'I don't love it'

I have developed a bit of a bad habit of buying things on an impulse, only to find that I am faced with a bad case of buyer's remorse when I get home. I then end up going back to the shop and then returning the item soon after. A lot of the time, I let the item sit on a hanger with tags still attached in my room as I try to decide whether its a keeper. It has gotten to the point where whenever I show my brothers something that I have bought, they have started to ask when I will return the item.


However, I had a bit of a revelation when I went boot-shopping with two of the girls from work the other day (before you try to make me feel bad, I didn't buy anything OK? I just had an innocent, coveteousness-free browse - OK so there was a little incy wincy bit of coveting..). And while we were there, we noticed a customer hand back a pair of shoes after trying them on. But instead of saying something like 'no thanks' or 'not today' or doing a Rowena and buying it just cos she thought it was a bargain, she said something that we thought was pretty good...

'I don't love them'

We spent a few minutes (after she had walked away) discussing that comment - what a great way to decide whether you should buy something! OK, you (especially you, if you are a guy) may think it's not a big deal because I guess, you (and most other normal people) probably only buy things that you really really like anyway, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that it is a good way to fight impulse buys.

Do I love it or just like it? I have heaps of items in my wardrobe that I can safely say I don't love. It's not that they are really gross or anything, I just don't love them. And when I think about it, I don't think that when I bought it, I loved it then either. It was just another impulse buy. It was textbook lust of the eyes - far from love-love.

Though some impulse buys ended up being really good buys that have well and truly earnt their keep, sadly, there are still quite a few reminders in the old wardobe that remind me to really have a think before heading to the counter and handing over the plastic.