50 THINGS I DO NOT BUY OR OWN » Minimalism & Simple Living

hey everyone welcome back I hope you're doing well so for today's video I want to share 50 things I do not buy or own as a minimalist and I have made videos like this before in the past but it's been a really long time so I felt like I wanted to make an updated version for you as always take from this video what you can use and leave the rest we are all very different and what works well for me might be very different for you so do what works best for you I decided not to buy these things anymore for various reasons minimalism is a big one of course also just either saving money or environmental reasons or health reasons so be sure to share the things that you are not buying anymore in the comments section down below I don't own a toaster kind of a random one to begin with but I do think that it's something that most people do own and we don't really toast that much here and if we do we can always make toast in the oven so it's just kind of a big appliance that I don't really need we have really been minimizing our furniture for the last couple of years and one category of furniture that we do not want to own our side tables and I actually do really like the look of side tables I think they're kind of pretty but I prefer not to have one in my home because they don't really serve a clear function and they can easily become one of those places that gets cluttered with a bunch of random things so I prefer not to have one in the house we don't own a fancy vacuum or like a small handheld vacuum or Roomba robot vacuum type thing we just have the irregular old kind of boring vacuum and I can really see how it would be nice to have one around especially if you have kids or pets but we don't and I don't mind vacuuming twice a week with the regular ones so that is enough for me I stopped buying special skin care products I used to buy a bunch of them but now I only have a moisturizer a cleanser and a sunblock for the warmer months and I have to say my skin is super easy and really blessed with easy skin so I can definitely imagine why someone would want to purchase special skin care products especially if they work for them but for me these three things are enough I also stopped buying scarves now I used to have a bunch of different scar and I think shopping for scarves is really scarves is a weird word if you say it often but yes shopping for scarves is really fun because they don't cost that much and you always look good in them it's not like they don't have your size or it's not flattering for your figure things like that scarves always look good so that's why I think that is easy to accumulate a lot of scarves which is why I decided to stop buying scarves I just have the one that I can combine with all kinds of different outfits and that's enough for me we don't buy dryer sheets and that is because we don't use a dryer I line dry all my laundry and that also saves us on electricity costs now I can definitely imagine if you have a larger family that living without a dryer would be kind of like a living nightmare but for me it's just the two of us so line drying works perfectly I also stopped buying cookbooks and I used to have a bunch of them around and some of them I bought for myself and some of them were gifted to me by people and to be frank I still really love the look and feel of cookbooks but it's just so much more practical to go online for your recipes instead of having all these cookbooks around so sometimes I will go to the store and I enjoy flipping through some cookbooks but I don't buy them anymore number eight I also stopped buying phone cases for two reasons first I don't really see the need to own multiple of them I just have this really simple see-through case that works fine my screen is dirty and reason number two is that my phone is usually an older model and they don't really sell cases for these models anymore I switched over to an e-reader about six years ago after a careful consideration because I love books I love like the feel of physical books but I have to say I love it so much I read a lot and this way my books don't take up any physical space in my house and it's also a special screen I get a lot of questions about my e-reader in the comments usually and it's a special like e-ink screen that reads like paper and there is also no backlight to it so it's not like if you're reading you reader on your iPad for example it's very different and it's very easy on the eyes and I know there's going to be a lot of people who disagree with me and comments on this one and that is totally fine I completely understand because there's just something magical about books that Erie readers don't have I get it so if your books make you happy please keep them around there's nothing wrong with that for me and Erie there is just the better choice I don't want to take on meal delivery subscriptions I prefer to decide for myself what I'm going to make and when and I also think that doing my own grocery shopping ultimately is way cheaper I've also become quite careful with point cards or like loyalty programs that they offer in cafes and stores and everything because they offer them basically everywhere I go nowadays and it's also quite annoying usually you have to give up your personal information to get them and they kind of lure you in with sales like a one-time offer and then you have to have that card with you every time you have to carry it around with you or like add it to your phone things like that and I just don't really like it so I usually say no unless it's like my favorite coffee place that I go to every week or every other week I might say yes but otherwise I'll say no I realize that I sound a little old-fashioned right now I usually do sometimes I feel like a grandmother but I don't really like smart lighting I preferred to have just regular old lamps without hooking them up to the Internet and now I have one of those over there with the colors and everything they're really nice but they are the older models that you don't have to hook up to the Internet and I specifically bought it because of the fact that it's not smart lighting I just don't really get it and for me just a regular lamp works better I don't own or want to own a Fitbit and sometimes it feels to me like I'm the only person in the world who doesn't want a Fitbit or it doesn't own a Fitbit but for me again I just don't really see the need or the points I mean I get why they could come in handy for some people but I also feel like my life is going well without one and this is one of those things falls into the categories of yes I could buy one but I could also not buy one and would it make much of a difference and I also don't really like to wear something around my wrist all day and night either I'm curious am I the only one here who thinks like this let me know your thoughts about the Fitbit I'm really curious please leave that in the comments number fourteen I stopped buying uncomfortable shoes and I also decluttered the ones that I still had I have one pair of heels left but they are actually quite comfortable and I used to feel like heels were worth the pain somehow I don't think like that anymore and I also feel like if I am comfortable and if my feet are like not in pain that will probably radiate into my appearance somehow more than if I were to feel very uncomfortable if that makes sense we don't buy holiday decorations or any kind of seasonal decor this may seem really boring if you're into that sort of stuff and of course it's okay to own them but for me personally I don't really like the idea of having a lot of things in my home that I have to store all year only to bring them out once a year and also we don't really have a lot of built-in storage space in this apartment usually Dutch homes don't have like much built-in storage space I also don't have a garage or things like that so if I were to own those types of items I would probably have to buy furniture to store them and I really don't want to do that and we do have one fake Christmas tree that we use every year and one box of ornaments that we use to fill up the tree and that is it I don't buy a new phone every year or even every other year my current phone is four years old and it still works fine it has become a little slower but other than that it still works fine and I plan to use it until it's completely not usable anymore and this saves me a ton of money - I don't buy exercise clothing other than the very practical exercising clothing exercise clothing that I already own I doesn't really feel the need to own like specific outfits for specific workouts I know that for some sports you do need something specific but for the ones that I do it doesn't really matter and I just have two pairs of yoga pants and then one exercise outfit for a colder weather and one for hot weather that I use for years and years now and these all work fine so I don't need any specific exercise clothing or outfits another thing that we don't own anymore is workout equipment and we used to have a lot of it actually we used to have all kinds of free weights that need to be stacked on like a rubber mat just really thick rubber mats so they wouldn't damage the floor we'd have like a bench and a home trainer all these things and after a while we were hardly ever using them and you know the home trainer just became a place to hang laundry on and we were getting really sick of it so we just sold the whole bunch now I just work out using my own body weight and that is plenty challenging enough for me anyway and I have one yoga mat and that works perfectly fine since I exercise at home I also don't need any exercising subscriptions so exercising for me is completely free except for kind of like 2-3 times a year that we go to play tennis at which point who will probably just rent a course somewhere I don't buy or own any special events clothing first because I don't go to many special events and second because if I do go somewhere I just don't mind wearing my normal everyday dress to go there I don't mind if people have seen me in it before and it is plenty special to me enough and you can also always just borrow something or rent something for a specific location or a specific event I also stopped buying uncomfortable underwear and that is because there is plenty of underwear to find that still looks pretty and that feels comfortable on the skin so a while ago I learned that not all the brand's I was buying are really cruelty free when it comes to beauty products and some of them were still having their products tested on animals which is something that I really don't want to support so I stopped buying them I broke up these brands and I now buy from brands that are in fact cruelty free and sometimes I get questions about this so if you want to know if your favorite brand is cruelty free then usually a quick Google search will tell you that is how I do it too and usually that works pretty well so just a little bit of research and you'll know we don't own a car and that means that we also don't have to pay for anything that comes with a car now this is doable for us because again we don't have kids we live in the city we have excellent public transportation here and biking is also really safe so I am really grateful that we can get by without owning a car I also made the decision to stop buying decor items for the home we still have a few of them around as you can see right there that we absolutely love and that are our favorites but the rest we decluttered I still love to go to stores that sell decor items because I love the way that they look and they make everything feel so special but I just now like to appreciate them in the store I don't need to buy them anymore for myself because I know that like 90% of it is novelty and it'll wear off and if I have this item in my home for a couple months it just becomes another thing that lives here and so I made the choice to stop buying decor items I have never really understood belts myself I feel like they are very uncomfortable and I don't know I don't feel good wearing a belt I think they kind of look silly on me somehow so I don't own any belts anymore number 26 we're over half way now so another thing that I do not spend any money on is apps or games on my phone sometimes people request kind of like what's on my phone video but it is so basic there's hardly anything on there I just use it to communicate with the people I know and I use it for work and that's it so it's really basic I really really love to cook and when it comes to kitchen appliances we own a small hand mixer a blender and a small food processor and that is it and with these three things I can make like 95% of the recipes that I am interested in and for me just purchasing another kitchen appliance is not worth that last 5% of the things that I now cannot make I also don't buy any health fat foods or detox things cleansing juices stuff like that and that is first because I think that they are crazy expensive and second because I don't really believe in them I like the 80/20 principle when it comes to food and health like eating healthy 80 percent of the time because that is healthy at least healthy enough for me it's something that I can maintain long term and if you do that I don't see the need to do kind of like these crazy expensive detox juices cleansing things you know things like that handles air fresheners scented things I don't buy them I don't know if this is really true or like scientifically proven but they often say that they can have harmful chemicals in them and I just don't want to risk it and also my throat is kind of sensitive anyway somehow so I am always very careful with scented things I do use essential oil sometimes but even with those I'm very careful and with candles even if they're not scented I don't really buy them because I don't use them enough to have a lot of them around number 30 when it comes to paper towels I feel like if we did buy them we would probably use them so much because they are so handy and they would run out so quickly so I just prefer not to get used to having them around and instead use like reusable wipes and towels things like that a few years ago we made the choice to stop buying souvenirs on our trips and frankly this is still challenging for me but I just practice looking at them there appreciating them there without feeling a need to bring them home with me the only thing that we do still buy is tacky fridge magnets because somehow I just really like them bottled water I don't really understand why this is still such a big thing because it's so easy to bring your own water bottle with you when you go out maybe I'm overlooking something but for me I just I always bring my own water and that works fine and I don't need to buy bottled water I also don't subscribe to any magazines and I also stopped buying them I used to buy like a yoga magazine every now and then and flipped through it but it started bothering me how much of it is basically just advertising for really fancy expensive yoga stuff that I don't need and it only makes me want to buy things like that so I prefer just not having them around number 34 of the things I don't buy anymore is animal products because I'm vegan so that's easy I also stopped buying new notebooks and stationery even though I really like them but I always use just one notebook and when it is full I recycle it I get a new one and I just really make a thing of it a go search for like a really cute new notebook and it's kind of like an outing for me and when it comes to stationery I always use the same pen anyway so that's enough for me for health reasons and environmental reasons we don't buy any sugared drinks anymore I really like the taste of sugar drinks to be honest and also things like juices or iced tea but I prefer not to get used to having them around and instead just make something for myself really nice just fresh minty or just you know I also really like to drink water tea coffee things like that and it's much healthier number 37 this is kind of weird maybe but I do not own a bathrobe because I always wear pajamas so I don't really see when I would wear a bathrobe throw pillows we don't have them on the bed we have a very simple but that is very practical and I do like the look of throw pillows but I just don't want to have to put them all like take them all off at night and I'll put them all back in the morning so I just prefer to have a very simple bed that I think is just as pretty number 39 is trendy items so if I find that I want to buy something I always take a moment to quickly ask myself like do I maybe want to buy this because it's trendy right now and if that is the case I don't because trends fade really fast and I just think it's a waste of money that way so unless I know for sure that this is something that I am going to wear again and again and again even if it goes out of style I don't want to buy fast trends number forty we're almost at the end is cheap jewelry and accessories I stopped buying them you know the kind that only lasts for about a year max and it turns your skin green if you wear them I talk more about that in my jewelry declutter video I will link it right here if you're interested I also stopped buying wine somehow I used to buy wine or like pick up a bottle if it got like good reviews or something like that but you know what I just don't really like wine that much my boyfriend doesn't either so we decluttered our wine glasses too because why I have wine glasses if you don't buy wine and sometimes I might order like a glass of wine in a restaurant if I am in the mood for it or if someone brings over a bottle of wine I will enjoy it but it's just not my favorite one of the best decisions that I've ever made is to stop by impulse buys I always take a few days to think it over and usually I come to the conclusion that I would rather not buy it or not own it and if I still want it after a few days I can always go back and get it same with sales if you want to live a more minimalist life then this is a really good tip I always just lock past the sales stuff because I always get tempted to buy something that I don't need just because I feel like I'm getting a good deal and remember if you don't need it you're not saving anything so I just walk past the sale stuff and if I do find myself wanting to buy something that can wait a while then I might wait and see if I can get it on sale but other than that I just walk past the sale stuff and of course in case items and this is where minimalism on the one hand and frugality and the other hand kind of clash a little bit and I can definitely see why people would like to keep incase items around one is not necessarily better than the other for me personally I like to have more space and own less things over always having the right item around to deal with any type of situation but again it's personal preference number 45 is flowers and I love plants I actually have about fourteen of them you can see a couple of them right there but I don't buy flowers anymore sometimes if someone brings over flowers I love it and I love displaying them I do have a face for it so sometimes I will have flowers in the house but I don't buy them anymore because I feel like it's kind of a waste of money to spend like 10 or 15 dollars on flowers that only lasts a week if you can spend the same amount of money on a plant that will basically last forever I also decided to stop buying any glasses or dishes or mugs bowls things like that because I love buying them and if it were up to me I would never stop buying them but we live with two people here and we have more than enough of them and I don't want to own any more so this is just another conscious choice that I made I also by any plastic bags when I go shopping it's just as easy to bring a reusable bag with me and I always have a small canvas bag in my purse that I take with me everywhere so it's just really easy and that way you don't have to buy a plastic one number 48 I talked about my phone before and something else that I don't buy is any large data package for my phone so I think it has like 500 MB for a month on there and that is more than enough for me because I'm almost never on my phone unless it's for work and I'm in the house and I can use Wi-Fi so that's cheapest bundle I think it cost me like $8 a month and that is all I spend on my phone so that's really nice number 49 we're almost there my boyfriend and I decided a couple years ago to stop giving each other anniversary gifts first because we just couldn't really think of anniversary gifts to give each other and second because we much rather go out do something fun together share an experience instead of buying each other a present and lastly organizers like stowaway boxes or cabinets filing things since we don't have a lot of stuff all our stuff fits well in our furniture that we have for it so we don't need any organizers to keep things looking neat and tidy so that is another thing that I don't buy thanks so much for sticking around till the end of this video I am so thirsty right now after all this talking so I am going to drink a nice big cup of tea please give this video a like because that helps and of course subscribe to the channel if you're not already right here I have a video about how to declutter your home during lockdown and right here I have my jewelry declutter video as always questions comments and conversations down below and I'll see you next week bye bye you

Channel: Simple Happy Zen

Views: 405,597

Rating: 4.8957777 out of 5

Keywords: 50 things i do not buy, 50 things i don't buy, things i don't buy, things i do not buy, 50 things i do not buy or own, things i don't own, things i dont buy anymore, minimalism, simple living, minimalist living, minimalist lifetyle, 50 things i dont buy anymore, sarah therese, 50 things i don't buy sarah, 10 things i don't buy, 10 things i dont buy, how to save money, saving money, save money, minimalist, things i no longer buy, what i stopped buying, 2020, simple happy zen

Id: Mzixn2__nPw

Length: 21min 4sec (1264 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020