Why you should use your nicest things, every day!

hello children I'm going to talk to you about all this stuff on the table but before I do I'd like to sing you a song and I want you to listen to the lyrics because they apply to everything I want to talk about today [Music] wonderful things [Music] but give me the roses [Music] are flowers that you give after the soul has gone this video is about using the things that you love not saving them how many of you out there have wonderful beautiful valuable things that are just too nice to use every day so you put them in their case or you hang them up and you think oh there's going to be a special occasion where I can pull that out or I'm saving that for this day or when this happens my advice don't do that take your nicest things out and use them every single day because not only will they enrich your everyday life but they'll actually get better and that's what we're going to talk about today I have on this table some things that are very precious to me but they're all things that I think get better with use and better with age this guitar right here is a little Martin guitar that my best friend Christian gave me quite a while ago it was a it was a Castaway he he attempted to learn the guitar and he's like I'm not going to do it and he gave me this guitar and I have played this thing with metal finger picks without treating it preciously and it is all nicked up over here and some people might see that as damage but I see that as as use and love love through abuse uh I was at the Country Music Hall of Fame last week actually and I saw Jimmy Rogers guitar and it just brought a smile to my face to see the exact same marks on Jimmy Rogers guitar right here right where those metal finger picks hit the wood because there was no pick guard on the guitar a musical instrument in order to be brought to life it needs to be played and in order to stay alive it needs to be played consistently these things are made of wood and they're put under tension with strings so the guitar and my harp are both examples of something that was made out of wood but that really gets richer in its sound if it's played regularly my very good friend Caroline who's a harpist she went to Juilliard and graduated from Juilliard in heart performance she said to me that when I get a harp I have to play it because playing it will bring this new instrument to life the sound will get richer the more I play it and that once I start I really shouldn't stop that you really keep these instruments Alive by playing them so if you have something tucked away like a guitar give it to someone who'll play it or play it yourself musical instruments use them clothes something like a tweed jacket the more you wear it the better it looks so I have two Tweed jackets here that I've had for the same amount of time this one I have worn a lot this has been through the rain it has gotten drenched it has gotten so soaking wet that I've come home and I've taken it off and there are green marks from the lining on my white dress shirt because it's been soaked through I hang this thing up to dry it's it's all wrinkled at the elbows because it was wet while I was riding my bike home and and because I have worn this thing I think it looks so much better than this jacket which I have hardly worn this has been maybe worn I don't know 100 times this has been worn 10 maybe and I just really feel like nice clothes should be worn even if they're your finest clothes wear them let them get stained there's this element of wearing your clothes without caring about them this old this old word that goes back to the the age of dandiesatura refers to an aspect of being very nonchalant about your appearance it's it's it's giving off the appearance of uh oh this old thing that I threw on and there's an element of that with this you wear your nice clothes to normal things and you feel great you feel great and the people around you appreciate it too I love wearing a suit on a normal average day I Marie condo'd my closet I don't have a lot of clothes I saved the things that I absolutely love the things that bring me joy and it just means that there are t-shirts in there there are a couple pairs of jeans and then there are suits and dress shirts so of my options I'm often wearing a suit on a regular Tuesday and as I'm riding my bike around the city people actually shout out hey great suit man so just just wearing the things that are meaningful to you on a regular basis it changes it changes your everyday next wood things that are made out of wood utilitarian objects that are made out of wood they get better with with use and wear here are two cutting boards that I made here's a board that I made oh about 18 years ago and here's a board I made just two years ago and you can see that already this one this one that has all the slice marks from slicing Bread on it it is just so beautiful this is one of my most prized possessions the spreadboard developing a patina who knows it's like a car it's like one of these one of these show-offs oh no oh no it's a party in the street leather leather needs to be worked in and it needs to become Supple and that only happens from use so you can buy distressed leather it's usually not great quality if it's already distressed usually when you buy really good quality leather it's stiff and it's kind of hot it's kind of hard and and just cold looking when you first buy it but if you use it every day and again this bag has this bag has been in rainstorms snowstorms this has been all over the world I actually on the inside I've written every place in the world that it has been with the year beside it so there's a there's a really long list now of of all the places that this bag has visited and I think you can just tell that the scuff marks and the wear to it the discoloration in places it just makes this bag so much richer it's the same thing with shoes with really good leather shoes they have two pairs of shoes here two pairs of penny loafers here's a pair that I wear very often and here's a pair that I've only worn a few times these are both fairly new but you can already see that these black loafers look so much nicer already than these breaking in the leather for the shoes That's essential to making them both comfortable and more beautiful I wear these all the time and I'm not afraid of the soles completely wearing out because when they wear out you get them resold and usually by that point the uppers are so nice they've developed a patina and a softness a suppleness to them that usually make them your favorite pair of shoes kitchen stuff like cookware I know people that have copper pots just for show they hang them up and they have a lacquer on them so that they don't have to polish them not for me I love that they're they're so well used I just think they're they're beautiful the other thing about this is that they're this is expensive stuff why save it you should take it out and use it every day every day that you use something like this makes this much more economical it's an investment that you actually use regularly it's over I've talked a lot about my silver in other videos my silver is hundreds of years old so this has passed through many different lives in many different hands before coming to me and when I'm gone I know that this fork and this spoon will be somewhere else but while they're with me these precious objects these solid pieces of cutlery I use them every day I don't have stainless steel I don't have two sets of Cutlery I don't have like the fancy stuff and then the everyday stuff I use the fancy stuff every day that's my philosophy use the fancy stuff every day thinking of the kitchen these are my tea towels which were hand woven for me by my friend Debra so when I redid the kitchen I asked Deborah if she would make a full set of these I think she made about 15 tea towels all hand woven she made some ecru colored ones and some white ones and a couple of red ones and they were just so beautiful that I really hesitated to start using them in the kitchen but Deborah said use them and use them every day let them get stained she said that she had seen some of her clients with towels that she had made that had burn holes in them and that that was her favorite thing to see the towels so so used so loved they had holes in them she said that they were so much more beautiful than when they came off the loom and sure enough I've used these for about four years now this white towel it has oh there we go it has a hole in it right right through the middle of the towel it is stained with turmeric stained with turmeric from from making Curry and you know what she's right this this thing is beautiful because it's loved so this was my show and tell showing you my precious objects which I believe should be used worn and loved every day I hope this encourages you to go through your stuff hey naughty dog I hope this encourages you to go through your stuff to pull out some things you've been saving and to just use them every day one of the things I often think about when I'm using this stuff both the very old stuff and the new stuff is where is this all going to go when I'm gone and some people might see it as a little morbid but I think facing the reality of your time here being limited helps you to understand what's important for your everyday and for me I've collected enough old stuff to know that some people in their lives they saved the most beautiful objects that they had and they put them away and they never used them and then they died and their stuff ended up in an antique store or a junk shop or a flea market and then I bought it and when I bring it home in perfect condition it's not lost on me that it's only in perfect condition because it wasn't used that's incentive for me to use that stuff where's all this going to go when I'm not here I have no idea maybe in the garbage and that just encourages me to know that every day that I'm using this stuff whether I'm destroying it through use or making it look better through use it's here for that very purpose to be used to be loved and to be enjoyed so that is what I hope I inspire you to do with your stuff listen if you like this video give it one of these if you didn't give it one of these but since you made it to the end and you listened to me I'm asking you to please subscribe to my channel every one of those numbers counts and all those numbers enable me to continue doing this which I love doing so please subscribe and stay tuned for more videos like this one thanks for watching

Channel: Rajiv Surendra

Views: 711,523

Keywords: Rajiv, Rajiv Surendra, Using Nice things, bespoke, How to, Howto, How-to, distressed leather, cutting board, wood, acoustic guitar, copper pot, wool coat, silverware care, mean girls, kevin g, lifestyle, diy, life hack, craft, trending, nice things, hobby, caring for things, youtube, viral, handmade, tips and tricks

Id: ClAqiBqqtu0

Length: 14min 26sec (866 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 18 2023