There’s a great little place here in St Louis where I love to stop and grab lunch. I always order their roast beef panini, which comes with a bag of chips and their delicious salsa. It is one of my favorite things to eat.

Because the restaurant is a distance from my home and it is rather expensive, I finally resolved to buy a panini maker so I could make myself a panini whenever my little heart desired. However, because I really make myself think about everything I bring into my home, I left the panini maker on the counter, unopened, for about a week so I could really think it through.

Since my children are grown, I seldom cook. As much as I loved the fantasy of myself being able to whip up a panini whenever I wanted, the reality of it was that I’d probably never take the time to do it. Even if I decided that I might try to make the panini someday, I’d have to make sure I had all of the right ingredients, which would require a special trip to the store. As much as I hated to do it, the panini maker went back to the store at the end of the week.

What I find happens with most people is that they don’t really think through the things they bring into their homes. They would have brought the panini maker home, opened it and shoved it deep into the back of their closet never to be seen again without going through the thinking and decision making process I described above. This is as good as throwing your money out of the window.

What have you brought home and shoved away without thinking through?