Why do we continue to buy things?

Curiosity ensues. How much people spend on their wardrobes is followed with how much does one donate/toss on a regular basis. What are these purged items. I have never seen any fashion blogger does a post on what gets tossed out, except for Debbie (but she's technically not a fashion blogger, she's more like a ... recovering shopaholic blogger, and her blog is aptly named so), although I get a feel every time they do a blog sale. I can only begin to imagine the volume of inflow and outflow they experience on a regular basis.

From reading minimalist blogs, I get a taste of how much people purge. Granted these are the people with a desire to own less, so it is very possible that they would purge more than the general population. Extreme as this may be, it does beg the question: why do we continue to buy things? Are we so powerless in the face of constant marketing that conditions us to buy, buy, buy without much thinking? What does that say about us as individuals and as a society?

And more importantly, why is it so hard to stop ourselves from buying things? When I put myself on shopping bans, I found it easier not to buy things because well, I was not buying things by default - I took away the choice. I noted then that the real battle is really about handling myself sans shopping ban. Not thinking about shopping is one thing, directing my thoughts towards other things related to wardrobe that's not shopping is another.

At the end of the day, my conclusion is this: shopping is a skill and most of us are not skilled in this department. This is why we buy so much - we have not learned how to buy well.

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