The Story of Electronics

Buyology.

I'm currently listening to the audiobook version of Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy is Wrong. As well as borrowing more books from the library, I'm also testing out using audiobooks instead of paper books. The plan is that this will not only reduce the stuff in my house, but also give some relief to my hands and wrists which struggle quite a lot with holding a book these days.

The books is described on audible, where I bought it from, as follows:

Why did so many people who took the 'Pepsi challenge' say they preferred Pepsi only to carry on buying Coca-Cola? Why do the majority of anti-smoking campaigns inadvertently encourage people to smoke? Why does the scent of melons help sell electronic products?

If you're bewildered by these questions, then Buy-ology will make everything clear.

Written by one of the world's top branding gurus, and drawing on state-of-the-art research, it shows why we don't always buy things for the reasons we think we do.

I wondered if it would help me to understand why I sometimes fall for advertising of stuff I don't want or need, and how I can learn to resist that, but I'm not sure it will. I'm only half an hour into it, and it's very interesting, but it's so far predominantly about the neurology of desire and the neurological response to marketing, than anything I can actually apply in my life.

The reviews on audible and amazon aren't great, but I'll stick with it a bit longer and see what I think.

David Mitchell on Climate Change

Selling Stuff on Ebay - Nearly at Deadline!

So, later today some of the ebay items I've been listing, will end. With several bids on this first lot, it's looking promising but there are bound to be bits that don't sell.

However, it will be a good way to get rid of some things. Anything that doesn't sell will be re-listed once, and if it doesn't sell a second time then it will be charity shopped, or freegled.

Being Given Away Tomorrow

is a large bag and its contents, which is clothes, a sandwich toaster (if I can remember which charity shops accept electricals and which don't!), a couple of books and some craft things.

One thing that's helping a lot is that I'm getting tonnes of inspiration from other blgos. Look over there ----> ----> in the right sidebar, and you will see recent posts from awesome bloggers on minimalism, money-saving, tidying, decluttering, organising and all the stuff I need to know about! They range in perspective from professional organisers, to people who make crafty things with material that would otherwise have been thrown away, to environmental activists, to debt-advice counsellors, to people who are earning a living just by blogging about how to learn a living just by blogging (you get the picture). So, if you're ever in need of inspiration and my own words aren't quite doing the trick, follow some of those ----> links and I hope you enjoy what they way!

I will try to remember to take a snap of the bag that is ready to go, before it gets donated. I haven't decided which charity they will go to, because that will depend on which part of town I end up going to. The last lot went to the Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice shop.

The Story of Bottled Water

Donation complete.

Yesterday's big bag o' stuff is safely in the charity shop. The danger, of course, of donating to a charity shop is that you have to go into the charity shop, which is full of bargainous, tasty temptations for you to buy.

Thankfully today there was a member of staff near the door so I walked in, handed the big bag o' stuff to her, turned round and walked out again. I must admit there was a pause before I turned round, during which I contemplated having a quick look around, but I was stern with myself and got outta there.

So that's good.

Big bag o' stuff

Going to the charity shop tomorrow is a bag of 4 tops, 3 hooded tops, a pair of gloves, 4 packs of pencils, a pack of pretty pens, a new pair of tights, a new pair of fluffy socks, an elbow support bandage, a hello kitty keyring, a head band, a hair brush and some unused bath gels.

Phew!

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Ebay Free Listing

It's not quite giving stuff away, but ebay in the UK has a free listing weekend this weekend, so I have been listing various items to sell.

My usual rule with ebay is that if I list something twice and it doesn't sell, then it goes to the charity shop who can usually make better use of it. That's often the things that someone would pay for, but it's heavy so the postage doesn't make it worth buying online.

So if you are trying to downsize too, you have the rest of today and tomorrow to list for free!

Blog posts I have enjoyed reading this week

Try Brainwashing, It Works, from Becoming Minimalist.

Six Items Or Less Experiment - way more than I'd even dream of attempting, but an impressive goal!

Second Take on VHS Tape from replayground, creative things to do with old video tapes!