Why You Buy Things You Never Use: The Trap of the “Future Self”

Inside the psychology of aspirational purchases, the anxiety of clutter, and the complete guide to buying for the life you actually have.

Inside the psychology of aspirational purchases, the anxiety of clutter, and the complete guide to buying for the life you actually have.

Part 1: The Closet of Broken Dreams: Acknowledging the “Fantasy Self”

Let’s take a walk through a home that might feel surprisingly familiar.

In the corner of the bedroom, or perhaps in the basement, sits a treadmill.1 Its digital display is dark. It’s an expensive, sophisticated piece of engineering designed for motion, yet it serves as a glorified clothes rack, draped with a couple of shirts and a pair of jeans.2 It is a perfect monument to a burst of motivation that “lost its momentum”.2 This single object represents a colossal graveyard of good intentions. In Great Britain alone, an estimated £1.5 billion worth of unused fitness equipment is currently “gathering dust rather than gains” in people’s homes.3

The tour continues. In the kitchen, the cupboards are a museum of “single-purpose appliances”.4 There’s the bread maker, purchased with visions of waking up to the smell of freshly baked loaves.5 There’s the electric crepe pan, which promised weekend brunches straight from a Parisian café, and the cake-pop maker that was going to make you the star of every bake sale.1 Now, they just “gather dust and take up space”.1 Next to them, in the pantry, are the “specialty foods”.4 You’ll find a half-used bag of almond flour from a Keto phase that lasted 72 hours, or perhaps some exotic ingredients for a vegan diet you intended to start last “new year, new me” season.4

On the desk, there’s a stack of “pretty journals” and “planners,” their spines uncracked, their pages pristine.1 They were purchased in the optimistic rush of January, imbued with the promise of new habits that “never really stuck”.4 Next to them are the unread self-help books 5, a brand-new calligraphy kit 6, and maybe, tucked in the closet, a pair of “weird shoes” that were either too painful or too “loud” to actually wear.7 The closet also holds the hobby gear: the golf clubs, the tennis racquets for a game you’ve never learned, the guitar you were finally going to master.4

This collection of clutter is not random. It is the physical, tangible evidence of a person you aspire to be. This is your “Fantasy Self”.8 These items are “aspirational purchases” 11, artifacts of a “dream” self.13 You didn’t just buy a thing; you bought a better version of you. And this fantasy is precisely why this clutter is so hard to let go of. It feels like “giving up” on the dream.8

If you look closely at the pattern of these unused items 1, you’ll see they are not just random trinkets. They cluster, almost exclusively, around three core pillars of human aspiration: better health (the gym gear, the juicer), better productivity (the planners, the books), and better skills (the hobby kits, the cookbooks). We aren’t just buying for simple pleasure. We are making what one recovering shopping addict calls “push purchases” 15—a misguided attempt to buy the motivation to become a better version of ourselves. The “Fantasy Self” we are shopping for 8 isn’t just us on a good day; it’s a fundamentally more disciplined, creative, and energetic person. This explains why the trap feels so personal. It’s a trap built from our own ambitions.

Part 2: The Stranger in the Mirror: The Neuroscience of Two Selves

To understand why this happens, we have to introduce the two characters at the heart of this psychological drama:

  1. The Present Self: This is you, right now. The person scrolling, reading, and feeling that familiar ping of recognition. The person who clicks “buy now.”
  2. The Future Self: This is the person who, weeks later, has to find a place to store the item, pay the credit card bill, and live with the clutter.

The central thesis of this entire problem is this: The “Future Self” is a trap because, to your brain, that person is a stranger. And you are not very kind to strangers.

This is not a metaphor. It is a neurological fact. We treat our Future Self as a “distant stranger whom we care little about”.16 Social psychologist Hal Hershfield, who has done extensive research on this, explains that this emotional disconnect is the reason we fail to make good long-term choices, from saving for retirement to eating healthily.18

The evidence for this is found deep in the brain. In fMRI studies, researchers ask participants to think about themselves.18 When you think about your “current self,” a region of the brain called the medial prefrontal cortex—a hub for self-referential thought—lights up. Then, researchers ask you to think about your “future self” 10 years from now. The brain activity shifts. It activates the exact same region it uses to think about a completely different person.18 On a brain level, “Future You” is a stranger.18

This neurological “stranger” effect is the root cause of our self-sabotage. It directly explains a core concept of behavioral economics: Temporal Discounting.21 This is the term for our cognitive tendency to “reliably choose immediate short-term rewards at the expense of greater long-term gains”.16

Think about it: The “Present Self” gets all the fun—the immediate reward of the purchase. The “Future Self” gets all the pain—the delayed consequence of the bill and the clutter. Because your brain sees that Future Self as a stranger, you have no problem “selling [them] short”.16 This explains everything. It’s why we buy the latest gadget instead of funding our retirement fund.21 It’s why we smoke a cigarette now, despite the long-term health consequences.21 And it’s why we choose the immediate pleasure of the purchase over the delayed benefit of actually using the item. We are, in effect, stealing from a stranger, and that stranger is us.18

The research on this “future self-continuity” 20 also reveals the antidote. The more connected you feel to your future self—the more you see them as a “direct extension of who he is now” 20—the better your long-term decisions become. In one famous study, students who were shown digitally-aged photos of themselves were “motivated to prepare better for their long-term financial futures”.16 When the stranger in the mirror becomes a friend, you start to care about their happiness.16

Part 3: The Conspiracy of Optimism: The Cognitive Traps That Fuel the Fantasy

This isn’t just a “hot,” emotional impulse. Your “cold,” rational, cognitive brain is also rigging the game against you.23 You are falling for a series of cognitive traps that fuel the fantasy.

The “Future Me” Myth (Optimism Bias & The Planning Fallacy)

The problem isn’t just that you see your Future Self as a stranger. It’s that you see them as a better, more efficient, more motivated stranger.

First, you are tricked by Optimism Bias, our profound human tendency to overestimate our likelihood of experiencing positive events and underestimate negative ones.24 We believe we are the exception to the rule. This bias is why an entrepreneur can look at a storefront where “six previous businesses… failed” and think, “Yes, but I will succeed”.24 This translates directly to our consumer behavior. We know, intellectually, that 14% of people have unused gym gear at home.3 We may even be one of those people. But when we see a new piece of equipment, the optimism bias kicks in: “Yes, but this time will be different.”

This bias flows directly into a second trap: the Planning Fallacy. Coined by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, this is our systematic tendency to underestimate the time, cost, and effort required to complete a future task.25 We “focus too much on the best-case scenario” and “ignore relevant historical data or potential setbacks”.25

Here is how the two biases work together to fill your home with junk:

Your Future Self, you believe, will not be the tired, overworked person you are today. They will be a well-rested, infinitely motivated, and highly efficient superhero. You’re not just buying for a stranger; you’re buying for a mythical god.

The Thrill of the Chase (Dopamine & Affective Forecasting)

There is also a powerful chemical component to this trap. You are, quite literally, addicted to the hunt.

When you shop, your brain gets a “dopamine rush”.28 Dopamine is the neurotransmitter of reward and pleasure.28 But here is the crucial insight from neuroscience: the dopamine surge is “linked much more with anticipation of an experience, rather than the actual experience”.28

The real reward is the “thrill of the hunt”.28 The high doesn’t come from owning the thing; it comes from getting the thing.

This distinction explains a massive part of modern consumer behavior. The act of browsing, “window shopping,” and even “filling up an online cart and abandoning it” can provide the dopamine surge.30 Anticipating the reward is what triggers the good feelings.30 “Browsing for dream items” can, for a moment, satisfy the urge to shop.31 The purchase is just the final, often unnecessary, step to cap off the “hunt.” We are addicts hunting for our next dopamine fix, and the item we buy is just the paraphernalia.

This chemical chase leads us directly to our next cognitive error: Affective Forecasting Errors.32 This is the academic term for the simple fact that we are terrible at predicting our future feelings.34

Specifically, we fall prey to the Impact Bias: We wildly overestimate the intensity and duration of the happiness a new purchase will bring.32

Why don’t we learn from this? Why do we make the same mistake again and again? Because, in a final twist of cognitive betrayal, we misremember our past errors.35 Studies show that after the new-purchase glow has faded, we fail to recall just how wrong our prediction was. We “anchor on [our] current affective state when trying to recall [our] affective forecasts”.35 We forget the disappointment, so we are doomed to repeat the purchase, forever chasing a high that never lasts as long as we think it will.

Part 4: The Logic of Identity: “What Does Someone Like Me Do?”

Beyond the neurological disconnect and the cognitive biases, there is a deeper, more profound driver: our search for who we are.

We live in a consumer society where we are taught to construct and signal our identity through our purchases.36 We “purchase products in order to maintain status, boost self-esteem and enhance self-concept”.39 This creates the central conflict of aspirational consumption: the gap between your “Actual Self” and your “Ideal Self”.40

That gap between who you are and who you want to be is the “promised land” for marketers.11 They don’t sell you products; they sell you “aspirational emotions” like “hope, pride, and admiration”.43 A Rolex watch isn’t a timepiece; it’s a signal that you are a “discerning gentleman”.44 A luxury brand isn’t a bag; it’s a “reflection of… identity”.45 It’s an “aspirational acquisition” where the underlying logic is, “I own, therefore I am”.46

When you are in the moment of purchase, you are not running a rational “cost-benefit” analysis. Instead, you are running a 3-step identity script that psychologist James March termed the “Logic of Appropriateness” 11:

  1. “What situation is this?” (e.g., “I want to get fit.”)
  2. “Who am I?” (e.g., “I am a person who is serious about my health.”)
  3. “And what does someone like me do in a situation like this?” (e.g., “Someone serious about health buys the best home gym equipment, not some cheap yoga mat.”).11

This leads us to the “Push Purchase” Fallacy.15 This is the trap in its purest form. We fundamentally believe that the purchase can create the motivation. We are trying to “push” ourselves toward a goal by buying something related to it.15 We buy the $60 notebook to push ourselves to learn a language. We buy the new silk scrunchies to push ourselves to stop a bad habit.15

This is a form of magical thinking. We are attempting to buy the identity in advance, hoping the behavior will magically follow. The flawed logic is: “A fit person owns a treadmill” $\rightarrow$ “If I own a treadmill, I will be a fit person.” We are substituting acquisition for action. We are trying to buy a result (fitness) by acquiring a tool (the treadmill). But as the research—and our cluttered homes—show, it “alllmost never” works, because the motivation must be internal first.15

Part 5: The Weight of Our Ambitions: The Real Cost of Clutter

The purchase is complete. The dopamine has faded. The package has arrived. What are you left with?

The most obvious consequence is the Financial Cost.12 This is the “big cash outlay” on “grown-up toys” like Jet Skis, snowmobiles, or ATVs that end up “sitting in your garage for long periods”.47 It’s the money wasted on aspirational items that “ultimately go unused” and could have been put toward genuine personal or financial goals.12 It’s the dent in our bank account for hobbies we never started, representing a direct transfer of our financial resources into, essentially, landfill.48

But the far higher price is the hidden Psychological Cost. The clutter that remains is not passive. It is an active “emotional burden”.49

First, it triggers Guilt and Shame. These items are “a constant reminder of the difference between who you are and who you think you should be”.10 This creates intense feelings of guilt over the money “wasted” 50 and shame over the failure to be the person you intended to be.51 You feel like a failure for not using the item you were so sure you would use.8

This emotional burden is not “just in your head.” It is physical. Research suggests that cluttered spaces can actively increase cortisol levels, the body’s primary stress hormone.53 Your home, which is supposed to be a “peaceful retreat,” becomes a “source of anxiety”.54 The disorganization acts as a constant visual distraction, overwhelming your brain with stimuli and forcing it to work harder just to focus.54 Clutter is, as one expert puts it, “a silent, never-ending to-do list that demands your attention”.54

This specific kind of aspirational clutter is psychologically more toxic than other forms of clutter. A pile of old newspapers or junk mail doesn’t judge you. But that $500 treadmill, that unused Apple Watch 5, or that pristine journal glares at you. It is a physical monument to your “failure” 8, a constant reminder of your inadequacy that “diminishes your real actual life”.14

This creates the final, vicious cycle of the trap. You feel too guilty about the “wasted” money to get rid of the item.9 You think, “I can’t donate that; it was so expensive! I’ll definitely use it one day.” So you keep it. And by keeping it, you allow it to punish you every single day with low-grade anxiety, decision fatigue, and spikes of cortisol.54 The initial purchase price was just the down payment. The true “clutter tax” is paid daily, with your peace of mind.

Part 6: From Fantasy to Reality: How to Stop Buying and Start Living

We have diagnosed the trap. We have examined the neurological glitches, the cognitive biases, the identity scripts, and the psychological costs. Now, here is the map to get out.

Decluttering the Fantasy Self (The Great Liberation)

The first step is to let go of the physical evidence. You must declutter your Fantasy Self. This is not “admitting defeat”; it is “freeing”.9 It’s about “making space for who you really are” and what you truly enjoy, right now.8

Here is the process:

  1. Be Honest: Go to the item. Ask the hard question: “Do I actually use this, or do I just like the idea of using it?”.9 Are you buying for your “real self”—the person who “lives in hoodies/jeans”—or your “fantasy self,” who is always attending imaginary events?.52
  2. Release the Guilt: You do not owe an item space in your home just because you spent money on it.9 The money is gone. Keeping the item won’t bring it back, but “letting it go can bring relief”.21 Stop paying for the item with your mental health.49
  3. Reframe the “Waste”: The purchase was not a total waste. As one user wisely reframed it, you “used that money to learn what… you actually prefer”.51 It was “the price you paid to try something out that didn’t work for you”.51 It was an expensive, but valuable, education in self-awareness.

Befriending Your ‘Present Self’ (Mindful Purchasing)

To stop the next “push purchase,” you must learn to pause the “hot” emotional state 23 and introduce mindfulness into your buying habits.56

Investing in Your ‘Future Self’ (Action Over Acquisition)

This is the final, most important shift. You must stop buying for your Future Self and start investing in them. You must finally bridge the gap and befriend that stranger.

This is the ultimate solution. The entire problem began because your “Future Self” feels like a stranger.18 Aspirational spending 12 is like mailing an expensive package to that stranger, hoping it makes them (and you) happy. It never works.

Aspirational living, however, is about investing time in that relationship. By “scheduling smart” 64 and “starting small” 64, you are proving your commitment to the activity, not the object. You are, in effect, making time for your Future Self. You are closing the empathy gap.16

You are no longer buying for a stranger. You are making a date with a cherished friend. And that, it turns out, is the one “purchase” that is never, ever wasted.

Works cited

  1. 14 Things We Buy and Then Almost Never Use – Money Talks News, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.moneytalksnews.com/slideshows/things-we-buy-and-never-use/
  2. Your Exercise Equipment Didn’t Work Out – 123JUNK, accessed November 14, 2025, https://123junk.com/blog/your-exercise-equipment-didnt-work-out/
  3. Brits has £1.5 billion worth of unused fitness equipment gathering dust at home – The Mirror, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/britain-unused-gym-equipment-home-26545055
  4. accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.thesimplicityhabit.com/things-people-buy-and-rarely-use/
  5. What are the most purchased yet the least used things in life? – Quora, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-purchased-yet-the-least-used-things-in-life
  6. Would you ever rent hobby kits to try something new without buying the tools? – Reddit, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/Hobbies/comments/1mm3mjs/would_you_ever_rent_hobby_kits_to_try_something/
  7. 15 Things We Buy, Then Never Use – TheStreet, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.thestreet.com/markets/15-things-we-buy-then-never-use-12965411
  8. Declutter the Fantasy Self and Free Yourself | Intentional Minimalism, accessed November 14, 2025, https://nourishingminimalism.com/declutter-the-fantasy-enjoy-life/
  9. Letting Go of Your Fantasy Self: How It’s Holding You Back from …, accessed November 14, 2025, https://balancethroughsimplicity.com/fantasy-self/
  10. True Self vs Fantasy Self: 3 Steps to rediscover yourself | by Devi Shankar – Medium, accessed November 14, 2025, https://medium.com/@devi.shankar/true-self-vs-fantasy-self-f7d2d4bd8071
  11. Aspirational Consumption: What it is and How to Manage it …, accessed November 14, 2025, http://www.isenbergwib.com/posts/2022/4/23/aspirational-consumption-what-it-is-and-how-to-manage-it
  12. Understanding Aspirational Spending: A Guide to Mindful Consumption | USSFCU, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.ussfcu.org/media-center/senate-cents-a-financial-wellness-blog/blog-detail.html?cId=88379&title=understanding-aspirational-spending-a-guide-to-mindful-consumption
  13. Any advice when you can’t stop shopping for your “dream” self? : r/shoppingaddiction – Reddit, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/shoppingaddiction/comments/e6adr5/any_advice_when_you_cant_stop_shopping_for_your/
  14. The Issue of “Fantasy Self” and Idealization : r/shoppingaddiction, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/shoppingaddiction/comments/tkfb9f/the_issue_of_fantasy_self_and_idealization/
  15. “Push” vs “pull” purchases…how they mess up the reward pathways …, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/shoppingaddiction/comments/1cbghuw/push_vs_pull_purchaseshow_they_mess_up_the_reward/
  16. How Empathy for your Future Self Improves your Consumer …, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.neuroscienceof.com/branding-blog/empathy-future-selves-consumer-behavior
  17. Empathizing With Future Selves – BehavioralEconomics.com | The BE Hub, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/empathizing-with-future-selves/
  18. The stranger within: Connecting with our future selves | UCLA, accessed November 14, 2025, https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/the-stranger-within-connecting-with-our-future-selves
  19. The Science Behind the Future Self: Insights from Psychology and Neuroscience, accessed November 14, 2025, https://courses.tiger-resilience.com/blog/the-science-behind-the-future-self
  20. Future self-continuity: how conceptions of the future self transform intertemporal choice – NIH, accessed November 14, 2025, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3764505/
  21. Temporal Discounting: The Psychology Behind Future Reward Depreciation – Investopedia, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.investopedia.com/temporal-discounting-7972594
  22. Do the Powerful Discount the Future Less? The Effects of Power on Temporal Discounting – Frontiers, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01007/full
  23. Chapter 11 Time Perception and Retirement Saving: Lessons from Behavioral Decision Research – Pension Research Council – University of Pennsylvania, accessed November 14, 2025, https://pensionresearchcouncil.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/0-19-969681-9-11.pdf
  24. Optimism Bias – The Decision Lab, accessed November 14, 2025, https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/optimism-bias
  25. Planning fallacy – The Decision Lab, accessed November 14, 2025, https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/planning-fallacy
  26. Planning fallacy – Wikipedia, accessed November 14, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_fallacy
  27. Planning Fallacy: Underestimating Time and Effort in Customer Journeys – Renascence.io, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.renascence.io/journal/planning-fallacy-underestimating-time-and-effort-in-customer-journeys
  28. Why Shopping Makes you Feel High – NeuroTracker, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.neurotrackerx.com/post/shopping-makes-feel-high
  29. Why We Buy Things We Don’t Need, accessed November 14, 2025, https://time.com/6235522/why-shopping-is-addictive/
  30. Why ‘Retail Therapy’ Makes You Feel Happier – Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials, accessed November 14, 2025, https://health.clevelandclinic.org/retail-therapy-shopping-compulsion
  31. How to stop ADHD impulse buying (7 best strategies), accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.shimmer.care/blog/stop-adhd-impulse-buying
  32. Affective Forecasting Errors → Term, accessed November 14, 2025, https://lifestyle.sustainability-directory.com/term/affective-forecasting-errors/
  33. Affective forecasting – Wikipedia, accessed November 14, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affective_forecasting
  34. Affective forecasting – Happier Lives Institute, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.happierlivesinstitute.org/report/affective-forecasting/
  35. Why Don’t We Learn to Accurately Forecast Feelings? How Misremembering Our Predictions Blinds Us to Past Forecasting Errors – Wharton Marketing, accessed November 14, 2025, https://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/PublishedPaper-Meyvis-Tom-Forecast-Feelings.pdf
  36. Identity and Consumerism → Term – Lifestyle → Sustainability Directory, accessed November 14, 2025, https://lifestyle.sustainability-directory.com/term/identity-and-consumerism/
  37. Consumerism and Its Effect on Personal Identity | Free Essay Example for Students – Aithor, accessed November 14, 2025, https://aithor.com/essay-examples/consumerism-and-its-effect-on-personal-identity
  38. Consumption and identity (Chapter 8) – The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and Economic Behaviour, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-psychology-and-economic-behaviour/consumption-and-identity/ABE7903D8D930240C54818F506E0CBDB
  39. The Role of Self-Concept in Consumer Behavior – Digital Scholarship@UNLV – University of Nevada, Las Vegas, accessed November 14, 2025, https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3162&context=thesesdissertations
  40. The self-concept in consumer behaviour based on the example of luxury brands – DOAJ, accessed November 14, 2025, https://doaj.org/article/fad0ced6f9bc4b2f888b65efe9139639
  41. effects of actual self and ideal self image on consumer responses: the moderating effect of store – EA Journals, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/Effects-of-Actual-Self-and-Ideal-Self-Image-On-Consumer-Responses.pdf
  42. Self and Identity – Introduction to Consumer Behaviour – BC Open Textbooks, accessed November 14, 2025, https://opentextbc.ca/introconsumerbehaviour/chapter/self-identity/
  43. Awakening Aspirations: Strategies to Drive Purchases – Mailrelay, accessed November 14, 2025, https://mailrelay.com/en/blog/2025/04/09/awakening-aspirations-strategies-to-drive-purchases/
  44. Aspirational consumers: Who they are and what they buy – Clientbook, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.clientbook.com/blog/aspirational-consumers-who-they-are-and-what-they-buy
  45. Understanding Luxuries Goods: Emotional Drivers and Motivations – RNO1, accessed November 14, 2025, https://blog.rno1.com/understanding-luxuries-goods-emotional-drivers-and-motivations/
  46. The Emotional Factors That Drive the Buying Behavior of Affluent Customers – Entrepreneur, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/the-emotional-factors-that-drive-the-buying-behavior-of/242892
  47. 7 Big Purchases You Should Never Make – Money Talks News, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.moneytalksnews.com/slideshows/7-big-purchases-you-should-never-make/
  48. How to better gauge aspirational purchases : r/minimalism – Reddit, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/minimalism/comments/uthsxy/how_to_better_gauge_aspirational_purchases/
  49. The True Cost of Clutter: How It Steals Your Time, Energy, and Joy …, accessed November 14, 2025, https://clutterfreenow.com/blog/decluttering/the-true-cost-of-clutter-how-it-steals-your-time-energy-and-joy/
  50. Overcoming Guilt: Learning to Spend Money Without Shame – West Coast Anxiety, accessed November 14, 2025, https://westcoastanxiety.com/overcoming-guilt-learning-to-spend-money-without-shame/
  51. How to deal with shame and guilt about past purchases? : r/shoppingaddiction – Reddit, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/shoppingaddiction/comments/jyfjax/how_to_deal_with_shame_and_guilt_about_past/
  52. Buying for your real self vs fantasy self : r/shoppingaddiction – Reddit, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/shoppingaddiction/comments/119echn/buying_for_your_real_self_vs_fantasy_self/
  53. The Hidden Costs of Clutter — How Excess Stuff Impacts Your Home and Wallet, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.blackprongstorage.com/blog/the-hidden-costs-of-clutter-how-excess-stuff-impacts-your-home-and-wallet
  54. The Real Cost of Clutter: Financial and Emotional Impacts | by …, accessed November 14, 2025, https://medium.com/@wealthmadesimple/the-real-cost-of-clutter-financial-and-emotional-impacts-b5b119dfcb85
  55. The True Cost of Clutter (It’s More Than Just Wasted Money), accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.howtomoney.com/the-true-cost-of-clutter/
  56. Transform Your Buying Habits with Mindful Shopping – Our Mental Health, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.ourmental.health/mindfulness/transform-your-buying-habits-with-mindful-shopping
  57. Mindful Shopping Tips for Purposeful Buying, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.uoosd.com/mindful-shopping-tips
  58. How to Stop Trying to Shop Your Way to Happiness | MyWellbeing, accessed November 14, 2025, https://mywellbeing.com/therapy-101/how-to-stop-emotional-spending-and-shopping-to-be-happy
  59. Mindful Shopping – LifeCoach.com, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.lifecoach.com/articles/simplify-clutter/mindful-shopping/
  60. 18 grounding techniques to help relieve anxiety — Calm Blog, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.calm.com/blog/grounding-techniques
  61. 10 Ways to Help Ground Yourself in the Present Moment – Little Reesor House, accessed November 14, 2025, https://littlereesorhouse.com/blog/10-ways-to-help-ground-you-in-the-present-moment
  62. Grounding Techniques: Exercises for Anxiety, PTSD, and More – Healthline, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.healthline.com/health/grounding-techniques
  63. Finally Breaking Free from the Consumerism Trap : r/Anticonsumption – Reddit, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/Anticonsumption/comments/1icqbjo/finally_breaking_free_from_the_consumerism_trap/
  64. How to Eliminate Aspirational Spending | Ellevate, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.ellevatenetwork.com/articles/9198-how-to-eliminate-aspirational-spending
  65. the BEST gift idea: HOBBY KITS + FULL IDEA GUIDE PDF – YouTube, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZdC0Ne6OIo

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *