This is part of my series on Decluttering Mental Models.

We’ve all been there. We saw something special that struck our fancy and a little voice in our head said, “I must have this. And I must have it right now!!”

Chippy, the voice in my head, sees 37 things a day that he desperately wants. And when something catches his eye, buying it becomes the most important thing in the world. He whispers how my life will be better, even magical if I “just buy this one thing.” He behaves as if we’ve just contracted Ebola and the last bottle of antidote is for sale. His persistent pleas sound like Bob Wiley from What about Bob? when he says, “C’mon, please, please. Gimme, gimme, gimme. I need, I need, I need, I need.”

I learned the hard way not to say, “No” to Chippy. The only thing worse than a toddler’s tantrum is a tantrum from one of the voices in your head.

Instead, I say, “Not yet.”

Put It On Your “Waiting List” And Wait 48 Hours

Whenever Chippy is enamored with a product, usually on Amazon, I tell him that he has to wait 48 hours. Chippy often worries that we will forget what the product is or we won’t be able to find it in 48 hours. To assuage his concern, I put the item on an Amazon wish list or in a “Wish list” notes file that synchronizes between my phone and computer.

Chippy is never happy about waiting for the latest object of his desire, but he grudgingly agrees to these terms. Three hours later Chippy has moved on and declared that he “must have” some new shiny thing.

I have learned that waiting 48 hours to buy something results in me (and Chippy!) losing interest in the item. 98% of the time it was a passing infatuation and I ended up not buying it.

I cannot begin to calculate how much money I have saved by waiting 48 hours to buy stuff.

Limit Desire By Limiting Your Exposure To Ads

The more ads you see, the more things there are for you to want. So limit the ads you see each day.

For example, in my house, there’s no concept of television with commercials. We don’t have a TV antenna, cable TV, or satellite TV. Everything we watch comes from Netflix, Amazon, or my home media server. My kids see fewer ads than I did growing up and ask for fewer things than I did.

I also run an ad blocker in my browser on all home computers. No popups. No flashy banner ads.

Fewer ads mean fewer things for Chippy to desire. And that saves me money.

What’s In Stewie’s Wish List?

Looking at someone’s wish list is like peering into their soul. I have hundreds of items, mostly books, spread across multiple wish lists. Books include:

  • The Institute by Stephen King
  • Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
  • Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen
  • Abstract City
  • The Journey to the West
  • Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works
  • Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
  • Jurassic Park (Spanish Edition)

I have every intention of buying and reading those books, but I know, realistically, I never will because there will always be some new book to catch my attention. My wish lists are lists of books I’ll never read. (And that makes me feel a little sad.)

Other stuff on my wish lists:

  • Bookshelves e.g. Southern Enterprises Spine Book Tower
  • Physics toys e.g. Westminster Magic Balancing Bird
  • Puzzle Boxes e.g. Yosegi Puzzle Box
  • Arts and Crafts e.g. AmazonBasics Thermal Laminator Machine

Conclusion

Every day there are dozens of things that grab your attention and the little voice in your head demands that you, “Buy this!” Maybe it’s a keyboard waffle iron, a 27 inch and 80-pound gummy rattlesnake, or a copy of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Sky.

Tell that voice, “Not yet.” Wait 48 hours and you’ll forget about the thing. And you’ll save money.

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