Everything I’ve Bought Online During the Pandemic

And how much each thing has dulled my existential dread

I was not a prolific online shopper in the before times. This is more a matter of living circumstance than anything else. In my old building in Crown Heights, I had a set of plates from Ikea, some masks, and two pillowcases stolen from my apartment lobby by the building package thief, who probably needed these items more than I did. All UPS packages delivered to my apartment were rerouted to the neighborhood corner store, which was seldom open and once gave a Sephora box of mine to someone else. The lesson I learned from living in this apartment was not to buy things online.

But then the pandemic happened and I was fortunate enough to be in a position where I was home all the time. And when you’re home all the time you start to realize all the small flaws with your living space, all the tiny things that could be improved with one $25.99 (plus shipping) purchase.

I was freelancing at the start of the pandemic; then I got a job and had full-time-job money and moved to an apartment where nobody is around to take my packages. So in lieu of going out to nice dinners with my friends or ordering too many drinks at a bar in Prospect Heights, the things I might normally do, I decided to treat myself in isolation and bought a bunch of shit online. Here, I will explain several of these purchases, and I will also detail how successful these things were at calming the existential dread coursing…