New Years Resolution: Buy Less Stuff
Image courtesy of Daniel Eledut from Unsplash.
About this time last year I bought Marie Kondo’s book The Life Saving Magic of Tidying Up and just a few months ago read another book by Cait Flanders called The Year of Less. Both were great books about getting rid of all our extra stuff, but with very different approaches. The KonMari method coined by Marie Kondo can be summarized by the often quoted phrase “does it bring me joy?” If not, the item goes. I confess I tried this last January and did a pretty good job ridding my house of several boxes of unnecessary items. My garage sale was mildly successful, but much of it ended up at the Goodwill where hopefully it found another home. I ultimately failed at the method though because there is still plenty of stuff that I like, but doesn’t spark joy residing in my home. Instead of one big purge of all joyless items like the KonMari method, Cait Flanders chose to continually get rid of everything that no longer had a use and tracked it over the course of a year. Going one step further, she also stopped buying things for one full year. Instead of buying on impulse or buying items she thought would be good, she only bought what was absolutely necessary and on her list of pre-approved spending when she started her year of less.
My method of decluttering has fallen somewhere between the two. I would not say that I hoard things, but I do have issues getting rid of things that are perfectly usable and someday might find a purpose. A prime example was the rest of the scrapbook paper leftover from making my wedding programs nearly 8 years ago that I just recently used to make a scrapbook for my grandmother. I have a much easier time donating items that are decoration only and do not have a potential use like a picture frame.
My attempt to buy less stuff did not start out on a sustainable path, but one to ease the burden when we inevitably moved again. I was getting tired of hauling box after box of photo albums, books, and other junk across the country. So the photos were scanned and recycled and I rediscovered the library. I slowly moved towards a more sustainable path by shopping at local second hand stores and antique shops. Instead of buying a waffle maker on Amazon I searched for an old cast iron waffle maker and found one at the antique shop down the street. In lieu of going to Target for some new sweaters I went down to Scout Dry Goods to get a few second hand sweaters. While this was more sustainable it still filled up my house with more stuff that I have to get rid of someday when it gets crowded out by all the new, albeit second hand, purchases.
So with the new year upon us I reflected on my habits and my new goal of zero waste. Starting fresh in 2020 I plan to be more like Cait Flanders and stop buying new items that can’t be considered a necessity. This is a little easier since we just made it through Christmas, but will take some retraining of my habits to avoid getting on Amazon and ordering whatever it is that seems necessary at the time. For Cait it helped her save money, but for me it will help me save the environment.
