The Snowball Effect of Shopping

 

    I know I've mentioned before that I have never been and am not now, an enthusiastic shopper. I go months and months without darkening the doors of any store that carries more than food or raw lumber. Obviously though, there comes a time when I need something other than lettuce and tofu. This time it was socks. In reality, I need more than that since I've been wearing the same jeans (washed, of course) every day for three months now, but I must have time to psyche myself up for clothes shopping since it's an impossible experience. I do enjoy some shopping occasionally though, and I have a particular weakness for kitchen items.

    It started out very innocently at T.J.Maxx, which happens to be close to my house. Too close. I went in to get the socks. Then I wandered into the home section and picked up some microfibre kitchen towels because they work so well. This snowballed into looking at the handbags for something smaller than my one and only since I don't have to carry around diapers anymore. I found the perfect little bag. When I got home I went online to read about the company (Sherpani) since I saw that they use a large percentage of recycled materials in their products. Checking them out and seeing what else they offered  gave me a serious case of the wanties, and I decided these were the bags I wanted for replacements of all my old, wornout bags. Serendipity raised it's beautiful head in that I'm actually going away this weekend and, since I don't fly, I am was sans luggage. I usually pack the girls' and my own things in reusable cloth grocery bags when we go somewhere. The Simple Man urged me to buy, like him, an ugly, cheap duffel bag from Target, but I rebelled. I went back to T.J.Maxx, hunting for more Sherpani bags, which they had. It was a good size for a day long outing with children, but not for any longer than that. So I ordered a larger bag, sized for yoga/gym or a weekend away. It seems like a lot as I'm writing this, but except for the weekend bag, I am actually replacing other items. I'm also neurotic and picky about bags; they can't be too girly, I have to be able to wear them cross body, I want to be able to clean them, and they can't be overwhelming either in size, construction, or bling. So if I seem pathetically excited about my trio of perfect bags, please excuse me.

    While I was wandering around in a bag fever, I also spied a dish rack that fits over the sink and a wasp catcher. Neither were items that I really needed, but they are useful. Every summer our house holds a convention for fruit flies no matter what I do, and I've tried everything to get rid of them except a wasp catcher, which I've heard is very affective. The dish rack I have no excuse for besides the fact that anything that expands to fit multiple sizes fascinates my feeble brain and makes me want it. All this shopping after the sock purchase was legitimized by the fact that our electric tea kettle broke, so I was also searching for a kettle. Never found just the right one, so that's still on the list.

  Clearly, just because I am practicing voluntary simplicity, frugality, and mindful consumption, doesn't mean that I automatically stop wanting things. I don't allow myself opportunities for buying often, not because I always go crazy and purchase more than I need, but because I think it's easier to pick up a small item here or there until you realize you have 27 tea light holders. It's the same premise  as with the studies on  grocery shopping, in that the more often you go, the more you buy and consequently spend. I tend to get all my needs and wants out of the way a few times a year and avoid stores the rest of the time.

Items I had a hard time ignoring, but did:

• A ceramic counter top compost container. What made me hesitate? Made in China. I thought of this recent post.

• Another tote bag. I have a problem with bags.

• Le Crueset Ramekins. Enough said.

• More glass storage containers.

• Gorgeous bamboo cutting board.

• Painted ceramic mug with silicone lid.

 

       If you're tring to go minimalist, or live a simplified lifestyle, what are your shopping patterns like?

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Aminah]

I have to say, I love shopping. But the only store I go to these days has to be a one stop shop and have shopping carts to contain wild child. ie: Target. I usually only go if I need something specific, but I do look around at all the clearance items. I buy things that I need or that might prove to be useful in the near future. I'm usually always ditching things anyways so it's like I'm replacing an old item with a new item with. I'm not one of those people that will drop hundred's of dollars on a shopping trip. I do have limits! For example: I went to Target last weekend for a specific item. Found it. But I also found these cute yellow retro looking counter top containers for flour, sugar, etc. (I'm also a sucker for kitchen gadgets) but I didn't have a lot to spend, so I put them back and got said specific item. Left store.

[Erin Kleider]

I have to admit...I love shopping as well. I also love handbags. LOVE them. It is a fetish....kind of... Unfortunately, I cannot afford to go shopping so for the most part, I don't allow myself to go into the stores in the first place, because if I do, we will most likely leave with something. It is worse if my kids are with me.

Unfortunately, there is plenty of shopping that can be done online.

[Aminah]

After reading this post I went to Library. I ended up checking out the book "The Story of Stuff" Ironic! http://www.storyofstuff.com/

[TheSimplePoppy]

I hear you on the shopping carts, though my wild child is now refusing to sit in them so I have to end up wheeling the cart one handed while holding her on my hip if she starts going crazy in the store.

Limits are good too. I usually stick within my budget by 10 dollars; I'm not going to turn down something awesome if it's a little over what I planned for. I don't know what it is about kitchen stuff; maybe because we are cooking all the time?

[TheSimplePoppy]

Yeah, online is bad too. I can't get on Amazon.com without steeling myself against all the other things I could order on there along with the one item I actually need. I guess the best way to avoid it is simply to not go into store, either in real life or on the internet!

[TheSimplePoppy]

I've checked out their site before. Really makes you wonder if you want to be contributing to massive piles of rotting rubbish all over the world. Let me know how you like the book!

[Lasik surgery]

This happens to me all the time. I make a shopping list at home and when I am at the store, I buy many other things that i don't really need them for the moment, but I am attracted by the price, or are some products on sale. This how how I get to spend all my money on small things and not necessarily.

[Baby Dior]

I like this site and it is very informative and hence people who will come across this site will gain lot of information about it. I am very to being glad to be part of this site! I will visit this site in future too.

[shona~LALA dex press]

I have just discovered your blog and loved this post. The restaurant my boyfriend frequent on Friday nights is in the same parking lot as Marshalls + after dinner we tend to drop in, ya know, just to look. We live in a small southern town without a lot of shopping options + my boyfriend is tall + skinny + Marshalls tends to carry his hard-to-find-in-our-area size. So he goes + looks + I browse the candles... housewares... OOH, look at this bath mat on sale! Well, you know the routine because this is what this post is about. I have found that I'm completely OK carrying the things I want around, but then putting them back before we leave (I always put them back because I spent too many years working in retail). Secondly, I "un-shop" before I get to the check-out, I even do this is the grocery store. Despite my shopping list, something ALWAYS makes it into the cart.

[TheSimplePoppy]

Hi Shona - yep, I have often found myself dropping into stores I didn't intend to simply because of their proximity to where I'm actually going! I like your "unshopping"! I worked in retail too, it makes me cringe to put things back where they don't belong! Thanks for reading.

[maureen173@gmail.com]

Once again, hitting me in the heart. Am I being a blog stalker? Is this what people do? I've never subscribed to a blog before, but I have this refreshing feeling of being in good company (albeit virtually) and it's exhilarating!

Just have to chime in here and say that I am a champion "unshopper" and never knew there was a term for that! I loved what Shona wrote about "carrying the things around"...there is something oddly satisfying about that, kind of going to the library for housewares. It satifies the urge, without the financial or clutter consequences. It actually drives my husband insane when I do this, and if he's with me, he insists that I buy what I put in my cart. "Your time is worth money! Why are you going all over the store, just to put it all back????!!!!" Since it is his money and he is being generous, I have lately begun trying to take the advice of a great book on marriage (The Surrendered Wife) and trying to "receive graciously". But I must admit, it feels like someone trying to force feed me when I'm full. I almost have a frantic reverse-tantrum, insisting, "I DON'T want that! I swear! Give it to me! Let me put it back!!!!!" We stand in the middle of Target, two grown adults, playing tug-of-war with a ceramic napkin holder or a $7.00 bag of pillow protectors. Lately, he's been winning, and I sit in the car dejected and defeated with my red and white plastic bag full of nothing and our checking account shrunken by $50.

You guys are helping me process this overwhelming feeling of resistance to the buying of stuff, so thank you. It's more than not wanting to participate in the consumer culture, I think. It has more to do with not wanting to indulge my personal desires, not wanting to feed the monster ego that can never be satiated, and that plays with a new toy for five minutes and then tosses it aside and looks for the next new thing. I read something I liked that said "the ego wants to WANT more than it wants to HAVE". Sometimes I find myself wishing I was born during the Depression or in a village in Uzbekistan, so the constructive resistance of lack that I find cathartic would be natural and not contrived. There would be no choice in the matter...no need for words like 'Minimalist'. My in-laws look at me like they're considering having me committed when I tell them that doing dishes is my small way of making my life harder. If you don't HAVE to go without but choose to anyway, it does seem to fly in the face of logic and the idea of self-preservation, but however feebly I must continue to try to resist the onslaught of "ease".

Thank you all for making me feel sane. It has been a long time.

[TheSimplePoppy]

Oy, shopping with men. I love my man, but I don't love shopping with him. I feel self-conscious about touching anything because they immediately think you might want it. Men like to buy things for their women and I don't think they understand that the way a lot of women shop is very tactile; we caress, we carry it around thinking about where to put it, we hold it against ourselves, and then, if we have control, we put if back if it's not needed. They feel like it's a rejection, when really you've played with a toy and decided it's not for you. It's hard.

Well, you've hit the whole minimalist thing on the head. Clearly, most people in the world are natural minimalists. The only people that call themselves that are people who are able to have more than they do! Still, it's a great exercise for the mind and body - less is better, but it does create a lot of consternation. People really don't get it and a lot of people I've mentioned it too seem to think it's a style, like, "Oh, you like modern!" Um no. Minimalists come with all different tastes, what hopefully threads us together is our realization that not only is life physically easier and freeing without much, it's also a statement against the rampant excess corroding our society, and a way for us to live better lives. I don't actually know any real life minimalists (would you guys call yourselves that - I know you're totally clutter free!) so I'm grateful for the online community!

[maureen173@gmail.com]

Yes! I guess now that I've discovered this word (and this secret online world), I would definitely say I am a minimalist. But I'm also trying to de-clutter identities for myself, so I may not take it on officially. :) But the philosophy is definitely the guiding principle for our home and lives.

The newest thing to go may be the phones. Rather than upgrade to a "smart" phone (which I think are making us dumber), we're seriously considering getting rid of the cell phone altogether (the ancient flip kind with an antenna...just kidding, but pretty darn close). We had gotten rid of the house phone as a way of streamlining, but now find we want the control having to be reached ONLY when we are at home and ready to talk brings. I don't need the stress of being "on" and connected all the time. I guess I'm not really on call, since I rarely pick up my cell phone until I can attend to it fully. Of course, Jason takes it to the extreme and says he wants no call waiting and no answering machine on the house phone, which i think can be problematic. So we'll see what happens with that.

Anyway, so glad to connect with the people on here and not feel like a crazy person. I know that I am in fact quite normal, just not normal in this current society.

[Dwayne Pech]

I like shopping too and sometimes I can be really impulsive. I always get into a situation where I buy something that I don't really need. For a guy like me, jeans and shirts are the thing. I only have one suit. When I was in Japan I saw men carrying handbags. That is quite practical for me who doesn't like to carry a lot of stuff. My pattern usually changes. For example, this month I would tend to buy shirts and next month maybe it would be bags.