Starting last August, as soon as I got back from my yearly vacation, I vowed I wouldn't buy clothes. Not a single item. For 1 year.
How often do you just... buy things? I buy things all the time, but mostly I realized I was buying up clothes at an alarming rate. Pop into Target for a pen, or whatever, and spend 40 minutes browsing the 70% off racks, just in case there is something... something you need... I started to feel like I needed to buy something, and I could use any reason to talk myself into it.
It's so cheap! I'm so sad! I was so good today, I deserve it! I have this or that event coming up! If I don't get this now, I'll regret it!
...oh my god, the TIME I lost, not just the money!
I thought, I own so many clothes. I spend so much time shopping, and I buy so many stupid things. It's ridiculous. I have to get rid of some, and I have to stop buying them. Right now! For a year!!
So yeah, I did stop for a whole year. I made up big bags of stuff to get rid of. I even got rid of some of it (I'm wearing a shirt right now that was supposed to go out the door, but I pulled it out to use for a concert, and my chest looks amazing in this top so I'm actually keeping it) and made some space.
New clothes came my way. An incredibly generous person in my life thrilled me with the most wonderful winter boots in the whole world. I got a range of warm and strong socks for Christmas. My bestie gave me lounge wear and a dress for my birthday. Someone else passed along a tunic sweater that just wasn't working for her.
I am incredibly lucky. I understand this.
At first I was very strict. I will buy NOTHING!! Not even socks. Not even underpants! Not even if I wear out all my socks and underpants, and am forced to sew new ones out of pillowcases!!
Well, that lasted until about, hmmmmm, April. Which is pretty good! I actually did mend a lot of socks. Let me tell you, I will never buy cheap socks again. They may just be $2.50 a pair at Target, but they don't last! And I have better things to do than
a. buy new socks constantly
b. mend cheap socks constantly
You know which socks lasted? My running socks, which I bought last year in May. Those suckers will not quit.
So here are things I did buy in the end:
- Costume pieces for shows I did -- some new, some used and re-sewn (April 2014, July 2014).
- 3-pack running socks, a running tank, a running long shirt (July 2014) - I got money off that day in the shop because of registering for a race, also, I will never need to buy running shirts again because I have my lengths COVERED.
That's a pretty short list. I didn't make my goal in the end, but I also didn't feel bad when I broke them. If I had to buy one thing for a specific reason, so I took advantage of BOGOs and other opportunities at that time. I also bought quality when I could.
Did I save money, in the end? Hell no. I bought more books and saw more movies and ate out more often. And I regret basically none of it. I also drove a lot more this year, so I spent more on gas.
So there I was, about to go on my August vacation, and I was speaking to my partner in library crime about what to wear at this conference we were going to attend. She had these cute outfit ideas, and I began to think "Oh, I should go buy something like that, so I can be cute like her".
Like her.
LIKE HER.
Not like me.
Don't get me wrong -- my partner in library crime is one of the cutest person I have ever met in my life. I mean, she is EFFORTLESSLY cute and darling and looks great no matter what. Anything she picks out for herself is going to be just right. I want to be like her because I admire her sense of self so much.
I was talking to another partner in crime, who said "Oh, you should be sure to wear that one dress you wore to that one thing, you looked really good".
The dress in question is... it's not goofy, but it's not what you might call normal.
How do you forget the most important parts of yourself?
I spent a full year cruising through and shopping my own closet, remembering what worked for me, and who I was when I wore this or that, and what felt great and what made me look like I wasn't being myself.
And I went to that conference, and I wore that one dress, and I looked... well, I didn't like how I looked. It wasn't working for me. But other things worked, and I learned even more about how to dress myself. I ditched some clothes into a donation bin while on vacation, but I kept that dress. Just... in case?
Today I went and bought two pairs of jeans to replace my ripped work pants (I work hard!). It was a process of running several errands today, at Target and Kohl's and so on. Part of me wanted to stop and browse, since technically I am allowed to buy clothes now, but I found that I had largely broken that habit. Rack of things on sale? Eh. Full price for a belt that I need, but that isn't quite what I want? Move along.
What's up this year, 2014-2015?
This is the time of year that I usually take a holiday. It's a good marker for goals like this.
So.... without further ado (because I've nattered on for long enough, and this entry is getting far too long!)
2014-2015 Shopping Experimental Goals
- No notebooks. No books.
It makes me a bit scared to type that.
I have so many books. And so many paper goods. I tried to take a photo of all my unused notebooks, and my half-filled notebooks, but it was just too embarrassing. Happily I do have a healthy stack of "done" journals and notebooks, reaching all the way back to the mid-1990's. But everything else is raging out of control. I have 3-4 bookshelves worth of books crammed into 2 bookshelves (and stacked around).
To be honest, I'm a person who derives joy from new paper, or a crisp pen line, or things like that. A particularly nice edition of a book. A notebook with just the right spacing between the lines, and a particular feel to the paper.
I don't think it's wrong to get joy from material things. But enough. I have enough right now.
Still! No books?!?!
I have one book that I bought on pre-order already, although it won't come out until October. That's all. For one year. ARGH.
Still! No books?!?!
I have one book that I bought on pre-order already, although it won't come out until October. That's all. For one year. ARGH.
- No unnecessaries
This is broad, I understand, but what I want to avoid this coming year are those little "extras". Oh, you need sequins for a project? Well look, these things are on sale, you might need them. Earrings just because. New pens, when I have enough damn pens (somewhere. Where are all the pens?). I bought face-cleaning pads for my last trip because I thought I might need them, despite the 10s of thousands of miles flown where I have never wanted face-cleaning pads. Would they make my face feel nice? Probably. Is it a thing that I actually do? No. The damn things went unused.
It's a matter of knowing what you need in your life, what you will use, what is necessary to the moment and to you. My life has too many extras. Too many duplicates.
This goal is maybe hard to define and enforce, but I want to be strict about it.
You read all the way to the end, holy cats! And there weren't any pictures in this entry to make it fun!
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| My last pen purchase for 12 months. Bonus: aforementioned bookshelves in the background |
Have you ever done something like this? Do you have any habits you want to break?
I have some food habits that I want to break as well... but I'm going to tackle those in 30-day challenge style because huge food changes freaks me out.
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