Ahhh, the high experienced when dropping off a load of purged items at the donation center. While I am thrilled to see minimalism and paring down become trendy, I rarely see these habits stick. Items are quickly replaced by new purchases.
Buying something new might generate endorphins, but what if you could put that money toward a trip? Or retirement? Or taking a gap year from work? These are just some examples of things proven to offer long-term happiness.
Decluttering once or twice a year is not tackling the root of the problem. Rewiring your mindset and buying intentionally will lead to more sustainable results. But like most good things, it will not happen without a little bit of effort. I would like to offer some practical rewirements to help you become a more intentional buyer:
- Pause and think. Outside of staple grocery and toiletry items, I give thought to everything I buy. Yes, everything. I consider the cost, how much space it will take up, how often I will use it, whether I can rent or borrow it, and how many purposes it will serve. This might sound like a lot of work, but it becomes automatic. I keep a running “wish list” on the notes app on my phone. This allows me to really think about how badly I need it. Some things get purchased and other items wiped from the list. If you are online shopping, keep something in your cart for a few weeks and consider if you really want to press the “buy” button. Stop impulse buying; start buying with intent.
- Cancel coupons. If you find yourself being tempted by sales, promotions, or coupons–D&I. That is, delete and ignore. The old adage is true – if something costs $500 and is on sale for $300, you did not save $200…you spent $300. Marketing is a mind game and you are falling for it every time you feel compelled to act on what you are being sold. I cannot overstate how good it feels to defeat consumerism. If you need to reduce temptation, unsubscribe from emails, ignore ads on social media that are targeting your every desire, throw coupons from the mail straight into the recycle bin, and proudly proclaim, “Not today, marketers!”
- Reduce, reuse, recycle. By intentionally buying you are already reducing packaging and waste going into a landfill. If something no longer serves its intended purpose, consider a way to repurpose it and use it in a different capacity. Do not be so quick to discard something that is not working. Recently my vacuum stopped working. I called Dirt Devil after coming up short with the troubleshooting offered in the manual and they were able to walk me through a hard reset that got the vacuum working again. I did not have the same luck with a hairdryer after taking it apart and trying to revive it, so a quick search showed it could be recycled at Best Buy. There are countless videos and threads in forums on how to fix every item imaginable. Try harder before discarding and buying new.
- Share and borrow. Remember the old days when it wasn’t weird to knock on your neighbor’s door without advanced notice and ask to borrow something? That may still exist in some neighborhoods, but let’s normalize that again! Do you really need to buy a tool to use once per year if your neighbor has it? Conversely, you likely have something that your neighbor would like to borrow.
Rewiring your habits will take some time and effort but intentional buying will become second nature before long. There are so many benefits that include freeing up headspace to think about more important things, less waste for the planet, more money in your savings account, and the most satisfying benefit…defeating consumerism.
the single minimal(ist) 