Email Overload: Sale! Buy! Buy! Buy!

Happy Sunday!

Have you ever taken stock of how many emails you get in a day informing you of new products (or the same old products), sales, special deals, etc, etc? While I usually just delete this emails, for some reason I never opt out of them. I mean, everyone wants to know about a good sale right? I usually wait for things to go on sale before buying them, so this is important information!!

In the last 24 hours, I have received emails from 15 companies (not counting anything that goes straight to junk mail). Many of these companies send out multiple emails (Groupon and Victoria Secret  email me ~ 3 times/day!!). Is this really necessary?

I think I have email overload and it's overwhelming. I'm currently operating with 6 email accounts (personal, work, school) and it's just too much. I've received about 15 emails while writing this - all useless and deleted immediately. To be honest, I'm compulsive about checking my email. Anytime new mail pops up, I have to check. There will be no little number in brackets next to my inbox, thank you very much! How much time am I wasting deleting things that I don't want or need?

Day 4 of my "buy nothing challenge": time to opt out of all these updates. Will I be able to survive without knowing that x is on sale for 30% or that there's a new and improved bra on the market? Will opting out make any difference at all? I guess we shall see...

:)

Simplify - Day 1

There've been a lot of changes in my life in the last year. I've quit my job last summer, moved to a new city to start a PhD and had my boyfriend move into my apartment. One thing that I've been trying to do for years, but haven't yet managed  is to de-clutter things. Things just seem to be getting worse.

Currently, my closet looks like this:

Oh dear! A jumbled mess, This doesn't even show all of the stuff piled up on the floor (although you may notice that most of the hanging clothes are men's)! No matter how many times I clear out the closet, it just seems to re-fill itself (by magic I swear!!). I find it especially hard to get rid of things that I've made - how can you throw away/donate things that you've spent hours making? I've toyed with the idea of selling things, I haven't convinced myself that people would want to buy me-made clothing. 

My sewing hobby has run amok. My fabric stash is overflowing and my sewing machine collection is now back up to 5! I can't help it, it makes me happy. If I have a bad day, a trip to the fabric store makes it all better. For the past 5 years, my fabric stash has been growing exponentially faster than I can sew. 

 Last weekend, I had a moment of madness where I bought two vintage sewing machines at Value Village. One, the beautiful blue one below, was a reasonable purchase that replaced a machine that just stopped working. 

I also bought a vintage Singer in a sewing table that weighs a ton. It weighs so much, it's still in the car because I dread getting it into the apartment. Despite having coveted having a similar machine for years, I regretted buying it immediately. Why do I need 5 machines? Where am I going to put it? I'm a PhD student, why am I wasting money on things I don't need?1?! At this point, I'm not even 100% sure that it works. Eek!

The aftershock and guilt of my buying spree led me to the following resolutions:

(1) I will not buy ready-to-wear clothing for 1 year. If I need something, I will make it myself (ideally with fabric that I already own). I'm giving myself a get of jail free card for three pieces of clothing (because you never know).
(2) With the exception of food, I'll try not to buy other products. I have more than I need so why add to what I already have?
(3) I will get rid of things that are not useful or improving life in some way.

Day 1 down. 364 to go. :)