Recently, I made a purchase that I’d been considering for a few months.

I bought this beeeeauuuutiful organic cotton shower curtain (pic above).

The reasons:

This new curtain is washable and doesn’t need a liner.
Our old plastic curtain was getting moldy, and
I didn’t want to continue to contribute to more plastic and off-gassing in the environment.

I was curious what kinds of things my friends were buying—so I went on Facebook to ask:

What was the last (non-food or -drug) purchase you made?

And, why did you buy it?

I got SO MANY great responses—here are just a few:

And then, there was this one!

What?! 😍

I love that all my friends had great reasons for the things they bought!

Then, a few days later...

I was online looking at food processors, because I want to make homemade hummus more often—I have this thought that if I buy a food processor, I will make hummus more often.

But what if I don’t?

I decided that having another appliance just to make ONE thing (like hummus) isn’t worth it—My blender will work just fine for how often I will actually make hummus.

So, I jumped on Facebook again to see if others were pre-evaluating their purchases too:

What was the last (non-food or -drug) purchase you did NOT make?

You’d been eyeing it awhile—but decided NOT to hit that “buy” button?

Why did you decide NOT to buy it?

This time, I only got a couple responses:

Why only a couple of responses to this question?

because it’s so easy to go with our initial impulses.

Our brains think, “I want that!” and we go buy it—without first considering “the why” of our purchase.

Do we like our reasons for buying [that thing]?

It’s so easy for many of us to just buy what we want when we have that initial urge to buy.

But what if we could put a pin in that urge?

What if we could pause for a full 24 hours before buying?

This is something I ask my over-shopping clients to do, and it changes everything for them.

After 24 hours, if they like their reason for wanting [that thing], they can for it!

75% of the time, they realize that they don’t like their reason and don’t end up buying it.

We choose every purchase we make

We wonder how our homes get over-stuffed.

But the reason is simple—we buy without thinking.

Ask yourself why.

Why do I want to bring this new item into my life?
How do I think it will make my life better?
Does it support the person I am now or the person I want to be?

Give it a try

Next time you go to buy something, rather than give in to every impulse... What if you waited 24 hours before making every non-food purchase?

So, load those online carts as full as you want, but don’t hit buy for a full 24 hours.

How will that feel?

How much money will you save?

And, how much less clutter will you have in your life?

* * *

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a peek inside my bathroom + shopping advice