Category: Returns NaNoBloMo

  It's better, of course, not to buy extraneous things. But given the reality that I am much more likely to buy new clothes if they are shipped to my home -- things will arrive which are not things that should be kept. No matter how many pictures, how much detail is provided, especially with clothing there are still things that really matter -- like oh that shirt won't remotely cover my long waist self or the fabric is absolutely gross when put on.  

I also, like many of us, struggle with returns. Getting things dropped off at the right location, printing the return slip and finding packing tape, it all takes *effort* and that takes time and energy and and and...  All this of course to the companies' benefit as now I will miss return windows or just decide to keep/dispose of the object another way. 

However, I'm getting better at it. 

I'm in the process of resetting my wardrobe again. I'm still in business casual most days and beyond that, I'm increasingly impatient with clothes that aren't meeting me where I want to be in appearance, cut, etc. Weird color I was willing to put up with before? Gone. Work pants that mostly fit but are kind of baggy? Out.  Shoes that I adored but are truly dead and it's time to let them go, they've left the building. I'm back in three inch heeled boots today and they are so wonderfully comfortable -- but even with a relatively normal shoe size it can be challenging to locate what I actually want.

It's also meant that rather than trying to make things work, if it's not working and it's not readily alterable, I'm sending it back.  Get the money back, get the item out of my house, stop pretending it'll be good enough for a mediocre day. Truthfully I know I won't wear it, I'll end up refolding it 18 times trying to convince myself to wear it, and then it'll go in the donation pile. So let's at least skip those parts. 

In terms of returns getting easier -- well we have a lot of packing tape still and miscellaneous boxes. Working from home a couple days a week still means that it's easier to take a 15 minute walk to the post office or the UPS drop site to hand over a prepared package. 

So far, this is mostly only working for clothes and a pair of boots. I'm less willing to mail books back unless something is clearly wrong; and mostly other stuff is things I still actually wanted. So there the goal is more to judiciously buy less and remember I have wish lists for a reason. If I still want it three weeks later, it can stay on the wish list. Otherwise it can come off and I didn't actually want it.