A plea to brands from an overwhelmed customer: Keep it simple to keep me calm

After the New Year, we recover from too much food and drink. We’re told to detox and rehydrate. I’ve always described myself as a maximalist, a proponent of more is more. But this year, my holiday shopping left me with a new kind of head and body ache—it urged me to move toward something simpler, to do less, covet less, acquire less, view less. This year, my hangover is from too much store overstimulation—it’s from thing-itus. It’s from that problem of too many.