Buy Less...Enjoy More

Now that the blah moments temporarily escape, I am going to get a bit more productive with blogging while I am at it!   I hate shopping! Never in a million year thought this sentence would ever slip out of my mouth. After almost 5 months of “no-clothes/bags shopping”, the rhythm of recycling/digging old items has become my way of getting dress. I am getting warm up to the idea of “less is more” so very much I must say. It was not my intention to do a “ban” of any sort but what really bothered me was those clutters in the house and those clothes hanging unworn years after years. I kept buying craps I don’t need and I was so sick of it. And that’s how this whole ordeal started.       This past weekend I put myself to the test and made a trip to the mall, I found myself walking aimlessly for two full hours - store after store – Gaps, H&M (yeah it finally opens here but I am not so thrilled by far at their offerings) and a few more stops just to come out empty handed. Yes, empty handed. If it was “the old me”, it would have been a different story of a shopaholic gone wild.   Not only I was amazed at my ability to stay firm and shop with conscious, my husband was even more amazed as he has witnessed my shopaholic pattern in the past 8 years since we live together. He was quite thrilled indeed. The time has finally come, I embrace this change quite well so far. A transition from a girl who buys everything and anything to a selective shopper was much easier and not much of struggles I realized. Sticking with goal and determination is the key to stay on track. My goal is to get rid of the clutters in my closet/house, use what I already have and buy only if nessessary.    First thing I did was to identify my weak spots and try to avoid any temptations that can wreck havoc my plan. In my earlier weeks, I stopped the followings: 1) reading fashion blogs   2) checking out sale, deals, steals, bargains, the hottest, the latest, the trendiest altogether 3) last but not least stop going to the mall   Is my approach too drastic? You may ask. I didn’t feel it was too drastic because since the beginning of 2012 I began to lose interest in chasing after trends. Time and time again, I bought stuff I thought they looked beautiful and prices were reasonable without thinking about their practicality nor my lifestlyle and that simply led me to have several giant junk piles of clothes, shoes, handbags and accessories. I just knew it had to stop.I still love fashion overall but I hate seeing stuff go unworn or unused sitting all over the place. Every little thing added up and I was quite confident those items would add up to be such significant amount over time.   Since April 2012, many changes have been made from budgeting to hobbies. Clothes/shoes/bags/accessories were no longer on the budgeting list. It sounded like a cold turkey approach but worked quite well for me because it forced me to use the stuff that were readily available and be resourceful. I diverted my attention and interest to some new things like gardening, heathly eating and cleaning (not fun but gotta do what you gotta do, right?) which help tremendously. Once I start my new habit, it is not difficult to get accustomed to not checking those sites like a maniac hunting down best deals of the year. I no longer have an urge to go out and buy what others buy or want to have the latest and the cutest.   Spending has also become more of a “process” that requires me to think through and answer: 1) Why do I need this? 2) Does it fit my lifestyle or wearable on my daily basis? 3) How many times I am going to use this? rather than emotional buying.   Since I will be downsizing my wardrobe, I know I don’t need 20 skirts that I don’t wear half of the amount. In order to set myself up for a success, thought It would be helpful to do an overview of what pieces I need in my wardrobe and start building from there. Hopefully I can start shopping (with concious) in a month or so and actually buy some practical pieces that I can wear frequently for both work and play.