Shopping with Organizing in Mind

Spring Courtright
Nov 26, 2021
3 min read

Updated: Jan 27

Tips for shopping without causing more clutter.

We're being marketed to from every direction, while SO MANY of us are surrounded by 'stuff' we don't know what to do with.

We live in a consumer culture telling us we need more 'things' to be happy.

And many of us live with anxiety amped up by clutter in our homes.

So, as we near "Black Friday" and the holidays and marketing reaches it's crescendo,..

I encourage you to take a moment before each purchase to ask your Self some important questions. Before hitting the wiggling BUY button or putting something in our carts...

No matter how busy we are, we DO have time to think about each purchase before we buy - we don't have time NOT to!

Some questions to ask before buying:

Am I being honest?
Where will it live?
Will this become a burden?
Is buying this just a dopamine hit?
Am I trying to fill a hole this thing won't actually help?

1 AM I BEING HONEST? So often I catch myself thinking, "You should buy this!" but when I take a moment I realize it's actually the voice of the company selling it to me. Do I or the person I'm buying for TRULY need-want-love it?

Will I or the recipient be glad I bought this in a month? A year?

2 WHERE WILL IT LIVE?

My personal rule is that before I bring an item into my home, I need to know where it's going to live.

I ask things like: will it replace something? Is there room for it with other items like it?

Do I love this enough to take time to make a home for it?

3 WILL THIS BECOME A BURDEN?

It's easy to get joyful moments - seeing the package, opening the box...

But when the 'woohoo!' moment passes, we're left with packaging and a need for a place to put the item.

Will this item truly bring long-term joy and/or be useful, or will it soon become clutter?

4 - IS BUYING THIS JUST A DOPAMINE HIT?

Our brains get a satisfying hit of dopamine when we hit the buy button or find a great deal - the marketers know this well!

Am I buying this because I truly need or want it, or just because it'll feel good for a moment?

5 AM I TRYING TO FILL A HOLE THIS THING WON'T HELP?

In my work with women I've found a pervasive not-enoughness:

I'm not doing enough. I don't give enough. I don't have enough time...

It's just NOT TRUE! We all know buying more stuff, giving more and doing more things isn't the answer.

But our culture breeds this non-enoughness into us so deeply, for so long, that it feels normal.

MORE STUFF will not take away the stress, anxiety, depression and insecurity. We know this, we're intelligent, but our training runs deep. If we find we're attempting to fill a hole of not-enoughness, it's time to do something other than shop...

Connect with someone who cares about us
Get exercise
Find fulfillment in other ways - therapy, life coaching, positive human interaction
Do deep self care - a bath, a walk with a friend, a moment in nature, a healthy meal...whatever deep self care is for you