Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day: Consumerism, Clutter, and Choice

The Weekly Tittle is an exercise designed to focus your attention on a specific space, aspect, or challenge of decluttering and organizing your home. We assign a new tittle in each webcast/podcast, then check on your progress the following week.

Consumption Be Done About All This Stuff?

This week’s assignment is to examine your home and habits for evidence of “consumerism clutter.” Try one or all of these exercises:

• Scan your space for an item that you bought on the basis of unrealistic advertising, but now it’s become clutter. Let it go!
• Are you holding on to an oversupply of something you purchased at a dramatic sale price? Like the Clorox wipes and gloves we all bought like crazy during COVID lockdown? Consider giving away or donating the excess.
• Unsubscribe from a retailer’s e-mail list or visit catalogchoice.org to remove yourself from one or more catalog mailing lists.
• Identify a category of buying where you tend to overspend. Consider implementing a strict budget and shopping list for this specific category of stuff.
• Prepare a holiday shopping list, then make it a game to stick to it! Resist the urge to buy “just one more thing” for someone on your list for whom you’ve already bought enough, as well as any other unplanned or impulsive purchases. They will never miss the thing you didn’t buy!

For the full discussion of this week’s tittle, watch the Weekly Tittle segment on YouTube.