I don’t know many other people who read this, but Dan Ariely’s Ask Ariely column is really good! For those who don’t know, he’s a behavioral economist that shows us that we are anything but rational beings. Anyway, I remember reading there a while back that you should spread out new things if you can.

He suggests, for example, that you shouldn’t buy a new car and move into a new house at the same time. The reason being the feeling you get with new things sort of combines, and would be better spread out over time to make the most of the feeing.

So I was a bit surprised recently when my wife got angry at me for opening and using a wooden tissue box holder we had bought. She wanted to save it for our move to our new house, which at the time was a few months away. But I’m glad I opened it and used it for the reason above 🙂