Don't mind me - just shopping my stuff.
no-buy year | week 1
This post is part of my no-buy series for 2024. If you’d like to learn more about this experiment, check out my introductory post to get started. Thanks for reading!
On December 30th, I took my last trip to Goodwill for the year. I snagged a gorgeous turtleneck sweater, a vintage sweater vest à la Kathleen Kelly, a silk tank top, and another Fredrik Backman novel.
I’ll admit my final trip to the thrift store was more to enjoy one last hit of dopamine before cold-turkeying my spending for 2024, but those purchases had been on my list for a long time, so I know they’ll be used with regularity. I might not be a minimalist in the traditional sense, but I rarely buy something without a specific reason.
William Morris said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” That’s much more my vibe than the images you’d find on #minimalism. There are no white walls in this house, books and cross-stitches are our go-to decor, and we’ve got more blankets than we know what to do with, but I have always been a minimalist at heart.
As the home manager and the resident neat freak, I’m pretty good about keeping our spaces tidy, organized, and free of clutter. (As much as is possible with three other people in the house who are unbothered by mess.) But we are a family of four with two indoor animals; stuff piles up. In response, I’ve prepped for a year without personal purchases by donating things we cleaned out this fall, sending off a big bag of clothes to ThredUp, and thoughtfully snagging a few last-minute items I know will help me stay in line.
For example:
I was without a reusable iced coffee cup to fit in my car’s cupholders, so I thrifted a pretty turquoise one that’s both useful and beautiful. (Morris would love me.) I also bought some quality iced coffee, syrups, and vegan cream to make my own at home.
I selected the silk tank top I mentioned because it will fill in the gaps in my spring/summer wardrobe. The next step is to create a capsule wardrobe for every season to keep things fresh, and since I own a relatively slim number of pieces anyway and have spent the last few years cultivating clothes that suit my body type and color palette, I don’t think that will be too hard.
I went through our cookbooks—some of them recent secondhand purchases, some of them gifts—and made a list of meals I want to try at home.
From here on out, my motto for a successful no-buy year is simple:
Shop my stuff.
Nothing to wear? Consult the capsule wardrobe.
Out of body lotion? Look in the travel toiletries.
Want to read something new? HOW ABOUT THOSE 234 BOOKS IN YOUR OFFICE?
The truth is I have more than I will ever need and most of what I want. I’m an upwardly mobile middle-class white woman in America. I’ve got shitloads of privilege. And therein lies the rub: Not only is there nothing I need to purchase this year, it wouldn’t surprise me to discover that plenty of what I already own is unnecessary.
It’s fine that there are purely aesthetic pieces in our home. It’s good to appreciate beauty for beauty’s sake. My mindset, which I stated in the introductory post, is less about pursuing “perfection” and more about paying attention. Asking why I want that, what it’s for, what emotion it’s satisfying/hiding/repressing…these are the questions to consider beyond mere delight in material goods.
How can I make good use of what I own? How can my creative muscles be stretched by thinking of my home as a space to savor instead of a house to fill? What is there for me to discover here that I’ve overlooked all this time?
I don’t know yet, but I’m excited to find out.
In the meantime, I’ll start reading Beartown.
YAY! Best of luck! When I didn't have a job, I got pretty good at shopping my stuff, especially for craft supplies 😁