Your Four Step plan to becoming a Mindful Shopper
Hands up who has bought an item (either online or in a shop), and as soon as it was purchased, you regretted buying it.
I bet that most of us would have our hands up!
Indeed, over the past two years, many of us bought an excessive number of unnecessary online purchases because the product was trendy at the time, because we were bored or because we got an immediate hit of dopamine as we pressed the “pay now” button; yet the item was put to the back of a cupboard and never used.
With lockdown behind us now, this is a good time to change our shopping habits and to become mindful shoppers (buying only those items we are excited to use or wear). Here are four tips to become a mindful shopper:
1.
Look around your home and consider those items you have bought yet never used. Most of these will be snuggled at the back of a wardrobe, nestled in a bag in a drawer or crammed into the back of a cupboard.
2.
Take a quick inventory of the cost of the combined purchases and think about how else you could have spent that money. This can seem overwhelming but is an important step in changing your shopping habits. Once you realise the waste, you won’t want to repeat it.
3.
Bring these items together and one by one, decide if you need it or are excited to use it and, if the answer is “no”, let it go with gratitude. Be grateful for the lesson it taught you.
4.
When shopping in future, ask yourself do you need it or do you love it. Would you spend the time, money or energy repairing it if it was damaged? Does it make your heart sing? If the answer is “no”, don’t buy it. You can always go back the following day if you change your mind.
You are now creating space in your home for beautiful items to come in, items that you truly love and cannot live without.
