Tips to help you shop intentionally on holiday and avoid souvenir clutter.
Enjoy holiday shopping, but don’t want more clutter in your home? Then read on….
We all love perusing the local markets and shops on holiday, but it’s easy to come home with a random assortment of things, which we don’t really have a place or purpose for. But it looked so charming in the higgledy-piggledy shop, with a sea breeze wafting through the door……
So, have a game plan! Spend your money mindfully and avoid bringing back more clutter.
- Plan your souvenir. For example, we buy a Christmas tree decoration as our souvenir. The girls and I enjoy sourcing something that will work as a tree decoration. From Disneyland Paris we brought home a Minnie mouse Christmas hat hair clip, which we can clip on to the tree. It doesn’t always have to be a traditional tree decoration. When we are decorating the tree, I love remembering the holidays we have enjoyed.
- Know what you need. If you break something like your toothbrush mug, see if you can hold off buying a replacement until your holiday and buy one there. This tactic enables shopping, whilst also buying something purposeful. When my husband and I went to Yosemite (best ever holiday) 11 years ago, we needed a trivet and found one in the gift shop with half dome on it! Random, but useful.
- Buy birthday and Christmas gifts. This is my favourite way to buy gifts for people. I enjoy hunting down unusual gifts, satisfying my shopping cravings, whilst not filling my home with clutter.
- Children; consider complementary toy items. Not a snappy title, but the idea is that you talk with your child about what types of toys they like playing with and if there is something that would be a complementary addition. For example my children love dressing up and role play. So when my Grandparents-in-law came back from a holiday to Portugal, they gave my daughter a mini Portuguese apron, which got lots of play.
- Take stock of what you already have. So if you know you have 50 mugs, maybe resist the urge to buy another holiday mug!
- Substitute photos for souvenirs. It brings me so much joy daily seeing favourite holiday destinations. One photo made me so happy to see every day, that I had to remove it and place it elsewhere. It made me sad that I wasn’t still in that moment, (Sausalito, Ca, glass of wine in hand, in-case you were wondering!)
- Consumables. I know this is an obvious one, but I do relish returning from holiday with wine we enjoyed, opening it up and reminiscing. I also love those Italian sweets, where it’s a shot of espresso encased in chocolate- Breakfast perfection.
I hope this helps you enjoy holiday shopping, without cluttering your home.
Let me know your favourite holiday souvenirs.
As ever, do get in touch with me if you would like help decluttering and organising your home.
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