You seem much more interested in things matching than I am. I can't really relate to the idea of wanting all one's glasses or cutlery or wall-clocks to look the same (so long as they work pretty much equally well). But then, my crockery and cutlery are a bizarre mish-mash of stuff my mum gave me when I came up to Cambridge in 1992, stuff I found abandoned in college kitchens when staying up in the Long Vac, stuff liberated from college after feasts etc., presents from people, and beer festival glasses. And I don't own any wall-clocks; I use a watch :-)

But the shoe thing makes sense; I bought two pairs of non-leather ultra-cheap boots in a style I liked from that place Shoe Zone on ex-Bradwell's Court, before it closed down, because I find it hard to get shoes than meet all my requirements. I wore one pair until it fell to bits; I'm currently wearing the other pair. Also food; it's very annoying to develop a taste for some obscure Quorn product only stocked by one place in Cambridge, and then have them discontinue it.

I agree it's stupid and wasteful for a society to devote so much effort to constantly designing new varieties of things which were perfectly good in the first place, but then I'm a communist at heart, and would rather buy everything from state-run businesses that didn't need to work on that model :-)

Indeed. I used to like quite a lot of the Linda McCartney range (for occasional use; not the sausages). They keep reformulating them - and it always seems to involve making them non-vegan or thoroughly tasteless.

I was very pleased to find out that I can buy identical trainers to the ones my girlfriend forced me to get rid of after 5 years (due to their state).