Low-buy Strategy: Recategorizing clothing spending as hobby spending
I’d accepted as far back as I remember that a wardrobe is an ongoing project. Things wear out and preferences and physical attributes change, so you can’t be completely done editing your closet (until you die, anyway 💀). But as someone who loves fashion and enjoys having a robust collection of pieces to use as “art supplies” to build outfits, it’s always been hard to decide what things at any given time qualified as a “need”, since if I want even a small but categorically complete capsule wardrobe (pieces for tops, bottoms, shoes, etc) for every season, for every aesthetic and activity I enjoy, that’s just way too much STUFF to manage. That’s not theoretical – I live in a 1-bedroom apartment and due to years of buying more clothes than I’ve rotated out and I would like to see more of the floor at any given time so I can breathe more freely.
After listening to approximately 453 hours of videos, audiobooks, and podcasts on consumerism, minimalism, late-stage capistalism, and personal style this week, I’ve decided to start treating ALL clothing purchases as hobby purchases. Yeah, at some point there’s going to be an exception, but that should be a 9000% justifiable utility-based purchase (e.g. I literally have no cotton underwear left that isn’t actively disintegrating, or not one single pair of jeans fits well), and the exception makes the rule.
I realized that the hole I’d always fall down in over-buying was feeling like I “needed” a piece to fill a niche in my wardrobe for some aesthetic I’m into at the moment, and I’d rationalize until I clicked buy. I mean, yes, if you define the parameters that way, then you definitely need that 🧐.
In contrast, when I “need” a type of yarn or I “need” a new color of acrylic paint, my brain has always recognized that while those may be technically necessary for a crafting project, they aren’t a need outside that hobby. As it is, I have plenty of stuff to do things for fun, whether that’s my existing yarn stash or gear for hiking and climbing, not even considering all the leisure activities that don’t require physical materials.
Even just one week in, it’s already felt way, WAY less anxiety inducing to browse online (truly, I enjoy the process of browsing to see what designs are out there and the process of winnowing items down just as much as the dopamine rush of checking out a cart) or add things to wish lists. There is absolutely no shame in buying things for fun to use in a hobby as long as it’s not financially detrimental in the long run, so there’s no guilt from thinking about what items I might buy to use for a project (outfit, or aesthetic). But at the same time rewiring my brain to consider clothing the way I do art supplies, it has been SO much easier to just wait or be okay with letting an item go (particularly secondhand pieces – feeling like something unique got away is just worse).
If someone else gets to an item first, it doesn’t feel like a piece I could have used to physically manifest and project my unique hopes, dreams, style, values, interests, and background to the world is gone forever. Instead, it’s like, oh, that washi tape I was eyeing sold out. Sucks, but I’ll just put off the project I was going to use it in until I find something equally inspiring, or just … 🤷🏻♀️ do some other creative thing for fun.
To someone who has never experienced full blown compulsive shopping (thank you, pandemic-induced anxiety) or had a genuine interest in clothes, that probably sounds obvious, but I suspect that given the general popularity of minimalist-adjacent style blogger advice content that I’m not the only one who’s working on this. So while that’s not going to work for everyone, I think it’s a fair two cents to throw into the pile of available strategies for getting your life under control.
✿
Of course, having a defined mindset or philosophy is great, but I find that it usually helps to have some more concrete process change to actually create results 📋. It’s been a while since I’ve logged anything or even tried having a real budget for clothes, but to complement that change of heart, I’m only purchasing new clothing, makeup, and crochet supply items with income from selling on Poshmark and Etsy (on which I am still selling crocheted dinosaurs). The idea being that this restriction will encourage me to work toward multiple quality of life improvements
👀 Keep my wardrobe small enough that I can physically see all in-season items at once. My brain has very strong “out of sight out of mind” wiring to the point where I joke that I have no concept of object permanence. In addition to getting me to wear items more because I remember they exist, it should also make cleaning up easier.
🧶 Encourage me to work on both finished products and crochet patterns for Etsy, since I love the process of designing and making crochet items and ought to take advantage of the extra time I have on hand in my current state of funemployment
📝 Encourage me to write more! I like writing. I missed updating the blog. And writing is a skill that I can always get better at and will always be useful.
To keep track of that, I’m going to be checking in here once a week until (like with the wardrobe inventory database) I feel like the administrative effort outweighs the benefits. But with all those pros, why wouldn’t I? 🙃
✿
Thank you to everyone who’s stuck around during the long absence! If you’d like to share, let me know how you’ve been approaching your own clothing curation or budgeting with a comment below!
