This is part of my series on Decluttering Mental Models.

The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one.
— Erma Bombeck

In college, I went to the store grocery every few days. I didn’t have a shopping list, and therefore I didn’t have a plan for what I wanted to buy. I wandered the store aimlessly, filling my basket with impulse buys: Gummy bears, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and Doritos. Fruit pies but no actual fruit. I wasted a lot of money and bought a lot of junk that made me overweight and unhealthy.

These days I keep a shopping list on my smartphone. It has a couple free tools to do this, and they come preinstalled. There are more sophisticated ones, too, that synchronize with a computer, like Evernote and Simplenote.

Personally, I like Simplenote and use it to manage my shopping list. I even go so far as to group items according to what aisle they’re on, i.e., the oatmeal and cereal are listed next to each other because they’re on the same aisle at my local store. This allows me to go through the store quickly and only visit each aisle once.

In fact, a shopping list has four significant benefits:

1. During the week, when I have one of those, Oh man! We need more spinach! moments, I don’t have to try to remember it later. I simply update my shopping list. And my mind is free to think about other things.

2. I don’t forget to buy things when I’m at the store. And I don’t worry that I’ll forget to buy something. I leave the store feeling confident that I have everything. As David Allen said, Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.

3. I spend less time in the store and encounter fewer temptations (lemon meringue pie!) because items on my list are grouped according to the aisle they’re on.

4. I go shopping less often, which means fewer opportunities for impulse buys, e.g., jalapeño kettle chips. Less junk food in my house means less junk food in my body.

These days, I have a goal to go to the grocery store just once a week. I’d go less often, but I like to buy milk, bread, and produce, weekly.

In addition to a grocery shopping list, I have lists for a few stores that I visit less often: Costco, Home Depot, and The Dollar Store. This way, I keep track of what I need without visiting them every week.

So, try it out! Use your handy smartphone and make a shopping list. When you think of something you need, add it to your list. Make a goal of grocery shopping less often. You’ll buy less stuff and eat less junk. You’ll save you time, money, and pounds. And life will be better.

Be well, my friend.

More Decluttering Mental Models:

Top 10 Favorites

  1. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  2. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  3. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you earn $15/hour)
  4. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff
  5. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  6. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  7. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  8. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  9. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  10. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo

Get started

  1. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  2. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  3. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  4. Hold each item and ask, “Does this spark joy?”
  5. When the “Does this Spark Joy?” fails you, ask these 6 questions
  6. Create your “Discard by Feb. 2022” box
  7. Decluttering yearbooks? Ask these 8 questions first

Shopping

  1. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  2. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff - version 1 and version 2
  3. How a grocery shopping list saves me time, money, and pounds

Manage your clothes

  1. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you can earn $15/hour)
  2. Dear Dude with too many T-shirts: no one wants to buy them—just recycle/trash them
  3. Don't be like my friend Giorgio with his 400 Hawaiian shirts
  4. None of my clothes "spark joy"—so what do i get rid of?

Happiness & satisfaction

  1. Limit pleasurable things so they don’t lose their novelty
  2. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  3. Craving never stops and my potato chip addiction
  4. Reminder: happiness levels stay consistent

Get motivated

  1. Want to boost your motivation to declutter? Immerse yourself in decluttering videos, podcasts, & books!
  2. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  3. Imagine your ideal home… Imagine all the clutter is gone…
  4. Feeling unmotivated? Declutter with a 5-minute time box

Manage your money

  1. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  2. Save money by controlling aspirational identities
  3. I wasted so much money starting projects (and how I fixed it)

Manage consumption spirals

  1. How consumption spirals work
  2. Buying a house led to an enormous consumption spiral
  3. How craving completeness drives my consumption

Shift your Paradigm

  1. Change your environment, change your consumption
  2. 3 thought experiments to adopt a decluttering mindset
  3. Your home is not a storage unit for other people's crap!
  4. Before you buy stuff, do this little mental exercise
  5. Less space, less stuff
  6. That’s right, you and I pay for the privilege of seeing viagra ads
  7. Your home is an expensive container for your stuff. What’s your cost per sqft?

Manage your emotions

  1. Can you tolerate boredom?
  2. Fill the void with a long term goal

Control the Clutter

  1. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo