Reviews & Articles

Shedding light on the most durable (and shoddy) products. Read our independent reviews, advice on living a calmer, less wasteful life, plus the latest news about our mission to end throwaway culture.

How to Stop Impulse Buying: The Ultimate Guide

Hi, my name’s Tara and I’m an impulse buyer! But over the last couple of years, I’ve managed to get my spending under control (even in stationery stores!) by teaching myself how to stop impulse buying.

Do you ever look around your house and wonder “how did all this stuff get here?” or get to the end of the month and wonder where all the money went?

If this rings true to you, you may have an imp infestation!

Yes – imps are those tricksy little creatures that get you impulse buying. But first you need to identify what type of imps you have. We’re going on an imp hunt.

6 August 2024

How buying once can shrink your carbon footprint

Everything we buy has a carbon cost, but we’re buying and discarding stuff more rapidly than ever. This is a behaviour we can change. We want to make the case for taking on a ‘buy-once’ mentality - i.e. choosing long-lasting things that don’t ever need replacing - as a way to significantly shrink your carbon footprint.

6 June 2022

Buying once: the greenwashing antidote

In today’s market, sustainability sells. In just the past few years, we’ve seen an eco-conscious mindset move from niche to norm - and companies are shapeshifting their branding in order to offer consumers a so-called guilt-free purchase. But how do we know when a product is actually doing good?

13 January 2022

The art of buying once, and why it’s important

“They don’t make ’em like they used to”. This old adage has been in use for decades now, but today it rings truer than ever. Read our article all about why we're stuck in a cycle of throwaway stuff, and how we think Buy Me Once can make a change.

18 June 2021

Marie Kondo will not save us

Decluttering is just one step in curing our sick relationship with stuff, and it may be the easiest step to tackle. What the Marie Kondo method doesn’t address is the reason our homes became cluttered. Here's what you can do to tackle this issue.

25 January 2019

Declutter your life, forever: the miracle of mindful curation

Wouldn’t it be lovely if there was a pill we could take which decluttered our homes, got us out of debt and saved the planet at the same time? That would be a nice few things off our to-do list.

Well my new technique of mindful curation doesn’t come in capsule form yet. The full philosophy is laid out in my book, A Life less Throwaway, but I wanted to put the techniques in a nutshell for the BuyMeOnce community.

5 July 2018

9 Ways to Protect Kids from Consumerism and Why It's Important

We are programmed to want social acceptance. It’s not that we simply want to be accepted but that we feel we need to be accepted. In ancient times, if you were rejected by your tribe, you starved or died. No wonder this is a powerful driver for us. In our current consumerist society, and especially as young people, social acceptance and material things have become intimately linked.

8 June 2018