As you know, I ahve a spreadsheet that I use to keep track of all of the unread and unwatched media for my Uncollecting project. Two of the columns on the sheet are: “Do I own this?” and “If not, where can I get it?” For books, I indicate that I can find them at the library or may need to purchase them; for television shows and movies, I indicate what streaming service I can find them on. And a few weeks ago, I eliminated a number of items from those streaming lists all at once by cancelling Disney+ and Hulu.

I’ll try not to get into the politics of it all except to say that I was one among the hundreds of thousands of people who canceled their subscriptions in the wake of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension. It was a cynical move on the part of Disney, as they were kowtowing to an increasing authoritarian administration with the hopes that they’ll approve a huge merger. By now, you’ve seen that Kimmel’s show was reinstated but I still think I made a good decision.

The number of movies off of the list came to 24. The number of TV shows is 17 with a total of 28 seasons. As I crossed them off the list, there weren’t many that I was sad to see go because they had been sitting in my saved lists for years. It’s a digital version of the massive book decluttering I did a few weeks ago, donating bags of books to the library.

Is this cheating? I don’t think so. The idea is to work my way through stuff but also get rid of it when I’m done. Yes, the “watch, then rate” process is slow and the deleting is a “quick fix,” but consider that between my subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu, and Marvel Unlimited, I am probably saving around $60 a month, that’s a reward that’s worth it.

My wife and I were having a conversation about this Disney boycott as well as the Target boycott (and I should note that my last purchase at Target was sometime in January or February) as well as how we don’t order from Amazon very much (really, only as a last resort). The biggest thing to come out of it has been seeing how much of what we were buying was stuff we didn’t need.

This isn’t some grand realization, of course. So many people, I think, are seeing that as they start to cut back in this economy.

But even if these companies ever make right (and I’m sorry, but my trust in corporate America isn’t exactly high), we probably won’t go back. Advertising and social media are great at making it seem that you’re relying on these places because they need you to accumulate (of course, I wonder how they think they’re going to keep making money if they continue contributing to those who are all screwing us over, but what the hell do I know?).

Of course, I am not perfect. I still find myself buying random food and other stuff from time to time, just from other stores. But canceling that streaming felt liberating, especially since I was using the others I have a lot more.

Now if only I could watch all the stuff I’ve saved to those.