Tag: Shopping

Why We Buy Things We Don’t Need (And How to Stop Making Impulse Purchases)

- Alexis Leave a comment
Close-up of twenty-dollar bills

Despite my stated intention to embrace a smaller wardrobe and buy less apparel, I’ve been been doing a good bit of online clothes shopping lately. Much of the browsing and clicking feels more habitual or impulsive than intentional. In order to feel more in control of my spending and acquiring, I wanted to try to understand what is driving this behavior, both for me individually and for modern consumers in general.

Lately, my impulse purchases have all been clothes and shoes, and they’ve all been made online. I rarely shop at physical stores anymore, and I don’t feel much of a desire to buy, say, home decor items, sporting goods, or kitchen gadgets. I’ve embraced a less-is-more mindset when it comes to the objects that surround me and fill my physical environment. Why, then, has this mindset not expanded to the objects that adorn my body?

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The Year of Less and Keys to Breaking Bad Habits and Building Good Ones

- Alexis Leave a comment

Cover of The Year of Less audiobook by Cait Flanders

A couple of months ago, I heard an interview of Cait Flanders talking about her year-long shopping ban and her book The Year of Less.  I was intrigued by the concept of giving up shopping for a year, so when I saw that the book was Audible’s Daily Deal last week, I decided to check it out.  I’m so glad I did, because it is a fantastic read.

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My Wardrobe Challenge

- Alexis 2 Comments

Clothes hanging in a closet

If you use Pinterest or read women’s magazines or websites, you may have come across this concept:  Turn around all the hangers in your closet.  After you wear something, hang it up with the hanger facing the other direction.  You will easily be able to see which clothes you’ve worn and which you haven’t.  After six months or a year, donate or sell any items you haven’t worn.

It’s not a bad idea, but because I fully Marie Kondo-ed my closet last year (more about that later) and am generally pretty good about regularly purging clothes that are in poor condition or don’t fit well, this concept didn’t seem all that useful to me.  But it sparked a slightly different idea.

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