Stop the Souvenir Insanity

On my vacation I was just reminded of the importance of PREVENTING clutter in all of our purchasing decisions. "Wow, so many shiny objects! Made by artisans! And they are bargaining with me! What a good deal! And I am really in a buying mood!"

Souvenir literally means, in French, "to remember." Think about what you are bringing back with you from your travels-- when you see it years later in your home, will it still bring you pleasure, and will it really help you remember your trip?

I really stopped to think about each thing I was buying. I bought only practical things that were either consumable or extremely useful in my everyday life.  We bought pounds of coffee from the plantation we toured, hand-woven colorful cloth zippered bags (small ones that are perfect for camera bags and other small electronic gadgets), and a hand-carved set of salad servers (because the "fork" of our set was broken recently and we actually did need to get another set-- now they are special!).

What I did NOT buy:  A bunch of cheap t-shirts that would never get worn, various carved wooden animal trinkets, shot glasses, little bottles of liquor with drunken clay people attached to them, big straw hats that would have to be carried onto the plane, etc. I have seen so many of these things in clients' homes, never used, ending up in the charity donations pile (or the trash).

We say in my "See How It Works" videos on the Clutter Diet site that getting organized is a lot like losing weight-- for many reasons-- but mainly because they both require a program of PREVENTION, REDUCTION, and MAINTENANCE.

Preventing clutter is something you can practice on a daily basis. Click here to read my article, "7 Ways to Prevent Clutter," including the 5 questions you should ask yourself before purchasing anything.

Can you make a better choice today to prevent clutter coming into your life?

Comments

[Alex]

This is such great advice - you make it sound so easy haha. Overspending on trips (and on random things in general, now that I think about it) has always been a problem in my family, but I think that also has to do with some lifestyle habits. I've definitely had to play the reasoning voice part for my mother in the past few years since we have accumulated so much useless stuff.

Incidentally, a coffee plantation tour sounds so fun!

[Jeri Dansky]

I'm all for the useful souvenirs!

Some of the best things I've brought back from my travels have been a few hand-made plates (from France and Spain) and souvenir plates from two restaurants in Italy that participated in the Buon Ricordo program. I use these plates all the time!

I also have some beer mugs from England that I use as my water glasses- as well as using them for beer.

[Leslie]

I wish everyone would read this. I have never been a big souvenir buyer, but hubby and I have a bag of things that mostly have been given to us from other people's trips. I am really on board with decluttering, but this is the one thing I can not decide what to do with. I don't like to have 'things' out on surfaces, but it is a shame for them to just be in a bag. Sigh.

I definitely like the idea of buying useful and consumable goods, but the only thing we usually get is a Christmas ornament. Every trip we have taken, I have purchased an ornament, then each year when I am putting up the tree, I get to reminisce about our trips!

[Lorie Marrero]

Leslie, that's so funny-- I completely forgot to say that we DO always get a Christmas ornament for our tree! I love that tradition. In Costa Rica we just bought a miniature ox cart ornament. Ornaments are a great example of something that truly recalls memories for the family, and they are small tokens that are easy to store.

Thanks for your comment!

- Lorie