Rich people buy time, poor people buy things.
Yeah, yeah. We’ve all heard it said, but what the hell does it actually mean?
Real life example coming right up.
I bought a house almost 5 years ago.
It didn’t have a dishwasher. I really didn’t care. I was used to having my sink piled high with dishes trying to juggle single motherhood, a job, and life. Dishes were just a thing that were ALWAYS GOING TO BE THERE.
So, for the last 3 years since becoming a stay at home mom, I spent every morning at the sink as part of my morning routine washing all the dishes. With 5 people living here, and me being the “dishwasher”, my sink was RARELY empty. And I just accepted it. I didn’t actually mind washing the dishes( which is actually what poor people say when they’re used to wasting their time, lol).
A few weeks ago, Mike came home and said he bought a used dishwasher from someone who was remodeling their kitchen. Okay. Great. It was never on my “must have” list, but it was on his- he hates doing dishes and since I stay home, we just kind of agreed that I would be the one doing them. But he saw something I didn’t( more on that later).
Our kitchen is not huge, so that would mean we would lose an entire cabinet of storage. Okay. I’ll figure it out. Mike installed the dishwasher one weekend. We tested it out and ran our first load.
Done. Clean.
And in the weeks following adding this “tool” to our kitchen, I noticed something.
TIME.
Mike actually said to me- “What are you going to do with all that time? LOL”
It took me a few days to figure out the new routine, but my sink is now chronically EMPTY.
WHAT?!?!?!
So, instead of spending my entire morning tackling the dishes, I spend it actually cleaning the kitchen. Ha! WHO KNEW!
I was so used to the dishes taking all my time up, I barely had enough time to make an actual dent in decluttering, or organizing the kitchen on a daily basis.
This week, when I walk into the kitchen- I CAN BREATHE.
I never felt the weight of the amount of time washing the dishes was taking me until it wasn’t there anymore.
What did that dishwasher actually get me? TIME.
It gave me back my mornings.
This week, I’ve taken walks with my son.
I’ve done morning stretches and exercise.
All because I got my time back.
That’s what wealthy people understand. They don’t buy things. They buy time.
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