Have you scoured through your closet and found piles of clothes that you have probably never worn, or have worn once but will never do so again?
In this age of fast fashion and online shopping always a click away, it is impossible to resist buying things that you might not actually need. This de-cluttering drive comes to the rescue of the easy shoppers. A way to de-clutter is by not buying unwanted goods.
A group of women in Bengaluru were so inspired by this idea of ‘minimalistic living’ along with their sheer angst at the consumerist society we live in that they started a challenge called ‘No Buy November’ — Where for an entire month they would restrain themselves from buying any commodity that they want, but do not need.
On the other side of the globe in countries like Japan, people believe in minimalistic living. Marie Kondo, a Japanese organising consultant and author of
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organising in her book talks about only owning things that spark joy in you. Now, that might take a little more soul searching.
Nivedita Rajan, a textile/ interior stylist who constantly found herself surrounded by people who buy for no reason at all, just wanted to come out of that lifestyle and started this challenge with her friend and it has been getting many likes. “I have always seen people flooding their wardrobes with things that they do not need at all and getting hooked to the new era of fast fashion. And I thought that we need a detox from all this. My friend Tanuja and I sat together one day, and started this challenge to inculcate the habit of holding back. Because at the end of the day, there’s only a little bit that we need to survive,” she says.
Nivedita tries to hold back as she scrolls through social media websites, and sees ads selling clothes, shoes, jewellery, etc. “It’s so tempting seeing those ads but I have just learned to ignore them completely by saying ‘no’ to those ads,” she adds.
Tanuja Goyal, a brand designer also joined in the challenge and at the end of the day posts her experiences on Facebook. On her third day of the challenge, she writes that she found herself stuck in a mall during a meeting, “How easy is it to glide into these spaces! You have arrived a tad early for a meeting and wow what luck, we have these buy-buy zones everywhere for you. It’s easier to get to them than to a hospital!” she says.
Echoing the same beliefs Sandhya Rajendran, a procurement coordinator feels, “I was always inspired by minimalistic living. When I signed up for this challenge, I didn’t think I would last more than a day knowing the shopaholic in me. But, it has been six days now I haven’t bought anything so far. I started conscious buying and asked myself a question, ‘Do I really need this?’ and it has become a norm for me from now on.”
Psychologist Anikha SJ thinks that, “There is definitely a need to de-clutter. Cluttering happens due to this impulsive need of buying and stocking even if not needed. Most people indulge in it as a way to de-stress or just to get that adrenaline rush of owning something. Decluttering challenges this impulsive nature and will help a person achieve virtue of satisfaction or saturation of using things which are there rather than piling on things which will never be used,” she adds.
