Once the last child leaves the family home, parents tend to experience a sense of emptiness and a certain amount of nostalgia called “empty nest syndrome”. What now?

Downsizing might be on the horizon, but before you trade your four-bedroom for something cozier, there’s one big question: what do you do with all their stuff? Who gets to decide?

“Going shopping” has turned from a necessity to replace worn out clothes into a fully-fledged leisure activity. In itself, this is not a bad thing: in our free time we like to do things we enjoy and if this is what you enjoy, why not? However, shopping can be a slippery slope when it becomes more than a necessity or a pastime you share with friends.

More and more people go shopping for more problematic reasons, and it can easily turn into retail therapy, i.e., shopping to make oneself feel more cheerful or to distract from sometimes serious problems. Then it’s no longer all about finding that special thing, but running away from issues in real life that need dealing with.