While out shopping this weekend I had some thoughts about preventing some clutter before it happens. Less stuff into the house, less to get out.
This first part is important all year long - and you cannot believe how important it is - Most people walk into stores which have carts and automatically take one as they enter. I don’t. The carts are placed at the entrance to entice you to take one as the stores know you will buy more if you are pushing a cart than if you have to hold what you are buying. Unless I am specifically buying something that I know will be too heavy, too bulky or too many things to carry, I do not take a cart. You can always get one later if you need one. I thought of this walking into Costco last Sunday. If one does not take a cart than you can only buy what you can carry. You have to think about what you are buying once the purchases reach the point where you cannot carry them. If you are pushing a cart it is easy for you to keep putting items into it with little thought and buy more than you need or can easily pay for. And don’t forget the children or spouse who adds to the cart while you are looking or not.
I do this all the time - sometimes the stack I carry in the supermarket will drive my husband crazy as I pile up needed groceries in my arms and then hand him some rather than take a cart or basket. Trust me, this helps a great deal. When you go into the store to buy one or two items - or just look - you are limited in what you can buy if you do not have a cart. See a great deal on a TV - that you don’t need, but it is such a good deal - if you can’t carry it and have to go get a cart you get a jolt to think about whether or not you should buy the item. Every unneeded item not bought is an item less to deal with and money not spent.
When we are in Costco - a store which people complain that they cannot leave without spending at least $300 each time - we do not take a cart when we walk in. Generally we go there on a Sunday and have lunch at the food court first. I sit and look at the people with overloaded carts eating there. I cannot understand how in the heat of the summer someone will fill their wagon with meats, dairy items, and frozen things and then instead of going straight home with them to keep them from the heat - they sit down and eat first. I also have to wonder how much of what they have bought they planned to buy or needed or even thought about before tossing it in their cart. We then go into the store to walk around - if we have items we NEED we plan to buy them. Buying a replacement bag of pretzels for the one about to run out and lettuce - no cart needed. Oh, this DVD is a favorite movie and we decide to buy it while in the store - still no cart needed. We need toilet paper and it is on sale - go out and get a cart and then watch closely what else might be added. Most weeks we are there we buy nothing other than the lunch we ate. Other weeks we buy 1 or 2 items that are needed or are like the DVD. Some weeks we have a list when we walk in and buy a number of items - but we do not take a cart unless we know we will need it.
This works just as well in Walmart or Target or the supermarket or Home Depot or whatever other store you visit. DO NOT TAKE A CART UNLESS YOU KNOW THAT YOU WILL NEED IT DO TO THE SIZE, WEIGHT, OR NUMBER OF ITEMS YOU PLAN TO BUY.
The second part is - think about what you buy. When you are buying gifts for people - don’t go overboard - they don’t need clutter either. Don’t buy things for yourself - you are there to buy gifts not clutter for you. If you buy Aunt Jennie a blouse - don’t buy 3 for yourself. If you buy your son a video game cartridge - don’t buy him three of them - buy the one he has asked for most. Less clutter and you will teach him to limit what he has and help him to learn to avoid clutter in his future. Oh, and while you are buying it for him - you see the new Iphone. Do you really need a new Iphone? Won’t the old one do the job? I was at a board meeting for an organization I belong to. The 4 of us sat down - the other 3 took out their Ipads. I took out my paper pad and pencil. I took notes just as well and did not have a problem with the notes turning sideways every time I picked up “mypad”. Understand I am not a luddite, I just use technology for what I need it for, not the latest fad. I use it to help me, not to be fashionable. I learned to program computers on a mainframe before the Internet existed. (I hate to say it, but I also learned probably before many of you were born.)
I know someone who has a variety of computer tablets in their house. He bought an Android phone to solve his problem in getting online to check email for work. It did not help as the screen was small and the on screen keyboard was too tiny to use. He then bought a Galaxy 5" tablet as it was going to solve his problems. No, still too small and the screen keyboard unusable. He then bought a larger tablet computer - same problem and when he picks it up the screen turns sideways. Last Christmas he bought a laptop - problems solved. If he had bought the laptop he needed and thought about when he started he would not have 2 devices sitting around taking up space (he still uses the Android phone for phone quick Internet) and would not have paid over and over for what he thought he needed because it was the hot thing. And he is now looking to replace the phone as it has gotten so slow as to be unusable. (And no, I do not use a flip phone, I have a 3 year old Blackberry which does what is needed- good keyboard - and does not cause the screaming such as this person using his Android does.)
I am writing this on a laptop so old that the latest copyright on the labels on it is 2004 and it is running XP. It is slow and drives my husband crazy - occasionally I can be a line ahead in my typing compared to where it is - but it works and does the job. My husband keeps pushing me to get a new one, but I have no problem with it (I do have a newer smaller one, about 8 years old, which I use for work, this is my kitchen computer). My desktop is still running Windows 7 - it was built for me by my husband with more memory, speed, and storage than I need and will last some time - I don’t need to deal with the problems of Windows 8 or 10 and everything I need to do is done - and the computer is not out making more electronic garbage or taking up room in my basement and I have not spent more money which was not needed just to buy a new unneeded computer - because “they” say it is needed.
When you see something and think that you must have it - or Aunt Jenny or little Bill must have it as a gift - stop and think. Do you really need it? Do they? Where will it be kept? How much will it cost you in - not just the price marked on it - but in interest on your credit card for the purchase, in annoyance at buying something which takes up space and is in the way, in the fact that once it is home you realize it was foolish to buy it, and the fact that you now need to deal with something else in your house that you don’t really want and need to figure out what to do with when you start going through the clutter in your house.
Be careful in shopping and you will stop, or at least slow down, clutter from entering your home. Watch that shopping!
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