At the end of 2020, I was reviewing my Amazon purchases. I was on the Orders page and looking for something that I ordered earlier in the year. I filtered my orders to see all my purchases from throughout the year. After filtering the orders, I quickly forgot whatever it was I was looking for. My eyes went directly to the number of purchases I made in 2020. I’m not at a point where I want to share how many purchases I made last year, but it was a lot. Doing some quick math, I made multiple Amazon purchases multiples times each week.
So, what did I buy?!?! Random things for the kids, random stuff for our house, my car, even a kit to fix my favorite sunglasses that had broken. Unsurprisingly, the sunglasses aren’t fixed and I have no idea where that kit is. I realized many of the things I bought, were lying abandoned in my son’s room, in a box under the bed, or tucked away in a closet.
Should I get rid of Amazon Prime? That seemed a little too extreme. But, I did delete the app. Most of my purchases were made at night while putting my daughter to sleep. I would sit in her room rocking her to sleep with the soft sounds of the ocean playing in the background, turn the brightness down on my phone, and shop to my little heart’s content. Two days later, it’s like Christmas morning, when there is a box (or boxes) waiting for me on my porch.
I decided to go cold-turkey and just stop shopping with Amazon. At first, I was feeling adventurous and thought I wouldn’t buy anything for a year. I didn’t think that was being realistic, so I went with a month. For one whole month, I wasn’t going to make any Amazon purchases. If I truly needed something I could go to a store and buy it or if I had to get it from Amazon, my husband would have to make the purchase. This was much easier than I thought. I realized I’m more of an impulsive person than I thought, and taking a few extra minutes to think, “Do I/we really need this?” made me realize I didn’t need most of what I was buying.
It has been over a month, and the Amazon truck has made a stop or two at my house. I’m still asking myself if something is truly needed before I buy it, and even leaving it in my cart for a few days before making a purchase. Maybe next year, I’ll try for the full year.
