Bye-Bye Bin & Wish List – January

I thought it would be best to explain the format of what’s going out and potentially coming into my home while doing my No Buy year.

The Bye-Bye Bin

I’ve been using this basket for about a year now to put things into that I think I won’t need or use, and see whether or not I fish them out again. I keep the bin out of view but easily accessible, so I’m not tempted to dive in just whenever and maybe keep more than what I intended. More often than not, when I’ve used the bin (or if there’s overflow, other spaces to tuck things away), what was put in does find its way to a new home. Sometimes that’s family and friends, other times it’s a quarterly clothing/product/stuff swap, or it’s donated. I don’t bother with reselling my stuff as I can’t be bothered to deal with the post office (as I’ve mentioned before), and I don’t want to have to learn about the unspoken rules of online selling platforms.

This might be a bit anti-climatic, but there’s nothing in the bin for the month of January. However, I did a massive declutter in December, so I do have that to show you:

With resetting everything – flipping my hangers, taking inventory, and still completing the tracking sheets – I feel as though I’m looking at my belongings with fresh eyes. Also, I got the declutter itch out of my system in December, and everything that did come home with me from the holidays were things that I had asked for or were consumable (whether chocolate or hand cream, it won’t be here forever), so they had a “home” assigned to them.

The Wish List

This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, but there isn’t anything currently on my wish list. The few items that I’m working toward emptying still have stock for me to get through, there aren’t any clothes or accessories that I need, and I have an abundance of craft supplies and books to entertain me. There also aren’t any experiences or activities that I would need to buy tickets to that are on the list (since I would want to think about which event/experience/activity I would want to prioritize).

That being said, I will still outline the format I’ll follow for when the wish list starts – since I want to be intentional about what goes on it, how long it stays, and when it gets bought or booted. The entry requirements for something being added to the wish list are going to start pretty low, which is “this caught my attention enough that I went to the website and it got added to a shopping cart.” From there, I would screenshot the item so I can see the product and price, and then type the store, item, and price into an google sheets page. I would then check in after two weeks, and see if I can remember what the item is without looking at the photo, and if I can’t, the entry and the photo can be deleted. If I can remember it, I’ll check again in another two weeks/after a month of it being on the list, and see if I have needed it in that time. If I haven’t been able to make do with what I already have, I’ll see if it’s something I can borrow, thrift, or add to a gift list.

This format is going to work for me since I’m coming from a place of abundance, both in volume of items and in mindset. For the sake of honesty, throughout January, I have clicked on ads on instagram from a place of curiosity to see how much something costs or who designed it, but it’s never gone beyond that point – more often than not, I wasn’t even looking to see if it was available in my size. I’ve already unsubscribed from any remaining emailing lists I was on for stores, I’ve blocked or muted accounts on instagram that are most tempting, and I haven’t even had the time this month to go to a website to see what they have (just to browse, as I used to do). I also don’t feel overwhelmed by the stuff that I have to the point that I’ve forgotten or lost things from having so much. I’m in the Goldilocks region of having stuff – not too much and not going without, again in volume and in mindset.

Later this week, I’ll be back with a post about psychology and shopping – the first instalment of many about how thoughts, feelings, and behaviours relate to shopping. Thanks for reading!

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