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How a Shopping Hiatus Can Help

The following is a guest post from Jill Chivers.  Jill is a former shopaholic who completed a major challenge – a full year without clothes shopping!  She later went on to create the first online membership site for women who want to stop overshopping and learn to shop consciously.  Read on as Jill shares her wisdom on the value of taking a shopping hiatus.

Taking a break from shopping, whether it’s a week, a month or longer (anyone for a year without shopping? More on that soon) can be an extremely effective way of getting on top of a shopping problem that has spiralled out of control.

Woman with shopping bags and credit cards

Is your shopping out of control? Perhaps a hiatus can help…

I know first hand how effective a shopping hiatus can be, as my own path to healing from an unhealthy shopping habit started with an extreme personal challenge: a year without clothes shopping. Continue reading →

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Do You Have a Closet Set Point?

On Monday, I shared my most recent closet inventory.  I revealed that I have approximately half the number of clothes as I did when I started my blog in January 2013.  While that represents amazing progress, I know there are others who have pared down their wardrobes far more rapidly.  In truth, I have also purged things from my closet more quickly in the past, but my smaller wardrobe never seemed to last very long.

I’ve come to understand that I have a sort of closet “set point,” a wardrobe size with which I’m comfortable and come back to time and time again.  In today’s post, I share my closet set point theory and the insights that have enabled me to reduce the size of my wardrobe over time. I also offer some tips to help you lower your closet set point.

Closet Set Point

Closet creep setting in?  Maybe you’re going back to your set point.

Continue reading →

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Mid-Year 2014 Closet Inventory

It’s hard to believe the year is almost half over.  Time flies while you’re focusing on shopping less and cultivating a workable wardrobe (among other things)!  As June draws to a close, it’s time to see how I’m doing with my closet pare-down project.

If you’ve been following along since the beginning of this year, you may remember that my goal (number 6 on this list) is to reduce the size of my wardrobe to 200 total items, including clothing, shoes, purses, and scarves.  I began the year with an inventory of 233 pieces, down from 386 at the start of 2013.  I was very happy to have met – and exceeded – my 2013 goal of paring my wardrobe down to 250 total items.  Let’s see how the numbers shake out today…

Shopping and wardrobe statistics Continue reading →

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June 2014 “Grab Bag” of Useful Links

Useful Links

As longtime readers of “Recovering Shopaholic” may recall, I used to publish a list of useful links on a specific topic every Friday (you can see the resources archive here).  I stopped doing that last year, but still periodically include article links at the end of some of my posts.  I’ll probably still do that on occasion, but I’ve decided to consolidate most of my helpful links into a monthly post.

Included below is the June 2014 edition.  The list includes some articles written by or about me, as well as a number of excellent posts from other bloggers.  I hope you enjoy this assortment of links.  Please feel free to share links to other articles you’ve enjoyed in the comments section. Continue reading →

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A Simple Shopping Rule – Buy Once!

Last week’s post, “A New Twist on an Old Shopping Rule,” generated a lot of excellent feedback from readers.  Many agreed with the revised version of my sales shopping rule and shared their stories of how price has both positively and negatively impacted their buying success.  Some readers also shared additional suggestions related to sales shopping, including the use of the “power pause” when online shopping and utilizing sales watch sites to track when desired items are discounted.  I encourage you to check out the comments area of last week’s post if you’d like to learn more about such strategies.

While I loved all of the comments, two in particular stood out in my mind.  Both of those readers shared a variation on a theme so important that I decided to base today’s post on it.  Read on for the philosophy expressed by readers Mo and Carolyn, which Carolyn succinctly labeled as, “Buy once.”

Buy Once Shopping Rule

To shop smarter and increase purchase satisfaction, buy once!

Continue reading →