IF you were keen to be an aspirational show-off in the 2000s, certain status symbols were vital. Was your house full of this sort of tat?
Dreamcatchers
What better way to show off your new fascination with the ‘spiritual’ and ‘New Age thinking’ than by buying a dreamcatcher from Homebase? While some feathers tied to a bit of wood might be incredibly meaningful to some Native American cultures, they have absolutely no place in a semi-detached home in Peterborough.
Satellite dishes
Perhaps the defining status symbol of the decade, as they were massive and bolted on to the side of your house. Now all your neighbours, and any passers-by, could see that you were paying truly extortionate sums for access to hundreds of obscure American shopping channels that you never watched.
Robotic dog
There was a brief and bizarre period where every child became obsessed with owning an incredibly rudimentary robot dog. Buying your child a piece of tat costing north of £100 that moved like C3PO with arthritis must have made sense if you were looking for a ‘pet’ that wouldn’t shit all over your new pattern rugs.
A home entertainment system
Fathers became obsessed with the idea of turning their living rooms into ‘home cinemas’. This basically involved spunking vast amounts of money on a set of massive speakers and a profoundly expensive DVD player that would become obsolete before the end of the decade, all so they could watch The Day After Tomorrow with the curtains drawn.
Random decorative bowls
For some reason, anyone trying to appear well-to-do in the 2000s filled their homes with small decorative bowls of crap such as pot pourri, or even just pebbles. Whatever mastermind somehow convinced the world that glass dishes filled with, essentially, smooth gravel were a decorative must-have is a true genius.
