Must-have" Products I Don't Buy or Own (minimalism & saving money)

Hey everyone, welcome back. Today I'm going to be sharing 10 of the common so-called must-have items that I myself don't buy or own. And these are all things that have been really normalized in our society, that are kind of like everyday things, and that get pushed on us to buy or consume almost everywhere you go, that I still think my life is better without. I'm also going to unpack kind of why these products are considered must-haves, kind of like normal everyday things, but also why I still think that I'm better off without these things in my life. These reasons have to do of course with things like minimalism, saving money, not having so much clutter around me, and all that good stuff. But also, and I think more importantly, with things like peace of mind, my inner confidence, and also just valuing my time and energy. This video is also kindly sponsored by Skillshare, which is my favorite place to go if I want to learn something, or explore some kind of new hobby or interest, instead of going shopping and buying things I don't need. So I'll tell you more about them later. For now, feel free to join me, grab yourself something nice to drink. I'm being a little fancy today, because I have some fresh mint and ginger tea. So feel free to grab yourself something nice and let's talk about it. The first thing that is really common, and kind of like an everyday sort of must-have thing that I don't buy myself, is anything for a change of season. So I live in the Netherlands, we do have four different seasons here. But as the seasons change, I typically don't buy anything related to the new season. You can clearly see this now again, with fall being just around the corner. The stores are filled with cozy fall type things. Decor items, and candles, and fall drinks, and fall snacks, and everything is autumn. And yeah, this happens every time the new season changes. And it's almost become this way of, if you want to really experience the seasons changing and partake in this like new phase of the year, that you have to go out and buy the things associated with it. But that is not the only way to experience the seasons changing. So I kind of stopped buying anything for a new season for many years already. Last year I purchased two small decor items for fall, but that is all I own in the like the seasonal decor category. And it's just, there are so many ways to experience a season without consuming stuff, without spending money. I love going outside when the seasons change, and really experience the different feeling of how the wind feels, or how things smell. There are so many fun seasonal activities that we can do that don't involve shopping, or buying things, or even spending almost any money. And that are really nice. So for example, with autumn you could really cozy up, grab a blanket from somewhere in your home that you already have, and like get really cozy. Maybe do a cozy hobby, or read a book, or something. We can watch autumn movies, we can listen to autumn sounds on youtube, or autumn inspired music. We can do some baking, like seasonal treats and things like that. And these are all ways that I love to experience the season changing. Because I'm really like a seasonal person, I always really enjoy it when the seasons change. And I haven't spent any money on the season changing in so many years. And I also feel like when I was growing up we didn't have that much money. So what we always did was taking out the decor items, the seasonal decor items, that we already had. And we used the same ones year after year after year. So in the springtime we used the same stuff, in the fall time we used the same stuff. And it became this kind of like tradition. And these items, if you use them again and again year after year, they start to become more and more meaningful. So if you are the type of person who likes to decorate for the season, I actually think there is a lot to save for just using what we already have. And if you don't have something, maybe buying something a little bit more high quality if you can find it once, and then just use it again and again and again. Because that makes it more special. There absolutely no need for us to buy new things that are, you know, sort of like on trend right now for this specific season, that won't be on trend again next year. Or even what I used to love to do when I was a kid. Just go outside and gather some fall leaves, some acorns, some chestnuts, things like that. And just decorate your home with all of the like free nature things that you can find outside. But really it's kind of just like confusing our excitement with consumption. And I feel like the excitement for this season can definitely be something really nice to experience without the consumption part of it. Number two of the really common must-have items that I personally don't buy anymore is clothing and accessories. And of course this one needs some explanation. I do have some clothing, but I kind of stopped shopping for clothing for a few years now. And it has been truly very liberating and freeing and a very nice experience. I've come to a point where I've just accepted that I have enough clothing, and that every time I buy something new to add to my wardrobe, all that really does is create less opportunity for me to wear the stuff that I already have. And create more decision fatigue, more clutter, more maintenance, and things like that. And I really don't need much more of that. I haven't kept count, but I think my wardrobe currently sits at around like maybe 50 or 55 items total. We do have four seasons here, but for me that is perfectly enough. I have enough clothing to wear for any kind of weather situation, most kind of occasions, at least the ones that actually happen in my life. And I feel like I'm content with my wardrobe. And a really big part of this was truly realizing that my wardrobe doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to be good enough. Because the reason that I was continuing the like shopping, upgrading, swapping out, decluttering, improving part of my like conscious consumer wardrobe journey over the years that I was already a minimalist, it was more so to try and perfect my wardrobe. Because that is the image that you see online. People will be having this like perfect wardrobe that really functions well, where everything matches with everything, and everything fits, and is flattering, and looks great. And that image was what kept me kind of like working on my wardrobe. But over the recent years, I've really come to realize that the perfect wardrobe does not exist. And it is perfectly fine to just be content with the clothing items you already have. As long as you have some things that you enjoy wearing, and not too many things that you don't enjoy wearing, I think a wardrobe is already good enough. And it has been so freeing for me to just wear what I have, and not go into any clothing stores, browse online, watch fashion content, be engaged with trends, and things that are or not currently trendy. I don't care about any of that anymore. I only wear just what I have in my closet. So when I get dressed, I just look at what I have, and I look at the weather type, and what I'm going to do, and I choose something, and I wear that. And that is it. And it's really really easy, and of course much better on my wallet too. I'm getting so much more wear out of the things I already own, because I don't have that many options. Last year I did add a few more options to my wardrobe, because after like wearing everything, there were a few things that I identified as being like, okay this is where I would like to have some more options. For example, summer dresses. So I got a few things, but I really feel like I'm set right now. So for next year, I'm also going to do a low buy when it comes to my wardrobe. I'm thinking of setting a goal of five things max. I don't know if I'm actually going to use up those five slots, but I can imagine that I might need to replace some sneakers. Or also, there are a few events that if something like that was to happen, that I don't really have something appropriate to wear. So this is kind of morbid, but for example if I had a funeral, I recently realized that I wouldn't really have anything appropriate to wear to a funeral. So let's say something happens and I don't have something appropriate to wear, I want to have the flexibility and the option to maybe get something. But other than that, no shopping for my wardrobe. I have enough clothes, I'm content with it enough. It's so easy. Also accessories, bags, shoes, jackets, jewelry. I have a few options that I like and I haven't bought any new ones. I haven't looked at any new ones. I don't really know what is out there, what is trendy. It saves me so much energy and time. Number three is fancy home organizers, decanting stuff, refill stations, and things like that. Aesthetic storage containers, matching bins, or things to decant stuff into. There is so much that you can buy in the home organization category. If you go online and look up like Amazon must-haves, none of these products really are must-haves in my opinion. Sometimes it can be nice, I do have some really durable glass jars that I store things in, like pasta, rice, flour, things that are just kind of sometimes annoying to have to store in the packaging that they come into if you really want to have it like airtight and sealed. I do have some glass jars, but I've had those for like 10 years. I will keep them probably forever. And I haven't bought anything in this category for many many years. I feel like with the home organization, it is yet another way to entice people to buy stuff and to sell them a solution for a problem that they really don't have maybe. And you can just basically use whatever you already have in the home. So for example, if you buy milk, or soy milk in my case, you don't need one of those plastic things to decant the milk into. It just doesn't make sense. The milk comes in packaging already, it just doesn't make sense to me. And also there is the risk of you maybe switching out certain products and then not being able to use the decanting container anymore. So for example, maybe you now use liquid detergent and then people buy one of those things that you can decant the liquid detergent into, even though it already comes in packaging. But they do it and then maybe there's like a little nozzle or some kind of like handy solution. What if you then switch over from liquid detergent to a powder or to sheets? And now you can't use your decanting stuff anymore. So there's also a risk of products becoming obsolete. I do want to say that when it comes to accessibility, I understand that sometimes these products can be super handy. If maybe you have mobility issues or hand dexterity issues, that they can really make your life a lot easier. And in that case, absolutely do it. So I'm not saying that these products are always bad, I'm just saying that most of us probably already have what we need. And the products that we buy typically come in a container already. So fancy home organization stuff, it looks good online but we really don't need it. And I don't think that it actually makes life simpler or easier. Number four of the so-called must-have products that I typically don't buy is luxury skincare items. But this also goes for beauty, makeup, skincare, hair care, all of that stuff. I think when it comes to luxury products, luxury skincare items for example, most of it is just branding and packaging and the luxurious feel. But when you really look at the ingredients, I really don't think that we need to purchase really expensive products for our skin, our hair, our beauty routine in general, in order to feel and look put together. I used to love to buy makeup, skincare, all of that stuff. I tried out so many different products, and as soon as I kind of started the rule for me that I want to use things up before I buy more, that is where my consumption of this category really grinded ground to a halt. Because it takes forever to use up these kinds of products. Especially makeup takes a long time to really use up. And nowadays I'm also just not wearing makeup at least a few days a week, so it really takes me a long time to use up what I already have. And that really makes you see that we are buying much more of that stuff than we can reasonably use. I now have a super simple skincare routine, really simple makeup routine, very simple hair care routine, and I don't feel like it has decreased how I look or how my skin feels or anything like that. In fact, I think it has improved it. Because as a content creator online, sometimes I did get sent these like more luxurious skincare products from brands that have this like minimalist marketing, or they have like a vegan cruelty free clean beauty marketing, or something like that. And they wanted to send me some products, and I wanted to try them. But I never followed through on working with that brand, because every time I put more stuff on my face than just an SPF and a moisturizer, which is what I do now, I actually use a product that is an SPF and a moisturizer. So my whole morning routine is one product. Every time I increased the number of products that I used on my skin, I also noticed that my skin felt drier, more irritated. I also then felt like I needed really moisturizing things, because otherwise my skin was super dry. And now that I don't use those products, my skin also doesn't have those issues. I realize that it's very personal. Of course we all have different skin needs, and we all have different makeup preferences, and it's nice sometimes to be able to experiment or have some variety with things like that. But my life has really improved once I just kind of stopped buying any of the products in this category. The things I have I like, I use them up, and when they are used up I purchase a new one, and I don't look at any other products or any other brands. And it has made my life very simple, and it has helped me save a lot, a lot of money. And it also has made me feel so much more secure and confident in my own skin. And now that we're about halfway, I quickly want to tell you about the sponsor for today's video, which is Skillshare. Because for me, having a bunch of different hobbies and things that I really enjoy doing, has been very helpful in shifting the focus away from shopping and consuming and buying new things, just to get that quick dopamine hit. And Skillshare has been my favorite place for that for years now. Skillshare is an online learning platform where you can learn new skills, explore creative hobbies, or finally try something that you've been curious about, all at your own pace. I have taken so many of their classes, and I've learned so many skills from their amazing teachers for my work. Things like videography, copywriting, digital design, making thumbnails. But also for fun, I have learned how to make digital art and illustrations. I have taken classes on mindfulness and meditation, plant care, playing the guitar, or relaxing doodling and zentangle classes. Maybe for you, you would finally like to try knitting or sewing, art or painting, restoring furniture, or singing or playing an instrument. Skillshare has thousands of classes for beginners all the way to advanced, so you will always find something that you're interested in. Maybe with the autumn season coming up, you are looking for a nice cozy hobby. In which case, you might try looking at Tony Lipson's class called modern crochet, essential skills for getting started. This looks so much fun, and I think I might try this the coming fall. She teaches you all the basics, and at the end you will have made these super cute crocheted coasters. I just love Skillshare because it makes learning stuff so easy and fun and accessible. And you are learning from real people who are industry experts at what they do, from the comfort of your own home. And simply just supporting real people learning real skills in the age of AI feels incredibly important to me. And you can try them out for free, because the first 500 people to click my link in the description box can get a one month free trial of Skillshare. So you can try as many classes as you want. If it's not for you, then you can always cancel within your trial and you won't be charged. But I'm pretty sure that you will love it as much as I do. Big thanks to Skillshare for supporting the channel as always, and let's get back to the video. The next one is luxury or expensive or the latest tech items. This is truly a major life hack in my opinion, because it is always so much more expensive to buy the latest version and the thing that currently is trendy. Where really 9 out of 10 times, or I would like to say 99 out of 100 times, we don't need it. And when it comes to tech, they're always trying to think of the next thing. So that they can have something new to sell us, when really the old thing was perfectly fine. So for a while smartphones were getting smaller, and it was like cool to have a really small one. And now they're getting bigger, and it's like cool to have the bigger ones. And then they invent a smartphone that can fold up. Like why? No one needs a smartphone that can fold up. It is just a simple trick to have a new product to sell to us. Or they take something that works perfectly fine as it is, and they make it smart. So then it is better? Usually no. For example, with these smart fridges, they have like a fridge and it can do anything. There's a huge ipad on the screen, it can tell you the weather, it can you know give you recipes, it can tell you how many things of a certain product you have in your fridge. But what it apparently cannot do, is refrigerate your food. Because so many people who have bought a smart fridge are complaining that it doesn't actually keep their food cold very well. So it's like a fridge is just a fridge, it is supposed to keep your food cold. So why change out something that already works perfectly fine, for something else that then also needs upgrades, updates, and will become obsolete super super quick. So when it comes to tech, for a few years now I kind of have two rules for myself. And the first is trying to just use what I have, for as long as it still works with planned obsolescence being a thing. Unfortunately your phone just needs to be replaced, in my experience, after about five years. You do want to get the updates and have everything be secure, and you don't want a phone that is so slow that you can't work on it. But at least I try to stretch it for the five years. And also with tvs and laptops and everything else, I just try to use it for as long as possible. And the second reason is just that I won't buy the latest version. If you buy one or two versions older, you will still get updates for quite a while. It'll be perfectly fine, and it'll save you a lot of money. Or you could obviously also buy things secondhand or refurbished to save a lot of money there. Unless I actually feel like I need a tech item to do a certain thing that my current tech items cannot do, I will look at what else is out there. But me personally, I have almost never actually had that experience in real life. It is usually just the tech companies coming up with something newer or better that really isn't much better. It's just a way to sell us the latest and greatest. The next one is specialized self-care gadgets. Things like face rollers, led masks, heated eye masks, all kinds of like anti-aging laser facial stuff. Of course here again, and that goes for all the categories. If you have some items in this category that you enjoy, that is absolutely fine. I personally choose to kind of stay away from it, because I feel like self-care doesn't have anything to do with buying stuff, and much more to do with actually how we take care of ourselves. Commercialized self-care is a really big thing, and we are constantly being told that in order to take good care of ourselves, we need to buy certain products, or buy certain candles, or buy a little thingy that can go over our bathtub, and then buy all the things that come onto the thingy. And there are so many different products that are selling the idea of taking care of yourself, when really taking care of yourself can be completely free. And especially with the anti-aging stuff, that is kind of just a hard no for me. I don't want to be made to feel that aging is something bad that I need to fear. I want to feel happy and grateful and confident in myself as I age, and I don't think that trying to fight off the wrinkles or whatever is going to help me to do that. I have a whole video about why I'm choosing to say no to botox and fillers and things like that, and how I try to approach aging instead. If anyone is interested, I will leave that down below. If you sometimes want to buy yourself something nice in the self-care category, and you use it, and you love it, and it gives you some me time, then that is absolutely fine. But true self care doesn't need products. It is just about the way that we choose to take care of ourselves. The next one is beauty, or any kind of subscription boxes, or blind boxes. Basically any kind of thing that you buy where you you're not exactly sure what's in it, and you don't really have control over what's in it. This is one of those consumption trends that is really starting to grow a lot recently, that I kind of wish we could just leave in 2026 and not bring with us into 2027. Although that is probably not going to happen. We already get targeted with ads for products enough to then also feel like we need to buy things where we don't even know what's in there. And I do think that it is possible to buy yourself something every now and then, and have that be intentional and mindful, and actually add value for your life. But if you don't even really know what's in there, that makes it a lot harder. I know there are some subscription services where you do have control over what's in there. For example, I think there's a book subscription thing where you can choose the book that is included in the box, and then also you can pause it if there's no book that month that you're interested in. And those things I think are fine, because then we get to be intentional and mindful about it. But when you just get sent stuff, let's say it's beauty products, I do feel like at least 50% of the products are probably not things that you would have bought if you could just have bought that thing. Sometimes it might not fit with your skin tone, it might not fit with your skin type, or it might just not be something that you're interested in. If a box like that for me included lip gloss, I'm never gonna use it. I'm not a lip gloss person. So then we need to re-home it, or find someone else that wants it, or sell it back or something. With landfills already filling up with tons of stuff anyway, I just don't feel like these kinds of products and services are a solution for that. Next thing are tracking watches, rings, or any kind of smart wearable, or any kind of specialized workout equipment, or gear, or workout clothing. Having exactly the right workout outfit for every kind of activity. I actually think that just wearing the outfits that I've already had for years, and that still fits, and that still feel comfortable, works fine no matter what kind of activity I'm doing. And with workout equipment of course there can be some that you will use a lot, and in that case that's fine. For me it's my yoga mat, and I have a couple weights, I use all of those. That's great. But really, in order to live a healthy life that involves exercise, I don't think that we need highly specialized workout stuff or tracking stuff. It is possible to enjoy going on a run just wearing your normal workout clothes and not tracking it. I know that many people love that, and it is helpful for them, in which case fine. But it is also possible to not do that, and to just go for a walk, or go for a run, or do a simple workout at home not knowing exactly all the details. I don't think that these kinds of products are truly necessary for a high quality life, one in which we feel connected to ourselves and to our body. Because having access to all of that data just has the potential to really confuse us and make us feel worried about stuff, or feel like we need to compete, or that we're not doing enough if we didn't meet our 10 000 steps today. And it just adds this layer of pressure when, you know, we're already under quite a lot of pressure. So for me this doesn't really add anything. And if you have a comfortable legging, and like any old t-shirt that you like working out in, I think that's perfectly fine. And just like with the self-care industry, I feel like with the fitness and wellness and health industry as well, they are trying to sell us all of these products in order to make us feel like we are doing something about it, and that we are living a healthier life for example, because we bought the things. When really some of these things might be useful sometimes, but they are not necessary to actually work out, or to actually take care of yourself. It's more so that they are selling you the idea, but we then still need to do the habits and the activities. And we can do those just fine without all these products. The next one is a giant supplement collection, or things like electrolyte powders, juice powders, hydration powders. I cannot tell you how many sponsorship offers I get for products like this. And I always turn them down because I want to, first of all, I don't think that they are going to be right for everyone, and I don't know your personal situation. I cannot recommend a health product to you because I don't know you, and also I'm not a health care professional, so I don't even know. So it feels weird for me to make money off the health of my viewers if I don't know that these products will be helpful for them. But also, you know, I do have a background as a dietician. I do also know that most of these products are not necessary at all. In most cases, we can get plenty of electrolytes, plenty of hydration, plenty of vitamins and minerals from our own nutrition. And if you enjoy that, I personally also take a multivitamin. So I'm not saying like you shouldn't do any of these products, but like nine out of the ten ones that are being sponsored now everywhere, you see all of these juice powders or things like that, are usually not necessary. I've also gotten many emails from like detox tea companies, or calm tea, or other kinds of tea with like superfoods in there that have all these outrageous health claims that I don't think they're really allowed to make. So just be careful when it comes to things like this. If you do feel like you need it, then you do your own research, or maybe consult your doctor. But I do think that nine out of ten times, again, it's kind of just marketing. And lastly is specialized kitchen gadgets or appliances. And this is one of those categories where you can really see the must-have videos coming into play. Because there are so many things that we apparently must have in our kitchen, that we really don't need. Especially the highly specialized ones that can do one specific thing. If you like for example want waffles every Sunday, then yes it would make sense to get a waffle maker. But nine out of ten times, we can basically make all the, or almost all of the recipes that we are interested in to try with just the equipment that we already have. I personally really don't have that many kitchen appliances, but I rarely come across a recipe that I actually cannot make. Sometimes I might have to, you know, do a little weird workaround by using what I already have, but typically it works. And so I only think that these things truly add something for our lives. If they actually get used a lot, or if they actually make a certain kitchen task a lot easier for us, that is something that we do frequently. Otherwise it's probably just going to end up really cluttering up your kitchen. And as someone who does like cooking and experimenting with new recipes, I do think that, you know, using high quality knives, a cutting board, a couple of pans, a blender, and maybe like a food processor or something, probably will get you like 90% of the way. Sometimes I really feel like companies are just making up stuff just to see if people will buy it. As long as they have the right marketing for it, you can make basically anything sound like it can be super handy or like a must-have. But in the end, I think the number one thing that we need to keep in mind is, it usually makes sense to buy something if you have thought of a certain problem or issue or something that you experience in your life where you really feel like, I could really use something for this specific thing. Because this is actually something that I come across often, and I would like a solution or I would like a better option or something like that, and then go looking. Instead of being influenced by all the things that we get told that we need, that I really think 90% of the times we don't. Thank you so much for being here, I really appreciate it. And a quick reminder that there are only two more days left in my sale. So because this channel turned nine years old this month, I am doing an anniversary sale on my decluttering ebook, my simplify your life online course and my 30-day slow living program. They are all 20% off and the sale will last until August 31st. So that is two more days where you can get them with 20% off. The links to these products are in the description box and you can use the discount code SUMMER2026 at checkout to get 20% off. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know. But if you are interested in them, I recommend checking them out soon so that you can still take advantage of the sale. Also don't forget to check out Skillshare and get your one month free trial. Link in the description box. As always, questions, comments, conversations down below. Have a wonderful day and I will see you all again really soon. Bye bye. So I just realized, but I think that oftentimes when I film a kind of like things I don't buy video, I'm wearing this same blue blouse in all of those videos. Which is completely unintentional, but I don't know, might be a subconscious thing.