simpleek

Moving into a new home is one of the biggest headaches you’ll ever deal with in your adult life. Not only is everything in a disarray, but it’ll take you months to feel settled into your new place, especially if you’re purchasing a whole slew of new furniture. But one of the unexpected takeaways I’ve gotten from moving, and I’ve learned some lessons along the way, is the realization that you really don’t need another pair of shoes or that cute new dress you saw at that store. What you currently have is more than enough and it can even feel “new” again if you adjust your mindset.

You don’t know how much stuff you truly own until you move, and one of the things I didn’t realize I had so much of were clothes and shoes. Over the years I have bought an insane amount or had clothes and shoes that were given to me. I didn’t really notice it because a lot of them were tucked away in drawers, closets, and boxes. That “out of sight, out of mind” mentality can distort your perception of how much you have.

Every time I saw a sale or a style that was all the rage at the time, I immediately wanted it because I felt I didn’t have something like it already in my closet. Oftentimes once you have the coveted skirt or pair of boots, you might wear them once or twice before they’re stuck at the bottom of your drawer or hidden away in a storage bin. Fast forward to 2022 and the big move I had, and it became very sobering to see how much impulse buying you had done laid out in front of you in a massive pile heap.

Since the move I have vowed not to buy a single item of clothing or pair of shoes for a really long time, unless that sweater or pair of shoes are so worn that I have to throw them out. Even then, purchasing anything new will depend upon if I don’t already have a similar style to justify replacing it.

Finding a place to store the many clothes and shoes I own has been a nightmare in trying to be creative with where to put them. I love my new bedroom but the space is a bit limited in storage. Despite giving away a lot of clothes and shoes I don’t wear anymore, I’m still left with plenty I wasn’t ready to let go of yet. Thanks to the Internet, I have found furniture and useful hacks to maximize the space you have or create space where none existed before. Aside from vowing not to buy anymore clothing and shoes due to some space limitations, I also made a commitment to take all the clothes and shoes I kept and start viewing them as “new” again.

During the time I was packing up my clothes, I found stuff I forgot I owned. Unless it was front and center in your closet or drawer, you were bound not to remember what you had. Pouring over these clothes and shoes, some of them already felt “brand new” as if I had just bought them from a store recently. These rediscovered items became a conscious effort on my part to wear them more often and stay away from buying more new clothes and shoes until they were worn out or something broke. This would also apply to jewelry, too.

The impulse to keep buying more stuff than you really need isn’t felt or realized until you move, or decide to do massive inventory on what you have. Even if you think you need it, you probably don’t. My recent move taught me a valuable lesson—think twice before you buy something. You probably already have something like it in your closet. And if not, consider minimizing what you already have by giving them away and making sure what you’re buying is a classic style that will never go out of fashion no matter what the trend is for the season. It’ll save you space and your wallet, too.