How To Cut Down On Shopping ( To Stop Bringing In Clutter )

You are in the right place today if you’re looking for some nifty tips on how to stop bringing in clutter and curb the shopping. This video was inspired by Diana who asked:

❝Hey Mia, any way you could do a video on stopping from buying more stuff? I always feel like I’m depriving myself when I keep saying “no” to my wants and end up splurging later on! Any advice on how to curb this?❞

As a matter of fact, I do!

Now, despite what you may believe, based on the fact that I do teach people about holistic clutter-free living and occasionally minimalism, I still like pretty things. I still like getting and giving presents and I love Christmas. If you look at my garage office that I’m writing this from, it’s not just a bare wall; there are some decorations. All of this to say, I’m not here to tell you to stop shopping entirely. I’m not here to tell you to not have parties or exchange gifts.

Controlling The Influx

This episode is about curbing and controlling the intentions behind shopping- something that so many people struggle with. Think of it as tightening the faucet nozzle on your shopping so that you can intentionally control the things that are coming into your home. Because what comes in then impacts your environment.

For a more holistic clutter-free space it’s important to maintain that influx. So, today I’m sharing the 3 incredibly effective techniques that I use daily in my own life and household that will help you to stop bringing in clutter! I’ve even gone a step further! For those of you who are visual learners like me, introducing the ‘Stop The Shop Triad’.

The ‘Stop The Shop Triad’

If you’re out shopping or online trying to make those decisions- “Should I get it? Should I not get it? Am I overdoing it?” Pull out this ‘Stop The Shop Triad’ and go through the 3 tips that we’re going to talk about today. As I said, this isn’t about stopping shopping entirely but about ‘tightening the nozzle” on the influx of stuff’. However, “Stop The Shop” has a nicer ring to it than “tighten the nozzle on your influx of belongings”.

This triad consists of three themes that include time, boundaries, and awareness. I’m going to show you exactly what I mean and how to use them in this post!

#1: Time

Let’s start off with “time”. I wrote a blog post about this a couple of years back (that later turned into a podcast episode over on ‘The Mind Your Home Podcast’) called ‘3 words to curb the shopping’. Those 3 powerful words are “Not Right Now”. This is about delaying the time that it takes for you to see something you want and hit “purchase”.

Not. Right. Now.

In that post, I share how I quit smoking (years ago) by delaying 1 cigarette at a time. Rather than saying “I’m not smoking at all today or this week”, I would say “not right now”. Those minutes turned into hours, turned into weeks, and before I knew it I had completely forgotten about the pack of cigarettes. Since that worked so well, I’ve rinsed and repeated this same method.

Well, this works great to stop bringing in clutter too! Here’s one way that I’ve used this for my shopping habits. If I randomly come across something that catches my eye I’ll create a list or I’ll “wishlist it”. So many stores (like Amazon) have a ‘wish list’ button right there for you to click. When you wish-list something you’re not telling yourself “no”, you’re not depriving yourself. You’re simply saying “not right now”. You’re putting it on a wishlist.

 You can come back to it a week later and see if you even remember that it existed. Many times I totally forget or I’ll decide that I don’t even need the thing. It gives you time to make the decision intentional. It’s really about breaking your time into shorter, more manageable chunks and this isn’t a new concept.

“Keeping your world small”

As a matter of fact, I received an email from a businessman I follow talking about how his wife runs marathons. He shared that there’s something they call “the wall”. This is when you’ve run about 20 miles and suddenly you feel like you can’t go any further. Everything else fades away and all you can think about is the pain and how you want to stop. In this instance, you can’t think about going 20 more miles.

So, they do a technique called “keeping your world small”. They find something closer like a lamppost or the next block and they focus hard on that next landmark because they know, “maybe I can’t make it 20 more miles, but I can make it to this next lamppost.”

Hell week

Joe Rogan interviewed a Navy seal who made it through something they call “hell week”. The people who get into this seals program are already the fittest of the fit but 75% of them do not make it through these 7 days of “hell week” where they’re deprived of sleep, physically exhausted, emotionally run-down, and screamed at. Basically, everything that you could put your body, emotion, and mind through happens in “hell week”.

When Joe Rogan asked how this Navy Seal made it through, the guy said if you go into hell week thinking of it as seven days you’re not going to make it. He explained that it is too intense for you to think of doing this every single day for seven days. So, he just looked at the next meal. He knew he could make it 6 hours to the next meal.

All of this has to do with reigning in discipline by means of shrinking downtime, keeping your world small, and saying not right now.

#2. Boundaries

In this sense, “boundaries” are really about maintaining goals in budgets. This is where we get into the ‘why’ behind the decisions we make. (Something that I push over and over again because it’s truly the most important factor in any decision). You have to know ‘why’ you’re doing something (in this case, why you want to stop bringing in clutter) or you’re not going to have the gumption to follow through.

Having clear goals and budgets- ideally, something visual that you can look at it at a glance- is huge in making those decisions when it comes to shopping. It makes you aware of where you stand in relation to your goals and budgets.

How I’m using goals and budget boundaries right now.

As of writing this, I’m in the process of planning a wedding. (I know, in the middle of COVID- we’ll see what happens). In the process of planning this wedding, I’m having to look at things from many different angles. Everything is a trade-off. I might see some really cute things on Instagram or Pinterest that I would love to incorporate into my wedding and maybe I can afford $40 here or $50 there but I can’t do that all day long. As we all know things add up fast.

I also have a huge goal of having a honeymoon in Thailand. I’ve never been international and it’s really important to me. So that cost has to weigh into the factor that I’m making, down to the littlest decorative pieces.

In order to keep from going overboard and buying everything that might be a totally legitimate purchase in and of itself, I look at the whole. Looking at the goal and the budget helps me to nail down what’s truly important.

How you can use it to stop bringing in clutter.

You can do this with something like a Christmas list. Have a list of people to purchase for, an idea of how many gifts per person, and your overall budget. That’ll put things into perspective regarding which things do you want to invest that money into. What do you want to be investing in (financially and space-wise) and what’s just a frivolous, impulsive purchase from the checkout line?

#3. Awareness

The third technique is all about awareness- specifically, manning your triggers and habits. Most of us know what our weaknesses are. We all have some kind of weakness and that’s totally fine. You should just be aware of those so that you can plan accordingly to stop bringing in clutter.

A buddy system.

For example, it might surprise you to know that there are some places that I don’t go alone. If you have somebody that can kind of act as a checks-and-balance for you then you can pull each other away so that they’re not buying things that they tend to lean toward and vice versa. I try not to go to Target by myself. Even though I usually talk myself out of buying things I will still stand there and stare at stuff, lost in this whole staring debate with myself. Sometimes for hours!

So, I try not to go to places like that by myself. In fact, if I do go to the store and it’s been 2 or 3 hours, Matt will usually call me and say, “Uh-oh, what happened?” Having a buddy system if you have that available to you is great, especially if you’re a buddy is somebody who likes different things from you.

Location, location, location.

 Another way that you can use awareness to manage your triggers and habits and stop bringing in clutter is by choosing your location. Perhaps, you use online shopping instead of going into the store where so many things will catch your eye. If there’s a smaller store that will allow me to grab what I need then I’ll try to go to that store. I prefer it. Smaller stores like Riteaids and Walgreens allow me to run in and grab just what I need rather than braving a big store or a shopping mall.

Bigger stores often cause you to spend more time and leave with more than you intended. Of course, you can use this within stores themselves too. If you are in a store like Target and you know that your weakness lies on a certain aisle, you can attempt to detour. This one’s harder, for sure. You have to have at least a little bit of self-control to go into a store that you know has a section of stuff that you have a weakness for and just not go down that aisle.

Bulk shopping.

The last thing that we do that works really well when it comes to manning our triggers and habits is that we bulk our shopping. We don’t go shopping more than once a week. Usually, grocery shopping. If we need things that aren’t groceries we’ll go to Fred Meyer’s and bulk both. We only do this once a week because this prevents us from walking into this location that has multiple displayed things for sale and buying an extra thing or 2 every other day.

It’s so easy to justify just buying one or two extra things, spending $10 or $20 here and there. Then, go back to the store a few days later and repeat. It all adds up at the end of the week- to more stuff and money.