10 Rules for Avoiding Retail Clutter
Be Mindful of What You Allow to Come Into Your Home.
When it comes to decluttering, letting go of the things you no longer use or love or make your life easier is only part of the puzzle. Equally important is being careful about what you bring into your home. This is especially important to keep in mind this weekend, with the onslaught of Labor Day Sale ads that are currently cluttering up your inbox. Before you click on those ads, take a few moments to read my "10 Rules for Avoiding Retail Clutter" below!
1. Make a shopping list.
Write out a list of items you need, and stick to that list. Especially at Target. This applies to online shopping, too. Stay focused. Get what you need, and check out. You got this!
2. It's not a "good deal" if you don't need it.
Sales come and go. Yes, that bathing suit is on "End of the Season Sale" right now. But ask yourself: Do you NEED a new bathing suit as summer is coming to an end? Do you have space in your drawer for a new bathing suit, or will it have to be stuffed in there, making it even more irritating to open and close the drawer? Or will it live on the pile of clothes on the chair because the drawers are full? Will that bathing suit still feel new and shiny by the start of next summer, or will you just want to buy a new one again then? Can you justify the expense?
3. Don't bring anything into your home if you don't know exactly where you will put it first.
I look at this beautiful white and blue ceramic canister at Target (curse your amazing taste, Joanna Gaines!) every time I'm there. Its just so pretty. But I keep coming to the conclusion that I have no use for it, and I have no space for it. We don't need a cookie jar. We have no room on our small counters for a tea canister. I still love my current kitchen utencil jar so I don't want to replace that. This pretty object just doesn't make sense anywhere in our house, and I've accepted that.
4. Wait a week before hitting the "place order" button.
Online shopping often leads to impulse purchasing. It’s just so easy and convenient to one-click order virtually anything you could want, and it arrives at our doorstep in two days. But is that "convenience" making our lives easier, or burdening us (and eventually, our landfills) with too much stuff?
I recommend a one-week waiting period before clicking that "place order" button. If you're still thinking about the item a week after you put it in your online shopping cart, and you need it, and you have space for it, and you can justify the cost, then go ahead and place that order.
5. Don't immediately put impulse purchases in your cart.
I was in Home Goods last year to get new bath rugs and check out their organizing product selection, and as I'm wandering the aisles, I see lots of affordable pretty little things. As I peruse the aisles I found a couple items I could justify were useful and that I had space for.
But I tried something new this time. I decided not to put anything in my cart right away. I told myself that if I was still thinking about those items after I'd walked the aisles and it was time for checkout, I could go back and find them to revisit. Well, I did go back and re-visit one item, but it wasn't as attractive as before. The other two things weren't worth walking to the other end of the store for, so I clearly didn't want them that much. But if they'd have gotten into my cart 30 minutes prior, when I first decided I "wanted" them, I'd be $50 poorer, and have three more items I didn't need or love taking up space in my home.
6. Don't get a cart if you only need a few things from the store.
Get a basket instead. There's only so much time you want to spend wandering the aisles if you're lugging a purse in one arm and a shopping basket in the other. And it can only get so full. If you can go without a basket and carry what you need in your hands, even better.
7. "Quarantine" new purchases in your car trunk.
I saw a blog post about this idea a couple years ago, and I recommend this method often. Don't bring that Target haul into your home for a week. If it's not perishable and can stand the heat, it stays in the trunk. If you truly need something sooner than a week, you'll go to the trunk to get it.
But you know what often happens when you look at something with fresh eyes that's been sitting in a bag in your trunk for a week? It often doesn't feel as new and shiny and appealing and aspirational as it did on the pristine white shelves of Target's boutique home decor section when you first laid eyes on it a week ago. It doesn't look as fun as it did in the Target $3 bin. If you have room for the item, and you know where you will put it, and you still feel you can justify the item, and you still love it, go ahead and bring it inside. If it doesn't pass the test, drive it back to Target and get your hard-earned money back.
8. Avoid buying in bulk
Unless you have a household of five or more and you have a garage, or you're in charge of keeping your kid's Little League snack bar stocked, you probably don't need to be shopping at Costco. If you are a household of one or two or three in an apartment with limited storage, you definitely don't need to be shopping at Costco. If you don't have a place to put that 48 pack of toilet paper without having to stare at it sitting on top of your dryer or on the floor in the hallway indefinitely, don't buy it. Buy a 12 pack of toilet paper at Ralph's. It'll be fine. Bulk packs of household items in your living space doesn't fit into your interior design scheme anyway.
Also, I'm here to point out what seems so obvious when you say it out loud, but is so often overlooked: when you buy a six pack of lotion, it takes up SIX TIMES as much space in your bathroom cupboard. When you buy a three pack of Cheez-It's, it takes up THREE TIMES as much space in your pantry. How much more space would open up, and how many things would you be able to get off your counter and into your cupboards, and how much easier would it be to find what you're looking for, and how much more peaceful and at ease would you feel in your home if you weren't storing all these bulk purchases in your living space?
9. Return purchases that you decide you don't need or want.
It's not just about getting your money back. It's about getting the SPACE back that the item takes up. Sometimes there are purchases that only cost a handful of dollars that should be returned. Maybe we changed our minds, maybe we bought the wrong one by accident. So there on the dryer it sits, still in its box. Or in the cabinet, taking up valuable space there. We justify "It's not worth my time to return it for a few dollars".
But is it worth returning the item to get back the space? If it's truly not worth the hassle to return it, or the return window has passed, or it's already opened and you can't return it, then add it to your donation bag, or post it on Next Door or your local Buy Nothing Facebook page. If it's not serving you, then the space is much more valuable to you than the item.
10. Ask Yourself What Other Hidden Costs are Involved in the Purchase
How much money and time will it cost to maintain the item? How much time will you or your housekeeper have to spend dusting it, or shifting things around to be able to clean the surface? How much harder will it make it to find items you are looking for? How much time will you spend trying to clear space for it or organize it? How much harder will it make it for you to reach your goal of a decluttered home?
After the buzz of a new purchase wears off, will the new item ultimately make your life easier, or contribute to all the "stuff" that's making you feel so weighed down?
Before clicking those Labor Day Sales ads, I encourage you to take a few moments to be more mindful of what, why, and how things are coming into your home. And evaluate how all those things are making you feel once they've settled into your home.
Real change requires a shift in habits, and new habits don't develop overnight. A little bit at a time is a step in the right direction, and I'm here to help with that.
-Sarah Holden, Owner
Room Service Home Organizing LLC
roomserviceorganizing.com