How to stop buying things we don't need

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We often buy unnecessary things, and each such purchase brings with it the following. This phenomenon even has a name: the Diderot effect. Popular blogger James Clear talks about why we fall prey to this effect and how we can stop. Lifehacker publishes a translation of his article.

Diderot effect

The famous French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot spent most of his life in poverty, but everything changed dramatically when he was 52 years old. His daughter was getting married, and Diderot could not give her a dowry. This became known to Catherine II. The Empress bought the library from Diderot and began to pay him a salary for managing this collection of books. Soon after, Diderot had a new robe. It was then that everything went awry.

The new robe was expensive and beautiful. So beautiful that the whole furnishings of Diderot's dwelling, in comparison with him, began to seem poor and wretched. The philosopher had to buy new things. He replaced the old carpet, furniture, paintings and mirrors.

The essence of the Diderot effect is that by acquiring something new, we start a whole process of consumption. As a result, we buy things that previously did not seem necessary to us for our happiness.

Why We Want Things We Don't Need

This is completely natural. We always strive to accumulate, add, improve and expand. And we rarely try to simplify, reduce or eliminate something.

Examples are endless:

• You bought a new dress and now you need matching shoes.
• You bought a gym membership and are now spending money on massage rollers, knee pads and special meals.
• You bought a new sofa and you felt like all the rest of the furniture needed to be replaced.

How to deal with it

Here are some tips to help you overcome the urge to buy.

Avoid temptations

Each habit has its own trigger - a signal that leads to action. Avoid triggers that make you want to buy. Unsubscribe from mailing lists of online stores. Meet your friends in the park, not at the mall. Block the sites of your favorite online stores with the application.

Buy things based on what you already have

Choose items that match what you already have in your wardrobe. Buy new appliances so that they are compatible with what you have in your home. Then you don't have to spend money on new chargers, adapters and cables.

When buying one thing, give another

Have you bought a new TV? Give someone the old one, and do not move it to another room. Don't let things pile up.

Don't buy anything new for at least a month

Set a goal to limit your purchases. Don't buy a new lawn mower, borrow it from your neighbors. If you need clothes, go to a thrift store, not your regular one.

Change your shopping habits

We will never completely get rid of the desire to buy things, there will always be something newer and better. Having bought an expensive car, we start dreaming of a private jet. You can only calm down by realizing that the desire to buy is just one of the possible options for behavior, and not an order that must be followed unquestioningly.

conclusions

If we learn to reduce the continuous flow of consumption, our lives will change for the better. This does not mean that it is necessary to strive for complete asceticism. The main thing is that the number of things in your life is optimal.

Finally, let us recall the words of Diderot.

Let my example be science for you. Poverty has its liberties, wealth has its own constraints.

Denis Diderot