Buy the Thing? Skip It?
Perhaps you have a shoe box?
Elegant writers bring us joy every week, writing about what they bought and what they want. Virginia Sole-Smith can get us all thinking about cute sneakers.
My husband is the king of adapting what you already own. Buy a bin to contain something under the sink? No way – you already have a shoe box, right? Take off the lid and you’re good to go. If it gets gooey, you can have another one – they come free, with the shoes, don’t they?
When we met, he had a huge appliance box as his laundry basket. He’s still sad that I won’t let him do that in our shared space. He laments that we use laundry baskets now. I’m thinking of letting him go back to the box, as a Christmas gift.
I draw the line at things that I and other people will see. If it’s out on the counter, a shoe box will not do. It has to look nice. We are already very close to “weird ass people” territory.
Also, buying stuff is paralyzing. We have to do the research, ask our friends, look on ten websites…then, get exhausted and give up. Gretchen Rubin was the first person to teach me about maximizers and satisficers. Maximizers work exhaustively to get the best possible outcome, and satisficers stop when something is good enough. Most of us can be either, depending on the item.
I love the gorgeous simplicity of author Shira Gill. She recently showed images of her serene living space, and I had to ask where all the kid debris was. In one basket in the living room, she answered. One basket! Bliss!
Lately I’m thinking about what NOT to buy. Where can I give money, instead, or shop in my very own closet? What can I adapt, for the amusement of it? Where am I just trying to distract myself?
Really, where else can I use a shoe box?
What are you buying or not buying these days?
Here’s the book I loved recently: Laundry Love, in which laundry becomes so interesting! I enjoyed it so much I sent it to the friend who loves laundry. TL:DR — the author says use warm water for everything (I’m still using hot for towels and unmentionables) and the shortest possible cycle. Modern washers, he says, do just fine with a short cycle, and the longer ones wear out your clothes. Who knew?
Warm water huh? Thank you for that! I find as I get older (and older) I want less and buy less. I have enough clothes...I'm not going to redecorate my house at this point, and one thing I am doing is not buying one use plastic packaged products as often. I finally found a laundry detergent that is in a steel bottle and gets my clothes actually clean (Dirty Labs)! And no more one off plastic bottles of water. But I have a long way to go to go plastic free completely.
I travel a lot and have nice luggage. We went away for our anniversary weekend and my husband comes to the car with reusable grocery bags filled with his things. He invests in what matters to him…luggage is not one of them.
I use cardboard boxes in my pantry to organize/sort. Especially for baking it’s nice to have everything all together.
Over the years I’ve purchased so many clothes. Usually I add several new pieces each season and wear most of them for decades (because I buy clothes that I love and try to avoid fast fashion). In July I decided to resist clothes shopping for myself. I don’t need anything else right now. And in general I’ve been abstaining from non consumable shopping.
But BOOKS. Real books from independent bookstores mostly non fiction. That’s where I’ve been splurging lately. (Library books for everyday pleasure reading though)