No buying stuff for a whole long long long year
If you have clicked on this blog you are either interested in simple living …. Or you want to be amused by a person attempting this silly feat of managing to not buy any stuff for a ridiculously long 365 days, which seems borderline crazy in this consumer driven world. Honestly, I’m in the amused category, and I’m trying to do this thing!
I genuinely am not sure if I will be able to master my spending (or future lack of it) to last a full year without adding to my possessions.
Having possessions is such a comforting feeling. I like having stuff. I like opening my closet and looking at pretty dresses and smart work outfits.
My grandmother told me that when she got her first job as a nurse (which was a live-in arrangement at the hospital), she hung her dress in her new closet and her warden said she could bring more stuff. Grandma just shrugged … because she didn’t have any other clothes except that one dress. Now, that sounds hard. One dress!
I currently own 25 dresses. And the thought of throwing away 24 of my dresses makes me want to cry.
However, on the flip side, there is something soothing about thinking about clean wardrobe. Not bare wardrobe. No one wants just one dress. Well, there might be someone out there that only wants to own one dress but not me! However, a neat and sparse wardrobe where you can pick anything out that you know fits you properly and that you love to wear. Ahhh, that sounds nice. A wardrobe that’s not overstuffed to the point you feel anxiety opening it because you might get 10 pairs of jeans topple top of your head. Has anyone else had this happen? Clothes falling on their head from an overstuffed wardrobe? I have.
My life with clothes has had ups and downs (I’ll talk about other possessions in the next blog post).
During my childhood my mother let me dress as I wanted – which was eccentric. I wore full yellow tracksuit outfits at 10 and thought I was the coolest person on the planet. On reflection ….. A full yellow tracksuit… Hmmmm….. scrunching up my nose now.
My parents were completely kind to me, providing me with all my needs, but definitely not all of my clothing wants. As a teenager I had feelings of wishing I could dress in the latest fashions and afford ten dresses (are you picking up that I love dresses?). Upon reflection, I do buy myself nice clothes now, where subconsciously I am saying to myself ‘there, you can have this now’. Even when, the purchase is not needed nor even that wanted.
Speaking as a middle-aged woman …. Actually, is mid 30s middle-aged? Perhaps I should change it to, speaking as a full adult woman in my mid-thirties, I freely admit that I own too many clothes. Just the thought of even counting my clothes makes my head hurt. My husband and I have his and hers wardrobes in our bedroom. His is small and well organised and basically a capsulate wardrobe. He is a master of this whole simple clothing concept. My closet on the other hand… well …. whispers – ‘my wardrobe is overstuffed’. This is a description of my closet:
The double doors struggle to shut.
Clothes could fall on my head.
It’s pretty jammed with coat hangers, overstuffed with clothes.
It is unorganised.
I actually keep extra clothes in our office closet as well.
I find it hard to find things.
Something has got to change.
I would not say that I am the latest fashions type of person now. I have a pear body shape which makes buying dresses trickier and there’s only a few brands and styles that really fit me perfectly. There is nothing worse that uncomfortable / ill-fitting clothes. But once I find a nice fitting dress, I want to keep it. I also want to buy more clothes, because I like the joy and excitement of wearing new clothes.
Actually, one the topic of nothing worse that uncomfortable clothes, a few years ago my husband bent over, and his pants split, like right at the backside bit. It was hilarious and that it definitely worse than wearing an outfit that is just uncomfortable, but I will put that example in the ill-fitting clothes category.
My mindset of ‘I need more, I should get more’ feels like a burden. It’s a burden on my finances – clothes are expensive. It’s a burden on my time – I have to acquire the clothes. I have to maintain the ever-growing truckload of clothes. The washing – oh the washing! And the hanging! And the folding! And the organising. And the deciding which outfit do I wear today?!? And the matching and the accessorising!
I have a dream of having a wardrobe and possessions that makes life easier.
Yes please.
The kick off day for my project is January 1 until December 31.
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