6-step hack to buying less stuff
Why do we keep buying so much stuff?
There are plenty of explanations for this. As hunter-gatherers, we had intrinsic motivation to hoard resources. All these years of evolving and we still haven’t changed. Sometimes we do it because there’s a void inside of us that we try to fill with stuff but just can’t seem to. Either ways, we don’t really know for sure.
Over the years, since I started being conscious of my own excesses and exposing myself to ideas such as minimalism, essentialism and decluttering, I have read lots of books. I even read hundreds of articles on the internet and diligently clicked follow on multiple pinterest boards. I pretty much became an expert on decluttering and minimalist living…
… except, I did not.
No matter how much I threw away, I was still not immune to psychological marketing tricks pressing me to buy more and more. The sales and ‘exclusivity’ of fast fashion/fast moving goods (LOL) and emotionally designed products continued to seduce me.
One day around three years ago I decided it was enough and I no longer wanted to be dictated by shopping impulses. So I did a few things you can do too:
- Figure out your category
Find out where you spend most of your money/time. While you read this, you most likely thought about something. You already know. If nothing comes to your mind right away, you can go over your card bills or bank statements. Find your patterns.
For me, it was clothing. Being in a fashion college didn’t help, either. And neither did the dirt-cheap prices at H&M, Zara and the likes. It didn’t matter that I always only wore the same clothes again and again (still do), and never had anything to wear when going out. My ‘new’ clothes stayed unworn for years, and I was left with piles of low quality clothes from fads past. - Figure out how you end up buying
Is it online? Do you spend hours searching vacantly across websites? Or can you not resist the pull of a large red SALE sign as you walk past it? Note.
Stay away from these places. I decided to switch brands to durable and sustainable ones present locally. They’re mostly expensive, and I can’t afford them. But when you save money over time to buy something, two things happen: You make sure you get something you really want, and that it fits an image of you that exists in your mind, that you look fabulous and feel comfortable. - Find a better hobby
Fun fact: Boredom can be cured without shopping! Take up a hobby that takes up time and keeps you away from the sales channels you noted above. Join the gym. Or take up a sport. Binge-read fiction series. Not only will these direct your attention away from your shopping urges, but also help fill up that void a little bit. Maybe. - Decide beforehand/ Go without your card
If you must go to the mall/market/shopping portal because you’re out of something, then take, in cash, only exactly as much money as you need for it. Leave your card at home. Preferably delete the instant payment app on your phone for a while. And if leaving without your card gives you anxiety, then stash it in the most inconvenient place in your bag and make it as inconvenient to retrieve as possible. Only enter the store you need to buy the thing from, and do not enter any other store. - Use the 1 month/ 1 week rule
One trick that’s really works for me personally is the 1 month/1week rule(different for different products).
If you see something you like in a shop, give yourself some time to see whether you really need it. Or even really want it. The sale sign, the limited quantity, the urgency of it all will try to pressurise you to buy it without thinking too much. It’s part of the design. If you don’t buy it, almost always, you will forget that the object even existed. But if even after a month, the niceness of the object still occurs to you, if you don’t tire of it, if you get dreams about it at night, then by all means, buy it. You will cherish it much more than the fifty odd things you would have otherwise bought that month. - Use things well
Love what you own. Use it well, and take care of your things. Clean them when they get dirty and repair them when you need to. You value things when you spend time and care for them.
What did you think of this article? Have you tried any of these tricks? Do you have something you would like to add to the list? Comment below:
