Another perk to decluttering/not shopping...

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Another perk to decluttering/not shopping...

(19 posts) (9 voices)

Started 11 months ago by themusiclivez
Latest reply from Parsifal
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themusiclivez
Member

... is that I will finally run out of items to sell! I find that it's very stressful to have to get rid of all of the unwanted items I purchase. I was doing really well with not shopping until recently, and now I have more items I don't want and need to get rid of while trying to make back some of my money.

I think I'm going to join the group of people are giving up shopping for awhile. I could benefit from that!

Do any of you keep shopping only to find out you don't want the items after a short period of time?

Posted 11 months ago #
ninakk
Member

Sounds like a good idea with some support if you think you need it! Think of the day when there is nothing more to sell :)

Posted 11 months ago #
themusiclivez
Member

Thank you! I appreciate it :o) And I will keep thinking about how nice it will be when I have nothing left to sell!

Posted 11 months ago #
mskris
Member

I tried to give up shopping for Lent, but had to break my vow because my kids needed spring/summer clothes! I'm about to try it again, after we return from vacation. We've given up takeout food and eating dinners out (we do sometimes do lunch at a local eatery on a Sat.).

I've been trying to sell items on ebay but it's a hassle to list, watch, post messages, invoice, pack, and mail! Hardly worth what I get for the stuff. I've only sold 4/20 items in the past month!

I do keep the things I love, though, and have 10-yr-old tees from Hawaii! I recall my mom bribing me to get rid of shirts with frayed cuffs!

I'd love to do a no-shop summer after 7/10, when I return from holiday, so if you need support, let me know!

Posted 11 months ago #
themusiclivez
Member

mskris - A No Shop Summer sounds like a good idea! I might have to think about that... I have CD/book/DVD weakness that I need to work on. I just bought Season 3 of a show I liked and I don't like it this season at all and just wish I took it out of the library. I'm too impulsive when it comes to buying these types of items and I need to control myself more.

You're right though, sometimes selling things online is not worth the time involved!

Posted 11 months ago #
mskris
Member

TML: I totally understand! I'm a book devotee and although DH gave me a kindle, it's just not the same experience. I'm using the kindle for travel and with luck, will "graduate" to it. I do recycle my books and buy used, at least. I rarely buy CDs or DVDs, though. I belong to Netflix and that works great for me. Good luck!

Most of what I try to sell is clothing/shoes. I am really trying to cut back on clothes shopping, both for myself and my daughters. I inherited that gene, though - my mom was the same way! It seems to be hit or miss with me - I either find something I love and wear it until it's falling apart, or I buy something, wear it a few times and it sits. I'm trying to be more particular - spend a bit more and buy less, maybe?

Posted 11 months ago #
themusiclivez
Member

mskris - I used to buy a lot of clothes/shoes. I cut back on that first, and am now at the point where I need to buy some new things! I feel the same way though - I buy something and wear it until it falls apart or I buy something and wear it once and it sits in a drawer. I have found that the less clothes I have the more creative I have to be with my outfits and that has helped me cut back as well.

I am looking to spend a bit more on quality items that I absolutely love. That is the fall wardrobe goal! I used up/wore out so much of my fall/winter wardrobe that I will desperately need some new clothes come September!

Netflix may be an option for my husband and I. Right now I am trying to use the library more but it may be something we choose to do in the future!

Posted 11 months ago #
genny
Member

Certainly, NOT shopping and buying things is the opposite side of the decluttering coin.
Having to work to get rid of the unwanted stuff should be enough incentive to not want to go out and spend money to bring in more stuff.
I find it to be work to get rid of stuff, and it is often times difficult to do so.
It should cause you to think twice, thrice, and more about every little purchase. It is with all of those little purchases that stuff accumulates in our homes. It it a little like calories. They add up in an insidious manner.

Posted 11 months ago #
themusiclivez
Member

genny - You're absolutely right. It's a lot of work to get rid of things. Ebaying can be fun, but it's time consuming (the packing/shipping part is the most time consuming for me). That has helped me realize that if I don't buy the stuff in the first place then I don't have to worry about how to get rid of it!

Posted 11 months ago #
Mimi
Member

@themusiclivez: i am one of the groupmembers who are trying to stop shopping. join the group, it´s fun on the one hand, irritating on the other hand plus there is a nice benefit, that i have explored: as i am not "allowed" to shop online, but used to surf around on ebay, amazon etc. i found a way to combine my old and new habit- instead of shopping i am selling more than before :D

Posted 11 months ago #
mskris
Member

I totally agree. I am trying not to buy things, even as gifts, and instead invest in "experiences." I've been doing that for a few years with holiday gifts, and have given trips, tickets to movies and plays, food (although not to those with weight issues), museum admissions, etc. It's worked out pretty well for my older kids, but my youngest still believes in Santa and we have to have something under the tree...
I totally need to continue my purging (have gone through the easy things already, now need to get ruthless) and not buy anything new! I did buy a new dress for my high school reunion...which I hope to wear more than once.

Posted 11 months ago #
susanintexas
Member

For me, a by-product of decluttering is knowing what we already have. Part of this comes from pawing through everything to see if it gets tossed; part of it is from organizing things as I go along.

Much of our clutter seems to consist of duplicates. Some of it just happens -- combining two adult households, inheriting stuff, gifts . . . but a lot of it is the inefficiency of not remembering that we already own something or not being able to find it when we need it. So we run to the store and buy more. Some of it has been disposables -- say, batteries -- but most has been more substantial stuff. The classic was when DH borrowed the BIL's router. A week later I was doing some garage mucking out and found that we already owned TWO identical routers.

DH is very reluctant to part with any of his stuff, but I will feel as if I have succeeded if I organize things so that he doesn't buy more of what we already have!

Posted 11 months ago #
themusiclivez
Member

@Mimi - Thank you! I need to accept the challenge and join the group. I'm sure it will be an excellent support system as well :o)

Posted 11 months ago #
MTNgirl
Member

themusiclives, I was on a shopping bender late winter and early spring. I spent quite a lot at second hand stores and have probably donated 75% of it back. Terrible. I bought a few gems, but most not so much.

mskris, I love love love my kindle. I love putting it in my purse and pulling it out to read and deciding between books whenever I want! We do text to speech during long car trips and listen to a story.

We enjoy netflix too, all the streaming movies we would not ordinarily watch and find ourselves no longer buying DVDs because we can send for whatever we want. We don't buy CD because we listen to music on the internet or buy only very favorites on I-tunes. I bought the latest Harry Potter on I-tunes as well!

Posted 11 months ago #
mskris
Member

susanintexas: I have the same problem! Either I have duplicate items, or I think I have a backup of something in the pantry and then realize I don't! Feast or famine - it all comes down to being organized. I'm trying very hard to organize the things over which I have control, but my dh and kids are a whole 'nother story!!

MTNgirl: I rarely buy movies, and I rarely watch them twice. I love netflix because then I can watch the films only I'm interested in (vs the rest of the family). I feel the same way about books (I do keep some special ones), but have exhausted most of my favorite genre at the library (even with interlibrary loan), and sometimes I can't find what I want there. I always check there first, but then end up on Amazon.com. The good news is that I do share books with friends, and we do have a semi-local swap center. I'll have to go there soon, as I'm accumulating books again!!

Posted 10 months ago #
Mimi
Member

mskris: can´t you use inter-library-loan at your library? the libraries (usually) are connected and you can get whatever you want to from another library. they will send it to yours. it may cost a bit, but it´s much cheaper than amazon ;)

Posted 10 months ago #
RhyzahM
Member

=)

Posted 10 months ago #
mskris
Member

Well, I broke my no shopping rule - twice. We adopted a cat last weekend (total cost = $100) and I replaced my old camera (gave to my son) with a new one that takes better quality photos. I realized on vacation that I hate my old camera - the photos my dd took were much better, so I upgraded to the newer version of the model she has ($81).

That said, I did clean out the spare room in my basement which my family had turned into a junk room. I got rid of a LOT of garbage! Now I'm going back to my closet this weekend and another storage space in the basement. I hope to get rid of a lot more stuff we've been storing that we don't need (a quick glance showed some baby clothes in the basement closet - my youngest is now 7). Wish me luck!

Posted 10 months ago #
Parsifal
Member

I found that de-cluttering naturally led me to give up shopping, except for a few categories I enjoy like books and cookware. Even then, it has led to a dramatic reduction in actual _buying_. Having spent so much time getting rid of unwanted clutter, the last thing I want to do is waste money on an impulse buy only to have to get rid of it at a loss weeks later.

I agree with the Netflix comments. We spend probably 5% as much on movies now as before we had streaming Netflix, and most of that is on 'classics' that Netflix does not carry. Before, we would often drop $75 in Blockbuster, but now we don't even have a membership.

Posted 10 months ago #

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