Hi all 👋🏻
I’ve started on a decluttering process mostly using Marie kondo methods altered a little for my needs. I thought this would not only help me enjoy my space more but also save money by helping me be more mindful about purchases in the future.
What I’ve found is that I actually want to buy more things! For example, when working on shoes I wanted to get rid of a pair of shoes that are cheap looking and not super comfortable. However, this is the only pair of shoes in that style that I own and I do occasionally wear them to go with certain outfits. I found myself wanting to get rid of them (since they do not spark joy) but also replace them with a better quality and more comfortable pair in a similar style.
Has anyone else experienced this? It’s happened for multiple items already when I didn’t want to keep that item but instead wanted to replace it with a better one. How do I handle prioritizing quality, functional items without the money to replace all the cheap items I own?
Decluttering making me want to spend more money
byu/the-damn-plane inFrugal
Posted by the-damn-plane
9 Comments
Light dress shoes, dark dress shoes, sneakers, work shoes. Light/dark sandals and/or boots may be added depending on your climate.
That being said, if they’re not actual leather/high quality fabric, sell them while they still look new, and buy new when you need to wear them. I just pulled out a pair of boots that I wore once and have been in the back of my closet, but they were “genuine leather” (ie the cheap crap) and they started falling apart while I was using my accelerator and brake driving to the Christmas party. By the time I got there they had flaked apart so bad I could have died of embarrassment. I’m glad no one said anything.
I get rid of items that are not quality, this doesn’t necessarily mean expensive, because I like quality around myself.
If you are using the bringing joy rationale to make changes then you are still following that religion.
Always remember that sacrificing mental, physical, emotional, and/or spiritual health to chase frugality is not healthy short or long term. It will catch up to you. Maybe not today or tomorrow but it will.
I feel the same, my wardrobe is long overdue for a declutter but what when I eventually find myself with not enough clothes to keep up with the laundry lol. I think it’s not only not frugal but also goes against the more eco friendly life we should be striving for to replace shoes we don’t ultimately need.
I’m sure that if you own more than 5 pairs of shoes you can find alternatives for those outfits. You could also try having fun thrilling for a better pair but ultimately you won’t find many people encouraging spending money for a few outfits to look slightly better
Using the shoe example, that isn’t an example of owning an item that brings you joy because you don’t actually wear that style of shoe often enough to bring you joy. They only joy you are getting is from buying that new shoe not actually wearing that style of shoe. You just want to own the nice version; you don’t actually want to wear it that often.
The nice quality things are meant for the things you actually do and use on a regular basis. The shoes you wear to work every day. Get quality shoes. Run every day? Get quality shoes. That one style of shoe you wear 5 times a year. Go cheap.
I mean, sometimes you do need new things. Or even just WANT new things. I’m a pretty low consumption person, but I recognize that life is too short to drink from chipped teacups, as they say. But you have to be practical. I’d say, if you are finding a lot of those things, start a list. When you have some time, go through and write down all the reasons you want to replace the item, the qualities you’d like the new one to have, and then spend some time doing some research into the options. Once you know the full picture of what a good replacement will look like and cost you, you are better situated to make decisions about which purchases to prioritize and which to put off for now.
Check out the Buy it For Life community. When I replace anything, I try to make sure it is quality. Then I can buy one pair of shoes that lasts 5 years instead of a new pair every year for 5 years. I also love the Spanish dicho “lo barato sale caro.” Like crappy stuff ends up being more expensive to fix/replace/dispose of.
I have a rule for myself, and that’s before I splurge on a pricier item, I make do with a cheaper option to see if I’ll actually value the pricey option later. This keeps me from making expensive purchases that go unused.
You can get rid of these shoes and just not wear the style they enable you. So, then you would get rid of the associated clothes.
Or you can wear these shoes until they’ve exhausted their lifetime and upgrade confidently, knowing that you’ll fully appreciate the pricier option when the time comes.
I’d not take the spark joy rule too literally. Give yourself some flexibility. It’s okay if something is simply utilitarian or whatnot!
This whole ‘sparks joy’ works for some people.
For others ‘do you use this?’ works better.
lol, I struggle with this too and it was a major issue when doing a closer overhaul last year. I did get rid of about 2/3rds of the items in my closet, but I kept some things that were less than ideal because in theory they worked with my colouring, the look I was going for, and could mix and match with many other pieces.
I decided to keep the poor quality and less than ideal items instead of upgrading them, and really challenge myself to wear them often and style them different ways. Some of them had issues like button up shirts that pucker at the chest, etc so I figured out how to wear them open or under sweaters and in ways obscured the minor issues. There were a few benefits to this approach— it helped me figure out which items I can actually style creatively and which ones just didn’t work because they weren’t my thing; I got much more familiar with the reasons why I hadn’t been wearing those pieces (maybe I dislike the fabric or I didn’t have enough items to coordinate with them, etc); and it helped me really narrow in on what I might like to replace it with some day. There also wasn’t a ton of urgency to replace the items because I had something that was working well enough and I can sit tight until my existing items wear out, I find something thrifted, I can afford a high quality item, or my style moves on.
I keep a list of all the purchases I want make on my phone and just let them hang out there. It really helps to get some distance from the impulse, and is also great when gifting season comes around to browse through if people ask for suggestions.