It was another Sunday afternoon and I found myself bidding on designer clothes on eBay (again), this time trying to snag a Moncler down puffer coat for under $100, a deal to good to be true (and it was).
An impulse that could have only come from the stupid optimism for the new year and the compulsion to set unrealistic goals brought me to think of an unpleasant, somewhat unnecessary yet surprisingly exciting “challenge” style project: to only buy vintage clothes and shos this year. Can it be done? Am I going to hate life from now on? Is this worth the pain in the butt?
The purpose:
- To lower my carbon footprint
- To decrease the amount of time I spend shopping online
- To really like and appreciate the things I have as something special and unique
Since having a baby, I didn’t necessarily give up on conscious consumerism and ethical fashion, BUT I have received a lot of baby and toddler clothes from friends and family and I have been living the curse of an unnecessarily full and diverse closet, which is making me feel like I have “too much”… Then, with respect to my own closet, I have been adding things, yet I feel like I never have anything to wear. Welcome to first world problems.
Then I thought I could extend this to everything, not just clothes and shoes…
A few days have gone by since I began to write this post and this just started to sound like a great idea. Disclaimer: I have not been drinking or doing drugs.
Before setting this goal in stone, we need more stipulations:
- Underwear and socks are not included
- Face masks are not included
- Personal care products are not included
- Emergencies like Halloween warrant buying something new
- Household products like glassware and silverware are not included
- Gifts for family and friends are not included
- Art, furniture and home decor are not included
- An occasional trip to a local retail store is still ok, but the goal shouldn’t be buying things but to relax and listen to a podcast (I hope I’m not the only one who does that)
- Arts and crafts supploes are not included
Now, I think this is going to be difficult of I am set om something specific, like a pair of red pants or a green shirt… But that doesn’t happen that often!
The other side rule of this challenge is one that I applied in limited ways last year: to only shop online once a month. This way, I would make a list and look forward to my shopping day and make sure my list is good because I will have to wait a full month to shop again.
OH shit! This is happening… I’ll let you know when (or if) I break my pledge.
1, 2, 3, go!