MAYBE IT’S THE HEAT, but the summer season does strange things to people. It’s the time of year our reason gives way to our impulses. It’s also the season when we get most of our important impulsive shopping done. The stuff we buy in the summer may not be frugal, but it can be an awful lot of fun. Few things could be more enjoyable, for instance, than swatting flies with a racquet-shaped Bug Zapper ($15), available at Restoration Hardware, which also stocks a Bug Gun ($6.95) — a pistol that shoots a little disk-shaped splatterer. For traditionalists, Monroe Salt Works stocks plain old plastic fly swatters ($5.50), which offer a workout of sorts while we satisfy our bug lust.

See, we need these things. We need the Junk Bags ($24) at Jasmine — funky, pocketbook-size, plastic-coated pouches to keep our phones and ciggies safe when we go for a dip. We certainly need Red Sox beach towels ($30) from the Lansdowne Shop, particularly if we have plans to visit Long Island this year. And while we may not exactly need to spend $237 on a folding plastic chair, the powder-blue, Italian-design Kartell chairs at Bliss will guarantee that we can sit around sizzling in style. Cheaper plasticware can be found at Sugar Heaven, which stocks primary-colored buckets and spades ($4.25). Sugar Heaven also has store-made cotton candy ($3). We need that.

No one can doubt the practicality of Brookstone’s chrome-finish mini fans ($25) and cooling (dip ’em in ice water) Hydro Headbands ($12.50). Nor can one quibble with the Nickel liquid sunscreen ($28) at Fresh Eggs. But Fresh Eggs also stocks must-have items that favor style at least as much as usefulness — like the citrus-colored Japanese rice-paper napkins ($5/20). Then there’re Posh’s swizzle sticks ($15/six), whose drink-stirring utility is eclipsed by the glass fruit — lime, grape, strawberry, and such — that adorns the ends.

Some of the stuff we buy in the summertime is so impractical it borders on the absurd — and that’s the point. At Map, you can get flip-flops ($15) bearing photos of Hawaii that are obscured as soon as you put them on. Aunt Sadie’s General Store has traditional copper watering cans ($47) that are very practical, but also black vinyl watering-can-shaped bags ($18), which are not. Williams-Sonoma stocks sensible digital-thermometer forks ($24), but its online store offers monogrammed steak brands ($34.95), presumably so people will know who they’re not being poisoned by.

But that’s summer. It’s about buying things we could do without. Beach balls and cocktail shakers. Lobster-claw baseball caps. Florid shorts. Garish shades. Floaty things. Sexy things. Things we look at the next day and say, "I didn’t." But we did. We succumbed to our urges — which is a good thing. Even so, there are some items that do not lend themselves to impulse buying. Like the four-bedroom house in Chatham, for sale at irealestatecapecod.com. It’s a nice house, with a great view, but splashing out $4,950,000 might require a little forethought.

Where to find it:

• Aunt Sadie’s General Store, 18 Union Park Street, Boston, (617) 357-7117.

• Bliss, 121 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 421-5544.

• Brookstone, various locations; www.brookstone.com.

• Fresh Eggs, 58 Clarendon Street, Boston, (617) 247-8150.

• irealestatecapecod.com.

• Jasmine, 329 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 437-8465.

• Lansdowne Shop, 70 Brookline Avenue, Boston, (617) 267-9161.

• Map, 623 Tremont Street, Boston, (617) 247-6230.

• Monroe Salt Works, Copley Place Mall, Boston, (617) 236-0045.

• Posh, 557 Tremont Street, Boston, (617) 437-1970.

• Restoration Hardware, 711 Boylston Street, Boston, (617) 578-0088.

• Sugar Heaven, 218 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 266-6969.

• Williams-Sonoma, various locations; www.williams-sonoma.com.