The simple answer is: I have too much stuff.
The long answer is ... more complicated. I'm not even 100% certain of the reasons I'm not shopping.
I do know that I once bragged that I wore most everything in my closet. And, at the time, it was pretty much true. I still had too many clothes, but most of the clothes I had, I wore. Maybe not very often. Maybe not often enough to justify owning them, but a few times a year? Certainly.
That is not true anymore. I have plenty of clothes that I never wear. Not even once a year. So why on earth should I buy more clothes?
We live in a capitalistic society (duh.) We are bombarded with advertisements for products at every moment. After 9/11, we were told that it was even our patriotic DUTY to shop. It seems very easy to justify shopping.
I don't need more stuff. I just don't. I want stuff, sure. Like, frankly, I really want this, but I certainly don't need it. And as much as I love that glass, I don't think it's going to change my life. It's not going to make me happier.
By not shopping, maybe I'm putting a teeny-tiny dent in our trade deficit with China. Maybe there's that much less carbon in the air. And it definitely means that I have that much more money for other stuff like seeing a play or visiting my friends and relatives.
So I decided, that for at least a year, I was going to only buy used durable goods. No more new books. No more new trinkets. And for a year, I wasn't going to buy any clothes. Period. It's been about two months. And it's going pretty well. It's not super easy. But it's a good challenge.
1 year ago