Tailor of Clouds

One of my weaknesses that contribute to money issues and clutter is impulse shopping. This habit is, I've noticed more than usual this holiday season, greatly facilitated by texts and emails with promotions and deals and coupons falling into my inbox.

I'm usually pretty great about just deleting them, but since sometimes they catch my eye and I look through to "see if there is anything I need" I think it's time to remove temptation from my inbox. I still have apps for the ones I most often frequent for an actual pre-determined purpose, so I'll be able to pull those up if I need to check for a coupon for a purchase I'm already making.

This evening I sat down with my email and a piece of paper and went back through emails to see how many I could easily unsubscribe.

So now my inbox will no longer have:
Khols
Loot Crate
23 & Me offers
Motorola
Office Depot
Hilton Grand Vacations, also Hilton Honors
Pet Mountain
Uber
Early Bird Books
Humble Bundle
Hot Topic
Good Yarns
UPS (except print coupons, since we routinely use that service)
Amazon Kindle Deals
eBay
PetSmart
Chewy.com
Coupons.com
Walgreens
Pet Mountain
Grandin Road
Harbor Freight
Ulta Beauty
Audible
Redbubble
Elanco Animal Health; I don't even know what this is

That still leaves JoAnn, Micheals, and Target but I was having trouble with those tonight so I'll tackle them on another night when I have some more oomph to spend.

Also removed myself from mass emails from 23 & Me research updates, my bank, the shelter we volunteer with, and the rescue we used to volunteer with, on the assumption that doing so will only remove me from mass mailings and not actual personal emails about needed help or scheduling.

I need to figure out how to get Target and eBay to stop texting me offers, then things should be a bit less messy and tempting.

It wasn't until I was going through, unsubscribing, and writing down which one I'd just done that with (to avoid trying to unsubscribe twice from the same place) that I realized just how very very many I've been getting!

As I prepare for 2020 and my efforts to not buy new things except when required, I've been looking around to see what I have stockpiled. The goal is to make a list in Any.do for when I go to the store, so that if I see a good deal on a toiletry or food item and am not sure if I should pick it up, I'll be able to check.

This list is not exhaustive yet, because I haven't really dug into all the nooks and crannies, but here's what I have so far:

-shampoo and conditioner
-body wash and face wash
-soap bars (omg so many soap bars)
-toothpaste, toothbrushes, and floss
-a variety of carpet/upholstery cleaner
-way too many crock pot sauces, and the frozen meat to go with them
hot sauce. I don't even eat hot sauce (thanks, food pantry)
-right now I have a crazy amount of tortilla chips
-dried fruit
-chicken noodle soup
- storage containers. I have this tendency to pick up cool containers at the thrift store. While this is a handy thing while working through konmari I really really need to stop for a while.
-Tupperware. why do I have this many?!?
-garden pots (!) I feel like, since I'm cutting down my gardening severely this next year, in the face of not being able to keep up with it this year, I should pass some of these on in addition to not buying more. (combo of meds has me sensitive to sun and heat) I do not promise not to liberate them from garbage piles, but I will endevour to do so for the purpose of passing them along; via Lowes or through FB marketplace giveaways. Other option: sell them with baby aloe in them come Spring, when it's easy to pull out babies.
-embroidery floss. Mom supplied me with lots.
-jars and glasses for crafting. and beads. I keep collecting them without actually picking up the craft I was collecting them for!
-Dvd's and books. I have some of each I haven't watched or read yet.
-CLOTHING. with the exception of jeans that fit, I really really don't need more. I do, in fact, need less. It's first on the list for Konmari though, so that will hopefully help.
-nail polish remover and nail polish and various accessories for same (!)
-office/school supplies. Unless the kids need a specific thing for school that I don't have, I really need to stop taking advantage of sales. Also would be smart to go through and either sell or give away those items that they were using in elementary school but the schools no longer require of them now that they are both going to be in high school. Add in that the last two years the schools have actually provided the teachers with composition books for all their students and there really is no need for about half of what is in my closet. and I could use the space.
-journaling supplies. I have lots. as tempting as washi tape and cute notebooks and stickers are, I really need to use what I have before acquiring more.
- wrapping paper and gift bags.
-packing boxes and material. On the fence with this one. If I start ebaying some of the items I have put aside for that, I'll need the small boxes and the packing material. The big boxes work well for loading donations; which I'm hoping to have plenty of. In the past there was no reason to save these beyond what Scott wanted, but if I"m not buying new as often, the influx of boxes should at least slow to a trickle, or even stop. Might be wise to keep them and use them for those things.

It's also time to go through some things that are past due for sorting; return boxes, for example. Many of the things in there are long past the return date or warranty.
Also the mending pile. Most of those things have been in there for over a year. Either I need to start mending things, or they need to be repurposed.

I'm sure there are other things, but for now I think that list demonstrates pretty thoroughly that I have plenty of "stashes" that can help me not buy new for quite some time.