I am often embarrassed that I am a willing participate in the insatiable American Consumerism. In theory I'm against it but in practice I'm just as bad as the other guy. "Pleather boots made in Thailand?... Goody!" Anyhow, I've been toying with an idea for a long time and decided with the move that I would finally put it into play. For the next year, neither I nor my family will buy anything new - except food/toiletries/medicine. That is including but not limited to clothing, housewares, books, art, furniture, and hopefully even stuff like paint/building materials. We'll reuse what we've got, find it at a thrift store, or search the local salvage yards. Today was the first day and we went to our local thrift store and got ourselves some books and clothes. It was actually really exciting too.
Now, you could argue that we are still consuming, and you'd be right, but when we buy used goods we aren't requiring the system to produce - we are recycling what would have otherwise ended up in a land fill. And I'm not going to just stop buying and wait a year to get the things I want so that we go on some crazy spending spree in 366 days. I'm going to get creative, dig deep, and work hard to make it work.
Which will be hard because our house needs a lot of things done to it. It needs flooring - but I've heard of people putting in old wood floors from gyms. It needs paint, art, furniture, etc. And when we do find things and make it work I'll let you know how. Anyhow.... I'm soo excited!
10 comments:
You always amaze me with your wonderful ideas to make the world a better place. Maybe I can be like you when I grow up.
Oh, well there you go. You mentioned house paint.
I'm very excited to see you do this. Dave read your facebook post, walked around our house and said "hey, we are almost there."
Awesome idea! I have some paint that I have not used to donate to your cause if you are interested. Also you should sign up for freecycle.org
I'd LOVE to get some paint, guys! Bring it on over!
Good luck. We do a lot of thrifting. Sometimes it ends up great and sometimes it ends up badly. We also just do without more than not.
Megan i just love you! Awesome family photo shoots lately- I love Alison and Weston's pics! Love your latest modern verse and year long goal. Did you get the etsy order/payment that we put in for the kids art photo collage? I know you're in the midst of crazy moving, so no rush. But it's my first etsy order so I wasn't entirely sure it was done perfectly.
You are such an inspiration. I can't wait to hear about the journey!
I admire you for not putting it off by saying 'Well, we need new stuff for the house, so I'll start AFTER we get all that done.' Or even after christmas. Way to be strong!
wow! what an amazing idea! you are seriously inspirational. i wonder if i could do it...?
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