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80% of people shop impulsively in person in stores, and about 72% of people make impulse purchases in online shops. (*source)

Money is a tool, and I’ve been asking myself over the past few weeks: am I using this tool in a way that supports my life goals, or am I throwing it around without aim? 

In this article, I’m sharing 20 things I choose not to buy as a minimalist. I’ve learned that these things drain my wallet, clutter up my space, and don’t add value to my life. 

I’m a minimalist, and after nearly two years on this minimalism journey, I’m here to share a few things with you to help you simplify your life and make more intentional purchases.

Keep reading below or watch the video:

1. Unused app subscriptions

I’ve learned that one really important thing is to stay on top of subscriptions. So nowadays, I keep a spreadsheet with all of ours. Whether it comes to my business, for which I have a whole load of monthly apps and tools that I use, or my personal life and even things for my kids, like the iPad – all our subscriptions are in the spreadsheet. This helps me know what my monthly spending is. 

When it comes to kids’ stuff and my personal life, I like to go through my monthly statements and look at what subscriptions I am paying for. Are these subscriptions we still use? Is there anything on there my kids haven’t played with in months that I can just get rid of? 

This is something I plan to continue doing in the next year as well.

2. Impulse purchases at checkout

Since we know 80% of people shop impulsively at checkout (myself included), I’ve been trying to be a lot more intentional about this. (*source)

Just because something is cheap doesn’t mean I need to buy it, and it doesn’t mean it warrants me just throwing it in my basket.

3. More decor pillows

I used to buy a load of these. I felt like I needed to swap them out for the season and have constantly fresh, new decor in my home. And then I realised: why don’t I just have a few of them that I like having all year round, and that’s it?

I don’t need to store extra pillows, which can take up a lot of space. I don’t need to spend a lot of money on those.

If you do like to swap your pillows once in a while, I recommend looking at getting just pillow covers. This way, you can swap the look of them, but you can keep the pillow itself. And the covers don’t take up a whole load of space in your storage. 

For us, we have about three pillows in the living room, and a few upstairs in the bedrooms. That’s it. I don’t feel like I need any more than that. I got to a point where I’m really content with our home, and I don’t feel the need to be constantly changing it or chasing trends.

4. Home decor items

I used to buy in shops a lot of things that I thought were cute. There wasn’t a space or a spot in my home where I wanted to put them. When the season ended, I had no idea what to do with them. But I didn’t ask myself any of these questions.

I just impulse purchased a lot because, as we all know, some items look really cute in the shop and I felt like they’d be a good buy. But my home started getting full of all of these knickknacks and decor items that sometimes didn’t even go together. Sometimes, they didn’t even fit the space. 

I haven’t really bought decor items in a long time now because I just don’t feel the need for them anymore. As a mom in a busy season of life with young children, I don’t have the time to move around a whole lot of decor. And I have found that actually having fewer decor items makes it so much quicker to tidy, clean, and dust surfaces.

So for me, simplified decor has really worked best.

5. Holiday-themed kitchenware

You know those cute plates and bowls and serving ware? I’m not saying you shouldn’t have any of these. If you have anything on this list, that’s perfectly fine. If it brings value and joy to your life, that’s great! This is just a personal preference to not have this type of item.

I simply don’t want to have my loft full of kitchen items that I would use for just one or two weeks a year. I prefer having the basic plates that we always use. They’re just simple and lovely to me, and they go with any occasion. I can use different things to make a tablescape that’s appropriate for the season, so I prefer having all-year-round items when it comes to this.

6. Glassware for specific purposes

Now, we are not massive drinkers in this house, but I know there are so many different kinds of glasses. There are champagne glasses, wine glasses, little shot glasses and so on. 

For us, it doesn’t make sense to have all of those when we don’t use them at all. We have a few types of glasses, including stemless wine glasses, that, in my opinion, work for a lot of different things. And when we have guests over, we use those. 

That’s just what we prefer, and it’s something that I don’t really see myself buying anytime in the near future.

7. Extra towels 

We used to have so many more towels, without actually having a need for them. 

If you too have stacks and stacks of towels in your cupboard, it might be a good time to ask yourself: are you using all of them, or is it just the two or three at the top? Because oftentimes, the ones at the bottom just don’t get used—they’re there “just in case.” 

We have about two per person in the house, and that’s been working really well for us for the past two years.

8. Extra notebooks

I used to have so many different notebooks! I felt like having that notebook meant I was going to be super organised, get all my planning done, and be productive. 

Then I learned: actually, it’s not the notebooks that make me productive. So this is one thing I don’t really want to buy a lot of unless I have a specific purpose for them. I’m not just going to buy a notebook because it’s cute or because I think it would look nice on my desk.

9. Unneeded storage solutions

This is one thing I used to buy a lot of. We had clutter issues, our home was overwhelming, and so in my mind, what was missing was more storage stuff. We just needed the perfect storage system, the perfect organising bins. 

I used to think the reason why we had all of these clutter issues was because I wasn’t organised enough, I hadn’t found the perfect system yet. It never crossed my mind that the reason why I was overwhelmed was because we simply had too much stuff, and I just didn’t have the time to manage it all. 

Decluttering was actually one thing that saved us a lot of money. It also made me realise I do not need that many storage items. So that’s one thing that I don’t really think we’re going to buy anymore. Now that we’ve decluttered, we actually have a few empty storage bins that we are keeping for now.

10. Plastic water bottles

I haven’t really bought a plastic water bottle in a long time. Of course, if I forget my water bottle and I’m in a desperate situation where I’m really thirsty, then obviously I might buy one. But for the most part, I just don’t buy plastic water bottles.

I have a reusable stainless steel bottle that I take with me everywhere, and that’s that. 

11. New water bottle

I don’t want to buy a new water bottle. I have definitely been tempted by this in the past when seeing the Stanley Cups and other similar items. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with them! It’s just that personally, for me, I don’t need a new water bottle in a variety of different colours. 

I don’t need one on my desk, one in my car, one for my room, one for when I’m on the school run, and one for when I’m at home. I do not need that many. Having one water bottle that I take everywhere has worked brilliantly for me. 

So we have one reusable water bottle per person in the household. Unless one of them breaks or starts leaking, I don’t see myself buying another one.

12. Plastic straws

We haven’t bought plastic straws in a very long time. We have some reusable stainless steel ones that we can all use, including the kids. So we just don’t buy any other ones.

13. Toxic cleaning sprays

I used to use a lot of cleaning sprays around my home. But when I started having health issues, like endometriosis, I realised that a lot of these products actually affect our hormones, our health, and our children’s health. This was a real wake-up call for me to make a change. 

Nowadays, there are many alternatives for those toxic cleaning sprays. I chose to use Purdy & Figg cleaners. They have also gifted me some of their items in the past, but they’re my favourite. I use their sprays pretty much on everything around the house: mirrors, tables, windows, wooden surfaces, and almost anything around my home.

14. Air fresheners 

These are other items I also haven’t bought in a long time, and I don’t plan to. Again, they are just not great for our health. I prefer just airing out the house, opening the windows, and getting some fresh air in. Also, I use scented non-toxic candles and a non-toxic pot diffuser.

I think that anything that’s only essential oils is better for us than having air fresheners that are just not great stuff to be inhaling every single day.

15. Phone cases

I know, they can be really cute and there’s such a wide variety of them out there. In reality, though, we only need one. I have a white one at the moment, and I just don’t want to buy another one. It would be a bit wasteful, as one is enough for me.

16. Trendy clothing items

I used to buy a lot of these, but in the past few years, I’ve really tried to ask myself, “What is the kind of style that I prefer to wear?” 

Through documenting my outfits, I realised I like more classic, simple, basic pieces. I don’t mind being called basic. This is the style that makes me feel good. 

And if I’m buying anything new, I’m going to try to invest in pieces that are good quality and are going to last for a long time, and that are more classical rather than flashy trendy pieces that I’m only going to wear a few times.

17. Cheap Jewellery

This is something that can be such a big waste of money. When a piece of jewellery is really cheap, it’s going to tarnish or break very easily. It’s just not going to last.

I think it’s much better to invest a little bit into quality pieces of jewellery and own just a few of them that work well for us and our lifestyle than having a load of really cheap ones that we don’t like or use that much and are going to break really easily.

18. Excessive beauty tools

I don’t really plan on buying any more beauty tools. I’m sticking to the basic pieces that I have found that work for me. So I’m trying to not get attracted by any of the influencer things I see, any of the trends that are out there with the different face tools and different masks and things like that. I plan to stick to the basics.

19. Multiple skincare or beauty products

I’m really trying to avoid buying these. My goal is to just use up what I have before I buy a new one and to have one item per category: one foundation, one mascara, one moisturiser, one cleanser, and so on. Just one of each. 

For me, there’s no point in having loads of duplicates and potentially opening them at the same time, because they might expire before I get to use them, and that would be a waste.

20. Tampons

This is something I also haven’t bought in a very long time because I have swapped to a menstrual cup. If you haven’t done so yet, just give it a go, you might be surprised. 

I used to think it was going to be more complicated, and I was very sceptical. I have since started using a Better Cup, and I was honestly so impressed. It actually makes the period—I wouldn’t say fun, but it just makes it go a lot smoother. It only needs changing in the morning and at night, and it’s been a bit life-changing, to be honest.

What I’ve learned is that our spending and the things we buy tend to be strongly related to our daily habits. So, you might find this article on 10 minimalist habits helpful, it might just change your life.

Thanks for being here and for reading this article, I hope it inspires you to live more intentionally!