May Bye-Bye Bin Deep Dive

It feels a bit early to post about what’s leaving my home in the sorta-middle of the month, but I have a clothing/product swap coming up, and I wanted to get photos of what’s on its way out. There are also two items – a black bodysuit and a bottle of body wash – that have found new homes already and won’t be in the post.

For these 17 items, two were pulled from the summer bin during the season flip, and nine were pulled from my various drawers – all of which have not been worn this year. The scrunchies, pillow cases, and jewelry were pieces that I’d been on the fence about for a bit (as in, each time I looked for something else in their storage spot and saw them, I’d go “hmmm…”) and figure now’s as good a time as any with the upcoming swap. Also, I want to note that the clothing is kept bundled up not for disrespecting the clothing, but more so that I understand that a solid chunk of my readership belong to the no/low buy community and I don’t want to have the items incite desires to shop.

I have a few things to highlight for the “why” of a piece being decluttered, which I’m doing for my own sake for rereading in the future and for the sake of making sure I’m equally intentional about what leaves as what comes in.

1. The impulse buy: The grey shorts and matching tank top set in the top middle was part of an impulse order, and these items were specifically added to meet the minimum to get free shipping. But get this, the store had run out of my size, so I sized up, placed a second order, received it, and realised I wasn’t likely to wear it with it being the wrong size. I’ve worn the shorts and tank top as a set a few times on really warm nights as pjs (I wasn’t planning to wear this set out of the house, mind you) – but my thought process behind purchasing them was “this is cute,” rather than “this fulfills a need I have within my closet.” This was purchased last summer, so just about a year ago – though, if nothing else – it shows the progress I’ve made in mindset.
2. The attempted upcycle: The striped shirt to the right of the grey set and the blue and grey dress under it are next. Both are basics from Old Navy (a striped shirt and a swing dress), and both managed to get stained from one art project or another. I thought tie dye and bleach dying would be the way to spiffy them back up, buuuuut I took a “just do whatever” approach rather than planning out what it was supposed to look like, so I ended up with pieces I didn’t love (mind you, now that I think about it, I’ve never liked how my tie dyed pieces look…). Are they still wearable? Absolutely – there’s nothing structurally wrong with either piece, but I certainly wouldn’t wear them in public, and I already have enough “wear around the house for cleaning only” clothing that I don’t need more.
3. The collection completer: The tan shorts in the bottom left are also from Old Navy, whose shorts fit me well enough for the most part (inseam is usually the kicker for me, I’m 67% leg and quite tall). The shorts I bought in 2019 include a bunch of neutrals – olive, navy, black, grey – and one striped pair. Being as pale as I am, buying anything tan online is a complete gamble as to whether it will entirely blend in with my skin. I’ve referenced this in an instagram post before (referring to a shade of pink for leggings that would leave me looking undressed), and it’s not a serious issue by any means, but, again, this was an instance of my motivation for purchasing the item being something other than meeting a need I have for my wardrobe. For the record, the “need” I justified in purchasing these shorts was, “I want a full set.”
4. The swap find: While I fit in “straight” sizes for clothing, finding items that fits properly from thrifting and clothing swaps is not always successful (which is no different than trying on clothing in a store, just to be clear!). The Adidas running shorts were found last year from a clothing swap between friends, and I’ve since found shorts that fit me better and cover me more – so to a new home they shall go.

I don’t know that I’ll do as deep a dive for each bye-bye bin post in the future, but if there are pieces that fit these patterns, I think it would be worth it.

Next week I’ll be back with my empties for the month on Monday and a goal reflection on Thursday. Thanks for reading 🙂

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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!