Shopping, Clothes and Emotions

Simple Pleasures

At times of upheaval and change in my life lately – some visible on the surface, others burbling away where nobody sees them – I can feel the reverberations in many parts of my life.  Like a stone dropping in a pond, change and disruption can reach into the furthest regions of your life, and it […]

Lessons From My Grandmother

My grandmother was born in 1919 and was a child of the great depression.  She married young – at 18 – and raised her 3 daughters (the middle of which was my mother) pre-, during and post- WWII. When my grandmother died in 2012, I got this photo of her aged 16, taken in 1935.  […]

Protect Me From What I Want

Earlier this week, I fell down one of the many unsignposted rabbit holes that exist on the Internet, and found myself watching a short video piece about a new Japanese inspired store that sells “high quality” goods of a mind bending variety, all for less than $3. Three enthusiastic shoppers were given the dubious honour […]

Dear Inner Shopper

I’d like to invite you to write a letter to your inner shopper. You know who I mean – that being inside of you who makes all the shopping decisions, who holds certain attitudes about shopping (and its close relations, like money and spending), who experiences certain emotions when shopping (or before shopping, or after […]

What’s Your Why?

Today I’d like to talk about your big why. Why do you want to be more conscious in your shopping? Why you want to shop your wardrobe? Why do you want to develop a healthier relationship to your wallet and your wardrobe? So often we move from making a decision to moving into action.  We focus […]

How Much Do You Wear (And Waste)?

Today I’d like to ask you how much of your existing wardrobe you wear.  Is it 10%? 50%? 90%? One of our current My Year Without Clothes Shopping members is taking her year on the program to analyse this.  She’s using a system to track the items she is actually wearing (she turns the hangers […]

Shopped Til You’ve Dropped But Still Nothing to Wear?

If you have been shopping, and shopping, and shopping and have accumulated a large wardrobe, it can be utterly frustrating to look at it all and lament – how can I have nothing to wear? I can’t tell you the number of women I’ve met who have that exact problem.  They just don’t know how […]

7 Smart Tips for Avoiding Holiday Shopping Madness!

Holiday madness comes in many forms.  Close proximity to family members that we haven’t seen for months can be one precipitating factor.  Too much eggnog, mistletoe and Santa sightings can do it as well.  And shopping.  Ah – shopping.  At this time of year, shopping can be almost lethal – it certainly can become a […]

Setting Yourself Up to Succeed

Today I’d like to follow up on one of our most popular posts – Never Give Up.  Ever.  If you haven’t read it, you might want to check it out after you read today’s reflections. Ever since the first caveman observed another caveman doing something intriguing, or confusing, or just plain weird, humans have been […]

The Problem With Willpower

Today I’d like to talk about willpower. Anyone who has ever tried to break a bad habit or develop a new one has stumbled across this thing called willpower. It certainly comes up quite a lot in the “addiction” literature. And the general wisdom seems to be that willpower is a limited and exhaustible resource. […]