the free spirit

i have to take several momii (that there's my brand-new plural of "moment"...LIKE IT?!) and sing the praises of FREECYCLE. if you're new to freecycle, think craigslist, only everything's free. so you post things you want to get rid of to the freecycle website. a brief description, maybe a photo. you present your things as "gifts." then, people email you and tell you why you should pick them as the recipient of your gift. you pick the person you want (often, this is based on nothing more than "this person sounds nice" or "this person lives close by" or "this person can spell words properly"). then you arrange a meeting time and give your gift to the good speller man, et voila! your stuff has a new home.

i've been using freecycle a lot in the few weeks since we moved. i've acquired a litter box, given away a table. given away a CD player, acquired a poster frame. it's really an amazing little community built on simple eco-conscious principles and just plain good karma.

what i love most about freecycle is the notion that everything you need already exists. someone in this city of three million has got whatever it is you're after. sure, it's a bit of extra work to find that person, but it's oddly satisfying if and when you do. much like life itself. WHAAAT!! BAM. NAILED IT.

the other day we were trying to get rid of an old coffee table. i suppose we could have made $25 off it, but in the end, it went to a woman on freecycle who sounded like she really needed it. and that just felt better.

goodbye, january

i've been so busy with work and play and love and such, i only just realized i've already made it through my first month of buying nothing new! so outside of food and essential toiletries, the tally for what i bought in january a'goes a'like a'this:

JANUARY
-flowers (obviously biodegradable)
-vitamins (debatable, but i consider them essential, especially in the winter and especially for me)
-a second-hand thermal shirt from a vintage shop
-a few second-hand housewares for our new place, purchased at an antiques store on roncy
-i had two black and white memorial photos of my uncle printed after he passed away in early january (i wasn't sure about this, because technically, photographs can and do end up in landfills, but i made an exception given the circumstances).

the rules

several humans have asked me, BUT WHAT OF FOOD? WILL YOU STARVE? WHAT IF YOU DIE? look, we're all going to die at some point. but 2011's not how i'm gonna go. it's simply not my time. jealous?

to resolutely resolve any other unresolved issues regarding my resolution, i present to you, the rules of my year!

in general, there are two guiding principles:

1) if i can throw it into a garbage bin or blue bin, i can't buy it. the idea is to keep things out of landfills. however, purchasing experiences or intangible things is fine. so, i can buy a song on iTunes, but buying a physical DVD of "yianni, live at the acropolis!" is out.

2) if i absolutely have to buy a physical object (for example, say my winter jacket was ripped off my body in mid-january by an absolutely massive half-human, half-tarantula), i have to acquire it second-hand. so that means either inheriting it from a friend or family member, trading it for something else, getting it off craigslist, or picking it up in a thrift store.

STUFF I CAN BUY NEW
food; drinks; transportation (i.e. TTC tokens); medication and vitamins; pet supplies for scout (food, litter); essential toiletries BUT only after i've completely run out - no buying new shampoo or moisturizer just for the balls of it; organic things that are completely biodegradable (for example, the other day i bought some fleurs for my mum); experiences and services, such as a massage, a movie ticket, a class or workshop, or a trip; underwear and socks, because let's be adult about this.

STUFF I CAN'T BUY NEW
clothes; shoes; bags; books; DVDs; CDs; vinyl records; furniture; appliances; electronics; weird little houseware thingies; outdoor/sporting gear; bike parts/gear; umbrellas; exercise gear such as a yoga mat; home decor; stationery; presents for other people; physical objects.

THINGS I'M STILL UNSURE ABOUT
i'm moving into a loft in march. so as not to burden my lovely manfriend with all the purchases we will need to make, i might come up with a short window where it's OK to buy a few things - only if we really need them for the new place and we're unable to get them second-hand.

when it comes to food, i already try to eat in a sustainable way; i'm vegetarian and i buy local and organic where possible. but again, this is about reducing my consumption of physical, concrete "stuff." eating totally local for a year would be another great experiment to try another year. but on this adventure, it's about growing thoughtful with things.

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!