emergency room

there is verrrrry little room for emergencies when you're not buying anything new. if your tights rip at work, if you get totally splashed by a bus in a rainstorm on your way somewhere and your socks are soaked, if your cat's litter box gets lost during a move....there's no nipping across the street to grab a new one.

this year, buying something requires foresight, planning, and patience -- i've gotta search for the item on craigslist, maybe wait a few days and check back until someone posts the item i need, arrange the meet-up -- so it's hard to know what to do when say, you're in beautiful belize in a tiny town and it's 40 degrees out and you're gonna be in the sun all day BUT you've somehow lost your sunglasses AND your boat's about to leave!! when you don't have three days to solve the problem, what do you do?

if it hadn't been for that teeny emergency, i would have made it through my vacation without buying anything new. but that day, i caved and ran across the street to a wee shop and purchased its only pair of lady sunnies. i suppooooose this could be considered an "essential" -- i mean, it's not healthy to spend the entire day in blaring sunlight without any eye protection. OK, maybe that's bull roar. but it did get me thinking about how much i rely on stores for those moments of desperation.

hot off the press!

check out this canadian press article my buddy michelle wrote about our year of buying nothing new!

Consumption cut: Relying on second-hand, handmade or borrowed items for one year
Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Alexa Carson's new dining room table spent no time in a furniture warehouse, did not come with a single sundry screw or assembly instruction, and did not even bear a shipping label when it was delivered to her house.

The table — hand-crafted from an ash tree in an Ontario forest — was both made and delivered by Carson's father-in-law and now occupies a place of pride in her Toronto home.

For the 32-year-old program manager, it represents a milestone in her quest to buy nothing new in 2011. The fact that she can obtain a "beautiful" piece of furniture without setting foot in a store or throwing out a shipping box validates her belief that life can be lived more simply, she said.

"It's handmade and sustainable (the table is from reclaimed wood), and because of this and the knowledge that someone we love made it just for us, it is 1,000 times more valuable than anything we could ever buy at a store," Carson said. "It will last longer than a cheaply made Ikea table."

Though construction on the table began months before Carson vowed to buy nothing new for a whole year, the acquisition fit in perfectly with her new mission. Carson has committed to limiting her purchases for all of 2011, relying on second-hand, handmade or borrowed items to fulfil her few needs.

She has found two willing friends to join her, saying all believe their lives are overrun with material possessions.

"This isn't about being really frugal or saving money, it's about being conscious of the accumulation of stuff on our planet and trying not to contribute to that," she said. "We really believe that anything we truly need already exists, so we can borrow it or buy second-hand."

Kira Petersson-Martin shares the philosophy so passionately espoused by Carson and her friends.

The 26-year-old single mother from St. John's, N.L., said the environmental repercussions of a consumerist culture prompted her to swear off new purchases for 2011, adding the experiment may also set a strong example for her four-year-old daughter.

"I work really hard with (my daughter) to get her to realize where food comes from. 'Do the vegetables come from Mexico? What is the cost of that?'" Petersson-Martin said.

"Extending that to material things like toys and clothes, that's something I look forward to being able to discuss with her. When I was little and I would ask for things, my Mom would say, `We don't have the money.' I don't want to push that message. I want her to ask, "Do I need this?'"

Kate Tilleczek, Canada Research Chair in Child/Youth Cultures and Transitions, said Carson and Petersson-Martin embody a set of values that is of increasing importance to Canadian youth.

Research suggests environmentalism is a key concern among young people, she said, adding people in their teens and early 20s are overwhelmingly supportive of political movements such as the Green Party.

The plan to buy nothing new is an effective form of social protest called "culture jamming," prompted by a natural aversion to the way society functions, she said.

"Young people's status and identity is more tied to consumerist stuff than pretty much any phase of adulthood," Tilleczek said from her office at the University of Prince Edward Island.

"They're really status and commodity driven because of the social organization of what we're allowing them to do. These young women are working in a long historical tradition of social resistance to things in society that are problematic and that they can see."

Carson and Petersson-Martin have established nearly identical guidelines for their "buy nothing" years."

Both have committed to shun purchases of new clothing, cosmetics, electronics, housewares and other items that could be obtained second-hand. Exceptions are made for certain items, such as food, basic toiletries and underwear.

Carson is willing to make exceptions for emergency expenses, while Petersson-Martin made a concession in the name of sanitation and acquired a litter box for the kitten she rescued last month.

Both acknowledge the experiment makes demands of their time and creative powers. Carson said her full-time work schedule hasn't left her with the time to touch up the lining of her winter boots, while Petersson-Martin said she likely wouldn't be able to succeed without the luxury of a flexible student timetable.

Some people don't have time to go to Value Village or look around on Craigslist to find what they need," she said. "I don't want to sound prescriptive and say that this is something that everyone should do."

Despite the odd temptation presented by a pair of boots or chairs to complement her new dining room table, Carson said the experiment has been a positive, liberating experience.

"When you're really trying to keep what you consider your needs down, you appreciate what you already have and how few material things you actually need."

eavesdropping on trains

this morning, during my commute on a public transit system whose fastest pace rivals that of glacial formation, i found myself with a dead ipod battery, no book, and nary an abandoned newspaper in sight. that is to say, in the absence of stuff, i began to notice stuff.

i took to listening in on the various conversation fragments dancing around me. and i began to count the number of disposable consumer goods the average conversation involves. i don't think i would've even noticed if not for this year. but it turned into a sort of game, and i found myself doing it on the way home, too.

"we went over to his place for some playstation"...."the wireless on my laptop is so shitty"...."did you end up getting those shoes?"...."my phone's gonna die 'cause we're going into the subway"...

a new year of no new stuff

this story begins in a kitchen, in the cozy chaos of a cottage in huntsville. in this kitchen, friends were busying themselves with breakfast on the first morning of 2011. it was bright and snowy outside, and hopeful inside. it was a new year.

this annual new year's celebration at this particular cottage, with this particular collection of family and friends is so filled with the big things - hilarity, gratitude, ideas, conversations, love, warmth - it becomes easy to stop noticing the sheer number of little objects that accumulate when 20 people get together for a weekend. boots, stray mittens, flashlights, soap, tubes of lip balm, iphones, ipods, books, journals, socks, skates, hockey pucks, cameras. these things occupy every surface, change hands, are borrowed, returned, topple off tables, are lost, are found. these objects dictate when the cottage is clean, and when it's a mess. when we've arrived, and when it's time to go. these objects decide what we do - and more important, don't do - with our days. these objects are far more in control of us than they should be.

none of this was really forefront in my thoughts until lex suddenly told me that in 2011, she would embark on a year of buying nothing new. she described the reasons why - to reduce needless consumption. to be more environmentally conscious. to be less wasteful. to become mindful of the difference between needs and wants. to challenge herself to fulfill her needs more creatively than simply going out and buying more stuff from a store.

lex and i are very like-minded when it comes to living lightly on the earth, and immediately her words felt stirring. i decided right there, sipping piping hot espresso in the kitchen, to join her on the journey. i decided this before i'd fully considered it rationally. it was an idea that suddenly made so much intuitive sense, i knew the logistical details would fall into place once i got onboard.

...so.

here's to a new year of no new stuff!