Twenty wooden chairs, seven swivel chairs, four wooden desks, three computer tables, five metal trash cans, seven desk lamps, 14 paper trays, a coat rack, three filing cabinets and a broken copy machine.

No, this is not the list of gifts my true love gave to me. This was my haul from last April’s Iowa Department of Transportation auction. I initially went to buy items to fill an office I was planning to rent for some activist groups with whom I work. Somewhere along the line, I think I got auction fever.

Since last April, the office rental fell through, and I put a lot of furniture in storage. It seems going to the auction last year wasn’t such a grand idea, but when the auction came up again last Saturday, I was sucked in again.

When I arrived and checked out the items, it appeared that there would be a lot less I would have any reason to bid on. So, I sat back and watched for a while. Now, as an observer rather than a participant, the whole enterprise struck me as a bit absurd.

Why, year after year, does the DOT need to unload so many filing cabinets? And why dump so many desk lamps?

Yes, government offices are shrinking and objects need to be replaced over time, but who doesn’t need lamps?

And of course, why do they have pallets full of random wires, headsets and broken electronic equipment all over the ground and listed as miscellaneous? I understand that equipment needs to upgraded, but shouldn’t you know what the old things are?

I became frustrated and then went to various garage sales around town. Here, things seemed even worse.

Who buys used underwear? Well, who besides Internet perverts? Just because you don’t want something, you shouldn’t always assume you’re the only one.

I’m glad the boxes and boxes of assorted stained clothing, Stephen King books and scuffed shoes weren’t just tossed to the curb.

Our nation already has enough landfills, and we haven’t yet found a big enough catapult to throw the debris into space. Plus, redistributing old items for a low price is a good way to keep the cost of living for the average person low. Yet, I have to wonder how people end up selling so many things they’ve purchased.

It appears that most of us just buy too many things. We have enough clothing to last through our grandchildren’s active lives.

We purchase blockbuster hits like “Splash” and “Britney Spears Live” before realizing that regular viewing of these films is hardly essential to good living.

We buy riding lawn mowers that use more gas hauling us around than trimming our 4’x4′ lawn.

We buy Salad Shooters. We buy Salad Spinners. We don’t, however, buy salad. We buy individual TV dinners held in plastic, wrapped in plastic, boxed in by paper and carried away in a plastic bag. No wonder we have so much to sell or throw away.

Unfortunately, our buying practices have yet to change. Even worse, we still believe the price we paid is fair and that we should be able to sell our possessions for a higher price than anyone will pay.

When I was a child, I blew my savings on that old Atari and set of games for $80, even though the Nintendo had been on the shelves for years.

Now, there’s no way I’m going to pay $30 for your set of 1987 encyclopedias. I’m not going to pay more than $20 for your old tuxedo. I’m definitely not going to buy your old sweaty sports caps for any price. You’re going to have to drop the prices, stop buying so much junk or pay less for these things when you buy them.

The latter also goes to the folks at the auction who bid $130 on a 1997 digital camera the same size as of one of those encyclopedias.

I’ll keep attending those garage sales, and I’ll tell my friends to do the same. I’ll probably buy too many things, and eventually, I’ll probably have a garage sale of my own.

After all, I’ve already got a basement full of chairs, tables and all. I’m a consumer too, as much as I hate to admit it, I still haven’t figured out how to compost that old stack of Economists.

Yet, I’ll hold out hope that eventually we’ll figure out this process just doesn’t make sense. Until then, anyone wanna buy a coat rack?