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Can Buying Less Make You Feel Better?
New research says yes
Most companies will tell you that the way to feel better is to buy more. Buy yourself some new clothes, cosmetics, or gadgets, they say, and you’ll be a whole new person.
But instead of making you feel better, buying a lot of stuff you don’t need can leave you in debt, and worse off than when you started.
A new study found that buying less can make people feel better. People who practice “reduced consumption,” reusing items as long as they can, rated their well-being higher than people who bought more stuff.
Buying more won’t make you happier because of the Diderot effect. When you buy items, you’re tempted to keep buying, and these purchases can snowball. But it never leaves you satisfied. Ever bought something and then thought, “I need to buy something to go with this…?” That’s the Diderot effect.
I’ve known for a long time that less is more. A few years ago, I “konmaried” my home, decluttering by the book: Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, that is.
The secret to staying tidied? Don’t buy more stuff.
