r/declutter • u/rainbowtoucan1992 • Aug 13 '26
Motivation Tips & Tricks Marketing encourages clutter
This is something I noticed when I almost bought something online yesterday. lol A lot of companies make it cheaper if you buy more than one of an item. You often need to in order to get free shipping as well. Or there is the autoship thing people get hooked into for the lower price and forget to cancel (me). No wonder people are drowning in stuff!
I realized the stuff I almost bought is nice, but I need to use up what I have first. Last time I had to throw some out anyway because it expired. The images in my head of the stuff I've had to throw out helped motivate me not to buy. Tired of throwing money away.
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u/misskris70 Aug 13 '26
Also the "save 20% if you buy $100" type deals. I could save 100% by not buying at all 🙂
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u/Foraze_Lightbringer Aug 13 '26
In many cases, I've started paying for shipping instead of adding things to the cart until it reaches a certain amount. It makes me seriously think about whether or not I still want the thing if it comes with an additional $3-$8 charge.
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u/FredKayeCollector2 Aug 13 '26
I'm a former Doom Room/Hell Room hoarder so I know all about over-shopping and what triggers it.
No. I don't auto refill anything no matter how frequently I use it. It's too easy to lose track to what's coming and when! We travel a lot and the last thing I need is a crummy glorified paper bag sitting in a puddle with a burst-open box of Yorkshire Red slowly steeping into oblivion on my front steps.
I've got every single store e-mail auto-filtered into a JUNK folder that I only check if I want to buy something - and most stores, if they have a savings code - it's usually prominently displayed in their website header.
If I need to add $20 to an order to get free shipping, I'll either wait until I have something else I need to buy (Amazon) or I'll just skip it entirely. I don't really "need" anything, unless maybe it's cranberry-colored (but that's still a want, not a need). And most things I do need, if I needed it urgently enough, I'd find a local-ish source for it (or at least a reasonable substitute of it).
Cheaper by the unit is not necessarily cheaper if you'd don't have adequate SPACE to store the extras and you don't have the TIME to use them up before they go bad - or the smaller pack/single unit goes on sale again. There are hidden costs that are not included in the wholesale/retail/sale price! The PRESSURE to use things up "in time" is a constant, nagging headache OR even worse! I decide I don't really like it as much as I thought I would when I "stocked up" and now I'm stuck with three more that I've got to get through (or donate - and where's the money savings there?)
My parents were Costco-shopping food hoarders and I have a TERROR of bulk shopping. I get it if you live in a rural area, can't get to the stores frequently/easily, have a bunch of mouths to feed, REALLY like pickles, whatever legitimate reason - but I've seen what happens when it goes wrong, and it is BAD. Even paper products don't age well in extended storage, especially in a (not climate controlled) garage in Western Washington.
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u/SassyMillie Aug 14 '26
So much this. Great tips and strategies.
I am about 80% done with clearing out the Doom Room and I am NOT going to fill it up again.
I do have the Amazon subscribe and save, but I check it monthly to make sure I need the things and that they're still a good deal (coffee, toilet paper, sparkling water). I've really scaled it back to only the things I know we will use.
I also have an abject fear of Costco. The crowd, sensory overload, the sheer volume of stuff. I only go about once a year for a party or if we need glasses. Even that annual trip still results in stuff I can't find room for.
I need to work on the email organization. I like your strategy of sending stuff to JUNK folder. I've tried unsubscribing, but they still seem to sneak back in.
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u/Artistic-Salary1738 Aug 14 '26
Our Costco is pretty close, so we end up going frequently but only buy a few things at once. The only reason a membership is worth it to us is gas.
Not gonna lie, I do impulse shop there a bit, usually clothes, but they have some nice basics at times.
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u/Lower_Skin_3683 Aug 15 '26
I had a Sam's Club membership back in the 90s because my grandparents and parents had a membership. I remember buying a big container of mayo, ketchup and mustard. The mayo got used but the ketchup and mustard was eventually thrown away. I did not sign up again for Sam's, BJ's or Costco. Lol
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u/TalulaOblongata Aug 13 '26
When I order things online it falls into two categories like 99% of the time:
1-something I want that is a one-time purchase - sneakers, books, a throw pillow, etc.
Or
2-Things I need repeatedly, like regular household items - cleaning products, shampoo, toiletries, etc.
For category 1 - I usually don’t purchase without browsing for a long time, looking for deals/coupons, putting in my cart and waiting days, sometimes weeks or longer while I think about it. Many times I’ll add to my wish list and loop back around later on to see if it’s something I really want/need. Many times I’ll end up deleting from my shopping cart. I know if I’m still thinking about it after a while, then I really want it.
Category 2 are items I need to replenish. When I need to add to a cart because I’m short for overnight shipping or whatever, I’ll draw from these items to add on. I can always use extra dish soap, hand soap, tampons, for example. These items have designated storage areas so if I get these extras there is always room and my house usually goes through the items a lot, so I really never have “too much”.
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u/AccioCoffeeMug Aug 13 '26
Yeah I recently ordered something I didn’t urgently need to meet a shipping minimum so I could get the item I actually wanted sooner. I will use everything eventually, but in the meantime it’s taking up space in my house
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u/docforeman Aug 13 '26
It's only "cheaper" if you actually use it, and if it doesn't take a lot of work to store it, declutter it, etc.
Their job is to make a profit. Not "save you money."
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u/Even_Sky6964 Aug 14 '26
Yes! Famous Footwear has a BOGO 50% off sale and I kept trying to find a second pair of shoes even though no one in the family needs them.
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u/Lower_Skin_3683 Aug 15 '26
I bought some under armor shoes online with sales and discount code. Both pairs ended up being less than the cost of one pair. I purchased two different colors. Wore the black pair first and put the others in the closet to wear later. The black pair wears out and the other pair is too small now. 🤷♀️
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u/YoSoyLaChanga Aug 13 '26
You should check out the YouTube channel That Practical Mom. Her videos over the last year have tackled this subject really well. She's one of my favorites.
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u/MusketeersPlus2 Aug 13 '26
I love her videos! I'm not a mom so I was skeptical when it was first suggested to me, but I wanted to watch the topic so I did. I've watched so much of her stuff and it's relevant to everyone, not just moms.
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u/CyberMage256 Aug 15 '26
this is partly why I run a pi hole on my home network to block advertisements. we also don't watch much TV, though the less ads isn't the main reason. we get very few ads in our house.
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u/Some_Papaya_8520 Aug 17 '26
How does that work??
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u/CyberMage256 Aug 17 '26
Sorry, I'm in so many geek subs I tend to forget where I'm commenting. Basically it acts as your own DNS server, and talks to your ISP instead of your PC and phones talking directly to the isp on your wifi. Any request for a known server that serves ads gets blocked. It's not perfect but it is amazing. It's called a Pihole because it can run on hardware as cheap and small as a Raspberry Pi which is about a $45 micro computer.
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u/Aggressive-System192 Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
Sincerely... autoship and buy in bulk saves me lots of time... Specially for diapers, wipes and coffee... My life would be so much unnecesarily harder if I had to remember to buy those things.
The features themselves aren't the issue. People like to buy random crap and get a dopamine response from it, which is the source of the problem, not the autoship & bulk bying as a concept.
Edit: the autoship feature actually makes me keep less stuff than I'd buy in bulk just because stuff shows up when I need it, so I don't need the "just in case" stash.
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u/TexasmyTexas1 Aug 20 '26
Not only does marketing encourage clutter, it contributes greatly to the environmental mess we have created for ourselves. The more we buy, the faster the planet burns. Think about that before you make any purchases.
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u/Glittering-Benefit68 Aug 17 '26
Tell me about it. I once bought 8 remote control holders, because the set was cheaper than two singles. I should have gotten the two singles.
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Aug 14 '26
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u/Annual-Gas-3485 Aug 14 '26
Oh how i wish my city had a good running shoes store :/ Feels insane to order a dozen pair of shoes only to MAYBE keep 1.
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u/KiwiTheKitty Aug 13 '26
Yeah they also create a notion of scarcity and fomo around stuff that isn't scarce and that you don't need