A few weeks ago, my neighbour sadly passed away. Today, I've sat in my living room, quietly watching his family empty his house of his possessions. Some have been sold, some given to charity. Next week, the contractors will arrive to re-decorate his house. Ready for the next occupants. As I was sat there watching, I had an overwhelming feeling to write a blog post about my thoughts.

Our generation is obsessed with "things". We're yearning for the next iPhone X, even when we already have a perfectly working iPhone eight. We're bombarded with advertisements, no matter where we go. Whether it be clothing, jewellery, the next DFS sofa... As I was at there watching, I thought to myself, when did we become so materialistic? We have so many things we hoard. I bet you could name at least item of clothing that you've bought, but never actually worn, sitting in your wardrobe. I thought to myself, how ridiculous it all is. Because, when it's all said an done, it's just stuff.

My Mum used to say that I had my monthly wage spent before it was even in my bank account. When I was eighteen and had no bills to pay, I would make a list off all of the things that I wanted to buy that month. I would buy it on the day I got paid, and the rest of month I was left to say "no" to friends or family, whenever they asked me if I wanted to go on day trips or nights out. I convinced myself that the "stuff" I had bought had made me happy. But it never did, because I was always yearning for more. More make up, more clothes, more shoes! And, you may be thinking to yourself, "how hypocritical is she?". Yes, I have a blog that it primarily made up of product reviews. But, I love writing reviews. I love writing posts, and sharing products that I genuinely like.

In the days of YouTube and bloggers, I understand where constant need for stuff comes from. Hell, I look at beauty gurus and daily vloggers and sometimes wish I could have a life like theres. When I'm having a down day, I ban YouTube videos from my house. Watching these vloggers can make me really miserable. When I'm sat with eighty pence in my bank account, because I had to spend all of my money on my placements, it really impacts my mood. But you have to remind yourself, that you do not know what goes on behind closed doors. From the outside, it may seem perfect. They have mansions and stacks of free PR packages, but you don't know if they're truly happy. A ten minute snipper from a vlogger's day is not an accurate representation of their life. It's edited content, designed to entertain us, and make it seem like they're perfect people with perfect things.

So, coming full circle. What have learnt today from watching my neighbours house get emptied? It's simply really. I've realised that stuff is just stuff. It has no meaning to it and we can't take it with us when we die. Memories are what matter. Socialising with people, sight-seeing, enjoying your life is what matters. Not the next iPhone X.