1) Buy as little as possible new. (medicines, food, and hygiene products don't count, you will be happy to note)
2) Stay away from stores and online shopping. They are just there to tempt you into buying what you do not need.
3) Use Goodwill, craiglist, garage sales, used book sales, to buy things used, when you need them.
4) Recycle as much as possible, and give away things you don't need to Goodwill so that others can use them.
5) Tell people that I am trying this, so that the idea spreads and people start thinking about what their purchasing decisions.
I really like the way the compact folks sum up their reasons for not buying things:
"1) to go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of U.S. consumer culture, to resist global corporatism, and to support local businesses, farms, etc; 2) to reduce clutter and waste in our homes (as in trash Compact-er); 3) to simplify our lives (as in Calm-pact)"
I have found in the last month that it has been really easy to follow my rules 95% of the time. But I fell off the wagon a couple times:
- new sunglasses from walgreens when I could not find them used
- new suit at outlet mall when I was in a pinch for a client interview
- fabric at Joann's for a sewing project
I will give you a Compact update every few months so you can track my progress. But stay tuned to my blog...I am trying to add new posts on a regular basis now!
5 comments:
Hey good to see you back on the blog-o-world. Great post, I am doing part of this too, although hadn't thought of it being a resolution which is a good way to get one in the mindset. But I went to several thrift stores in the past weeks to find some things I knew I could get there and not need new, ie coffee mugs, liquer glasses, napkins.
I also want to try to get patio chairs used either from thrift store or off craigslist. One problem though is transporting them, so shall see how that goes.
Great idea! The only hard thing for me to do will to is to not buy new fabric for quilting! Will work to emulate a great idea!
I use FreeCycle thru Yahoo to get rid of unwanted items as well as pick up things that I need. You can list what you "Want" as well as with you have to "Offer". So far the only downfall is that I am getting a ton of emails about all kinds of things. I was able to get rid of my Kitchen table in 1 day to someone that lived in my neighborhood. I have also seen posts for things such as quilts and fabric scraps that people often don't think about being able to use for sewing.
love your idea! very inspiring!
Hey,
Cool project!
I think it's good to also think about WHY you're doing it (which, of course, you have), so you can figure out when you might want to bend the rules. I don't think you'll have much luck finding used fabric, for example, but I could be wrong here. Personally, I always need to leave room for creation in anything I undertake, so I would buy new fabric when I needed to. But I'd also try to think about who made the fabric, etc. Like, do I want stuff made in North America? Do I want organic? Do I want to buy from a local business? This is all a lot easier when I live in Berkeley!
I was trying to get some stuff via Brum Freecycle, but forget it if you don't have a car. It's so suburban! The people giving away stuff want to make it easy for themselves, which is fair enough, but that means they don't want to be flexible about bicyclists or whatever. Also, nobody seems to ever give away printers that actually work!
So I try to support the alt economy when I need stuff. That's not just freecycle, but also handmade / crafts / opensource. I mean, I need to make stuff sometimes, so an opensource piece of hardware is a better way to do it, imo, than closed source. Some stuff is even made in union shops, or at least fair trade.
I'm trying to get all locally grown veggies now. Oy, it's a chore in England. I've been forced to define "local" as anything in the UK or else I would eat nothing but carrots. I could do all UK if I started eating meat, but I suspect it's a smaller carbon footprint to eat imported lentils than a local bovine. Plus, I'd feel sad for the cow.
Anyway, good luck with this project. It sounds interesting. Please keep us updated.
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