Playbook
One room at a time
A new sofa makes the rug look wrong, then the room looks wrong, then the hallway does. Contain it. Fix one room for a stated purpose and a set budget, then stop for a season before you touch the next.
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Everything we have published, newest first.
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Effect
Pain of paying
Feeling a small sting when money leaves your hands, a sting that fades when paying feels less real.
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Effect
Paradox of choice
Too many options can make choosing harder and less satisfying, so people delay, give up or grab a bundle.
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Wardrobe
Project 333
Wear 33 items for three months and put everything else away. A short, strict experiment that shows how little of a full closet you really use, and what the rest was doing there.
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Effect
Projection bias
Buying for how you feel right now, assuming the hunger, cold or excitement will still be there later.
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Effect
Reciprocity
Feeling you owe something back after a gift or favor, and repaying it by buying from the giver.
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Effect
Retail therapy
Buying treats for yourself to lift a low mood, often more than you planned to buy.
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Effect
Scarcity effect
Valuing something more because it seems rare, about to run out or hard to get.
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Effect
Set completion
Feeling pushed to fill the gaps in a set, even when the set is arbitrary and you know it.
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Effect
Status quo bias
Sticking with the current or preset option, even when a different choice would serve you better.
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Effect
Sunk cost fallacy
Continuing to spend time or money on something because of what it already cost, not what it will deliver.
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Effect
Symbolic self-completion
Reaching for gear, clothes and symbols of an identity you care about when you feel you have not earned it.
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Playbook
The 30-day rule
Write it down, wait a month, then decide. A waiting rule that takes the heat out of a purchase without taking the pleasure out of buying.
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Wardrobe
The capsule wardrobe
A small set of clothes in which almost everything works with almost everything else, built mostly from what is already in your closet. The point is to buy less, not to buy a new set.
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Wardrobe
The classic white shirt
One good white shirt goes with nearly everything you own. How to judge the fabric, cut and fit before you pay, how to make it last, and how to keep one better shirt from starting a chain.
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Playbook
The complete-the-look trap
You came for a jacket and the page offers the trousers, the shoes and the bag it was photographed with. Here is how those suggestions are put together, why they work so well, and a short routine for leaving with only what you meant to buy.
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The Effect
The Diderot effect in economics: ratchets, work and spend, and why upgrades compound
Economics usually treats each purchase as a separate choice. The Diderot effect says purchases come in linked sets, and that each set raises the standard for the next. Here is what that does to a budget.
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The Effect
The Diderot effect, explained
One new thing makes everything around it look shabby, so you buy more. Where the idea comes from, why it works on nearly everyone, and how to stop it.
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Wardrobe
The five-piece French wardrobe
Keep a core of basics you wear constantly, and allow yourself five considered additions each season. It is a buying rule more than a wardrobe size, and a good one.
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Playbook
The no-buy year
Twelve months of buying only what you use up or wear out, with every rule written before day one. How to set it up so it lasts past February, and what to do on the day you break it.