How To Buy Only What You Love and Need

Buy only what you love and need.

How many times have you been shopping, seen something beautiful/cool/cute/on sale, snatched it up, and then later realized you didn't really love or need it? Learning to shop conscientiously, or not at all, is liberating, better for the environment, and essential if you live in a small space. Here are some of the things we've learned on our own journey…

What You Need

Tools
Shopping list
Thoughtfulness and resolve

Instructions

• Shop with a goal. Before you set foot in a supermarket, mall, or any other store, have a clear objective and a shopping list ... and stick to it! If you're the type of person who just can't resist a spontaneous shopping trip, keep a master list of things you are "allowed" to buy in your wallet or smartphone at all times. You can still have fun shopping, but the point is to refrain from extraneous purchases.

• Stop and reflect. Stop and think for a minute, a day, a week, or even longer. Practice conscious consumerism and consider the life cycle of the product. How, where, and by whom was it made? How long will it last, and will it biodegrade someday or sit in a landfill? Also consider such questions as, Do I truly love this? How exactly would it enrich my life? Will I feel the same in a year, or even a decade?

• Approach sales calmly and rationally. Before purchasing something on sale or at a discount store, ask yourself whether you would buy it if it weren't on sale. Is it on your list? Do you need it? What makes it a "good deal"?

• Stay focused. Once you get to the store, there's no need to meander; stick to the section(s) relevant to your list, make your purchases, and leave. Not only are you living simpler and saving money, but you're also saving time!

• Buy what you need, borrow the rest. Books aren't the only things you can borrow. Rather than purchasing infrequently used items (think tools, camping gear, maybe even dishes for a party), rent or borrow them from friends or services like NeighborGoods and Rentalic. Also check out our post on The Sharing Solution, a book about creating sharing arrangements in your community.

• Streamline your decor. Realize that just because you like a chair/lamp/tchotchke, that doesn't necessarily mean it will fit with the rest of your decor. Make thoughtful choices, and adopt the attitude that you can appreciate things without having to own them. If you're decorating from scratch, know that you don't have to fill a home right away. It is far better to search and save up for a couch you really love, and sit on the floor in the meantime, than to make a hasty decision you'll regret.

• Learn to value experience over consumption. Participate in activities that don't involve shopping. Personally, once I became an avid hiker, I lost almost all interest in material things. I have a friend who ditched her shoe-buying habit, bought a musical instrument, and is learning to play. What ever your passion is, it is yours, which is much more meaningful than being a slave to fashion and advertising.

Do you have any other tips for buying only what you love and need?

Want more smart tutorials for getting things done around the home?

See more How To posts

We're looking for great examples of your own household intelligence too!

Submit your own tutorials or ideas here!

(Images: Flickr members andrewarchy licensed under Creative Commons, stawarz licensed under Creative Commons, aarongeller licensed under Creative Commons, alancleaver licensed under Creative Commons, elsie licensed under Creative Commons, gibsonselectric licensed under Creative Commons, back_garage licensed under Creative Commons, garryknight licensed under Creative Commons)

Comments (8)

Anytime I am shopping online, I place items I think I really want in my shopping basket, wait 5 days, then return to my shopping basket to see if I still love it; if not, I remove it from the basket. Sometimes I will have items in several shopping baskets on several websites. Learning this discipline has made me realize I may have split personalities, and my moods definitely affect my purchases. Scary, but it teaches me a lot about myself! :)

Try challenging yourself to only buy items that were made in the U.S.A. (or your home country), it will deflect a lot of the spontaneous purchases made in the store, and make sure you really look for the perfect item before purchasing. You'll also be supporting local manufacturing and will probably end up with a better quality product.

I think this is one of the hardest things for most Americans to learn. After all, we all grew up in a society that constantly told us, "New is better" "Spending is good for the economy" "Buy, buy, buy".... you get the idea. I remember I once thought my gramma was silly for saving sour cream containers to use as Tupperware. Now I do the same thing! And why not? What cured me of my needless and expensive purchasing habits was in part that after college I realized just how poor and in debt I was, partly that I suddenly lived in a home a quarter of the size I was used to, and also a book I bought. I highly recommend "The Clutter-Busting Handbook". It not only tells you how to deal with the problem of too much stuff, but also analyses what type of "collector" you are and why. It truly cured me. Now I live quality, not quantity and rarely spend thoughtlessly.

CassiMo, I think your online shopping tip is a great idea too!

This post was really helpful.

I've realised now that my problem is upgrading. I buy cheap clothes or furniture I don't love but which is functional, and then eventuallyI replace it. This ends up wasting time, money and the energy involved in selling/donating the used items.

We just donated 3 garbage bags of clothes. I have seriously purchased 10 things in the past year. And a few of those 10 items were in those bags! I have resolved to sit down and write a 'clothing list' (hey, it works for groceries) and figure out what I want to buy.

I lived in a sharehouse and organised a 10 person dinnner party, but we didn't have enough cutlery orplates and none of it matched. I went out and bought some crappy $1 Ikea crockery as this was all I could afford. We are stuck with these ugly greyish plates now and I just wanna replace them but I'm holding myself back because I'm realising how wasteful that pattern is...

ms flea, have you considered re-homing that dinnerware on Freecycle and finding another set at a thrift shop to replace it? Someone else might really like what you have, and I definitely don't see passing things around as wasteful.

If I'm out shopping, and I see something I like, I'll pick it up and carry it around with me. I'm usually in the store long enough to realize that I don't really want/need it.

I also try to only go when I need something, that way I'm not aimlessly shopping. It's fun to window shop, but also know what I'm really there to buy.

It's also good to remember that it's okay to go home empty-handed if you didn't find what you were looking for. Don't settle for what you saw that day, find something you really love and are going to wear/use.

I'm a great believer in only buying what you need. But it does annoy me when people constantly borrow stuff that they're too mean to buy themselves

After recently doing a major clutter purge, I created a list of wants and needs for each room. So rather than buying random pretty things, I now have a goal that will result in creating a cohesive home and streamlining future purchases.

The list keeps me focused when I shop at thrift stores and Goodwill. Previously it would have been easy for me to spend money on lots of little items. The total cost for all of those little things end up adding up to the cost of a single item that would have worked better and I would be happier with in the long run.

I also keep a folder of pictures of rooms that I like to keep me inspired and disciplined.

I, too, have a waiting period for items. If I still want it after 30 days, I buy it. Most of the time, I forget about the little things that I thought I had to have.