Thoughts on Non-Consumerism
I've published 4,306 blog posts since 2008, which is kind of crazy. Everything from a love letter my cast iron skillet to a tutorial on how to remove demonic spirits from your thrifted finds. (My absolute favorite blog post!) Most of my blog posts center around how I get around buying new stuff and live my life outside of mainstream consumer culture.
Being unapologetically cheap most of the time, but also spending out on simple travel and helping my kids as they establish their adult lives. Utilizing everything my library has to offer and finding contentment in free and almost free activities.
It's coming up on twenty years since I read a short article about a small group of San Franciscans who made a one year pledge to stop buying anything new. They called themselves "The Compact" and I dove right into the deep end without hesitation.
Do I ever buy anything new? Occasionally, but mostly when it's something that actually needs to be new. Think toothbrushes, light bulbs, personal hygiene, household maintenance supplies and such. I figured out that eBay is an excellent source for open, (but new!) packages of underwear and that thrifted wool and a darning needle make socks pretty much immortal.
I've garbage picked everything from light bulbs to hair elastics to dishwasher detergent. I even garbage picked a toilet seat a few years ago, although I did go home to grab a pair of gloves.
There is already enough manufactured stuff to fulfill our needs for decades to come. Especially if we took the time to repair our belongings and recognized that something being "outdated" is a implanted idea from Madison Avenue. They'd love nothing more than for us to discard our perfectly good stuff, just so we can then buy their brand new products.
It's messed up that consumers just accept that idea that we need to rebuy our possessions every few years when they start to look outdated. Clothing, furniture, dishes, decor, colors schemes, even how our facial features are supposed to look.
It's called "Perceived Obsolescence" and it's explained well in The Story of Stuff.
I'm not immune to the appeal of Cool New Stuff, but I'd like to think that I take a critical eye to how I interact with consumer culture.
Buying used saves money, but also takes a stand against the environmental devastation created from unnecessary manufacturing. Neither reason is morally superior to the other.
Do you consider yourself a "Nonconsumer?" If so, why? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
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I think I have read your blog since late 2009. I love the fact that I loathe my power company and you “get” the fact that I beat my rugs with a broom outside, do not own a hair dryer, wash my air conditioner filter and let it dry in the hot sun here, then reuse it. I refuse to get a tv and have not had one since 2010. I loathe Amazon bc of how they treated their temporary older workers during The Great Recession and refuse to buy from the! Most folks act like I am a bit “touched” in the head, which is a euphemism a friend used to describe me! I feel like you and your readers are my besties!
Oh, to answer your question, I feel like I am a low consumer. I occasionally get new socks, new suit for work, in an emergency ( like a house fire destroying most of my clothes and furniture and well, everything) but I generally do not buy much new, or buy much at all.
I consider myself a nonconsumer. At different periods in my life I have been forced into nonconsumerism by financial circumstances. At other times I've turned to it because I find it interesting to see how far my money can go. A huge part of nonconsumerism for me is doing my part, small as it may be, to try to aid our beautiful planet in getting back to and remaining healthy. This includes reusing things until they have arrived at the end of their useful life cycle, recycling by using my trash company's recycling system, selling or donating things I no longer have a use for and buying used for myself and my household. Also reducing commodities by using my car less and sharing that one car with DH, watching our water and oil use carefully (especially this year re the gas and oil with this crazy war ongoing). I find I not only need less to stay happy but I want less. It has produced a sense of calmness I didn't have before I embraced nonconsumerism and frugality. Also, these two things are very interchangeable in my life. One helps increase the other.
I aspire to be a non-consumer. I am trying to reduce my consumerism, but I do find it hard not to just order what I need, particularly because I dislike shopping. I do despair at the amount of consumer goods in the world, and appreciate your efforts and the model you are providing.
May I just say that your darned socks are a work of art!!!
I'm a non consumer. This is due to believing in saving- the planet/ Climate Crisis, the pocket/ frugal, and people/ currently the live-streamed genocide by Israel and the complicit countries U.S, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and the likes. People/ planet will always come first before my pockets or preferences- I started saving up for a Chanel bag for a long time, and then gave it up after finding Coco Channel's Nazi connection. Your conscience is reflected through your consuming habits.
I am a work in progress on being a non-consumer. I've mostly been concerned with saving money, and that has led me to buying secondhand in many instances. I've also become a bit of a scavenger. I have been reusing plastic containers and bread bags. A friend and I always give each other gifts from Goodwill.
I feel I could do a lot better, but I am doing a lot better than I used to.
I'm a very low consumer. And a creator. I can grow food, sew, knit, cook, bake. We are also a one car family and prioritize riding push bike (an English term) or electric bike when at all possible.
The fact that I've been looking forward for months to the annual zero waste event says just about all there is to say about me. At the event, put on by our waste management company, in the morning residents can bring anything to be donated or disposed of (including mattresses). They have a small army of volunteers taking the good stuff into the fairground main hall, and many, many dumpsters to receive the things for disposal. We never get out of our car/truck. In the afternoon, they open the fairground main hall for residents to 'shop' from all of the donated stuff. And it's all free!