Another month has gone by in my year of not shopping. I have shopped, a little bit. Almost everything I purchased was for a specific project and much of it has already exited the house.
- 4 rolls of electrical tape and a tube of glue to finish the hoops I made in November
- 6 small skeins of yarn immediately knit into a housewarming gift
- 1 meter of pink spangle for Spinbirds costumes
- 3 cuts of cotton knit fabric from the Okadaya sale table
- A craft punch & some paper samples for Tracey's wedding invitations
I haven't used the cotton knits yet and that indicates that I am finished buying fabric for a while but not for too long. Since I will be making Amanda's wedding dress, I will have to buy material and because the dress will be an original design, I am planning to make two of them: a prototype in color that will be my "wedding guest dress" for this year's round of celebrations; and then Amanda's all white bridal version. So I will buy fabric for a dress for myself in the next week or so and start sewing.
Shopping as entertainment is something that I knew would be difficult to let go. It is a convenient way to kill time (really kill it dead forever) when in between activities and I am slowly retraining myself not to go into a shop to look at things that I won't be buying. As a result of staying away from retail most of the time, I've noticed how very awful stores smell. All plastic-y and chemical fumes. Ick. Chemical poisoning - another reason to avoid shops.
Over the weekend, I did a big spring clean and kipple pitch. Even without buying much lately, there was a lot of stuff hiding in corners and weighing me down. We stuffed 5 garbage bags full of broken & worn out things, old promotional items, plastic deli containers, and a lot of scraps from my fabric stash. There was a pile of cardboard and magazines to recycle, too. It wasn't too hard to get rid of it all and I'd be happy to pare down even more. I need to have a garage sale.
I thought I would develop a hording problem. It certainly makes sense to hang on to stuff that can be used as raw materials, like old clothes and cardboard boxes. But those things need to be stored somewhere (where?) in an easily accessible organization (how?). So in the end, it is easier to toss everything and Do Without.
We did a spring cleaning on Saturday too. In a way, it was like shopping. I discovered a lot of clothes I forgot I owned, hiding behind the things I never wear. I gave away a lot.
Shopping is like television. I think the rational part of your brain just shuts off while you're in a store.
Heh, good luck with the garage sale! I have stopped shopping for pleasure too, and only do it now when i have money to spend and a firm idea of what i want to spend it on. I get depressed looking at all the things I want and cant buy, so there is no point looking, is there? And so suddenly, just like giving up smoking, I have a lot of time on my hands! Not enough time tho, study is getting very hectic, and I barely have time to read any blogs - hence the lateness of this comment...