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Collection: My Year of Nothing New

Going Cold Turkey On Black Friday

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Editor’s Note November 2020: Black Friday, like so many aspects of our lives and rituals from Thanksgiving to elections to funerals, is drastically altered this year by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. By necessity, more of our holiday shopping will be online in 2020—as will some of our family gatherings. And, hopefully, we take this time … Read more

A Look Back at a Year of Nothing New

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Too much plastic stuff!

I’m just hours away from the end of my year of buying nothing new. But there’s no shopping spree on my to-do list tomorrow. At midnight the experiment officially ends, but it’s safe to say that my family has pushed the “reset” button on our attitudes about buying stuff—and by all indications, the effect will be lasting.

In fact, swearing off new purchases was one of the best things I’ve ever done, and I’m pretty sure it’s the only resolution I’ve ever managed to keep! (Almost entirely…see below.)

This whole thing started with my lofty goal of establishing a triple-bottom-line approach to my family’s consumption habits—prioritizing people, the planet, and our pocketbook over amassing material possessions. So, let’s take a look at how we fared:

Meet the Minimalists

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The Minimalists say, "Stop hoarding!"

My Year of Nothing New experiment has not only altered my relationship with stuff, it’s opened my eyes to all kinds of people—and whole movements—dedicated to simplifying their lives and breaking out of joyless consumerist mindsets.

Recently, I found out about Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus—a.k.a. The Minimalists. They blog about living with less and being happier for it. At the moment, they’re at the tail end of their “Holiday Happiness Tour.” They also have a new book out: Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life. They’ll be at Seattle’s Town Hall on December 21 and Vancouver BC’s Our Town Café the following evening.

I’ll be at the Seattle event and will report back. Meanwhile, a bit more about these guys—and their brand of minimalism.

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Going Cold Turkey on Black Friday

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Editor’s Note November 2023: What are you doing this Black Friday? This popular Sightline article, from Anna Fahey’s 2012 series My Year of Nothing New, provides tips on how to turn the biggest shopping day of the year into a day of buying nothing. Other alternatives include buying unique gifts at local craft fairs, artisan markets, and second-use markets. You can … Read more

My “Slavery Footprint”

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Bath toys.

I stopped buying new stuff for all of 2012 as an experiment to save money, cut clutter, and reduce my family’s carbon footprint. I also thought of it as a way to “occupy my wallet”—by which I meant I’d feel a tiny bit better keeping my personal pittance out of the hands of big corporations. What I didn’t think about was modern-day slavery.

It turns out our stuff can also have a “slavery footprint.”

Stephanie Hanes—who recently wrote about how many slaves it takes to produce her toddler’s necessities and possessions for the Christian Science Monitor—points out that most of us have “only a fuzzy idea about the forced labor and human trafficking that exists around the globe. We don’t often think about our hand in supporting it.”

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—and Repair!

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Buying nothing new this year definitely has me rethinking my relationship with stuff. I’m throwing less away and stretching the life of things I already own—patching, mending, darning, gluing, duct taping, etc. So, the idea of “repair cafes” got my attention.

A couple of times a month in Amsterdam, people can bring their stuff to a community center where volunteers who like to fix things will give it new life—for free. The organizers (who serve coffee and cookies and call it a cafe) see it as a way to reduce waste, save money, and subvert our “throwaway” culture. Repair seems like a key component to reducing, reusing, and recycling. But, is repair dead? Dying? Or reviving?

In some sense repair as a way of life seems long dead. In a lot of the old fables and fairy tales I read my daughter these days, there are tinkers, cobblers, tailors, junk peddlers, and rag-and-bone men. Medieval Europeans just didn’t throw stuff away. Neither did my grandparents who’d lived through the Great Depression. But in more recent history—even as recently (ah-hem) as my childhood—back in the late ’70s and through the 1980s, there were still people who made a living in my little hometown repairing things. I remember the quiet, old guy with thick glasses and coveralls who repaired televisions, radios, tools and the like. He had a busy main street store front where, one by one, he revived the electronics piled up around him. There was a shoe repair shop. You could buy nifty iron-on patches for your denim pants at the drug store. My favorite of all, was the toy repair lady. She had a mile-high beehive hairdo and a tiny upstairs workshop in a creaky old building. She reattached a limb and put new hair on my favorite doll—a doll way too important to throw away.

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Used Is the New New

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One of the best things about my experiment to buy no new stuff this year is hearing from people who’ve been living this way for a long time, cutting their carbon footprints, saving money, weathering the recession, and rejiggering their priorities to favor family, friends, and financial sanity over credit card debt and mindless materialism.

These “no-new” veterans will proudly tell you that new stuff, with all its high-priced packaging, shipping, off-gassing, and carbon-intensive manufacturing, is way overrated. But that doesn’t mean they hate stuff—or even shopping! Au contraire. There are plenty of connoisseurs, even collectors, in our no-new ranks. One reader characterizes herself as an Elite Thrifter. I love that!

And because they hunted and foraged for these treasures, pawing through lots of other discards to find them, they often cherish them even more than items purchased new. Indeed, most thrifters I know relish a chance to recount their acquisition stories and show off their big thrift “scores.” (Alternatively, some don’t want to let the cat out of the bag about the good deals to be found at thrift shops! Competition is already stiff enough as is.)

So, it’s time to share some of our readers’ second-hand finds. The photos you see here are just to whet your appetite; there’s more on our Pinterest board.

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Living the Good Life, Not the Goods Life

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Editor’s Note December 2017: Are you looking to free yourself from the consumption culture that the holiday season brings? We’re bringing back this short video that highlights the high price of buying, buying, buying, both on our planet and our health. Want to make a resolution to purchase less “stuff” in the new year? Check … Read more

Our Year of Lent

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Starting today, people across the globe will give up something for Lent. (For example, Newt Gingrich won’t have any dessert. A colleague of mine is giving up meat.)

My family is fasting from consumerism. Not just for Lent, but all year long. And what better time than the day after Mardi Gras to write about how we’re faring.

Maybe we’ll inspire someone to join us—if not for a whole year, then at least for the 40 days of Lent!

The rule

There is basically just one rule: No new stuff. That includes packaging. If we need something, we’ll find it second-hand.

Inevitably questions arise along the way:

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Where Oh Where Does Your Money Go?

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Editor’s note 1/19/16: Anna Fahey’s 2012 resolution to buy nothing new for a whole year centered on a goal many of us share: spending less and saving more. She added up the costs of several everyday wallet-munchers and found that cutting them also helped curb her carbon footprint. My motivations for resolving to buy nothing … Read more

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