I confess I am a shopping addict, and probably have been since birth. I assume it’s in my DNA, passed down from my fashionable mother who has an undying love for stilettos. Growing up, nothing had allured me more than the mall. Leaving Abercrombie with a bag depicting a shirtless man on my arm infused a sense of power and completeness in me. In middle school, the mall even became the principal hang-out spot. With endless rows of stores containing endless racks and piles of items to buy, how could I not be sucked in?
However, after the serotonin boost from buying something has subsided, I am often left feeling guilty and dissatisfied. I second-guess my purchase and ask myself, “how much use are you really going to get out of this?” As I’ve become more aware of my consumption and how purchases are often unnecessary, I’ve developed a few ways to curb my shopping addiction. Hopefully, these measures will help you too, and we can combat consumerist culture together.
Image via Modsy.
Look inwards: why do you want to buy?
When I get the urge to shop, I find that it is often a response to some emotion I am feeling, as opposed to a reflection of a need I need to fulfill. I ask myself a series of questions to assess why I am getting a desire to buy new things. Am I bored? Am I sad? Am I anxious? Do I need something exciting to do? Am I thinking about fashion and outfits and need a way to actualize them? Oftentimes, I will find my answer when I get a sense of how I feel. From there, I will find a better way to respond to these emotions than through shopping.
What is motivating you to shop?
Our daily lives are inundated with marketing and advertising that are intended to motivate us to buy the product they are selling. A phrase I have often heard about advertising on social media is that the users are in fact the product, and our time and space on our social media platforms are being sold to companies to use as advertising space. Though having a “shopping addiction” can certainly relate directly to socioeconomic privilege, many people feel motivated to consume regardless of the means they have. We should all begin to ask ourselves, what forces outside myself are pushing me to buy more than I need?
Image via Cosmopolitan.
Shop your own closet.
Look back to your own closet and find the pieces you wear the least. Challenge yourself to style them in a way that you like. You already own this, there is no need to buy more when you already have things that you are not getting utility out of. If you are into clothes, it is a super fun challenge to style unused clothes in an interesting way.
Trade clothes with friends and family.
One of my favorite ways to shop without actually shopping is by trading clothes with my mom and my sisters. Though I already have plenty of hand-me-downs from all of them, we sometimes go through our closets and offer clothes we don’t get enough use out of to the others. Not only does this allow me to style pieces I wouldn’t normally buy, but also it’s more sustainable and doesn’t cost anything.
Image via Harper’s Bazaar.
When you do decide to shop, make it better for the world: buy secondhand.
Over the past few years, I have transitioned away from buying retail clothing to thrifting. If not shopping at thrift stores, you can access secondhand clothing through online reselling platforms like Poshmark, Depop, and eBay, or the RealReal and Grailed for luxury brands. I find that shopping on secondhand online platforms reduces my desire to consume since I am often searching for a specific item, rather than passively browsing through a store that has many pieces that would appeal to me. Furthermore, secondhand stores and websites are full of exciting and eccentric pieces. When browsing, this forces you to pay attention to which pieces you are attracted to which helps solidify your sense of personal style.
Featured image via Refinery29.
