybe even convinced scratches and blemishes are desirable as it 'adds character' (to a freaking phone, really??)

Inspiration for the post. I finally took the plunge and bought a matcha bamboo whisk and I keep picking it up and looking at it for extended periods of time, and it only gets worse every day the more I get to use it and 'invest' in it. It's insane.

But hell it has this awesome little case it comes with you can place the whisk in ever so carefully and perfectly and it will make sure every little whisk bristle stays in order and the whisks shape remains rounded

I'm getting excited just thinking about it.

I think you're right!

When I was younger, I had a habit of not wanting to use the things I bought, especially if they were expensive and/or hard to find. So I'd buy something I really wanted, but it would sit unused in a drawer somewhere for years because I was too afraid of messing it up to actually use it. If possible, I'd actually prefer to buy two of something so I could use one and keep the other safe.

My best friend used to irritate me because she didn't seem to take care of her things at all. Her new phone would soon be covered in scratches and have a cracked screen, her new books would have broken spines and writing on the covers, her expensive new shoes would be scuffed up, her special signed band t-shirt would be stained or faded from the wash too much to read, etc. Meanwhile, my stuff would be in pristine condition.

But as I got older, I realized how silly I was being. Why bother buying something if you can't use it as intended? It really hit me when I was doing some cleaning and came across a pair of shoes I had bought in middle school and never wore (at the time I found them, I was probably 18/19 years old). So now I try to relax and actually use my stuff. I still take precautions -- I'd never carry around my phone/kindle/whatever without a case and a screen protector, but I will carry it around and use it instead of leaving it at home all the time, and I don't get terribly upset if something happens to it.

I feel like this is still something I have to consciously overcome, but it's no longer a real problem. Of course there are still a handful of things I can't bring myself to risk messing up (my t-shirt with my favorite characters from my favorite TV show comes to mind), but I'm way better about actually using my stuff than I used to be.

I once lost it with my 3 year old when he messed up something I was precious about. Since then (he's almost 13 now) whenever I feel that rising feeling of outrage or frustration or whatever it is, I can picture his little face. He had an expression that was not at all hard to read and it was heartbreaking. I still feel precious about things but its much easier to let go.

This happens to me all the time with handheld electronics. I spend a lot of time cleaning the screen of my 3DS only to have it eventually get a small scratch on the touch screen. Barely noticeable but drives me crazy knowing it's there.

One time I went to the beach with my mother and she told me to put my Samsung Galaxy phone in the beach bag. Grains of sand got in there and made a myriad of small scratches on the screen. They're too shallow to be noticeable under anything but a bright ceiling light, but I still get tempted to go to the phone repair shop about it.

I don't have meltdowns about it though. It just nags me from the inside.