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Monday, January 21, 2013

Want Vs. Need?

Ever since the hope to get de-cluttered and organized wormed its way into my head (sigh I was happier when this stuff didn't bother me at all!), the feeling of owning too much "stuff" makes me feel guilty quite often. So last year started with a resolution of not buying any new clothes (lasted until September and Dastkar!) and didn't end on quite that note. So this year I wanted to be a bit more realistic and approach each day as it comes.

So the last couple of times we have been shopping (Note: We don't tend to window shop much, usually focused on a particular shop or two, but when that shop is a Shoppers Stop or a Decathlon one place can be bad enough), when hubby asked me if I wanted anything I have come up with the witty answer - Want, yes but Need? No. Possibly not original, I haven't really checked, but I think this saying will carry me through this year and some more :).

I also knew the message is filtering down well when D said at a toy shop recently - "I like this one, but my cupboard is too full of toys, so I won't ask for it :)". We do some periodic purges of the toys in the cupboard to give or throw away, and only when there's space freed up we look for something new. Of course the occasion gifts still do flow in from birthdays and so on, so we mostly do not need to buy much.

It also helps to give away clothes especially the kids' ones quite often as and when they outgrow them, so I can always have an idea of when they need new stuff. With my clothes, I still have a long way to go to establish a system. For now, I am getting all those "I will stitch these when I lose my tummy" materials stitched up and seeing how badly overflowing it actually is.

Now if I could only bring myself to attack the cupboards and all those "Out of sight, out of mind" things that I have stowed away, but who wants to be perfect? ;)

13 comments:

  1. Well-begun atleast, aparna!! I have a problem with buying stuff too - now have been hoarding "heritage" stuff and consoling myself I am helping revive our traditional crafts :)

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    1. haha, that's a good viewpoint ;). But I know you are really are doing good work there, so it's not really an excuse from my pov.

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  2. Its tough. I put away a large quantity of my clothes in a bag and put it in my loft this Jan. I am going to use the rest of the clothes until June or even December until I get sick of them and give them away. And bring down the rest from the loft. It helped that I put away my credit card and stopped going to the mall too! Seriously if malls are removed from list of places to go, there are SO MANY places to go to! Try it.

    Good luck. Lean on this group whenever you want to!

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    1. That sounds like a great plan! I am going to try it out soon too, thanks so much for sharing :)

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  3. I need to learn this desperately as far as clothes are concerned.

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    1. Who doesn't :). All the best!

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  4. You are so right I wrote something similar last year

    http://barnett15.blogspot.in/2012/08/i-want-i-need.html

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  5. i m the type who will never buy anything till i need it, and always marvel at ppl who buy something every time they enter a mall...

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  6. I agree it can be really tough... we periodically empty out cupboards everywhere - kitchen, wardrobes, toys everything.. they go into donation, hand me downs and plain junk bags and then are moved out of the house. We also have a set of friends and family between whom a lot of exchange happens... only then do we set out to buy something that we don't have... but of course the occasional splurges tend to happen.

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  7. Oh we all need to learn this and soon. For the trip that I am off to from 25h, I have been picking things like nobody's business so much so that we are bound to pay excess baggage. On hindsight we (me) picked up things that we wanted and not really needed :(

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  8. hahahaaa... talk about how difficult it can get ... i can never get to that...

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  9. You always seem to be writing about something that's on my mind too. For this month;s column, had written on Pampering - and one of the topics covered was 'wants vs needs'. wish i'd had this example of yours to use then. :)

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    1. Wow really Jane, I am honoured to share mindspace with you :). Is your column available online - if so, pls send me a link, would love to read it.

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