A Non-Minimalist Guide to Curbing Impulse Purchases

Three rules for taming impulsive buying that are better than “delay the purchase.”

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Of all the advice minimalism sprinkles into the world, I’ve always found one area particularly unsatisfying and one-dimensional: impulse purchases.

Conventional tips include: Delay the purchase. Stick to your budget. Shop with a plan. And sure, these things might pamper ascetics or seasoned minimalists, but they never worked for me. Isn’t it the very nature of impulse purchases that we can’t wait? That we can’t rationally think about them?

It wasn’t until I explored a radically different approach that my curse of impulsive shopping sprees was finally lifted. The premise is simple yet counter-intuitive: what if we stopped trying to eliminate impulse purchases? And what if, instead, we redirected these impulses to needs, intentionality, and joy?

Here are three rules for curbing impulsive buying through redirection — based on some of the most reckless purchases I’ve ever made.

1. The Swedish Shopping Spree (or: how to turn impulse into intention)

Two years ago, shortly after moving to a new apartment, I entered a monstrous blue IKEA with a specific…